Did You Actually Suppose Alex Jones Would Go Away?

Alex Jones appeared totally different within the closing hours of Infowars, as if he had been prepared for one thing new. Broadcasting from his Austin studio for the final time yesterday, Jones had shaved his head and ditched his normal shirt and blazer (no tie) in favor of a T-shirt with a large crimson Infowars emblem. For $49.99, you might purchase the identical shirt on his web site. “Each buy of this T-shirt goes instantly to making sure that it doesn’t matter what obstacles come up, Alex Jones will proceed to broadcast the reality,” the product description reads.

Jones had misplaced a yearslong authorized battle with the mother and father of Sandy Hook victims, who had been terrorized by Infowars followers after Jones falsely accused them of being “disaster actors.” Final yr, he was ordered to pay greater than $1 billion in damages to the Sandy Hook mother and father, forcing him to declare chapter and promote his firm. Yesterday morning, The Onion introduced that it had purchased Infowars at public sale, and would flip the positioning right into a satire platform. Throughout his closing broadcast, Jones stated he was purported to vacate the Infowars headquarters in some unspecified time in the future that day. After 25 years, throughout which Jones turned an area talk-radio present into his personal conspiratorial media empire, it was all ending.

Or was it? “The studios are buzzing and prepared,” Jones stated into the digicam throughout the closing stream, which occurred on X slightly than on the Infowars web site. “They’re simply three miles from right here. We’re able to go.” Jones has already established his subsequent plan: He’ll, after all, proceed streaming by way of a brand new web site unaffiliated with the Infowars model. And there’s good cause to suspect that it’s going to work. After Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox Information, he continued to remain related and garner an viewers on the present he hosts on X. Jones nonetheless has 3.2 million followers on X that he can direct to wherever he finally ends up going. (He was banned from Twitter in 2018 however reinstated by Elon Musk final yr.)

His method to conspiracism—world-encompassing theories in service of far-right ends—is now frequent, a proven fact that the present itself likes to take credit score for. Trendy conspiracism is all “downstream from Alex Jones,” one other Infowars character, Owen Shroyer, stated within the present’s closing stream. “What began at Infowars has metastasized.”

Shedding Infowars continues to be consequential for Jones, whilst he begins broadcasting from a brand new studio and web site. Infowars’ exact affect is difficult to trace, however as of 2022, his present was broadcast on about 30 radio stations, and to thousands and thousands who tune in on-line. Jones additionally nonetheless faces monetary challenges. The Onion has taken over his complement enterprise, a big supply of his income. He’ll owe cash to Sandy Hook households till he pays off his remaining debt.

Jones will climate this with the help of some highly effective associates, nonetheless. Steve Bannon appeared on the ultimate stream, and on Wednesday, Roger Stone broke the information reside on Infowars that Tulsi Gabbard is Donald Trump’s choose for director of nationwide intelligence. Jones additionally has had a relationship with the president-elect that might be to his benefit sooner or later: He interviewed Trump in 2015, early in his presidential marketing campaign. In 2016, he was a VIP visitor at Trump’s GOP-nominee acceptance speech. And in 2021, J. D. Vance praised him as a “truth-teller.”

At one level whereas I watched the Infowars broadcast, the video reduce away from Jones. This was it. Then, Shroyer and one other Infowars character, Harrison H. Smith, popped as much as preserve issues going. Jones yelled one thing at them from off digicam about legal professionals coming in. Every successive second of the stream felt prefer it might be the ultimate one. Shroyer and Smith saved talking in a collection of dramatic aphorisms, as if they had been placing the ending touches on a monologue. Then they might choose proper again up and do it once more. “The system doesn’t need you to know this data” flowed into “This isn’t a victory for the dangerous guys. That is them being revealed and introduced out within the open. This can solely backfire.” After teasing that the stream was about to finish, Shroyer interjected with: “It’s all taking place proper now. Historical past is unfolding.” This needed to be it. Nope. He continued: “We’re the Jedi; we’re destined to win in the long run.”

Then Jones got here again for extra. “I’ll by no means give up; I’ll by no means again down,” he stated. Jones then started to muddle his approach by way of one thing about how his sinking ship was tied to a brand new ship and that an entire armada was coming, however the armada was a stand-in for the American folks. He couldn’t finish his ending. The digicam reduce to a zoomed-out shot of him in his studio, alone at his desk, glumly trying down at some papers, with displays exhibiting the Infowars emblem round him for the final time. The stream reduce out.

After which it got here again. Jones appeared within the studio, however in a special shirt, suggesting that the phase was prerecorded. Wistful, cinematic music performed whereas Jones excitedly hawked one among his dietary supplements—one thing known as “Final Hydraforce.” Jones joked that he was going to get in bother for false promoting as a result of, because it turned out, Final Hydraforce wasn’t simply hydrating; it was additionally a pre-workout complement and has another helpful stuff as nicely. “I all the time search to deliver you the easiest dietary supplements; you will get the perfect outcomes and are available again and get them once more,” Jones stated. Infowars is ending. However Infowars won’t ever actually be over.