Following his trial for defamation of the families of the children and school staff killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is using Valve Corp.’s Steam, the world’s largest digital distribution platform for PC games, to sell an Infowars-themed video game. Jones claims to have earned hundreds of thousands in revenue from the video game, yet he has refused to pay the Sandy Hook families. Alex Jones: NWO Wars also mirrors and cartoonishly repackages the conspiracy theorist’s regularly violent, hateful rhetoric despite the platform’s policies against hate speech.

  • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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    10 months ago

    I mean, why aren’t his assets seized and bank accounts frozen at this point?

    Or is it only the poor that have to pay their fines?

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The court is trying. He’s just playing a lot of games. Lots of the money is held by his parents or hidden in different shell companies. The court established that he and InfoWars are basically the same thing as far as the money is concerned, so he’s been trying to start new shows and businesses to further complicate things.

      Court orders don’t automatically happen or always get enforced. Going through a divorce right now - lawyer told me that even if I do get an order that some of the shared debts are paid, he can just not. I’d have to go back to court and still get dinged on my credit.

    • kava@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      There are lots of ways to hide money and protect your assets, and many of them perfectly legal.

      Lot of it stems from laws made to protect regular people in debt (bankruptcy laws, getting rid of debtors prison, etc) but people with money use them too

      Imo it’s a worthwhile price. Otherwise credit cards would just take money straight from your wages if they could.

      • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Not when one of his victims has terminal cancer and can’t cash out because Jones is playing keep away through the courts.

        • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          The problem is, shitty people are always going to abuse the laws. The goal, or at least the purported goal, is to minimize how many people get hurt when the law is abused.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Completely empty comment just shitting on America, overwhelmingly upvoted. Lol what a fucking joke this place can be.

        • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          You’re free to leave. Unlike what America is becoming… you’ve got that freedom here.

          Bye.

          • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            You’re right, I can leave. Although I have that freedom in America too, so I’m not sure why you think that statement made any sense.

            And just like with America I can stay and try to make it better. But I just regularly get reminded how low the common denominator is here. Keep defending it. Really proving what an intellectual independent thinker you are.

            • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago

              Yawn.

              Whatever you say; Captain America. Should you be ironing your cape in preparation for the next big battle with…. everyone that thinks differently than you?

              • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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                10 months ago

                I call out an empty comment and you interpret that as attacking anyone who thinks differently than me? Brilliant. Lol

        • Lad@reddthat.com
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          10 months ago

          Explaining the many reasons why America is broken could take quite a while. Some sentiments are best summed up in a few words.

          • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            The post isn’t about America, they could have easily explained why this particular system is broken. But, hey, empty shitting on America is simple and sure to get some upvotes. Definitely what we should all be aiming for.

            • M137@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              You’ve somehow missed that Alex Jones is a US citizen, and part of the reason he can earn money from this game is because the US is so broken.

              None of that is hard to understand.

              • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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                10 months ago

                Lol I love how I missed something that wasn’t even said. Why not just admit you really don’t know what’s wrong? Or that, for all you know this could be progressing normally and reasonably?

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      10 months ago

      He’s jumping through all the hoops rich folks use to hide their money, which means the courts have to jump through the hoops to get at it, and the court system is slow by comparison.

    • Worx@lemmynsfw.com
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      10 months ago

      (in the UK) - Once, my parents employed a builder who screwed them over and so they took the builder to court. They won the court case and the builder said, “sure, I’ll go to the car to get my cheque book”. Then he was never seen again. So poor people can also get away with not paying fines too!

      (If they went through a bunch more hassle, they could have had him tracked down but by that point, with a young child and a messed-up house, it wasn’t worth the effort, time and stress any more)

    • SHADESLAYER_@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Because in the US we have laws. Thankfully so or armchair lawyer loons like you would be running a muck. It doesn’t really matter if he’s a shitbag, but you can’t just fuck with people because you don’t like them.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        It doesn’t matter if I like him or not.

        Court has ruled he needs to pay the fine, but instead of paying he is spending more money and doing ridiculous stuff like making this game. He is going against his court order. That shouldn’t be allowed. Any less wealthy person would have had their assets seized at this point.

        Yes the US has laws, but he is breaking them.

        • SHADESLAYER_@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It doesn’t really matter though if he has a pending court fine and he chooses to spend his money on something else. If he fails to pay the fine, there are repercussions. But this simply isn’t grounds for freezing someone’s bank accounts.

          It’s not illegal to buy something while you have court fines due. It’s stupid maybe, but not illegal.

      • andxz@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        He makes his living by fucking with people he doesn’t like and he certainly got off easy compared to the damage he’s caused.