Need more evidence that Texas has become a prime breeding ground for the whack-a-doodle rightist fringe? Exhibit 492 (but who’s counting?): Austin-based radio commentator and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, exploding in mouth-foaming rage on Piers Morgan’s CNN program Monday. Jones talked about his support for a petition to deport Morgan, who has enraged pro-gun activists by calling for stronger firearms regulations following the slaughter of more than two dozen children and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, shortly before last Christmas.
Here’s part of one hyperbolic, eye-bulging rant Jones launched into during the program (video clip below):
“I’m here to tell you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! Doesn’t matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street, begging for ’em to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them. Do you understand?! That’s why you’re going to fail, and the establishment knows, no matter how much propaganda, the republic will rise again!”
Folks in Austin might remember Jones from when he hosted a public access television show in the 1990s. The show was filled with right-wing conspiracy theories popular in the grassy knolls of the “black helicopter” crowd. He later moved to radio and expanded his reach to audiences across the country.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Jones this way:
Besides exploiting racial animosities, Jones’s conspiracy theories often appeal to the fears of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement.
At the movement’s previous peak in the 1990s, the “black helicopter” was a symbol of its cartoonish insistence that the government would soon be coming after freedom-loving dissidents who knew the truth about the New World Order. Jones gave these fears a 21st century update in an October 2011 online broadcast. He obsessed over news that the sheriff of Montgomery County, Texas, had used a federal grant to buy an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (also known as a drone) called the ShadowHawk. The laptop-controlled, miniature helicopter comes equipped with a powerful zoom camera, infrared heat-seeking optics and crowd-stopping cartridges.
To Jones, this was not simply a police department taking advantage of the latest law enforcement technologies but a glimpse at the insidious machinery agents of the New World Order are deploying in the night skies in advance of martial law. “They’ve got large unmanned drones,” Jones warned. “They’ve got small drones. … And they’ve got million-dollar systems up there flying around with cops in control of them, surveilling you. And now they’re mounting them with ground-penetrating radar that looks right through your wall, while you’re on the toilet, having sex with your wife.”
You can read the SPLC’s summary report on Jones here. CNN has a short clip here with some of the highlights of Monday’s interview with Jones. The interview offers a truly remarkable view into the mindset of the far right’s almost unhinged paranoia today.
Hard to “like” this… the man has a following of people who truly believe the government wants to put them in concentration camps and are arming themselves for “the inevitable implosion of the American economy” and subsequent anarchy…
Jones belongs in a psych ward, not allowed to roam free. Especially after watching how he did nothing more than shout down Piers through the entire ‘interview’ (I say that because usually true interviews have more than 1 side presented). If that isn’t insanity, I don’t know what is.
Mr. Jones’ violent rhetoric fuels and legitimizes violence among his followers. Thank you, Mr. Jones, for providing the final push I needed to join an anti-gun violence advocacy group. I am now a member of Americans for Responsible Solutions.
HE is a prime example of someone who should not have access to guns.
if only he HAD burst into flames…
Jones was one of the leaders of the whole “9/11 was an inside job” conspiracy theory crowd about 5-6 years ago, spinning all kinds of paranoia about Bush. Is it just me or has he been picking up a lot of new fans lately who like to forget this?
I miss the tin foil hat crowd. At least all they had was tin foil. I blame the media giants who give legitimacy to these insane paranoid fringe groups.
Does he really have sex with his wife while he’s on the toilet? Eww…..
1toughlady just won the Internets for today!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I caught that on CNN just by accident as I was channel surfing after the big football game last night. This guy came across as a rude and out-of-control horses’s ass to millions of Americans last night. It also turns out that the guy thinks 9/11 was actually plotted and executed by our own American people.
However, I guess that I should not be surprised. Another upset conservative wrote in to my local metropolitan newspaper today to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government as the only workable way to get the “bigger” out of the White House. If any FBI agents read this, it is the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and the guy’s actual name and location are on the letter on the op-ed page for January 8, 2013.
