Following his trial for defamation of the families of the children and school staff killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is using Valve Corp.’s Steam, the world’s largest digital distribution platform for PC games, to sell an Infowars-themed video game. Jones claims to have earned hundreds of thousands in revenue from the video game, yet he has refused to pay the Sandy Hook families. Alex Jones: NWO Wars also mirrors and cartoonishly repackages the conspiracy theorist’s regularly violent, hateful rhetoric despite the platform’s policies against hate speech.
I mean, why aren’t his assets seized and bank accounts frozen at this point?
Or is it only the poor that have to pay their fines?
The court is trying. He’s just playing a lot of games. Lots of the money is held by his parents or hidden in different shell companies. The court established that he and InfoWars are basically the same thing as far as the money is concerned, so he’s been trying to start new shows and businesses to further complicate things.
Court orders don’t automatically happen or always get enforced. Going through a divorce right now - lawyer told me that even if I do get an order that some of the shared debts are paid, he can just not. I’d have to go back to court and still get dinged on my credit.
If you’re poor though they just put you in jail while they figure that stuff out. If they figure it out.
these days, if you say you are English they will lock you up in jail.
Of all the things that never happened, this didn’t happen the most.
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What, where?
In England
These are civil cases.
That’s honestly just worse if true. How is this not criminal? He doesn’t go to jail unless the state is what he’s ripped off? You know, the one by the people for the people?
The 1st Amendment presents a very high bar for criminal prosecution of speech.
A bar over which he took off into fucking orbit! It’s 100% because of rich, famous, right wing white guy privilege that he isn’t in prison right now.
On the contrary, the more unpopular the speech, the higher the bar.
They will not. This is a civil case its not like he owes the IRS. Man you said that so confidently and its got like 20 upvotes while being so clearly and easily serachable to be proved completely false. Lol this thread is full of morons
It may not apply to this case, but it certainly does apply in a wide way.
There is also this.
There are lots of ways to hide money and protect your assets, and many of them perfectly legal.
Lot of it stems from laws made to protect regular people in debt (bankruptcy laws, getting rid of debtors prison, etc) but people with money use them too
Imo it’s a worthwhile price. Otherwise credit cards would just take money straight from your wages if they could.
Not when one of his victims has terminal cancer and can’t cash out because Jones is playing keep away through the courts.
The problem is, shitty people are always going to abuse the laws. The goal, or at least the purported goal, is to minimize how many people get hurt when the law is abused.
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Completely empty comment just shitting on America, overwhelmingly upvoted. Lol what a fucking joke this place can be.
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You’re right, I can leave. Although I have that freedom in America too, so I’m not sure why you think that statement made any sense.
And just like with America I can stay and try to make it better. But I just regularly get reminded how low the common denominator is here. Keep defending it. Really proving what an intellectual independent thinker you are.
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I call out an empty comment and you interpret that as attacking anyone who thinks differently than me? Brilliant. Lol
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Explaining the many reasons why America is broken could take quite a while. Some sentiments are best summed up in a few words.
The post isn’t about America, they could have easily explained why this particular system is broken. But, hey, empty shitting on America is simple and sure to get some upvotes. Definitely what we should all be aiming for.
It’s one of the shittier things about Lemmy.
Because in the US we have laws. Thankfully so or armchair lawyer loons like you would be running a muck. It doesn’t really matter if he’s a shitbag, but you can’t just fuck with people because you don’t like them.
It doesn’t matter if I like him or not.
Court has ruled he needs to pay the fine, but instead of paying he is spending more money and doing ridiculous stuff like making this game. He is going against his court order. That shouldn’t be allowed. Any less wealthy person would have had their assets seized at this point.
Yes the US has laws, but he is breaking them.
It doesn’t really matter though if he has a pending court fine and he chooses to spend his money on something else. If he fails to pay the fine, there are repercussions. But this simply isn’t grounds for freezing someone’s bank accounts.
It’s not illegal to buy something while you have court fines due. It’s stupid maybe, but not illegal.
Why is it stupid when he is already facing financial ruin?
He makes his living by fucking with people he doesn’t like and he certainly got off easy compared to the damage he’s caused.
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Lil’ “bone apple tea” comin’ atcha!
Found AJs account
He’s jumping through all the hoops rich folks use to hide their money, which means the courts have to jump through the hoops to get at it, and the court system is slow by comparison.
Valve allows this?
Valve allows a lot of games I’d question like the Kyle riddenhouse game or whatever that loser is that went across state borders to shoot people.
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It wouldn’t be worth it. Better to humiliate him and release the contents of his poorly hidden porn folders.
It’s more complicated than that. Probably best he dies of normal causes so no insane conspiracy’s pop up. Even then that’s too good for him.
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I don’t think my sanity can tolerate more insane shit. Living in the US sucks.
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Interesting assumption that the military would not be divided.
the more likely they’ll do something stupid that ends with them in prison or dead
That would quite possibly also entail them killing random innocent people or indoctrinating more. No thanks.
…and take a shit ton of innocent people with them.
