Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to escape paying at least $1.1 billion in defamation damages stemming from his repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.

  • cricket97@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    I'm advocating for reasonable punishments for crimes rather than a small nation's gdp in damages because he is politically controversial. I think we can all agree that courts should not be handing out unfathomably large punishments in civil cases just because the person is politically unpopular.

    • Eccitaze@yiffit.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      The dude has enough resources to casually spend more money in a month than most of us make in multiple years, he got those resources by deliberately and knowingly telling lies that ruined the lives of multiple grieving families, he took a giant shit on the entire judicial system by refusing to appear for multiple hearings and repeatedly telling bald-faced lies to the court, and then he handed direct evidence of those bald-faced lies to opposing counsel and let them use it in court. If there's anyone who deserves life-ruining punishment, it's this shithead.

      • cricket97@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        He does not have 1b dollars, don't be ridiculous. And don't pretend he made all his money from sandy hook conspiracies either. Journalists tell lies all the time, and they're never hit with 1b in damages

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          This is what we call a soft hand conservative.

          not screaming bloody murder about killing their political rivals and calling everyone groomers.

          But trying to sound sane and reasonable, but still dropping gems that reveal their true intentions and nature like

          Journalists tell lies all the time

          and demanding sympathy for poor, mistreated alex jones and how its a miscarriage of the justice system for him to lose the empire built on lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake medical products, and using that to incite violence and harassment against others, all because of his own actions, that he chose to take.

          Bet if this was Rachael Maddow he wouldnt be wringing his hands so hard over it.

          • cricket97@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            You guys pathologize normal opinions a lot of people have way too much. There were journalists that created entire false narratives around the Iraq war, which is almost certainly of much bigger negative effect on the world than Alex Jones saying some retarded conspiracy shit.

        • Eccitaze@yiffit.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Between all the shit he's hidden in various shell corporations and offshore bank accounts, I wouldn't be surprised if he did have a billion dollars.

          Besides, people get hit with fines that far exceed their ability to pay ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Grandmas were getting hit with 6-figure judgements back in the early 2010s before the RIAA figured out that suing random individuals for music piracy was bad publicity. Nintendo got a $10 million settlement and $4.5 million criminal fine from one guy selling devices to hack the Switch.

          But once, just once, a fine is high enough to fuck over a rich guy after he did literally everything wrong and invented a few new ways to fuck up, and suddenly it's "Ohhhhhh no, this is a MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE, how DARE the courts hold a rich man accountable for their actions, why won't anyone think of the poor, oppressed rich guy ruining people's lives so he can hawk fake diet pills?" Cry me a fucking river.

          • cricket97@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Don't you think it's fucked up that it happens at all? But suddenly it's fine when it's against someone you hate?