Dear Reader(s):

It has come to my attention that certain social media and video platforms, namely Facebook and YouTube, have taken to banning a certain individual and his channel accounts, accusing him of hate speech.  That individual is Alex Jones, who runs a current affairs channel called InfoWars, and is already well known for spreading conspiracy theories, and other ideas that are, at the very least, wacky.  I’ve watched a number of the videos he has made from his studio in Texas, and I couldn’t agree with less if he didn’t say anything at all.

But, I like to think we live in a spirit of free speech.  In other words, everyone gets a go, even if the content is nuts. Jones, known for saying ‘just what he thinks’ in a particularly gruff accent, is a dyed in the wool conservative, and he has one especially well-known fan: “President” Donald J. Trump.  Indeed, Jones was a supporter of Trump’s right from the word go, and earlier in the week, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote on Twitter that a senior Democratic Senator had admitted openly that media outlets are being shut down for the simple fact that they are conservative, and Trump wondered how long it would be before “Big Tech & their Democrat friends” purge other right-wing outlets such as Breitbart News and The Daily Caller from their platforms.

Trump has a point – a partial one, at least.  At first, I wondered why it would be that Big Tech would have so many “friends” in the Democratic Party, and indeed what Big Tech was at all.  However, I soon managed to console my fevered mind when it occurred to me that a) it doesn’t matter what party you are from, as soon as you get to Washington, you become soiled with money.  Politicians from all sides become slaves to the dollar, so it’s not really surprising that the likes of Google, YouTube, Microsoft et al get in the pockets of the politicians to increase their influence – nobody gives a f*** what party whoever is in, anyway.  Oh, and b), Big Tech is the conglomeration of companies that became the giants of the internet era, especially in the social media age which we are currently in.

But Twitter – seemingly alone among this bunch of reprobate social media giants – refused to ban Alex Jones either as an individual, or as a representative of InfoWars.  Why?  Well, it was really simple: he had not violated any of their rules regarding hate speech.  I have not seen that many of Jones’ videos for a long, long time; or indeed followed him on Twitter, therefore I could not tell you from personal experience if any of his speech or writing would be definable as hate speech.  But I do understand that his views are extremely right wing; and he is one of many who seem to think that the primary virtue in life is to be able to “say what he thinks”.  But, as long as he is not violating these laws in any country in which he broadcasts, why not let him?  As someone wrote on Trump’s Twitter feed, you should have the right to say what you want within the bounds of the law, but also you should be prepared to take the consequences.

For example, Jones is being sued by three sets of parents of children that were killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre of December 14, 2012.  You know the routine: teenage nutjob arms himself to the bollocks, goes into a school or college and just starts shooting.  Adam Lanza, no relation to Mario, managed to kill twenty children under the age of seven and six teachers.

Probably in part because the subsequent inquiry found no real answers as to why the young man targeted that school in particular, and because so many young children died, a number of conspiracy theories quickly arose; the whole thing was a hoax, that the government was involved, that it was a Jewish attack on Arabs, and so on.  Alex Jones, two years after the event, came firmly down in the “hoax” camp.  He called it a “false flag” event by the Government of the time, lead by recently re-elected President Barack Obama.  Jones had evidence: the town in which the massacre took place, Newtown, Connecticut, reported no deaths by murder that week.  Jones’ claim used the back-up that the children killed were in fact child actors.  However, Jones’ evidence was quickly debunked as a classic example of adding two and two and coming out with six.  No murders were reported in the town statistics because the investigation into the massacre was being handled by the Connecticut State Police, and the deaths subsequently appeared on the state’s statistics.

In November 2016, some of the relatives wrote to President-elect Donald Trump and asked him to denounce Alex Jones and officially recognise the deaths of the twenty-six victims.  Trump did not do so, and indeed actually appeared on Jones’ broadcast a couple of months later, so the parents took the only course of action left in the U.S. legal system: they sued Jones for a lot of money.  A million dollars.  Each, presumably.

The upshot of all of this is that Jones’ channel has been shut down on all of the major social media platforms bar Twitter.  This, I do believe, is a denial of free speech.  I don’t like anything that Jones says, inasmuch as the amount that I have read or seen.  From the available evidence, he seems to be a right-wing blowhard who can’t stand liberals.  That’s mainly what it boils down to in the US: conservatives vs. liberals.  But, in what is increasingly looking less like a free society, you cannot and should not deny him the right to his free speech.  He denies any and all accusations of hate speech, and I have to take him at his word.  It is for the social media giants to pore through the evidence of that, if any, not me.  As I wrote earlier, Jones can say what he wants, although it is he who must take the consequences.  I have spent years happily ignoring him with no adverse side-effects that I know of, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to carry on doing so.  I advise others who think he should be shut down to do the same.

Still, my personal opinion is this:  I never listen to someone who thinks they have an answer for everything.  Someone who never says, “Shit!  I have no idea!” is of no interest to me.  Life is for learning, not being a smart arse.  I think I would have a little more respect for religion, for example, if they said, you know what?  This stuff is mental, but somehow I believe it.  But they don’t; they always try to get the last word, they always try to have an answer for everything.  Not that I have any idea about the afterlife myself.  Haven’t a clue.  I have some ideas, some theories, but I can’t possibly know any more about it than the next person.

A group of people for which I do have a considerable degree of respect are theoretical physicists.  They work on the basis of what we know and postulate further debate among themselves and devise still more complex theories from that.  There are plenty of them to choose from throughout the history of ‘modern’ humankind: Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Dalton, Hertz, Einstein (of course), Hawking (of course), Kaku, and many, many others.  Astrophysics is a further topic that fascinates me, although I cannot claim to know that much about it or theoretical physics.  However, I am certainly enjoying the learning process.  Theoretical physics is more mathematics-based, while astrophysics places more emphasis on the physics.  And chemistry.  Two areas of science at which I failed miserably at school.  But as I get older I find my interest increasing, I don’t know why.  Perhaps it is because my late Mother was a scientist; she taught all the sciences at a comprehensive school, and had a great interest in it for the rest of her life.  She also loved Frank Sinatra, but that’s a whole other blog, I think.  x