Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Iris Mack - even further down the far-right conspiracy rabbit hole




When I was working on my play DARK MARKET I blogged about a mathematician slash stock trader named Iris Mack. I was prepared to admire her but then I discovered her Facebook profile and her bizarre, incoherent political views, which included far-right and anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.  I wrote about her almost four years ago and haven't thought too much about her since then.

But suddenly there's all this interest in my Iris Mack blog post, judging by my web analytics, and someone commented on that post the other day:
Oh no.. an intelligent free thinking black woman who confuses you into butthurtism.. this typical reaction to individuals that dont fit in neat boxes exposes the complete hypocrisy and idiotic ideology of the left. Cheers!
That was odd and apropos of nothing. So I Googled around to see what ole Iris Mack was getting up to. Apparently Iris Mack is hanging out with the extremist most nutty alt-right freak of them all, Alex Jones.

Alex Jones, in case you don't know, is the king of fake news, the purveyor of reckless, insane, dangerous rumor-mongering, one step below even Breitbart. The kind of nuttiness that the Trump presidency has normalized.

Alex Jones almost caused a massacre:
Mr. Welch, the father of two daughters, said he woke up Sunday morning and told his family he had some things to do. He left “Smallsbury,” a nickname for his hometown, for the 350-mile drive to Washington with the intention of giving the restaurant a “closer look” and then returning home. He wanted to “shine some light on it.” As he made his way to Washington, he felt his “heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering.” Once he got to the pizzeria, there was an abrupt change of plans. Mr. Welch would not say why he took a military-style assault rifle inside the restaurant and fired it. According to court documents, Mr. Welch said he had come armed to help rescue the children. 
What did he think when he discovered there were no children at the pizzeria? 
“The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent,” he said. However, he refused to dismiss outright the claims in the online articles, conceding only that there were no children “inside that dwelling.” He also said that child slavery was a worldwide phenomenon
Where did he learn about the fake news involving Comet? 
He said it was through word of mouth. After recently having internet service installed at his house, he was “really able to look into it.” He said that substantial evidence from a combination of sources had left him with the “impression something nefarious was happening.” He said one article on the subject led to another and then another. He said he did not like the term fake news, believing it was meant to diminish stories outside the mainstream media, which he does not completely trust. He also said he was not political. While once a registered Republican, he did not vote for Donald J. Trump. He also did not vote for Mrs. Clinton. But he is praying that Mr. Trump takes the country in the “right direction.” 
What was he like? 
Mr. Welch was soft-spoken and polite, and said he liked the outdoors. He was cautious when speaking about what happened, sometimes citing advice he had received from his lawyer. He said he did not believe in conspiracy theories, but then added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks needed to be re-examined. He has listened to Alex Jones, whose radio show traffics in conspiracy theories and who once said that Mrs. Clinton “has personally murdered and chopped up” children. “He’s a bit eccentric,” Mr. Welch said. “He touches on some issues that are viable but goes off the deep end on some things.” Mr. Welch likes to read. A favorite is “Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul,” by John Eldredge, about masculinity in evangelical Christianity. He said he did not do drugs but drank the occasional beer. He misses his children: “They are in my thoughts every second of the day.” He said he had grown religious in the last few years. Tattooed on his back are Bible verses: “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Jones, perhaps realizing he could become the target of a lawsuit with his reckless disregard for reality, took down his "pizza gate" content, but not before a lot more people realized what a monster he is as well as his connection to Donald Trump.

Selling out your credibility to a monster like Alex Jones - oh how low you have sunk, Iris Mack.