OPINION:
Seventy percent of X users said Infowars host Alex Jones should see his social media account restored and boom, like that, he’s back; Elon Musk reactivated his platform.
This is a major win for free speech. In America, it’s not unlawful to be a conspiracy theorist. Nor should it be. And handing a select few in politics or in the Big Tech offices filled with leftists who do government’s bidding the right to determine what’s conspiracy versus what’s not — well, just look back on the coronavirus years to see where that leads. All those with dissenting views are silenced.
In a livestream with Musk after his restatement, Jones apologized once again for raising questions about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings; specifically, when he doubted the event was real and pressed the idea it was staged.
“I apologize on every show,” Jones said to Musk, The Hill reported. “And I’ll say it again, I apologize that I just gave my commentary because I’m really just a guy … [a] talk radio host. So I do that on the Internet. I just take calls and interview guests and that I play devil’s advocate. And if that hurt people’s feelings, I apologize. But I did not send people to your houses. I did not pee on graves. I don’t know any of the stuff that went on.”
Speaking of sending people to houses — remember this?
“Maxine Waters encourages supporters to harass Trump administration officials,” CNN wrote in a headline in June of 2018.
Her exact words: “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that [Trump] Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. … Mr. President, we will see you every day, every hour of the day, everywhere …”
Later that same day, when asked about her vitriol on MSNBC, Waters said this: “The people are going to turn on [Trump officials]. They’re going to protest. They’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president, ‘No, I can’t hang with you.’”
Her Twitter-slash-X feed wasn’t suspended.
From NBC News in May 2023: “Free speech or federal crime? Protesters are still marching outside conservative Supreme Court justices’ homes.”
That was after Sen. Chuck Schumer in March of 2020 made these public remarks about the Supreme Court’s Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions. The bottom line is very simple: we will stand with the American people. We will stand with American women. We will tell President Trump and Senate Republicans who have stacked the court with right-wing ideologues, that you’re gonna be gone in November and you will never be able to do what you’re trying to do now, ever, ever again. You hear that over there on the far-right? You’re gone in November.”
Schumer’s Twitter-turned-X account was not suspended.
The thing is the Constitution protects the God-given right of free speech that’s offensive in nature. Tame, lame, non-offensive speech doesn’t need legal protection.
Jones made comments he apologized for; Jones was also ordered by a judge to pay between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion in defamation damages due to his labeling of Sandy Hook as a false flag event — a fine that is as ridiculous as his booting from social media.
He’s bankrupted. He faces more defamation trials. The left still hates him. Many on the right hate him, as well.
But at least one wrong has been corrected. At least he’s won his social media right to free speech. Truly, that’s not just a win for him. It’s a win for all of America and American liberty.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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