That’s not how things work, though. Sure, some of them would wind up in prison. So? A negligible impact.
Do you think January 6 was organic? If so, you haven’t been following the investigations. It was an attempted coup, and the more people the extremist right can get riled up and ready to commit violence where directed, the more likely the next attempt is to succeed.
That’s how you create a martyr, galvanize a movement, and create mass condemnation against whatever cause you stand for.
This is simply false. His followers are cowards. They will do nothing. .
Who said they weren’t?
If some fool killed Jones, his followers would say his name for generations, talking about how he was killed by the deep state for telling the truth. They would spread his words further and more than they do now. People who don’t think much about him, or people who think he’s probably full of shit but like to listen to him for fun, and entertain his ideas a little, would suddenly take him more seriously, becoming followers as well. People who would argue against his lies now, will feel uncomfortable speaking out. For at least a while, anyone who tried to debunk his views would suddenly be painted as disrespecting the dead, at best, and viewed with suspicion. What it’s possible to talk about would shift right, extremism and conspiracy theories becoming more acceptable, facts and reason becoming less so. In the midst of it all, some new spokesperson for the lunatic fringe would rise up and replace him seamlessly.
And maybe they are cowards, but cowards are motivated by fear, and people motivated by fear often lash out violently.
3 or 4? 1 person is with a $300 Walmart hunting rifle could pull it t off.
People don’t realize how much one dedicated person and a decent rifle can do, especially when no one is expecting it and the assassin doesn’t care about their future or anything but their objective
Hell do it dc sniper style, park a car and modify the trunk.
No one would see anything but an empty car parked down the block from his house or office.
To the best of my knowledge Valve allows basically everything that’s not outright illegal. They aren’t nearly as much of a “good” corporation as they’re often framed as. They’ll happily provide a platform for and take their 30% from anyone, including racists, misogynists, homophobes, etc.
Or maybe they don’t see it’s their place to gatekeep the store based on their own morals. If you start - where do you draw the line? Some examples like such games may be obvious, but there will be a lot more that are less so.
If people disagree with the message - nobody forces them to buy it after all and you can block any game from even showing up for you in the store, in my opinion it’s plenty enough from the valve’s part. I’d rather be the judge myself as to what I want and what I don’t want to see and play, rather than any corporation.
I find the “where do you stop” argument to be riddled with holes. Laws are essentially written to explicitly outline boundries and moderation policies are basically just internal laws. Like Canadian law has very specific laws regarding what constitutes hate speech, here is what that looks like.
First you outline protected grounds. In Canada this is race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability and conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted. (note: pardons are only available via democratic votes or through appeals in Canada)
There’s a stage where you determine what context stuff is in. Like whether it is being performed publicly or privately but marketing a video game is definitely publicly so in tgis context we can skip to it’s last part where you explicitly define hate speech. Hate speech is rhetoric that :
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Describes group members as animals, subhuman or genetically inferior
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Suggests group members are behind a conspiracy to gain control by plotting to destroy western civilization
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Denying, minimizing or celebrating past persecution or tragedies that happened to group members
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Labelling group members as child abusers, pedophiles or criminals who prey on children Blaming group members for problems like crime and disease
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Calling group members liars, cheats, criminals or any other term meant to provoke a strong reaction including usage of known slurs in the context of intended harm to group members.
These rules likely wouldn’t touch some hateful rhetoric that sneaks through under the wire disguised in very abstracted metaphor but it creates a pretty distinct pass fail bar that would catch explicit hate speech on their platform.
By those rules we can’t even criticize Hamas or Houthis
Yes you can.
Those groups are not fully in religious in nature but represent in part a political movement with a history of violence. As long as the ire is not placed on the entirety of the faith, a particular sect that is enacting it’s ideology based on violence is not a criticism based from the religion but by the actions of the group as a political and military force. Still not cool to infer they are genetically inferior or sub human or even that they are all pedophiles or something but the fact that they have been actually commiting specific crimes as an organized group means that they are free game to be critiqued for their crimes.
You can also actively critique the writings and dogma of a religion itself but the hate speech portion doesn’t kick in until imply that the people who follow it are mentally ill, inferior, predisposed to crime or all going to enact all the practices listed in their holy texts that represent a modern illegal practice etc. etc. etc.
There is a distinction between nationality and government/ politics as well. You can absolutely exercise free critique of someone as long as it is not based on the criteria of their national origin. As long as you stick to talking about the facts of what specific individuals or political groups have actually been accredited as doing you are in the clear.
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The problem with that is that providing a platform and a revenue stream is providing support. Whatever the intent is, that is the result. The issue isn’t what I see on the Steam store, it’s providing a platform at all.
And yes, obviously there’s the question of where to draw the line. But not drawing one at all means providing support for the Alex Joneses of the world. There’s no way around that. And I don’t think that that’s a worthwhile trade.
Valve allows basically everything that’s not outright illegal
While true, and I agree it’s the right thing to do, some things like this and the Rittenhouse game are in a weird murky gray area where one could argue that it’s inciting violence etc. And if that someone is a lawyer, they could convince a judge/jury that it is illegal.
