When I was out and about today, I listened to the head of The Onion being interviewed on NPR. He talked a lot about the ways Alex Jones has tried to get out of paying the families of the Sandy Hook kids that were killed like he's required to. They tried to devalue Info Wars, and then have a shell company buy it at auction for a tiny amount so that there would be no money to pay the families. Apparently that was the original motivation for The Onion bidding on it and bidding it up: to make sure there was money for the families, and also they thought they could do something with it.
That whole thing is still in litigation, with Jones saying the company really has no value. So The Onion is releasing new content of the kind they intend to do on the site, in hopes that people will stream it and show the judge that there's an audience and a value. I decided to watch the first episode even if it's terrible, to give them the views.
It's not terrible, it's hilarious. Well worth watching. Note that some of the commercials are theirs, and you might not want to skip those.
Alex Jones is truly a malevolent POS (person of shit) and so are his fans. I wish nothing but the worst for them.
I caught the live stream about halfway through. I skipped back to the beginning and I really enjoyed it. I plan on watching it every week, hopefully live, to help boost their numbers.
The ad for Oxygyn was truly hilarious and I like that they're still running with "Turn Your Piss into Gold."
That's so embarrassing that they got the ratios wrong so I can get infinite piss by just continually buying both products. They're gonna panic when they wonder why I've bought out their whole stock, but by then it will be too late.
🧠🧠🧠
Tbh I agree with the general spirit of what they are saying but IP is obviously a valid legal construct and wishing it wasn't doesn't change that, and I didn't really appreciate being "well aCkshULly"d so I hit the down arrow anyway lol
Intellectual property is as real as any other property is: it's all made up by people, but it has the force of social/economic/governmental institutions behind it so it can affect your life.
It's just that legal concepts tend to attract discussions by people who can't tell the difference between a descriptive or positive argument (how things are) versus a normative argument (how things should be).
What the fuck are you even talking about? "Intellectual property" is a term pushed by corporations and their lawyers to lump together very different legal regimes like copyright, trademark, regional indications or patents, under one supposedly common name. Doing this really has the main advantage of making it possible to use the language of theft when talking about things that can be infinitely copied, and therefore can't be stolen. "Stolen IP" makes about as much sense as "unauthorised colour".
OH YEAH I totally forgot that The Onion acquired InfoWars after Alex Jones was forced to sell due to multiple legal proceedings including his divorce and a lawsuit from Sandy Hook shooting victims that he claimed were actors.
Apparently the actual sale of Infowars is still tied up in court. What they're doing here is just creating their own Infowars despite that, consequences be damned. Alex Jones isn't in any position to protect the trademark and The Onion is calling it parody.
Alex Jones doesn't own any IP any more. His bankruptcy estate owns the shares in the business that used to be his. So Alex Jones can't sue for any infringement. In fact Alex Jones continued to illegally use the studio and the branding for months after he lost the rights to do so.
In theory Jones's bankruptcy estate's liquidator / administrator could sue on behalf of the estate. But that guy was trying to award the auction to the Onion in the first place.
The Onion tried to strike a short term lease deal, which hasn't been approved yet. So they're just going to make the lease payments to the plaintiffs directly for the time being.
And they think they're in a pretty legally defensible situation, because, hey, who's going to sue them?
By the way, the court ruled that the judgement can't be discharged in bankruptcy. So Jones is coming out of bankruptcy, and he still owes the full amount (less whatever is collected from the Onion) personally. He doesn't get a clean slate. Any future income of his can be garnished and assets seized down to some minimum. For the rest of his life.
Haven't been able to watch it all yet; have to head to work. But man oh man, Jim Haggerty with the everyman Colbert Show vibes. Love it. And Tim's Alex Jones impression is spot...on.
The parody is just so on point. Could have gone with an even more clowny version of Alex J*nes, but extending the stuttering bluster to be the entire runtime of the show would be gauche.
