The $1 billion gagging of Alex Jones

Upon hearing that Alex Jones has to pay $1 billion to the families of the children killed at Sandy Hook, I thought of that scene from Austin Powers.

Dr Evil, having been cryogenically frozen in 1967, returns to the world in 1997. He plans to hold the world hostage with nuclear weapons unless paid $1 million. Learning that such a sum was now insignificant due to inflation ($1 million in 1967 would have lost 79.2% of its value by 1997, and 88.7% by today), he ups his demand to $100 billion, a figure sounding more in line with his evil schemes.

Perhaps Alex Jones should cryogenically freeze himself for thirty years. After all, the dollar's purchasing power over the previous thirty. If he could stick himself in a chilly chamber for 75 years and put a few dollars into a high interest savings account, and assuming the next 75 years will be like the previous, the dollars he will have to pay back will have depreciated by over 90%. The wonders of fiat currency.

But one billion dollars is still a lot. It must be paid in damages to those affected by the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school, as Jones claimed the shooting was a hoax and that those involved were crisis actors. Families of children murdered in the incident claim that Jones's claims led to their harassment and abuse, with some fairly awful behaviour meted out by fans of Jones.

A lawyer in the case said that 'Alex Jones put his foot right on top of [the families affected]'. No doubt there is something grotesque in Jones's claims and his profiting from what must be one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. But $1 billion?

Given Alex Jones's pariah status – having been kicked off most social media platforms – and his status as parody Right Wing Nutter, few have given him any sympathy. There is an element of glee in the fact that the Big Bad Man has been taken down a peg or a billion. The attorneys involved claim not to share this view, with an attorney stating: “This is not a case about politics, it's about how much to compensate the plaintiffs.” It made no difference that Jones subsequently agreed that the shootings took place.

Jones is invariably titled 'conspiracy theorist' whenever written about. No doubt he is prone to Biblical-scale exaggeration and hysteria, making him a fantastic target for memes.

Yet as we now know, yesterday's conspiracy theory is today's conspiracy fact. Jones was working himself into a sweaty rant about Jeffery Epstein before anyone pretended to care, and some of what were regarded as his wackier ideas (that chemicals in the water are turning the friggin' frogs gay) turned out to be true too.

Whether $1 billion seems an appropriate amount to pay for saying something particularly stupid does not seem to be questioned. Whether the amount is designed to completely destroy Jones – previous attempts at pushing him to the fringes of the internet having failed – also seems to be ignored.

Perhaps it is just a figure borne of America's OTT legal system, where people are sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences meaning they stand to be released sometime in the 24th century, or of the vastly inflated sums that frequently come out of its vulgar, litigious society.

It could also be the case, however, that it's a warning signal: if you don't play ball we will destroy you, one way or another. Not that such threats should be viewed in isolation. Financial warfare of this kind looks to be the future favourite of suppressing dissent. It's what we see in China already with its centralised payment apps and social credit system. It's what beckons when the state promises to have its own digital currencies and abolishes cash.

Oh, and what about that small matter of freedom of speech? Nobody bothers about that any more as we all know it died long ago. Just toe the line and say the right things, lest you want to get into any trouble.

Were politicians to have to make payouts for all their stupid utterances and misdeeds – just look at the state we're in – they'd be more broke than a bone china tea cup after an A-bomb goes off. For those who destroy communities, crash economies, refuse to control immigration, who constantly push for war and who let rape gangs roam the streets: nada.

Actual consequences for words or deeds? That is a luxury reserved for the enemies of the uniparty regime.