September's Esquire features a sympathetic profile of broadcaster Alex Jones from writer John Richardson, who concludes after a few days vacationing with the country's preeminent conspiracy theorist that his popularity comes from his ability to play a kind of "passionate and concerned father," always on hand to explain everything in this crazy world to an increasingly confused and disassociated populous.

It's an astute observation, and his reporting admirably fills in many unreported and illuminating details about Jones' childhood -- and how it neatly prepared him for his current role -- and family. But in at least one case, he let his subject play him and didn't seem to do the simple research needed to catch Jones in the act.

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Richardson writes of Jones' personal warmth and charm, and explains that liberals are wrong to assume he's crazy, or faking it for a buck. In fact, Richardson writes in a passage that earns a pull quote, that he was surprised to find that "Jones often sounds quite liberal." Case in point:

The opposition to gay marriage disgusts him, for example. "Quite frankly, I'm sick of it. Absolutely, people should be able to get married." Same with abortion. "I get a woman's right, I get all those real arguments."

Later, Richardson quotes Jones praising Lana Wachowski, the transgender "Matrix" and "V for Vendetta" filmmaker. "That's what it's all about," Jones says. "How can you embrace one liberty and not embrace them all?"

Richardson is right to offer a nuanced portrait of a man so wholly despised by the left, which often misunderstands him, and he's right to point out that when it comes to Monsanto or Wall Street, Jones sounds more like an Occupier than a Tea Partyer. Jones does not fit any neat ideological boxes and is much more impressive than many liberals would admit. But when it comes to Jones' professed social liberalism, which Richardson seems to take at face value, he got duped.

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Alex Jones' libertarianism has always stopped when it comes to gay people and a woman's right to choose. But he's a savvy operator and probably assumed (correctly) that the interlocutor from the New York magazine would paint a more favorable portrait if he expressed some socially liberal views.

For instance, while Jones was protesting in England two months ago, a Catholic blogger asked for his thoughts on gay marriage. Jones replied that gay marriage isn't a major issue for him, but took the bait. "Same-sex marriage is sold as a civil right," he explained, but really it's part of a plot to promote the "eugenicist, globalist view," which aims to "break down the family."

"They are taking the rights of an ancient unified human program of religion and marriage and they are breaking it. So it's a major revolution and it's destroying the dictionary definition," Jones continued.

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Then things got really weird:

It is an aggressive recruiting effort. It is shoved on five-year old school students in the United States. ... So it's the state promoting pedophilia, because they're a bunch of pedophiles. I mean look at all the pedophile scandals -- that's it. I mean it's pedophile scandals at the BBC, and the Church, everywhere. Not because there are a lot of pedophiles, but because it's a guild, it's a cult of pedophiles trying to take over everything.

In 2010, Jones said, “The reason there are so many gay people now is because it’s a chemical warfare operation," again to destroy the family. In 2011, he said that “all over the country, it is a fact” that gay people are “recruiting 7-year-olds." Later that year he warned that there are "specialized homosexuals who are collecting everybody’s kids," as in literally kidnapping them, and called a gay person a "nelly creature" (nelly is a derogatory term for an effeminate or gay man).

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Earlier this year, he mocked openly gay MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, saying he was attracted to "Mr. Maddow." "I always thought of myself as a heterosexual, but ..." Jones laughed.

On abortion, Alex Jones has always been of the Ron Paul school, and sees the practice as another prong in the globalists' eugenics scheme to destroy the family, one of the last bulwarks against the global state, citing the conspiracist's vision of Margaret Sanger et al.

"We're beginning to win this Infowar, every study shows it ... Every year, the numbers flip towards common sense and pro-life," Jones said in 2011. "They can yell, they can scream, they can have shows glorifying abortion on MTV all they like -- it ain't working."

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UPDATE: Despite his positive comments about Lana Wachowski, Jones has said the fight for equality for transgender people is "all about these fake rights that don't exist versus my basic liberty being taken." He was referring to using gender segregated bathrooms. Media Matters more on Jones' ugly comments here.

Also updated with link to Richardson's story, which is now available online.