They quit in May of this year, shortly after the Onion announced their plans for InfoWars.com. Jordan had a very negative reaction to the Onion development, and streamed this on Twitch. Dan and Jordan couldn’t agree on a way to move forward, and amicably parted ways. They explain the situation in the penultimate episode, the last studio episode. The final episode was a pre-scheduled live show that they both agreed to go through with.
Jordan still streams occasionally on Twitch at jay_bee_holmes. I’m still waiting for whatever Dan does next.
Edit: Dan just dropped the first episode of his new podcast, minutes after I posted this! What a coincidence. It’s on the old KF feed.
No, the intro is long, then he comes on and talks. It’s not good. I don’t recommend watching it. I think it was a manic episode, and it was a while ago, so there’s nothing to be done about it now. Knowledge Fight is over.
I think onion had a great opportunity to fix the damage Alex jones did back then but instead they went for “adult swim” direction. I bet there were lots of previous info wars watchers would have started watching it thinking it was back. Could have had the potential to educate them at least a couple. But yeah, gotta show those ads so it’s “lulz” direction.
This would have been onions entry to get into actual news industry. I think onion literally contributes nothing to anything. I really think the world in this situation because people are not taking serious what sort of direction we’re headed to. You don’t see any single racist media spending their time to make clown shows. They have their actual clowns like rogan to boost their credibility. I admit I haven’t watched the whole thing. If I want something silly, I would have watch Tim and Eric instead.
Idk man. I think they’ve really missed their shot to make something actually useful with info wars. Oh well, everything sucks anyway.
Don’t get me wrong not replying to troll or anything. Genuinely asking; I’ve always seen this argument but what exactly worked in the past? Are there any examples what made the previous satire worked against?
Oh shit! -5 rating on Voyager and you're wrong here and you're a fucking asshole based on history. Go put a firecracker in your pee hole bro. Easy block.
the admins got tired of the mods complaining that people weren't just blocking and moving on so they disabled the blocklists? sounds like something the admins would do
🤷. I did just check and the guy I thought I had blocked wasn't actually blocked. Voyager is a little finicky with stuff you've blocked so it's not that easy for me to test.
Ha ha, says someone that has never produced material. You aren't a producer, you feed off attacking downvoted comments because you have nothing positive to contribute yourself.
102 Comments
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca · 165 pts · 31d
When I was out and about today, I listened to the head of The Onion being interviewed on NPR. He talked a lot about the ways Alex Jones has tried to get out of paying the families of the Sandy Hook kids that were killed like he's required to. They tried to devalue Info Wars, and then have a shell company buy it at auction for a tiny amount so that there would be no money to pay the families. Apparently that was the original motivation for The Onion bidding on it and bidding it up: to make sure there was money for the families, and also they thought they could do something with it.
That whole thing is still in litigation, with Jones saying the company really has no value. So The Onion is releasing new content of the kind they intend to do on the site, in hopes that people will stream it and show the judge that there's an audience and a value. I decided to watch the first episode even if it's terrible, to give them the views.
It's not terrible, it's hilarious. Well worth watching. Note that some of the commercials are theirs, and you might not want to skip those.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 52 pts · 31d
Wow, he could have apologised and settled out of court at any time, and instead we get a worm crawling down every hole.
neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 31d
The conservative and libertarian mind can only ever think about themselves.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 32 pts · 31d
Alex Jones is truly a malevolent POS (person of shit) and so are his fans. I wish nothing but the worst for them.
I caught the live stream about halfway through. I skipped back to the beginning and I really enjoyed it. I plan on watching it every week, hopefully live, to help boost their numbers.
The ad for Oxygyn was truly hilarious and I like that they're still running with "Turn Your Piss into Gold."
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 31d
Yeah, completely agree on both things.
The hog water commercial was pretty good.
Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 31d
None of them are real commercials, sadly, not even Turn Your Gold Into Piss
SystemDisc@feddit.org · 8 pts · 31d
No, it’s real. And, there’s a glitch where you get more piss for the gold than gold for the piss. Infinite piss. What more could you want?
topherclay@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 31d
That's so embarrassing that they got the ratios wrong so I can get infinite piss by just continually buying both products. They're gonna panic when they wonder why I've bought out their whole stock, but by then it will be too late. 🧠🧠🧠
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 31d
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 31d
I did not know any of this. Thank you.
eah@programming.dev · 7 pts · 31d
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/02/nx-s1-5871321/the-onions-plan-to-finally-take-over-infowars
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 31d
Yep, that was the segment - I didn't think to link it, thanks
EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app · 67 pts · 32d
Omg I have been waiting to see what they do with this IP. I gotta make sure I come back.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 56 pts · 32d
It looks like they'll be doing a live stream every Thursday evening.
Tonight's was great. I learned a lot. Like JFK didn't kill himself. I never ever considered that he might have been assassinated.
ZeroCool@piefed.ca · 43 pts · 32d
"We really have no idea how medium-up this goes."
It's definitely off to a good start.
EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app · 19 pts · 32d
So far I've learned Alex Jones is unable to grow hair on the top of his head
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 31d
Come on man, you really buy this conspiracy shit? Everyone knows his head just kinda did that on its own.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 31d
Is it possible he hanged himself from a light pole?
towerful@programming.dev · 3 pts · 30d
I was so sure he hung himself.
We are so lucky to have such honest and reliable news sources!
axx@slrpnk.net · -5 pts · 31d
It's a brand, a name. It's not "IP". There is no such thing as intellectual property, it's a manipulative term.
That being said, agree with the sentiment! This is great 😊
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 31d
People arguing against IP either have never created anything, or have their “creative” endeavours backed by family wealth.
EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app · 6 pts · 31d
Tbh I agree with the general spirit of what they are saying but IP is obviously a valid legal construct and wishing it wasn't doesn't change that, and I didn't really appreciate being "well aCkshULly"d so I hit the down arrow anyway lol
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 30d
Intellectual property is as real as any other property is: it's all made up by people, but it has the force of social/economic/governmental institutions behind it so it can affect your life.
It's just that legal concepts tend to attract discussions by people who can't tell the difference between a descriptive or positive argument (how things are) versus a normative argument (how things should be).
axx@slrpnk.net · -4 pts · 31d
What the fuck are you even talking about? "Intellectual property" is a term pushed by corporations and their lawyers to lump together very different legal regimes like copyright, trademark, regional indications or patents, under one supposedly common name. Doing this really has the main advantage of making it possible to use the language of theft when talking about things that can be infinitely copied, and therefore can't be stolen. "Stolen IP" makes about as much sense as "unauthorised colour".
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 31d
Well, next time you create something useful, I hope you share it with everyone for free
TachyonTele_Esq@piefed.social · 2 pts · 31d
Are you by any chance a sovcit?
axx@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 30d
Uh, no. What would make you think this?
All this has been common knowledge in FOSS circles for ages.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 33 pts · 32d
OH YEAH I totally forgot that The Onion acquired InfoWars after Alex Jones was forced to sell due to multiple legal proceedings including his divorce and a lawsuit from Sandy Hook shooting victims that he claimed were actors.
Cintari@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 32d
Apparently the actual sale of Infowars is still tied up in court. What they're doing here is just creating their own Infowars despite that, consequences be damned. Alex Jones isn't in any position to protect the trademark and The Onion is calling it parody.
mkwt@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 31d
Alex Jones doesn't own any IP any more. His bankruptcy estate owns the shares in the business that used to be his. So Alex Jones can't sue for any infringement. In fact Alex Jones continued to illegally use the studio and the branding for months after he lost the rights to do so.
In theory Jones's bankruptcy estate's liquidator / administrator could sue on behalf of the estate. But that guy was trying to award the auction to the Onion in the first place.
The Onion tried to strike a short term lease deal, which hasn't been approved yet. So they're just going to make the lease payments to the plaintiffs directly for the time being.
