Consider Alex Jones

Good afternoon, everyone.

Love him or hate him, Alex Jones is at the beachhead of the debate over free speech. This morning, Tyler Hummel reviews an HBO documentary on the man.

Onward.

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“Your kids have been turned into mindless vassals who look up to some twit instead of looking up to Thomas Jefferson,” screams Alex Jones into the camera. “Kids! Magellan is a lot cooler than Justin Bieber! He circumnavigated, with one ship, the entire planet! He was killed by wild natives before he got back to Portugal!”

His face reddens and his fists begin to pound the air. “That’s destiny! That’s will! That’s striving! That’s being a trailblazer! Going into space! Mathematics! Quantum mechanics! The secrets of the universe! Life is fiery with its beauty!” He finally explodes, “And they want to shutter your mind talking about Justin Bieber!” 

This might sound like the ramblings of a madman—and it is—but as presented in the decade old original viral video, it is one of the funniest clips on the internet; one that regularly goes viral across all sides of the political spectrum as people begrudgingly nod along. He's right.

You won’t find many neutral assessments of radio host Alex Jones. The infamous founder of InfoWars runs one of the largest alternative news networks in the country which has earned him a reputation as a blustering populist conspiracy theorist. 

To a large portion of the internet, he’s a figure embraced purely for the entertainment factor. His over-the-top inspirational rants about the glories of Magellan, his willingness to commit cannibalism, and the pioneering spirit of being alive are hilarious. His spirit for fighting evil wherever he finds it is infectious—even when he’s clearly off base. And this has created a culture where it’s popular—even among his critics—to adapt his strange rants into indie folk songs. 

Jones is also associated with two of the most controversial events of the past two decades: the Sandy Hook school shooting and the January 6 riots. He didn’t instigate either, but he did get tied to both events via association. Jones was a major voice among many in promoting the idea that the 2012 school shooting was a false-flag event to push gun control. Even before his infamous interview with Piers Morgan, Jones had pushed the idea that governments use such events to seize private citizens’ defense weapons. 

After years of subsequent defamation lawsuits, courts in Texas and Connecticut ruled that Jones must pay nearly $1.1 billion in restitution to the families he alleged were crisis actors — the largest such settlement in American history. The proceedings of those courtroom trials are now immortalized in the HBO Max documentary The Truth vs. Alex Jones. 

From the same filmmakers who produced the salacious Finding Neverland miniseries about Michael Jackson’s pedophilia allegations, the documentary cannot help but come off as sanctimonious. It's a deadly serious and moody piece of filmmaking, working overtime to drag the somewhat unserious purveyor of gay frog jokes back down to earth long enough to scold him. 

🚸 “The Children Are Leading” This Tuesday, after the General Assembly passed a bill allowing trained faculty to carry in schools, a crowd of protesters took up the chant “Blood on your hands!” before staging a “die-in” on the floors outside the House chamber.

“My baby and her friends are there. The moment I heard the chants, my heart dropped,” Councilmember Delishia Porterfield posted on X. “My baby and her friends are literally fighting for their lives. The children are leading.”

To the delight of Porterfield, Vice President Kamala Harris weighed in on the legislation: “Arming teachers is not the solution. We know what actually works: universal background checks, red flag laws, safe storage, and an assault weapons ban,” the VP posted last night. “Shame on extremists in the Tennessee legislature for failing to protect our children.”

So far, leaders in Sumner County and at Metro Nashville Public Schools have assured parents that they will not allow faculty to carry at work. The Sheriff of Shelby County has also come out against the new law. Likewise, when questioned by WREG, new Memphis superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins did not seem keen on the idea. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

☀️ The Sun Shines on the Business Tax Cut This morning, a Joint Conference Committee met to discuss the franchise tax reform bill. Though the final agreement will have to go through the General Assembly, committee members from both the House and Senate agreed that businesses should be able to receive a full rebate for claims based on a look-back period of three years. It was also agreed that the financial disclosures of businesses that apply for the rebate should be made public. 

The newly negotiated draft will likely be up for final vote sometime next week, and will include rebate ranges specifying who, exactly, will be obligated to disclose their information. “For the first time in Tennessee history, and for the last time in Tennessee history, that type of tax information would be out there,” said House Leader Lamberth, after the meeting was called to order. However, he emphasized, the General Assembly is not in the business of exposing private tax information. “That is not something that we are setting a precedent on,” he told those in attendance. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

DEVELOPMENT

• Metro begins work at Global Mall at the Crossings with demolition (NBJ)
• Local restaurant expands to Neuhoff for seventh location (NBJ)
• California firm pays $84.5M for downtown office tower (NBJ)
• East Nashville building near Five Points listed for sale (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.

TONIGHT

🪕 Tray Wellington @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info

🎷 LIVE JAZZ: Parker James, Paul DeFiglia & Anson Hohne @ Vinyl Tap, 7p, No Cover, Info

🎸 Tim McGraw @ Bridgestone Arena, 7p, $51+, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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