I agree that they should allow anything that isn’t illegal, but people say this like it’s black and white, and legality very much is not black and white.
This is too bad, but yes. They are like any other large corporation, I suppose – motivated primarily by greed.
Unless it pisses off the Chinese government, like the game Devotion that was released from a Taiwanese developer. But I don’t think Steam has a high ground so much as it has good PR while not being extremely greedy. In contrast, GOG also removed it, which sort of discredited any high ground they had.
Not sure this is a valve problem. The courts are simply going to have to seize his assets.
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I mean, it’s just a game. The shitty part isn’t on Steam’s side; It’s on Alex hiding funds and refusing to pay for the lawsuits he lost.
Valve will allow anything if they can profit from it.
War is profitable. So I hear.
I mean… Half the games on steam are about war
Why not? It’s not like the kids are going to boycott them. Boycotts are only for easy to refuse things. Or things that sound good in a instagram post.
Not for actual thinks they like and can’t live without.
That’s how boycotts have always worked. Boycotts have only been successful when people already didn’t like the thing they were boycotting.
I looovvveee tollhouse cookies, crunch bars, KitKats and stouffer’s French bread pizzas but I still don’t buy them, even though they are like the only people to make a wide range of frozen dinners, and I am not even a little bit salty about it, definitely, not at all…
So yeah, some people do stick to their morals over creature comforts.
Even when it really sucks.
I did just remember Schwann’s is a thing though, so maybe nestle is good for something at least.
And you’re just one person. Clearly, your boycott is ineffective against Nestlé. Nestlé seems to be doing fine.
ROFL…. So boycotts are only for people who lack the balls to stand up against the things they like?
Yes and no. They’re obviously more universal, but historically, they only actually work against things people already don’t like.
True… god I hate people so much.
@politics @GilgameshCatBeard Hate is a pretty strong world
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I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here or why you’re introducing the topic of boycotts.
I’m so confused. Did you respond to the wrong comment?
Valve allowing that dingus to sell a game while refusing to pay his victims families?
Sounds like a good reason to boycott to me.
But no one will.
Oh, I understand now! Yes, that would be an excellent reason for a boycott, but it never works because people never seem to be willing to sacrifice even the smallest amount of convenience for the greater good. I’d be in, and a lot of others probably would be too, but how does one even organize something like that? I think that’s another part of the problem. For a boycott to work, it has to be well planned and organized.
Exactly my thoughts. Well said. Though, under normal circumstances, people would be absolutely outraged by this and the shockwave would be spreading across all platforms to boycott immediately-
but mUh gAmEz?!
So…. It won’t happen.
I boycott Nestlé, and I have ran into someone in the world who does the same.
So in my little town if there is a chance that the two of us ran into each other at the same Walmart, right as I was explaining to my kid why we couldn’t buy that type of bottled water, I think that there are a bunch of us boycotting nestle while unorganized.
Overtime cents add up to dollars, even if we can’t bring them down, we can still help them not grow as quickly.
Valve is a soulless corporation that only cares about money. Why wouldn’t they?
Yeah true
I’ll take this opportunity to plug a tiny podcast that I stumbled onto called “Some Dare Call it Conspiracy”. It’s hosted by two English guys that were hard-core conspiracy theorists for 15 years.
They now discuss, debunk and interview people around the conspiracy life. It’s really fascinating to learn about Pizzagate, Chemtrails, Hunter Biden’s Laptop and Jeffery Epstein from very knowledgeable people but in an environment of debunking.
Their latest episode is an interview with Rob Jacobson, a former staffer for Alex Jones that worked for him for 12 years. Jacobson ended up testifying against Jones in the Sandy Hook trial. The episode is on their Patreon at the moment but will roll out to the general public in a few days. Fascinating stuff and Jones is every bit as shady as one expects.
I’m a huge Knowledge Fight fan. And your recommendation sounds right up my alley.
KF is a podcast done “the dollop style” with the broadcasts of Alex Jones, both modern and years old episodes. Dan Freissen has listened to 1000s of hours infowars, has read None Dare Call It a Conspiracy (which is why the recommendation perked my ears), has read Protocols of the Elders of Zion, “you name it”.
He shows how AJ’s Globalizist conspiracy is just a reskinning of old antisemitic writings.
Dan was flown to Texas to help the lawyers of the Sandy Hook defamation trial. I can’t say enough about how much I respect him.
Btw, by “the dollop style”, I mean comedian Dan Friessen tells his findings to comedian Jordan Holmes who is naïve on the topic.
Edit: Knowledge Fight has zero ads. Never has. No paywalls. They have no interest in sensationalizing. It feels very honest.
I’ll link the episode most inline with this article. #602 with Sandy Hook lead counsel Mark Bankston.
It seems like you folks like Behind the Bastards. They’ve been guests a few times. Here’s one Part One: How The Rich Ate Christianity
Edit: I wanted to clarify the relevance of #602. That came out in 2021, right after the default judgement was issued in Texas. I believe the lawyers never gave interviews until that ruling. I listened back. It’s a neat little time capsule. Just skip ahead until you hear Mark Bankston speak if it’s your first taste.
