For years I have said that people like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and many others are simply “performance artists” who do not really believe what they say but know they can make money duping people. Outrage and sordid tales of secret conspiracies get listeners, viewers, clicks, and most importantly – money.

Well now we have Alex Jones in the midst of a divorce. His wife calls him “unstable” and “violent” based on what he has said on his radio program. According to Mrs. Jones:

“He’s not a stable person,” she said of the man with whom her 14-year-old son and 9- and 12-year-old daughters have lived since her 2015 divorce. “He says he wants to break Alec Baldwin’s neck. He wants J-Lo to get raped. “I’m concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of Congress,” she said, referring to his recent comments about California Democrat Adam Schiff. “He broadcasts from home. The children are there, watching him broadcast.”

How did his lawyers respond? Yeah, they took a page from me and used it in court.

“At a recent pretrial hearing, attorney Randall Wilhite told state District Judge Orlinda Naranjo that using his client Alex Jones’ on-air Infowars persona to evaluate Alex Jones as a father would be like judging Jack Nicholson in a custody dispute based on his performance as the Joker in “Batman.” “He’s playing a character,” Wilhite said of Jones. “He is a performance artist.”

In short he is LYING to his conservative followers.

Apart from the fact that he is lying to you, one reason this should bother both his followers and others is that his now admitted lies influence Donald Trump. Trump has praised Jones and has actively pushed conspiracy theories that Jones originated (made up, created out of thin air, lied about – get it?). Among those are:

Thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated on 9/11.

Hillary Clinton was abusing drugs.

There was massive voter fraud.

Justice Scalia may have been murdered.

Raphael Cruz had a hand in the Kennedy assassination.

Jones has further speculated that:

The Clintons are murderers.

Hillary Clinton is a witch who is responsible for the Dallas shootings.

Orlando, and Sandy Hook, and Boston, and Brussels, etc. were “false flags.”

The government has a “weather weapon” that “can create and steer groups of tornadoes.”

This should be horrifying to conservatives. There was a time when conservatives talked about “integrity,” “honesty,” and “personal responsibility” and, I believe, truly meant it. I think that ship has now sailed and we have long-ago established that conservatives are cool with lying and liars when they are on their side and they promise them a chance for political power. In the light of their decades-long assertions about morality this still stuns me.

I invite conservatives to ponder the road they have been going down. Do you really think that setting aside morality because it would be awkward and difficult politically is good for America? Do you think believing and spreading the lies of a “performance artist” is something that is helpful in any way in the goal of making America great? Then why continue the silence? You need to protect your nation from the slippery slope it is currently perched on. America needs honesty and America needs you.

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