And they think they're in a pretty legally defensible situation, because, hey, who's going to sue them?
mkwt@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 31d
By the way, the court ruled that the judgement can't be discharged in bankruptcy. So Jones is coming out of bankruptcy, and he still owes the full amount (less whatever is collected from the Onion) personally. He doesn't get a clean slate. Any future income of his can be garnished and assets seized down to some minimum. For the rest of his life.
decolo@piefed.social · 1 pts · 30d
keep going, I'm almost there
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 32d
I thought there was another issue. I'm so glad, I fucking love it.
Edit: I think this show is going to get followers like Colbert got followers because they thought it was real. There's a hole to fill.
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 32d
I read this in weird al's voice, but like he's saying the whole thing at once in one big breath.
Snapz@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 31d
I'm being lied to... RIGHT now.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 31d
I lost hope before that The Onion have lost the legal battle to acquire InfoWars. But alas, there is indeed a god!
cheat700000007@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 31d
They won the lawsuit like 4 months ago
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 31d
You gotta hear Ben Collins' interview with
Terry Grossanother interviewer yesterday. It actually gave me a tiny spark of hope in our future.prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 pts · 31d
Tim's going to completely shred his voice doing this character
ferrule@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 31d
From the picture I couldn't even tell it was him.
lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com · 18 pts · 31d
The lying mainstream media is not even mentioning his death!!!!!111
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 31d
I laughed out loud every time they showed that video.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca · 16 pts · 31d
Haven't been able to watch it all yet; have to head to work. But man oh man, Jim Haggerty with the everyman Colbert Show vibes. Love it. And Tim's Alex Jones impression is spot...on.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 31d
if you have a minute, the theme song is great
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 15 pts · 31d
First half of the headline got me lol
Cort@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 31d
Dang, I ate the onion
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 5 pts · 31d
I only had a bite. It's like when you ask for no onions and then you get a bite and you're like ew wtf is this Alex Jones is dead doing in my burger?
wolfrasin@lemmy.today · 15 pts · 31d
The parody is just so on point. Could have gone with an even more clowny version of Alex J*nes, but extending the stuttering bluster to be the entire runtime of the show would be gauche.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 30d
Realizing the headline isn't real:
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 30d
You're being lied to... right now!
Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 30d
Give it time.
starik@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 31d
I just want Knowledge Fight back.
Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 31d
Did they stop? I feel like I listened to some new episodes earlier this year
starik@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 31d
They quit in May of this year, shortly after the Onion announced their plans for InfoWars.com. Jordan had a very negative reaction to the Onion development, and streamed this on Twitch. Dan and Jordan couldn’t agree on a way to move forward, and amicably parted ways. They explain the situation in the penultimate episode, the last studio episode. The final episode was a pre-scheduled live show that they both agreed to go through with.
Jordan still streams occasionally on Twitch at jay_bee_holmes. I’m still waiting for whatever Dan does next.
Edit: Dan just dropped the first episode of his new podcast, minutes after I posted this! What a coincidence. It’s on the old KF feed.
WEprez@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 31d
I'm interested, what's it called? Not sure what the old feed was.
starik@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 31d
The old podcast is Knowledge Fight. The new one is Show Me State of Mind. The first SMSoM episode was cross-posted to KF also.
WEprez@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 30d
Got it, thanks!
topherclay@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 31d
Oh wow, I am so happy to learn that Dan is already posting his new project.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 31d
Is that Jordan video really just an hour of one word every twenty seconds?
starik@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 30d
No, the intro is long, then he comes on and talks. It’s not good. I don’t recommend watching it. I think it was a manic episode, and it was a while ago, so there’s nothing to be done about it now. Knowledge Fight is over.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 31d
He's been dead for 15 years, replaced by one of those Men In Black bodies with a bug in the head.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 31d
i'm pretty sure that's not where the bug is
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 30d
My mistake, I couldn't tell
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 30d
No worries. Standard model is head, but his pilot seat is allllll the way up his ass
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 31d
HOG WATER! HOG WATER! HOG WATER!
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 5 pts · 30d
I DRINK HOG WATER WHEN I A CRANK MY HOG WITH MY BROTHERS!
BigDiction@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 30d
Green is the best flavor!