I’m a policy wonk!
This, Q Anon Anonymous and Behind the Bastards were my favorite podcasts for a while.
QAA is absolutely brilliant reporting. Liv Agar’s ep on superfascism was so great that I had to listen to it three times to make sure I absorbed everything. The interview with Marcus Gilroy-Ware, in which the author makes the case that we live in a fake democracy, was similarly mind-expanding. I tried to listen to Liv’s personal podcast, but she’s too smart for me. It required more active-listening that I want when enjoying a podcast rather than being relaxing. Big brained af.
Sadly I haven’t listened in around 4 years now, I should get back into it. I was relatively early though as I remember talking to friends/family about this crazy thing called q Anon before there was any news coverage.
I’m getting info-dumped by a pizzagater elsewhere in this thread in case you want to join the fun. I bet you’re better equipped.
Oh, haven’t heard of it. I’ll check it out. The Some Dare guys are pretty informal and raw, but they seem like guys you’d want to have a pint with if you met them in the UK. One if them is a rapper and the other is a death metal guy but they’re both pretty smart.
They talk about that actually. About how they think to get really deep into conspiracy theories it helps to be a creative type because you kind of have to be to get so far up everything’s butt and see such tenuous connections everywhere.
I’m very excited. Thank you. KF plus British accents sounds so fucking good to me.
Can you link directly to the pizzagate one. I’ve never heard a good debunk beyond “there is no basement so nothing is true”.
The short answer is no. I can’t think of when tried a pizzagate debunking. (They are going on 900 episodes.) I do distinctly remember an early episode when they analyze an undercover Periscope video inside Comet Ping Pong.
For a hopefully longer, but slower, answer, I made a thread asking the small community on lemmy.world.
I don’t believe Pizzagate was ever bunked, or debunked. The problem is that there are so many claims made that a rigorous debunk is difficult and time consuming.
The best attempt was NY Times that covered some details but cherry picked the claims it could debunk and completely ignored others.
Rolling Stones made a feeble effort spending most of the article on how the story spread, not it’s veracity.
In the body of the thread a posted on c/knowledgefight, I bring up that I didn’t care about pizzagate because there really no damages. No victims coming forward. No suspicious activity. Nothing.
The only thing interesting about pizzagate is how strongly people can hold on to beliefs with zero backing. I’m sure 99% of posts about pizzagate are LARPing really. (I think the same of Flat Earth. At least, way back when.) But we know how seriously some people belief it.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say, the fact there is no evidence backing it up is precisely why this stuff is so dangerous. If some one is mentally unsteady enough to accept any reason to hate their enemies, they are probably pretty dangerous to be around already. Now use a massive media operation so that person need no other source of news. He (sorry to be sexist, but I’m going to stick with “he” for the easily influenced viewer’s pronoun) knows he’s right. He hears nothing but that he is right. However, out in the dangerous part of the world, no one cares about this. It’s so fucking easy to dismiss this stuff. Why would anyone believe it?
This feels like persecution, gaslighting, and like “they” are all in on it. That’s fucking powder-keg as we saw in this matter.
the body of the thread a posted on c/knowledgefight,
I’ll take a listen to the podcast, but I think you are right in that it’s only tangentially relevant. Although it’s existence shows the topic won’t die easily.
No victims coming forward.
Such a bad argument. Are you expecting an abused kid to file a police report? Look at Epstein’s Virginia Giuffre who is now 40! At least the guardian’s of the kids in the Instagram photos should have been questioned.
No suspicious activity.
There was enough to send 4chan and reddit into a frenzy. I think you mean that there was no definitive proof.
The only thing interesting about pizzagate is how strongly people can hold on to beliefs with zero backing.
I thought the most interesting thing was how hard the pushback was. Pizza owners on the news, 10 min features on Colbert, NYT and Rolling Stone articles, banning of subreddits and censoring of search results. Try to find the steemit article I linked above. There was a well organised PR campaign against “nothing”.
I suspect some of the conclusions being drawn from highly circumstantial evidence were too close to the truth for some influential people’s comfort.
I’m sure 99% of posts about pizzagate are LARPing really.
Initially all politicians were suspected (e.g. Hastert is republican). It turned into a right wing topic after qanon stoked the fires.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say, the fact there is no evidence backing it up is precisely why this stuff is so dangerous.
True. On the other hand, vigilantism occurs when the police say they’ve investigated but actually haven’t. (Sorry impossible to back this statement in 2024. If you doubt me, find some official DC police reports unrelated to the gunman attack)
However, out in the dangerous part of the world, no one cares about this. It’s so fucking easy to dismiss this stuff. Why would anyone believe it?
It happened in Belgium, UK, France, Portugal etc. People there cared. Why not also in the US?
This feels like persecution, gaslighting, and like “they” are all in on it.
Podesta and Alefantis have certainly been persecuted by the Internet. And probably still are being 8 years later. Their no comment policy certainly backfired.
