Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’ By Bryce P. Tetraeder, Global Tetrahedron CEO ☞ https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/

And let me say, I really do see it as a family. Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market. And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice.

🤣

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    121 day ago

    Its also exactly the kind of thing you’d expect to read about in the onion.

    This is beyond mear irony.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    101 day ago

    The Onion buys rightwing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, very stupid’

    They’re halfway there already.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2193 days ago

    They should harness the crazy for good. Make conspiracy theory-sounding stories, but make them factual and get people to take positive action.

    They created chemicals you can inject into the bloodstream that keeps them from getting the Measels.”

    “The overlords in their golden towers want to tell you who you are and aren’t allowed to love.”

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      862 days ago

      The vaccine one would probably be better as: “independent thinking researchers developed a means of using your own body’s immune response to prevent diseases with a mere injection. Some of them even refused to patent it. But then the media started lying to you about them, trying to get you to stop accepting these miracles? Why, just so some companies could make more money selling you proprietary snake oil to keep you comfortable while you’re sick.”

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          292 days ago

          Thanks! The trick is to understand the emotions they aim for and the baseline rhetorical tricks.

          Conspiracies stem from knowing you’re getting fucked, but that most people are good. It’s an attempt to find explanations when the world feels wrong. Someone did it. You just have to sell the truth in the tone that they’re used to hearing. Especially with vaccines where the truth does sound like a free lunch, until you realize that it’s governments and insurers paying for vaccines and it saves them and the economy money by you not getting sick or needing stronger medicines. These are the two groups that desperately want you to exercise, eat right, and quit smoking

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            5
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            And then there’s ones that don’t have much of a modern-day effect but are still stupid. My English teacher truly believes that the Titanic was sunk on purpose for insurance purposes.

            She also believes that a Secret Service agent might have shot JFK

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              102 days ago

              Those too are an attempt to create order out of a scary and chaotic world. The JFK assassination theories are often used as the textbook example of that fact.

              While it is true that JFK’s family was heavily involved in the mob and that he wasn’t the favorite of the out of control CIA, the evidence we have after many eyes on it for decades asserts one thing: a man by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald was an exceptional marksman in his time in the marines, and had a tendency towards political radicalization that wasn’t particularly directed, and so in an attempt to curry favor with the Cuban government (he was a communist but had been disillusioned by the USSR), but without their permission (they would have asked him not to), he hid in a book repository along the route of the presidential motorcade, laid in wait, and when the time came fired two shots directly into the skull of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He like every successful presidential assassin acted alone and based on political grievances.

              And the fact is, that that’s terrifying to a lot of people. One person changed so much with one act. Conspiracy theories here are an attempt to find an alternative explanation for something so jarring. One marine sniper shouldn’t be able to, but the cia or the mob or Cuba or the ussr… A group, conspiring should be able to, and they’re shadowy and hiding the truth…

              The fact is that the difference between the Kennedy assassination and the attempted assassinations of trump are of marksmanship and chance, not of conspiracy. Nobody says the Reagan assassin wasn’t working alone because he failed

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      102 days ago

      I’m totally for this and I bet it would work, too. We’ve seen the level of ignorance that went into how people chose to vote. If OnionWars puts up those kinds of stories, along with the occasional article declaring Jones actually still owns InfoWarts and any news stating otherwise is fake, they could ease these nutjobs back to sanity.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    222 days ago

    Remember Stephen Colbert’s satire? Conservatives loved him.

    Satire of something already completely outlandish is problematic.

    • Flying Squid
      link
      fedilink
      English
      112 days ago

      What problem did that cause? It only made everyone else laugh at them harder.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            32 days ago

            People’s definitely agreed with and used his lines of argument, even though he intended them humorously. I don’t know if he put out any conspiracy theories.