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 31d
Jim Mother-Fucking Haggerty!
SGforce@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 31d
His delivery is soooo good. He need's a full time gig.
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 32d
Popped like a balloon
VoodooAardvark@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 30d
I thought infowars.com was being taken over - is it not?
lavander@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 30d
They are fighting as much as possible to prevent the onion takeover
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 30d
He's still trying, but that's just typical Alex Jones bullshit. It's over, The Onion owns it, and Fatso doesn't stand a chance of getting it back.
NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 30d
leased*
BigDiction@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 31d
I just made it to the first “commercial break”. Damn I’m glad to have the day off.
Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 29d
This Elf must be stopped.
CoolSouthpaw@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 30d
I wasn't sure what to expect. But this was pretty good for what it is. Fuck Alex Jone and InfoWars.
cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 30d
Don't they own the Alex Jones character? I would have just used a generated Alex Jones suit on an actor and gotten increasingly uncanny with it.
lemmelemmy@feddit.org · -10 pts · 31d
I think onion had a great opportunity to fix the damage Alex jones did back then but instead they went for “adult swim” direction. I bet there were lots of previous info wars watchers would have started watching it thinking it was back. Could have had the potential to educate them at least a couple. But yeah, gotta show those ads so it’s “lulz” direction.
This would have been onions entry to get into actual news industry. I think onion literally contributes nothing to anything. I really think the world in this situation because people are not taking serious what sort of direction we’re headed to. You don’t see any single racist media spending their time to make clown shows. They have their actual clowns like rogan to boost their credibility. I admit I haven’t watched the whole thing. If I want something silly, I would have watch Tim and Eric instead.
Idk man. I think they’ve really missed their shot to make something actually useful with info wars. Oh well, everything sucks anyway.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 20 pts · 31d
All of the money the receive goes to Sandy Hook families. So there's that.
Edit: I'm watching it now, and I have to disagree. Satire has its place, and there's a lot of value in showing just how absurd these people are.
lemmelemmy@feddit.org · 1 pts · 30d
Oh didn’t knew that. That’s good to know.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 31d
Jordan?
axx@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 31d
hard disagree: satire and mockery is useful and has historically been a way to fight back against fascists and autorcrats.
lemmelemmy@feddit.org · 1 pts · 30d
Don’t get me wrong not replying to troll or anything. Genuinely asking; I’ve always seen this argument but what exactly worked in the past? Are there any examples what made the previous satire worked against?
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works · -34 pts · 31d
The onion sucks, and plagarizes better men.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 31d
Oh shit! -5 rating on Voyager and you're wrong here and you're a fucking asshole based on history. Go put a firecracker in your pee hole bro. Easy block.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 31d
Hey you need to be better, obviously this guy is struggling.
He won't understand the implication he should light the firecracker unless you tell him explicitly.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 31d
I'll do better next time and make sure I mention to light any firecrackers lodged in the junk.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 31d
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 31d
Your blocklist is working? Mine hasn't in like a month
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 30d
It seems to be working as far as I can tell.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 30d
that makes one of us. i tried blocking you an hour ago as a test before sending this and unblocking you.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 30d
I did just notice a guy I thought I blocked show up in my feed... I wonder what is going on.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 30d
the admins got tired of the mods complaining that people weren't just blocking and moving on so they disabled the blocklists? sounds like something the admins would do
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 30d
🤷. I did just check and the guy I thought I had blocked wasn't actually blocked. Voyager is a little finicky with stuff you've blocked so it's not that easy for me to test.
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works · -10 pts · 31d
Good riddance, you are clearly an asshole.
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works · -10 pts · 31d
Ha ha, says someone that has never produced material. You aren't a producer, you feed off attacking downvoted comments because you have nothing positive to contribute yourself.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 3 pts · 31d
21 posts of content vs your 3. What material are you producing? Shit?
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 31d
Nope that's me producing the shit. Sorry, I lost my shovel
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works · -2 pts · 31d
Ha ha, says someone producing nothing.
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online · 3 pts · 31d
No you!