While I don’t find it particularly endearing that you are trying to dunk on a guy that is admittedly not engaged in the topic, I’ll bite
the body of the thread a posted on c/knowledgefight,
I’ll take a listen to the podcast, but I think you are right in that it’s only tangentially relevant. Although it’s existence shows the topic won’t die easily.
Personally, I think we should move the conversation there since posting here feels like you’re trying to get more eyeballs on this stuff. I find this stuff dangerous, and it’s usually best discussed in a more focused group.
I don’t recall calling the episode tangentially relevant. It contains the best evidence I’ve heard for Pizzagate.
I’ll be honest, I have no idea what that last sentence (“Although…”) is supposed to mean. These things won’t die easily because there is nothing that will ever stop people like Alex Jones screaming that Democrats drink baby blood. People believe him, and are loud about it. The fact that an idea shows no signs of dying out is not going to get me to believe it. (I’m a Taurus, after all.)
No victims coming forward.
Such a bad argument. Are you expecting an abused kid to file a police report? Look at Epstein’s Virginia Giuffre who is now 40! At least the guardian’s of the kids in the Instagram photos should have been questioned.
Bad argument? At least engage with it. You ask me to look to Epstein’s Virginia Giuffre. Who as you know, was a victim who came forward. This is the kind of evidence I’m asking for.
Please, and I mean it, please I want to see it, show me any pundit that “bunks” pizzagate talking-points that also said anything about Epstein before Giuffre’s public assertions.
There are no victims in pizzagate. What are you doing bringing Epstein into this? He was brought down by victims coming forward. The lack of evidence is no reason to point fingers.
No suspicious activity.
There was enough to send 4chan and reddit into a frenzy. I think you mean that there was no definitive proof.
Oh lordy. Was I dismissive of things that sent 4chan and reddit into a frenzy? I’m sorry. That must sting a bit. That is your best evidence so far.
The only thing interesting about pizzagate is how strongly people can hold on to beliefs with zero backing.
I thought the most interesting thing was how hard the pushback was. Pizza owners on the news, 10 min features on Colbert, NYT and Rolling Stone articles, banning of subreddits and censoring of search results. Try to find the steemit article I linked above. There was a well organised PR campaign against “nothing”.
We’re both just stating our opinions here. But I thought the pushback was perfectly inline. How else do you reach the kind of people who believe things based whatever they hear from pundits claiming to have secret knowledge?
I suspect some of the conclusions being drawn from highly circumstantial evidence were too close to the truth for some influential people’s comfort.
That’s very vague and spooky. Does it have a meaning?
I’m sure 99% of posts about pizzagate are LARPing really.
Initially all politicians were suspected (e.g. Hastert is republican). It turned into a right wing topic after qanon stoked the fires.
Wow. Bold of you to bring up another known pedophile. His downfall was the FBI seeing suspicious cash withdrawls. So who was that money going to? That’s right, a verified victim of molestation by Denny Hastert. You known, one of the (sorry to call them) characters I’d like to see in this pizzagate accusation. You only get to call Hastert a pedophile because a victim came forward.
And qanon stoking fires is another conspiracy point I will simply not engage with. Qanon is too unfounded for me.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say, the fact there is no evidence backing it up is precisely why this stuff is so dangerous.
True. On the other hand, vigilantism occurs when the police say they’ve investigated but actually haven’t. (Sorry impossible to back this statement in 2024. If you doubt me, find some official DC police reports unrelated to the gunman attack)
I live in America. That investigation went as far as it could before violating the rights of a private business owner. Your parry here truly shows how dangerous this is.
However, out in the dangerous part of the world, no one cares about this. It’s so fucking easy to dismiss this stuff. Why would anyone believe it?
It happened in Belgium, UK, France, Portugal etc. People there cared. Why not also in the US?
I’m sorry. I was being metaphorical here. When I said “out in the dangerous part of the world”, I was speaking for the POV of the fictional infowarrior. By the dangerous part of the world, I simply meant reality. Where people do not engage with these fear-mongers who actually proclaim that Democrats drink the blood of babies. Reality is where these baseless ideas and beliefs make one feel isolated. This is last I will engage here as I feel I’m being quoted out of context.
This feels like persecution, gaslighting, and like “they” are all in on it.
Podesta and Alefantis have certainly been persecuted by the Internet. And probably still are being 8 years later. Their no comment policy certainly backfired.
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. It sounds like you are bragging about making peoples lives miserable based on nothing.
Omg, you’re one of them! Lol. Take me to your magic kingdom.
Just wanted to drop a rec for Oh No, Ross and Carrie! It’s a long-running podcast where the hosts go undercover to investigate all sorts of fringe theories, cults, alternative medicines, etc. They’re very professional; highly recommend it.
I love that show. Although I’m admittedly a lapsed fan, I was listening to them on my walks to grad school in 2013 or so.
Incidentally, I love looking for Ross Blocher’s name in Pixar credits.
So digging way back in the memory machine, I can even remember hearing Carrie on the inKredulous podcast #014 from 2012. I think that might be when I started listening to her and Ross’s show.
