These days, I generally don’t give Alex Jones much space or consideration here, for he is naught more than a two-bit carnival hawker, and we have more important things to talk about.  His radio show, InfoWars, has been dropped by Facebook and Twitter, and while he still has a loyal following of the ignorant who are willing to believe every conspiracy theory they hear, he is pretty much washed up.

Jones has gotten himself in trouble of late, has numerous lawsuits against him as a result of his claim that the Sandy Hook shooting that took the lives of 20 first graders and 6 teachers in 2012 was all a hoax, that it never happened, that the parents were paid actors.  Well, some of Jones’ viewers believed him and in the years since, some parents have received threats and even had to relocate to ensure the safety of their remaining children.

His latest is so strange that I was all set to ignore it … why give him the attention he craves … until I thought about the potential ramifications, rather like the Sandy Hook fiasco.  We can shrug off the conspiracy theorists and their theories, can ignore them and hope they go away, but the real danger comes from left field, from the ignorant who, lacking education or common sense, will believe and act on the conspiracy theories.

Remember Pizzagate?  A rumour, started by a Reddit user and picked up by Alex Jones and others, made the rounds.  The rumour was that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief, John Podesta were kidnapping, molesting and trafficking children in tunnels beneath the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.  The restaurant’s staff and owner began receiving online threats against themselves and worse yet, their children.  And then one day,  Edgar Maddison Welch walked into the restaurant armed with two assault weapons and opened fire … a regular Bugsy Malone.

There is a very real danger in the fact that there are more guns in this nation than there are people, many of them assault weapons that can kill hundreds inside of a minute or two.  There is a very real danger in that this nation is a tinderbox waiting for someone to light a match.  Enter Alex Jones, claiming that the United States will soon have to resort to cannibalism and he is fully prepared to eat his neighbors.  Yes, friends, that’s what he said.

In a video clip from one of his recent broadcasts that is currently circulating across social media, Jones graphically expounds about how the food supply challenges of the current crisis could require extreme measures, including cannibalism.  I will not play the video here, but this is what he said …

“I’ll admit it. I will eat my neighbors. I’m not letting my kids die. I’m just going to be honest. I have extrapolated this out. I won’t have to for a few years, because I have food and stuff. But I’m literally looking at my neighbors now, going, ‘Am I ready to hang them up and gut them and skin them and chop them up?’ And you know what, I’m ready. My daughters aren’t starving to death. I’ll eat my neighbors. … I’ll eat your ass, I will. I’m combat model. Optimum self-efficiency. Probably the leader. My point is, have you thought about this yet? Because I’m somebody that thought I could fix this, and I’m starting to think about having to eat my neighbors. You think I like sizing up my neighbor, how I’m gonna haul him up by a chain? Chop his ass up? I’ll do it. My children aren’t going hungry.”

Now, ol’ Alex is likely just trying to get attention … that’s what he does.  But think of one of those gun-toting white supremacists who have been instrumental in some of the recent protests demanding that cities and states re-open for business, despite the continued threat of further spread of the disease and tens of thousands more deaths.  Picture one of them, already filled with anger and hate, listening to Mr. Jones’ podcast.  Is it a stretch of the imagination to picture him cleaning his precious guns, oiling them, and loading for bear … waiting for the first time he cannot find chicken or potatoes at his local supermarket?

Given that farmers are plowing under their crops, fruit is being left on the trees to rot, and meat-processing plants are denizens for the coronavirus, it isn’t a stretch that there may be periodic shortages of certain foods over the course of the next year.  But, this is not the Donner expedition and there is literally no danger that we will run out of food.  But, for the diehard fools who will believe the likes of Alex Jones over reason and common sense …

Personally, I see these words as incitement, and while I am a long-time defender of freedom of speech, I have always said there must be limits.  In my book, Mr. Jones has stepped over the line and has set this nation up for an extremely dangerous situation.  With any right, whether it be free speech or the right to bear arms, comes responsibility.  Alex Jones has taken his rights and shunned the accompanying responsibility.  There need to be consequences for stirring a pot that is already about to boil over.  Even if people don’t start threatening to eat their neighbors, I will not be surprised to see that Jones’ words lead to a new wave of hoarding, or people using guns to fight over that last pack of chicken legs.

It’s going to be a long, hot summer, folks.  According to the guys at the National Weather Service, the hottest on record … ever.  We will still be under threat from a devastating pandemic, we will continue to have high unemployment and periodic business shutdowns due to a resurgence of the virus.  We don’t know quite what to expect, and tensions are already running high.  The last thing this country needs is a loud-mouthed jackal telling us to be prepared to eat our friends and neighbors.  The FCC needs to shut Mr. Jones down, for he has ceded his 1^st Amendment rights by putting lives in danger.