{"id":1316,"date":"2024-06-20T07:42:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T07:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/the-truth-vs-alex-jones\/"},"modified":"2024-06-20T07:42:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T07:42:44","slug":"the-truth-vs-alex-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/the-truth-vs-alex-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth vs. Alex Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most disturbing moments in a documentary filled with disturbing moments comes when it\u2019s revealed at the height of the defamation suit against the loathsome Alex Jones that over one in five people didn\u2019t, at the time, believe that there had been a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It can be tempting to write Jones off as a blowhard idiot who\u2019s just trying to profit off the stupidity of his listeners, but that number reveals the impact of his ignominious reach. And it\u2019s not hard to extrapolate that kind of poisonous thinking to other damaging conspiracy theories that have gone viral over the last decade, crushing reasonable discourse in this country. Even if you don\u2019t want to discuss the proliferation of bullshit that can be at least partly attributed to people like Jones, the specifics of this case are horrifying and enraging. Most importantly, they\u2019re brought to life in Dan Reed\u2019s \u201cThe Truth vs. Alex Jones\u201d in a way that\u2019s sharply edited, sensitively constructed, and expertly crafted. Premiering on HBO and Max tomorrow, Tuesday, March 26th<\/sup>, this is one of the better documentaries of this kind in a long time.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for that is the remarkable access obtained by Reed (\u201cLeaving Neverland\u201d) and his team, who fill the second half of their film with footage of the two trials that sought to hold Alex Jones responsible for the pain he caused the surviving family members of Sandy Hook. Of course, \u201cThe Truth vs. Alex Jones\u201d has to start with the details of that day in December 2012 when 20 children and six adults were killed in Newtown, CT. Without ever saying the name of the monster who shattered reality that day, Reed and his team allow family members to tell the story. It culminates in a detailed recounting of what happened, encounter by encounter,\u00a0that includes every name of the deceased said with careful enunciation. They deserve their names to be heard. It\u2019s a smart move by the filmmakers, taking an issue that people have tried to turn into a broad political one and going back to the human cost of that day. <\/p>\n

It’s a\u00a0cost that grew more painful when Alex Jones, before the bodies had fully been counted, suggested that Sandy Hook was a false flag operation to support one side of the gun control debate. Jones and his cadre of vile lunatics began a campaign of non-stop harassment, such as when they took a grieving father\u2019s nerves in front of a microphone as evidence he was acting, turning a moment of expression about the daughter he would never see again into a weapon of abuse. The full extent of the aggression directed at parents of the children of Sandy Hook is shameful, including interview subjects in the film who still demand answers to questions that have been answered or demand some imagined proof, after which they will move the goalposts again. The woman who insists that bodies must be exhumed or it didn\u2019t happen is the perfect example of the kind of moronic privilege that drives so much of these conspiracy theories, never pausing to ask why her inconsistent questioning should mean anything to anyone. Not every stupid, insensitive\u00a0question deserves an answer.<\/p>\n

One of Reed\u2019s master strokes is to include several of these people galvanized by Jones, some of whom still don\u2019t believe Sandy Hook happened\u2014for the record, despite what he said on air, Jones finally admitted it \u201c100% happened\u201d in 2022, furthering the fact that he\u2019s little more than a con man, selling something he doesn\u2019t even believe. Centering the family members first and then the listeners & InfoWars employees second pours the foundation for the trial footage that dominates the last third of the film because we know what\u2019s at stake. We know whose pain has been exacerbated and the people who have poured the salt into those wounds, making the testimonies in the trial so much more powerful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most disturbing moments in a documentary filled with disturbing moments comes when it\u2019s revealed at the height of the defamation suit against the loathsome Alex Jones that over one in five people didn\u2019t, at the time, believe that there had been a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It can be tempting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary-movies","tag-documentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}