That show was from what I consider the glorious lo-fi days of podcasting. I’m not even going to listen back to it to see if it holds up before posting.
That is a blast from the past! I actually didn’t start listening to ONRAC regularly until pretty recently—although it feels like longer, since I’ve been hearing their promos on other Maxfun shows for years. Circa late 2016-2020, I had a pretty strict embargo on any entertainment that made me dwell on how god-awful things were–or just seemed like it might—so it took me a good long while to get around to listening.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’m a huge Behind the Bastards fan, anything in that vein is super fascinating to me.
I love that podcast. I’ve been listening to one that a trucker recommended to me recently. It’s full of inside jokes so it takes a minute to be all in, but it’s really fun. It’s called Timesuck with Dan Cummins. Not every episode is perfect and it’s a bit long, but I love it.
Ugh, I was so excited for this … And at about 20 minutes into the first chemtrail episode they say contrails are the exhaust fumes coming out of engines :facepalm:
That doesnt square with the fact that these guys were hard-core conspiracy theorists? 😂😂
Haha good point, at least they are trying 😏
How do you debunk Epstein? He was convicted
Did OP say anything about Epstein’s crimes? No. He may be referring to the fact that people think that he didn’t kill himself (I don’t have a specific opinion on the matter.)
Edit: I just looked up the episode’s description: “Welcome to part one of episode 7!! The big question we’re asking today… Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself?? Everyone has an opinion on this, what’s yours?”
Probably meaning the “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself” theory.
Yes, but did he kill himself? It’s an interesting discussion, especially from the point of view of conspiracy theorists who literally think shape-shifting lizards are involved.
Look, people need something to play after they’ve finished Hogwarts Legacy.
What’s up with Hogwarts legacy? It’s one of the most progressive minded games I’ve ever played, so much so that J.K.Rowling herself tried to taint it by saying money that went to that game supported her views instead of the views in the game. Even though she doesn’t get any residuals from sales. She tried to tank sales to get back at them for making an open minded game instead of one that aligns with her views.
Lots of TERFs and anti-LGBTQ+ knuckledraggers made it a point to “play wizard game to own the libs” after many people decided not to play it on grounds that, regardless of whether or not it directly supported JK Rowling, it certainly indirectly supports her by spotlighting Harry Potter.
Also, as you said, JK Rowling tried to fuck with it because she’s a pissed off TERF, and some people just want to distance themselves from that whole mess.
In other words, Hogwash Legacy became a virtue signal for the fragile snowflakes on the right to stand cucked in solidarity with their astroterf queen.
Right… But how is that the games fault if it’s a good game with a very progressive message? If anything you would want people on the right to be tricked into playing a game that supports what they fear.
It’s one of the most progressive minded games I’ve ever played
That is such an incredibly low bar. What passes as progressive values in AAA games is just a shoehorned and saccharine checklist progressiveness. I can almost understand why the chuds get annoyed because playing some games can be like bad corporate DEI training.
Right wing ideology meanwhile is baked into gameplay. It doesn’t matter much if the themes are anti-racist so long as every problem can be solved with the right gun. It doesn’t matter if you’re a socialist state in a strategy game who’s economy is straight out of the Chicago school.
A couple games get it right. “This War of Mine” shows you what’s happening in the out of bounds areas of Call of Duty. “Darkest Dungeon” is a microscope on the exploitation of capitalism. But good luck finding something like this in the AAA space.
It doesn’t matter much if the themes are anti-racist so long as every problem can be solved with the right gun.
Welp, so much for me trying to cite Wolfenstein 3D as a progressive-minded AAA game.
Guns are only for the right. Clutch my pearls and call me a swine if any leftist movement ever used violence, let alone gasp guns to accomplish their goal!
Leftist here with a gun, but I do not believe in using violence unless someone is using violence against me or mine directly. I wouldn’t dream of using a gun to accomplish any goal other than eating or recreational shooting. I believe that we’re intelligent enough to accomplish political and social goals without violence. Violence is a lazy way to do that and just creates more violence down the road. That’s just, like, my opinion though.
No matter what side you’re on, this is a quality joke.
And unfortunately, that Stormfront Doom mod isn’t on Steam afaik.
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Fun fact the game can be beaten in 45 minutes and steam refund policy allows returns on games played 2 hours or less
That is a fun fact. Here’s an ever funner fact: Don’t give your money to assholes and then take it back. Just like, don’t give it to them in the first place.
True… But if you buy and return it you can give it a negative review?
Now we’re talkin’
I live in the middle of nowhere and rely on amazon sadly just not possible for me
Doesn’t make sense. You give them money. Enjoy (only some do enjoy) the game. Get money back. Net sum is positive if the game was fun for you.
I’m pretty sure steam has like a 3 month lag time to pay out anyway.
If you read the reviews for it, you can 100% beat the game in about 25-35 minutes and return it for a full refund. I was tempted to do that but I didn’t want to enticed anyone else to buy it who may not play such a game on the devs.
