The dollar amount of the award is meant punitively- not just restoratively. The judge(s) and jury(ies) involved know Alex Jones didn’t “cause $1.5B in damages.”
Well, for one, how do you measure emotional damage including things like being told you never had a kid, you’re a fake, your kid didn’t die, etc. when you did have a kid, your kid did die, and you aren’t faking… obviously. These awards for emotional damages or loss of hypothetical income, etc. will always be “made up” to right wingers (the OP post seems to be a liberal ie right wing/reactionary) because they want to just view the world as private property and that’s it basically. If Jones had destroyed a neighborhood they’d probably agree $1.5B is fine, but because he “only” used his platform to allow for and at times actively push for harassment of these parents, they don’t see real damage occurring.
I’m reminded of the hot McDonald’s coffee spill lady that people still mock even though her thighs got actually super fucked up by essentially boiling water spilling. They act like McDonald’s should only be on the hook, at most, for medical bills and lost work time type stuff, not anything extra as a punishment.
The insane award is basically the point. It’s not an indictment of Jones’ content per se, no court has commented on his other material to my knowledge, it’s a condemnation of his repeated illegal targeting of victims even after being told to stop, even after being sued, even while the case was ongoing in court, and still he continues to play the victim, pretend he did nothing wrong, etc.
If Jones had on a guy who said these parents were faking one time immediately after the shooting and he pushed back like “that doesn’t sound correct.” And then never brought on anymore denier guests and never revisited the topic… no one would be targeting him. But he did keep pursuing the topic and he never denounced (not until years later anyway and he flip flops on it) the lies told on his network.
Basically this is one example of one time the justice system is kind of working as intended. It’s too bad it’s so rare and that it takes such aggressively hostile actions to get this response from courts.
I’d love to see corporations suffer the same fates. Hit Apple with a $1.5T judgement for their refusal to abide by the recent EU laws including allowing sideloading worldwide forever with no limits. You can’t restrict stuff to certain areas in a global market or you’re still violating the law anytime some rando Dutchmen flies to New York. Anyway, side tracked there, but similar idea that courts do this to make a point and force changes. It’s the way it’s “supposed” to work under capitalism, where the idea is less direct government control. The balance to that is supposed to be the government still coming in and squashing egregious cases of abuse. (Supposed to, rarely happens though)
The dollar amount of the award is meant punitively- not just restoratively. The judge(s) and jury(ies) involved know Alex Jones didn’t “cause $1.5B in damages.”
Well, for one, how do you measure emotional damage including things like being told you never had a kid, you’re a fake, your kid didn’t die, etc. when you did have a kid, your kid did die, and you aren’t faking… obviously. These awards for emotional damages or loss of hypothetical income, etc. will always be “made up” to right wingers (the OP post seems to be a liberal ie right wing/reactionary) because they want to just view the world as private property and that’s it basically. If Jones had destroyed a neighborhood they’d probably agree $1.5B is fine, but because he “only” used his platform to allow for and at times actively push for harassment of these parents, they don’t see real damage occurring.
I’m reminded of the hot McDonald’s coffee spill lady that people still mock even though her thighs got actually super fucked up by essentially boiling water spilling. They act like McDonald’s should only be on the hook, at most, for medical bills and lost work time type stuff, not anything extra as a punishment.
The insane award is basically the point. It’s not an indictment of Jones’ content per se, no court has commented on his other material to my knowledge, it’s a condemnation of his repeated illegal targeting of victims even after being told to stop, even after being sued, even while the case was ongoing in court, and still he continues to play the victim, pretend he did nothing wrong, etc.
If Jones had on a guy who said these parents were faking one time immediately after the shooting and he pushed back like “that doesn’t sound correct.” And then never brought on anymore denier guests and never revisited the topic… no one would be targeting him. But he did keep pursuing the topic and he never denounced (not until years later anyway and he flip flops on it) the lies told on his network.
Basically this is one example of one time the justice system is kind of working as intended. It’s too bad it’s so rare and that it takes such aggressively hostile actions to get this response from courts.
I’d love to see corporations suffer the same fates. Hit Apple with a $1.5T judgement for their refusal to abide by the recent EU laws including allowing sideloading worldwide forever with no limits. You can’t restrict stuff to certain areas in a global market or you’re still violating the law anytime some rando Dutchmen flies to New York. Anyway, side tracked there, but similar idea that courts do this to make a point and force changes. It’s the way it’s “supposed” to work under capitalism, where the idea is less direct government control. The balance to that is supposed to be the government still coming in and squashing egregious cases of abuse. (Supposed to, rarely happens though)