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.

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.

  • Ook the Librarian@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
      0·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • Ook the Librarian@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 months ago

        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.

        • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
          0·
          10 months ago

          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.