But then you could also review bomb it right?
I think reviews from users who refunded aren’t counted in the overall score.
They really should be… If you’re refunding because a game is shit then it makes sense to review it as such to warn others
Too bad- if a game sucks and you return it, you should be score to thumbs down and write a review of why.
You can do anything if you believe in yourself.
Lock him up (for life, 0 chance of getting out), Access his bank accounts, pay out the damn families already, forget about him and let him rot in there.
Do you think he did the shooting himself?
He is one of the key figures leading a mob that has made the lives of parents a living hell.
.
Ooooo TALKING = LIFE SENTENCE . Maybe you should talk a therapist and let the anger out peacefully. Don’t involve your emotions. Surely a rational person cannot think that is a reasonable punishment.
Depends on what they’re talking about.
e.g. “Let’s plan a murder” vs. “Let’s plan dinner”
Do you like Alex Jones?
(Most sane supporter of him)
Lock him up (for life, 0 chance of getting out)
Defamation is a civil matter, so there’s no chance of this. There’s really only one case in the US where someone can be locked up for failing to pay what they owe from a civil court decision, and that’s child support.
:(
Anyone know if it would it be worth reporting this as Defamatory on Steam? There are options for Legal Violation, Harmful, Fraud, Defamatory…without having played it it’s hard to throw it in any of those specific categories, because they mostly have to do with the software itself, though Defamation might work since I’d be surprised if the content doesn’t contain defamatory statements (even if they’re wrapped in attempted irony for legal wiggle room).
I flagged it as harmful because it isn’t directly related to the defamation case. But I’m sure either gets your point across, and if Valve gets enough complaints maybe they’ll actually realize they don’t need a man criminally liable for misusing media, to benefit spreading media on their platform.
I flagged it as Child Exploitation for the simple fact one of the screenshots says Epstein Island…
Followed suit. Cheers.
That’s a good idea.
It isnt though wasting a companies resources for false child exploitation accusations ties up those limited resources to investigate actual child endangerment.
Please do explain how showing a picture of Epstein Island is child exploitation. I would love to have that make sense. If there was a daycare that hurt children and I had a picture of the outside of the daycare how in the fuck is that Child exploitation? Its a game about conspiracy theories and political events. That dude who ran that island mysteriously died with no cameras on him and some new guards that were asleep. A lot of people know he did not kill himself so that being unprovable makes it a conspiracy theory which is no surprise it would make it to a game about conspiracy theories. Fuck Alex Jones but also fuck a bunch of dumbasses wasting Valves time and reasources reporting shit that isnt happening. God you people are STUPID I dont understand how people can be so out of touch with the reality around them. Also harmful reportings? Go take a look at the top games on steam especially the Hentai ones where the thousand year old characters look like children THATS child exploitation but showing a picture of espstein island is not child exploitation. You can google pictures of Epstein Island right now, pages upon pages should I report Google for child exploitation? Common sense is dead
M O N E T I Z A T I O N
(And yes Japanese anime pedo culture is gross too but that’s just a red herring regarding this)
Also, “wasting valves time” gtfo… They made a billion dollars off skins in loot crates, they have plenty of fucking “time.”
Dont forget to report Google too they have the gall to host this on their servers!1!1 man I bet if any realtor tries to list it for sale we can get them too!! We should never see anything about it existing ever again so people forget about it! /S if it isnt painfully obvious.
Shit, better report me too! I shared a picture of Epstein Island from google search!!
I’d report you just for not removing everything after the ? in your dumb link
Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck I hate the dude too and he should pay his debts but my god dude how is it anymore harmful than like a million other games that exist? Pirate the shit. But reporting it for child exploitation like that one dude said because it showed Epstein Island is moronic as fuck its a game about conspiracy theories and it isnt any more harmful or defaming than a million other games that exist right now on steam. It doesnt show children being exploited. One thing I notice on Lemmy a lot is people who are like “well I dont like this so other people shouldnt get to like it either.” Fucking christ just pirate the damn game so you dont give him money or dont play it if the courts dont get bought off then their should be no problem with them seizing the money he made off the game. But to report it for child exploitation and defamation is mega fucking stupid my god
Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck
You said, in your comment to my comment…
Look: you’re putting so many words in my mouth, it’s probably not worth replying, so…
You’re reporting a game youve never even played for made up reasons because you dont like the guy who made it. I read your comment and didnt put any words in your mouth
Read my comment again then, because I didn’t say I had reported it, or even that i would. I still haven’t.
I was specifically asking if it’s even worth reporting, since it would be mostly because he’s a grifter and this seems shady. Again though, I offer no solid reason why, other than wanting him to just go away.
This article invests a lot of effort trying to make it look like it’s all Steam’s responsibility.
It IS their store.
Which makes them responsible for enforcing that he pays to the families?
No, but still, its a private business, they could have refuse to publish this dirtbag’s game. But yeah it’s capitalist world so as long as it makes money its ok.
It makes them responsible for giving a platform to a libelous hatemonger.
If they know where money is coming from, aren’t there legal mechanisms to take it directly from Valve?
