Friday, June 9, 2017

Why Alex Jones Avoids Defaming Private Citizens in his Conspiracy Theories

I've been following Alex Jones for a long time both as a former disciple and as now a critic. In watching his movies, reading his website, and listening to his broadcasts exposing evil with outlandish claims, I've noticed something.

Friday, June 2, 2017

My Journey Out of Conspiracy Theories

Well here it is. Its my personal story in coming out of the conspiracy driven world. (The short version)....  I don't claim to speak for anyone else. This is just about me and me only.
It was from 2009-2010 lasting less than two years. Fortunately it didn't last too long. If it did I probably would've gone mad. At 18 I started off as someone who got interested in politics in 2009. I was first introduced to Glenn Beck. This was back when he was spewing John Birch Society inspired populist messages. The anti-Obama sentiment made me search other outlets. This led me to the Obama Deception movie. A film by Alex Jones. And the website World Net Daily. Of course because of my political bias I tended to believe any negative and fringe conspiracy theory about liberals and Democrats. Which I have to say also happens with those on the left side of the political spectrum. But I think it's substantially and noticeably worse on the right. Mostly I was listening to Alex Jones. And cut myself off from any other news sources. I watched documentary after documentary from Alex Jones. I have to say he's a very talented filmmaker. While this was happening I was reading up on Mormonism. I almost converted from Catholic to Mormon. This was one of two things that happened at the same time that changed me. Shortly after my interest in Mormonism, I watched a South Park episode on Mormonism and thought to myself "there's no way it could be that laughably fake". This was my first time thinking to myself that a religious claim could be completely factually wrong. Shortly after that almost conversion, I watched a film called Zeitgeist. This movie argues that religions were fraudulently founded and 9/11 was an inside job. After that I was on edge. Seriously not knowing what to believe. I studied political science in college hoping to get involved in politics. I took history classes related to foreign policy. We learned about the end of the Cold War and the "New World Order" (another trade mark of Alex Jones). When I first heard that term from my professor I was so excited thinking I was going to get some sort of verification for my beliefs. What I got instead was how the world actually works. The New World Order concept was nothing more than the status of the world today now that the Cold War was over. The world was no longer divided by two completely different economic systems. Nations could solve problems together for the most part. That was it. Alex Jones was freaking lying about George H.W. Bush and his New World Order speech. I didn't argue with my professor or challenge her because I felt that that was the reality of it. One of Alex Jones's central topics of conspiracy pushing was complete horse crap. Learning how many verifiable falsehoods there were in Mormonism and that my prophet Alex Jones was clearly lying, I search every conspiracy theory debunking I could. This included religious claims from my religion which I will not go into details of. I challenged myself and my preconceived notions. Everything was coming down on me like a ton of bricks. Objectively I was able to distinguish fact from fantasy and at the same time know a liar when I saw one. And by that I mean someone pushing a conspiracy theory using evidence that they have to know to be false. I went through a mental breakdown which fortunately did not require hospitalization. This is brief a list of all the conspiracy theories I bought into and left behind: 9/11 being an inside job, Obama's birth certificate, United Nations is on the verge of taking over America, chemtrails, Bilderberg Group, Bohemian Grove, New World Order, and probably most of what Alex Jones promoted.

Financially speaking this did not drain me. Probably $150 worth of conspiracy movies over the course of that time. It did however hurt me in my college studies. This was only at the end of my freshman year. I was well out of the conspiracy world beginning of my sophomore year. I graduated with a degree in Political science and minor in sociology. Regarding my friends and family. I didn't lose friends because of this. Mostly because I kept it to myself. Same with my family for the most part. 

In the end of all this I became  pretty uncommitted when it comes to politics. I'm not afraid to say when I am wrong about something regarding my political beliefs. I try to base them on facts. My experience with the conspiracy theory world and leaving religion seriously made me change how I take in information. I don't take things at face value unless I've seen evidence. But I still have faith in our institutions involved in science, media, and government. Yeah I know there is mistrust out there of them.

What do I plan to do now? I hope to save people from this irrational way of thinking and interpreting the world. The reality is the world is more complex, random and unpredictable than we think it is. We do better tackling the world's challenges than chasing ghosts.