I thought I had seen Alex Jones on TV before, but nothing can prepare a normal human being to watch something like this. I know some people might think Piers Morgan shouldn’t be inviting the most extreme right wingers on his show at any time at all, but once in a while it’s good to let them loose so the American people can truly see who and what they are. The man who made his bones by promoting black helicopter info during the Clinton years and continued to more Bircheresque conspiracies through the Bush years helped start a petition drive to kick Piers Morgan out of the United States for daring to promote gun control after the horrifying massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary.
It would be easy to dismiss Alex Jones as just another stupid, rage-fueled gun nut whose idea of “debate” is to scream at this adversary as he spews “facts,” deflects legitimate questions, and attempts to change the subject. No, Jones is a very special and dangerous kind of stupid, one who will scream that the 2nd Amendment is “sacrosanct” while quoting specious statistics from InfoWars.com. Simply put, there’s no way to have a rational, reasoned discussion, much less a debate with Jones. Why anyone in the media would want to have Jones within a half-mile of them simply defies description…unless of course their intent to let Jones show the world what a off-the-handle looney tune he truly is.
This is what too often passes for debate on gun control in this country….
I suppose I should begin by stating my unending admiration for Piers Morgan for doing something few talking heads would have the courage to do. If I stood in Morgan’s shoes, I’d make sure Alex Jones was allowed in the same area code…and then I’d find new shoes. Jones is the troll responsible for the petition on the White House website to deport Morgan, a British national. It seems that Jones is all about rights, except when you happen to be a British citizen taking advantage of the 1st Amendment. Morgan, seeing an opportunity to have an honest debate, invited Jones to come on his show…which only proves that he’s a far better person than I could ever hope to be. The result was a train wreck, though if Morgan’s intent was to allow Jones to hoist himself on his own petard, he was spectacularly successful.
I generally have a very low threshold for this sort of silliness, but I managed to make it through 13:03 of the 14:00 interview. Well, no; calling it an “interview” doesn’t do justice to the depth and breadth of Jones’ sheer unmedicated lunacy. To say that Jones made an ass of himself would be an insult to asses. He spent the entire interviews screaming at Morgan, shouting over Morgan’s questions, and distorting statistics. It was in no shape, manner, or form an interview.
(Here’s a pro tip: if you want to be taken seriously, you should under NO circumstances use statistics you find on InfoWars…unless you really want to create the lasting impression that you’re a nutjob marinated in conspiracy theories. You can thank me later.)
There’s an anti-intellectual school of thought in this country that holds that My ignorance is just as valid as my knowledge (well, not MY ignorance, but you get the point). Alex Jones is the High Priest of this movement of America. Unfortunately, these are the folks who by and large make the Tea Party possible, and far too many gun nuts like Jones wallow in this shallow end of the gene pool. If that sounds arrogant and dismissive, so be it; it happens to be the truth. Until reasonable Americans stand up and repudiate intellectual tabulae rasae like Jones, he and his ilk will continue to be treated as if their arguments and point of view are equivalent to those who have long-since established legal residence in the reality-based world.
Morgan quickly learned that you can’t have a normal discussion over an issue with people like Jones, who got more rabid as the minutes passed. He spewed out what he believed to be da facts about violence in America, all the while ignoring Morgan’s questions. By the end of the first 15 minutes, Jones screaming at Morgan that if they tried to make Americans register guns then they’ll take them all away and Mr. and Mrs. America will rise up and rebel once again like it was 1776 once again…!
Before anyone dismisses my argument out of hand, try reminding yourself that Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA, is, while perhaps a bit more lucid and less voluble than Jones, every bit the unreasonable, dishonest gun nut that Jones is.
It would be preferable to have a open and reasoned debate across the gulf separating both sides, but there’s a certain element of the pro-gun crowd impervious to fact or reason. Alex Jones and those who “think” like him will simply have to be bulldozed out of the way, because there’s just no way to get them to consider any viewpoint but their own. I’m not talking about taking away all of their guns (much as I might like to), but any type of gun control will have to be passed over their delusional screaming. No person, particularly Alex Jones and his ilk, NEEDS a semi-automatic assault rifle. The 2nd Amendment is not “sacrosanct” (Jones’ bleating notwithstanding) nor is it immutable and impervious to change. Can any serious person argue that the Founding Fathers intended for Americans to possess deadly firepower along the lines of AR-15s, AK-47s, and other semi-automatic killing machines?
The good news is that Alex Jones revealed himself to be a blithering idiot and a screaming ninny on national television. Not exactly the spokesperson the pro-gun lobby wants, I’d imagine, but you dance with who brung ya. Americans now have a better understanding of what stands between present day insanity and sensible gun control.
In the meantime, could someone get Mr. Jones some Thorazine??
For those of you who just can’t get enough of the unmedicated stylings of Alex Jones, consider this my “gift” to you:
