Jones’s career may be over after his Sandy Hook defamation trial, but his pernicious influence will live on
It is impossible for most of us to imagine the mindset of someone who exploits such terrible events. The testimony of those parents talking about their “living hell” was heartbreaking. Jones was shredded in court, forced to admit to his lies and in one exquisite twist, shown to have perjured himself during testimony after his blundering lawyer handed the rival team two years of his mobile phone data.
Yet even if Jones’s career is over, his pernicious influence will live on. For the trial exposed the value of peddling lies and preaching hate when a forensic accountantthat InfoWars could make £660,000 a day at one point in 2018, enabling Jones to build a fortune worth at least £110m. He was at the apex of a lucrative trade profiting from deception and paranoia, seen starkly in the pandemic with falsehoods about treatments and vaccinations.
Playing fast and loose with truth is not just highly profitable for snake-oil salesman but has evolved into a successful strategy for populist politicians that drags public discourse towards extremes.
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