Can’t they just garnish his shit and empty his bank accounts?
They will, but he threw up roadblocks that the court has to move through. He moved his money behind dummy corporations that the court has to investigate first before they can “pierce the corporate veil,” for example.
Surely that could be interpreted as being in contempt of court. Just lock his ass up and throw away the key.
Yeah, that makes sense. Thx
If this was a fair and just county, sure
if
They just hate our freedoms cause they anus
My concern here is that these are not real sales and steam is allowing Jones to use their service for a poor attempt at laundering, but I suspect as a non user steam is already using services to ensure that the sales are coming from legitimate computers and cards.
I do find it weird that Steam actually had this as a game pushed to me. Not sure if that was targeted due to other game choices I’ve made, but I saw the ad and laughed and shook my head.
Alex Jones got to his position by gaming the advertisement system for self-promotion. I can’t say I’m shocked to see his video game once again exploiting the Steam store’s algorithm, just like he’d gamed the YouTube and Twitter algorithms before.
You’ll see Ann Coulter do the same thing with book sales. Have someone straw-purchase 10,000 copies of “Smelly: The Liberal Campaign To Fart A Lot And How It Is Destroying America”, and rocket to the top of the Best Seller Lists.
I think Regnery Press does that last bit all the time…I don’t know if people that maintain such lists take that kind of thing into account or not. And yeah, I have no trouble believing that Lil Alex found some demon willing to help him game the Steam system.
I don’t know if people that maintain such lists take that kind of thing into account or not
It takes more work to find out who is purchasing the books, particularly if the publisher includes straw-purchases as part of its marketing strategy and therefore has an incentive to report their number inaccurately.
I have no trouble believing that Lil Alex found some demon willing to help him game the Steam system.
He’s got enough money to simply do it himself (or outsource the process to professionals). Sort of a priming-the-pump method to marketing. Its very possible that the vig Steam gets from your straw purchases is less than the cost of paying them upfront to advertise your game. Also possible he’s doing both, in which case Steam has a strong economic incentive not to discourage this behavior.
At one time the NY Times bestseller list put this dagger (†) icon at the end of the summary when it happened. That way people in the know would get it was because of bulk sales.
But I think NYT changed how they do their best seller list to be a survey of booksellers, and probably just don’t include bulk sales at all anymore. But I don’t know. But if you see a dagger on a bestseller list, it means shenanigans are afoot. (†)
The sad thing is that the people most likely to know about the shenanigans are the ones least likely to fall for Regnery schemes in the first place…those least likely to know are the target audience of Regnery, etc…
Yeah but it’s probably well beyond the scope of making a best seller list to convince the people that have already been fooled by these scammers that these people are scammers.
Don’t under estimate how many conspiracy theorists and conservatives are on Steam. A good portion of my friends list is fractured after 2016 and 2020
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I usually just put 123 Main Street, Schenectady, NY 12345. Most places don’t even check to see if it’s a real address.
I usually go with 123 Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210
I think there are some plugins that will autofill things like that? Not sure what the current best one is.
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very cool America
I’m curious. What would you like “America” to do in this situation?
Have an actually functioning legal and economic system so people like this can’t be created nor have this sort of power in the first place? When you have criminals running businesses making bank, multi-millionaires even, while not giving his victims the compensation that they’re supposed to be getting, you’ve fucked up. Seize his assets and distribute them to the people who he defamed, take all of his earnings except for the bare minimum he needs to survive until this debt is paid off (which it won’t be since it’s far more than he could ever pay anyways). That’s what he should expect if he disobeys legal orders and refuses to do the bare minimum in paying victims out.
They already froze his assets and are in the processes of collecting for the families. They already ruled bankruptcy is not an excuse not to pay.
The legal systems seems to agree with what you want the desired outcome to be. I guess the only difference is you want to government to be able to have full control over everything, so they can take it instantly?
America removed the fairness doctrine under Reagan - that action is a direct line to allowing for an Alex Jones. “America” had somewhat functioning structures to prevent unchecked, rampant disinformation on the airwaves, Reagan removed it.
On the brighter side, every time I mention the fairness doctrine I get a brief reminder that Reagan and rush Limbaugh are now both bloated, rotting corpses. The more time passes, history will only remember them as the monsters they were. Their propagandists die off more by the day and eventually only the facts of the damage they did to society will remain
Did Alex Jones ever hold a broadcast license for the fairness doctorine to be applicable?
Pretty sure he got popped a few years ago for his pirate radio. And then got popped with the biggest defamation fine ever.
An alex jones doesn’t become an alex jones without a rush limbaugh and a fox news. And you don’t get a rush limbaugh or fox news at the scale of influence they had without what reagan did to the Fairness Doctrine.
They would have otherwise stayed on the fringe, where they belong (if anywhere) to make their spurious, wholly unfounded claims about how the children that were shot in the face with an assault rifle weren’t shot in the face with an assault rifle.
As in the US justice system? Actually follow his money trail and stop it where ever he hides it until he has payed back every cent of the bill he owns.
