Alex Jones, Court Jester, Traitor
Apr. 30th, 2017 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsAlex Jones is a traitor to all of humanity.
Okay, bear with me. Jones comes across as a lunatic. The other day a friend of mine mentioned just how unqiue Jones was, and I had to refrain from pointing out that there are Alex Jones-like characters throughout the world, and that Wilson & Shea were making fun of their particular brand of paranoia back in the mid-1970s.
It was Raen who asked me to explain Alex Jones, so here's the most coherent worldview I can come up with. Jones believes that the wealthy desire power and will stop at literally nothing to maintain and increase it. This isn't new. What Jones brings to the table is this: ever since the very start of the Enlightenment, the view of progress as we understand it has been fueled by the wealthy because the wealthy saw it as a lever to power. More importantly, they knew if they didn't participate, someone else would, and they didn't want to be left behind.
So Jones' second major belief: All of scientific progress has been an arms race, sometimes between wealthy groups, sometimes between a unified wealthy elite and the hoi polloi. While this is hardly new as well, Jones brings an especially trenchant point about the use of ever better technologies toward the building of walls, and the deliberate funding of technologies to make the wealthy enclaves of the world secure from a howling mob of any size.
Jones' third major belief: ever since the application of technology to medical science started to work, basically at the start of the 20th century, those same wealthy have worked tirelessly to overcome aging. Jones deeply believes that the wealthy are literally pulling away from the rest of us, outfitting their bodies with an ever-advancing array of technological advantages that will eventually lead to a posthuman condition.
The only reason any of us ever get any of those medical advantages is because (a) the wealthy need guinea pigs for their research and (b) the wealthy do need quite a few of us to research and run the technology they're funding.
(Where do things like his Sandy Hook denialism fit in? Easily, actually: Jones believes his story so strongly that he's sure one of the ways "the elite" will control us is to "take away our gunz," and he believes that at least some of the more outrageous mass shootings are intended to spark the revolution that disarms America. He believes he's right, and if he's right even once, he'll have saved the world, and it doesn't matter how many grieving parents he has to malign to find the fakers.)
But Alex Jones is a traitor.
For years, he actually fought against the elites he's convinced are out to rule the world. He railed against them, all of them. Now, with his hooks into a significant portion of the Trumpist phenomenon, he's convinced more than ever that he's going to finally unmask the elite and show us who they are. Finally, someone other than the elite will have access to all the new posthuman techonologies that are so important.
Except Jones doesn't want to share this with you and me. You see, Jones believes that while there has always been an ongoing class war between the elite and the rest of us, he also believes that there are factions within the elite class.
Jones no longer expects the elites to lose. He just expects that one faction or the other will prevail. He wants to be on the winning side. For years, Alex Jones portrayed himself as a rabid opponent of our posthuman masters.
Now he, for one, is ready to shake the hands of his posthuman masters, sit at the foot of the throne and play court jester, as long as he gets their gifts.
Okay, bear with me. Jones comes across as a lunatic. The other day a friend of mine mentioned just how unqiue Jones was, and I had to refrain from pointing out that there are Alex Jones-like characters throughout the world, and that Wilson & Shea were making fun of their particular brand of paranoia back in the mid-1970s.
It was Raen who asked me to explain Alex Jones, so here's the most coherent worldview I can come up with. Jones believes that the wealthy desire power and will stop at literally nothing to maintain and increase it. This isn't new. What Jones brings to the table is this: ever since the very start of the Enlightenment, the view of progress as we understand it has been fueled by the wealthy because the wealthy saw it as a lever to power. More importantly, they knew if they didn't participate, someone else would, and they didn't want to be left behind.
So Jones' second major belief: All of scientific progress has been an arms race, sometimes between wealthy groups, sometimes between a unified wealthy elite and the hoi polloi. While this is hardly new as well, Jones brings an especially trenchant point about the use of ever better technologies toward the building of walls, and the deliberate funding of technologies to make the wealthy enclaves of the world secure from a howling mob of any size.
Jones' third major belief: ever since the application of technology to medical science started to work, basically at the start of the 20th century, those same wealthy have worked tirelessly to overcome aging. Jones deeply believes that the wealthy are literally pulling away from the rest of us, outfitting their bodies with an ever-advancing array of technological advantages that will eventually lead to a posthuman condition.
The only reason any of us ever get any of those medical advantages is because (a) the wealthy need guinea pigs for their research and (b) the wealthy do need quite a few of us to research and run the technology they're funding.
(Where do things like his Sandy Hook denialism fit in? Easily, actually: Jones believes his story so strongly that he's sure one of the ways "the elite" will control us is to "take away our gunz," and he believes that at least some of the more outrageous mass shootings are intended to spark the revolution that disarms America. He believes he's right, and if he's right even once, he'll have saved the world, and it doesn't matter how many grieving parents he has to malign to find the fakers.)
But Alex Jones is a traitor.
For years, he actually fought against the elites he's convinced are out to rule the world. He railed against them, all of them. Now, with his hooks into a significant portion of the Trumpist phenomenon, he's convinced more than ever that he's going to finally unmask the elite and show us who they are. Finally, someone other than the elite will have access to all the new posthuman techonologies that are so important.
Except Jones doesn't want to share this with you and me. You see, Jones believes that while there has always been an ongoing class war between the elite and the rest of us, he also believes that there are factions within the elite class.
Jones no longer expects the elites to lose. He just expects that one faction or the other will prevail. He wants to be on the winning side. For years, Alex Jones portrayed himself as a rabid opponent of our posthuman masters.
Now he, for one, is ready to shake the hands of his posthuman masters, sit at the foot of the throne and play court jester, as long as he gets their gifts.