            • Flying Squid
              link
              fedilink
              English
              42 days ago

              I just don’t think the people who believed him and used his lines of argument were taken seriously either except by people who were already in their bubble and weren’t going to come out.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 days ago

                I’m too tired to make this witty but something about it leading to the MAGA movement being a bubble

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2773 days ago

    My favorite part of this:

    …Collins said that “part of the reason we did bought InfoWars is because people on Bluesky told us it would be funny to buy InfoWars” adding that “those people were right” this “is the funniest thing that has ever happened”.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1113 days ago

      That also sounds like the kind of prank that Cards Against Humanity would pull if they had access to as much cash. I love this so much.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2483 days ago

    Honestly, considering how much of a clown Alex Jones was, they have their work cut out for them if they want to compete at comedic levels!

    Either way, this may be the best news I’ve heard all year, thank you!

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1233 days ago

      I wonder if this gives them the rights to all of Infowars’ library of footage. Maybe they could “keep” Jones as a host by cutting up old clips kinda how South Park did with Isaac Hayes for Chef’s last episode.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        693 days ago

        Up for grabs at the auction were Infowars production rights and materials, the Infowars store, domain names, production equipment and other assets — including a Terradyne armored truck and a Winnebago motor home — that can be purchased in their entirety or in parts, according to the firm, ThreeSixty Asset Advisors. Jones broadcasts from the Austin, Texas, area.

        • Flying Squid
          link
          fedilink
          English
          52 days ago

          Considering what The Onion has been able to do with manipulating video for the sake of comedy, I can’t wait to see what they do with any of their footage.

        • Tanis Nikana
          link
          fedilink
          English
          143 days ago

          I’ll take the middle third of the Winnebago, just carve it out and drop it on Nick Fuentes’ lawn, thanks.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        23
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        I hope they own Jones’ likeness to the point where they can give DJs the rights to remix his shouts into something of value.

      • Cethin
        link
        fedilink
        English
        93 days ago

        One of the few good uses for generative AI I’ve seen.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1563 days ago

    The funniest piece is going to be seeing old followers believe it’s still the InfoWars they know and love. It took forever for people to stop eating the onion in large numbers, and it still manages to happen on occasion.

    There is opportunity here. Initially, anyway.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      633 days ago

      A part of me actually wished that the Onion would have purchased InfoWars, but in secret, like maybe under a subsidiary corp that has a right-wing sounding name.

      They don’t change Infowars’ branding or anything but the articles become subtly liberal.

      Maybe an overt purchase is better but I really want to troll the right.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        102 days ago

        A part of me actually wished that the Onion would have purchased InfoWars, but in secret, like maybe under a subsidiary corp that has a right-wing sounding name.

        "Today we celebrate a new addition to the Global Tetrahedron LLC family of brands. "

        don’t change Infowars’ branding

        "Founded in 1999 … InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses.

        InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society—values that resonate deeply with all of us at Global Tetrahedron.

        No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds. … a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars."

        I’m absolutely not disagreeing with you; I believe the onion will continue on doing “its thing” and keeping on-brand for both entities. Do exactly what you say and publish articles either believable or outlandish enough to break through to people

      • GladiusB
        link
        fedilink
        English
        272 days ago

        “Do your swastikas send the right message to your neighbors? Maybe try this instead…”

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        92 days ago

        I don’t think they have to. People are going to consume it like it’s the same old. Inertia and assumption.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      713 days ago

      I think there’s always going to be that group of people. Another example: folks that didn’t notice that The Colbert Report was satire.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        12 days ago

        I still have OSINT on my podcast roll even though Bazzell quit. Maybe it’ll come back? I’m sure others have done the same.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    62 days ago

    Honestly, I would love for them to turn it into just a bastion of info. Just detail the goings-on of the current government.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    132 days ago

    Do they have rights to use Jones’ likeness, in the sense of reposting old clips and the like?

    • kamen
      link
      fedilink
      English
      102 days ago

      Probably depends on whether they see a difference between intentional and unintentional satire.

    • Echo Dot
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12 days ago

      The onion is a satirical takes on the news. Infowars is just utter nonsense.

      Infowars could claim that immigrants are using teleporters to enter the country and its readership would believe it.