So 1776 will come again eh? Will that be before or after Jesus makes a comeback? Or maybe that means we’ll declare independence again. But from whom?
Perhaps he means there will be another Revolutionary War? No, surely can’t be it since the Revolutionary War started in 1775. I’m sure he knows that since he’s not he’s not ignorant and an intellectual midget. On the other hand…
Jones obviously keeps his guns to obtain control and to threaten others. 1776 ocurred with muskets and an organized militia against unjust rule, not protective legislation designed to prevent mass murders by the mentally ill and extremists like er you. Only a nut case can read that amendment any other way. Keeping and bearing arms in an organized and law abiding militia does not mean AR-15s for every macho man out there with an attitude and a bad education.
Once again, Mr Jones your 1776 will not last long because thinking citizens will have you locked up in a psych ward, where you belong, assuming you don’t commit some gun crimes first. Which you have just threatened to do on national TV.
Democracy, its something you should think about trying sometime. And referring to the electorate as lemmings seems, well just a trifling indication that you do not understand or participate in the democratic process without resorting to threats of violence. When the killer handguns and assault weapons start tpo be restricted,
we all lokk forward to seeing you in jail.
Dodge your taxes much Jones? I bet you do.
hitler grabbed all the guns in germany..THAT TURNED OUT WELL. Russia grabbed all the guns..communism really was an enlightened and humanitarian state…GUNS KEEP YOU FREE.
Actually Hitler didn’t. There was close to no change in gun laws but there were standing orders to EASE the permit process for German citizens. Also the Nazis made membership in organisations mandatory that had weapon training as part of their basic program. All as part of the ‘Wehrbarmachung’ of the people to defend against the external enemies. Gun ownership went sharply UP in Nazi Germany, not down. In Stalin’s Russia it was a bit different. Every kid had to learn shooting at school but private gun ownership was essentially illegal. But even there it was not that much different from the previous regime. No need to grab guns that were not there in the first place. Remember, in WW1 it was not uncommon that only a third of the Russian soldiers even got guns. The others were expected to take those of the fallen during charges.
Btw, the first ‘gun grabbing’ law in Germany got imposed by the victors of WW1 and the government did everything to NOT enforce it.
Learn German and look into the primary sources instead of regurgitating talking points!
You know something. I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and many of my neighbors had guns. They also had various hound dogs and bird dogs, and the message was clear and unquivocal from all parties concerned. Those guns were used for hunting and nothing else. Not one time did I ever hear a single person say that those guns were present “to keep them free.”
I think you are a lunatic Miles—if you seriously think that your guns are going to be used to shoot liberals that somehow threaten your freedom. But I will tell you this, and I want you to eat it up slowly. When the 101st Airborne Division descends on your house with Hellfire missiles and high-caliber machine gun fire, I think you are going to quickly understand just how unprotective your guns really are at dealing with tyranny. You do not seriously think that liberals are going to take away your freedoms using our primary weapons—Ralph Lauren aftershave and Gucci leather bags.
Hell no!!! Obama and his minions will send these guys after you right there in your own house. Why, it might even happen tonight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHPVDRXKGfc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XP3MonWebI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45P1J-T778
Those neighbors of mine with the hunting weapons and hound dogs had fought on the ground in World War II. They had no delusions about their “pop guns” being anything more than for hunting deer, doves, or squirrels. You are living in La-La-Land Miles.
The problem is that some of his claims are true. The NDAA has neutered and effectively taken away habeas corpus. The Patriot Act is justifying total surveillance, and the multi-million dollar intelligence center in Utah collecting all our phone calls, emails, etc. The TSA searches us without informing us what our rights are in the case of violation by an agent. Drone use by law enforcement is now apparently spreading, including within the US. Jones may be hystrionic and overboard, but we err by viewing this as only black vs white. There *are* overreachings by the government. We are foolish if we deny them in our dismissal of Jones.