I think Piers is an absolute turd for giving this demagogue a national stage. In this rant Alex Jones totally wins in the eyes of the gun nuts, and he gish gallops through shouting over Piers without challenge. Alex isn’t embarrassed here at all, he knows this appearance will draw many more to his sites and that he will become a hero to the right. Piers is playing Alex’s game and it’s thoroughly sad.
I disagree, this allowed CNN’s mainstream audience who might have heard of AJ but not seen him to experience him, it goes to prove Morgans’ point that the gun nuts are exactly that. First the Gun Owners Spokesman/Chairman, then the Motorcity Madman, now Jones. The point is that there is no sane argument for more guns.
You give the mainstream audience more rationality than they actually possess. Each of Alex’s points was shouted at least three times, and even if they come away thinking that Alex is a nut they will also think ‘but he had some good points, and Piers wasn’t able to counter them” I think you need to look at the history of “shouting heads” debates — it’s the demagogue who comes away with the win in audience ratings in most cases. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a creationist debate, or a presidential debate.
It’s not about some High Rationality, it’s about seeing a grown man act like a child. Everyone’s seen their kid or their sister’s kid act like AJ there.
I still think you are giving the audience too much credit - these are the same audiences who thought Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate by talking over the moderator and the president. Piers gave Alex everything he wanted, and he loved it. While some will see through him the converts he gained to Prison Planet and infowars are not worth it.
The proof is in the pudding: snippets of this are all over right wing sites praising the job Alex jones did. CNN got the circus they wanted, the wingnuts got what they wanted, and the traditional left is going to continue thinking that Alex made a fool of himself while he takes this to the bank and the usual suspects glorify this dangerous demagogue.
I think the far right crazies see it as a win. But then they believe what they want to anyways.
Honestly, I never cared too much for Piers, and out side of seeing posting of Alex Jones viewpoints, I never gave him much credibility.
That being said, I see this being black eye for the gun nuts. While AJ may have some facts and share some of the law abiding gun owners views. He comes off as a complete nut, who sees conspiracies in everything. Which now makes all of his points toxic, for anyone who wants to rationally defend their views against more gun restrictions.
From a PR point of view, who would want to be lumped in with that guy.
A) This is what the vast majority of wing nuts on the right wing believe in (or fantasize about)
b) You can’t embarrass Alex Jones since his bread and butter is found among the kooks of the country and for some reason the land of free press and freedoms galore breeds paranoids in greater number than were found in Stalinist Russia. That is hyperbole, of course but seriously we live in a free country with nearly unlimited access to information and yet we have this high level of paranoia?
I know it is called the “paranoid style of American politics” but why should that paranoia exist in a free country like ours?
This video is all over left wing sites claiming it as a win, while it’s all over right wing sites claiming it as a win. They both can’t be right.
Unfortunately, that’s not true. Of course they can both be right - happens all the time. Issues always have more than two sides, our news networks just never acknowledge that.
The late Alexander Cockburn used to point this out - he had a bit where he discussed a network news debate on cannibalism. They’d bring out the two experts to discuss both sides. The right winger in favor of “free market cannibalism” and the left favoring “government regulated cannibalism.” At the end of the show they might* let the kook on who says s/he doesn’t think we should have any cannibalism at all, but then they’d run out of time.
That’s not the case with Alex Jones, but the people who said that the right wing blogs loved him are right. They got what they wanted from this, and so did the left. Might Alex Jones had done better if he shouted less? Probably not.
You give the mainstream audience more rationality than they actually possess. Each of Alex’s points was shouted at least three times, and even if they come away thinking that Alex is a nut they will also think ‘but he had some good points, and Piers wasn’t able to counter them” I think you need to look at the history of “shouting heads” debates — it’s the demagogue who comes away with the win in audience ratings in most cases. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a creationist debate, or a presidential debate.
I have to agree. If you are politically aware and watching the footage without major distraction, then it is clear Jones is nuts. But that combination of knowledge and concentration will not hold true for most viewers. Someone just catching snippets while catching a quick bite at their local Wendy’s might well think Jones has something useful to say.
I still think you are giving the audience too much credit - these are the same audiences who thought Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate by talking over the moderator and the president. Piers gave Alex everything he wanted, and he loved it. While some will see through him the converts he gained to Prison Planet and infowars are not worth it.
The entire Jones rant is just a microcosm of the heart of the gun nuts’ beliefs. They never cared about hunting. They never cared about self defense. They never care about protecting property. They care that the opportunity to play out their fantasy will continue to exist, that fantasy being to some day kill all of the pussy liberals, communists, and [fill in the blank racial or ethnic slur]s.
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Frank says: