Talk show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones began his career as an Austin eccentric, known for his associations with comedian Joe Rogan and filmmaker Richard Linklater. His paleoconservative media profile has risen steadily since the election of Barack Obama – he”s now better known for egging on Charlie Sheen”s meltdown, describing the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre as “crisis actors,” and throwing his bulk behind the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump.
Now, he”s engaged in a vicious custody battle, and his lawyers are suggesting that he”s not an increasingly unhinged paranoid maniac, but a performance artist playing a character.
Blogger Ken White adds some insight on the importance of this story.
“Alex Jones Says He”s A Performance Artist. Surprisingly, Actual Performance Artists Agree.”
by Priscilla Frank
The Huffington Post
April 19, 2017
Following his 2015 divorce, far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is embroiled in an ugly and somewhat bizarre custody battle.
In response to his ex-wife”s claims that the InfoWars founder and Pizzagate controversy propagator is “not a stable person” “• and therefore should not receive custody of their children “• Jones is arguing that his publicly jacked-up, trumped-up, vitriolic rants are merely instances of “performance art.”
Jones” lawyer Randall Wilhite outlined the novel defense, telling those present at a recent pretrial hearing that Jones” InfoWars persona does not reflect who he is as a person. “He”s playing a character,” Wilhite said. “He is a performance artist.”
Jones himself made a similar claim in early April while facing criticism “• and potential criminal proceedings “• after calling Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) an “archetypal cocksucker” and threatening in an expletive-laden rant to “beat [his] goddamn ass.” Jones later posted a follow-up video describing the comments as “clearly tongue-in-cheek and basically art performance, as I do in my rants, which I admit I do, as a form of art.”
Jones” most famed “performances” to date include calling the 9/11 attacks an inside job, claiming the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was “completely fake with actors,” and suggesting that the American government is “encouraging homosexuality with chemicals so that people don”t have children.” Is it possible that Jones has been putting on some sort of persona to stir up controversy and garner public attention? Of course. It is unlikely, however, and ultimately dangerous, that Jones” approximately 2 million listeners “• including his most famed fan, President Donald Trump “• were all aware that Jones” red-faced tirades are for show.
In calling himself a performance artist, Jones is referencing a controversial live art tradition with roots in the 1950s and “˜60s, involving movements like Gutai and Fluxus and individuals like Marina Abramovi? and Vito Acconci. One of the earliest artists recognized for her performances is Carolee Schneemann, who was recently awarded the Venice Biennale”s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In one of her most iconic performances, 1975″s “Interior Scroll,” Schneemann stood nude on a table, painted her body with mud, and extracted a scroll from her vagina, from which she proceeded to read.
When asked about Jones” performance art defense, Schneemann responded swiftly: “I think it”s all a load of crap,” she told The Huffington Post. But ultimately, any attempts to strictly classify what is or is not performance art, she clarified, are futile. Read more.
Last December, about a month before Donald Trump”s inauguration, Rebekah Mercer arrived at Stephen Bannon”s office in Trump Tower, wearing a cape over a fur-trimmed dress and her distinctive diamond-studded glasses. Tall and imposing, Rebekah, known to close friends as Bekah, is the 43-year-old daughter of the reclusive billionaire Robert Mercer. If Trump was an unexpected victor, the Mercers were unexpected kingmakers. More established names in Republican politics, such as the Kochs and Paul Singer, had sat out the general election. But the Mercers had committed millions of dollars to a campaign that often seemed beyond salvaging.
Robert Mercer very rarely speaks in public and never to journalists, so to gauge his beliefs you have to look at where he channels his money: a series of yachts, all called Sea Owl; a $2.9m model train set; climate change denial (he funds a climate change denial thinktank, the Heartland Institute); and what is maybe the ultimate rich man”s plaything – the disruption of the mainstream media. In this he is helped by his close associate Steve Bannon, Trump”s campaign manager and now chief strategist. The money he gives to the Media Research Center, with its mission of correcting “liberal bias” is just one of his media plays. There are other bigger, and even more deliberate strategies, and shining brightly, the star at the centre of the Mercer media galaxy, is Breitbart.
The websites Liberal Society and Conservative 101 appear to be total opposites. The former publishes headlines such as “WOW, Sanders Just Brutally EVISCERATED Trump On Live TV. Trump Is Fuming.” Its conservative counterpart has stories like “Nancy Pelosi Just Had Mental Breakdown On Stage And Made Craziest Statement Of Her Career.”