WEBVTT - Knowledge Fight Country: Double Trouble

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<v Speaker 1>Call zone media. This is going down like Donkey Kong. Dan,

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<v Speaker 1>the good news is humanity is back in the fight.

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<v Speaker 1>Knowledge fight country. I'm out here in the country. Jesus

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<v Speaker 1>Christ said that. Everybody go Donkey Kong Country. I'm Dan Friesen,

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<v Speaker 1>and this is Knowledge Fight Country. For the past nine years,

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<v Speaker 1>I've produced and co-hosted a podcast about Alex Jones and

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<v Speaker 1>InfoWars called Knowledge Fight. For many of you listening, you

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<v Speaker 1>probably know who I am already. But for the rest

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<v Speaker 1>of y'all, let me take a moment to properly welcome

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<v Speaker 1>you and get you up to speed. In the lead-up

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<v Speaker 1>to the 2016 election, I noticed that the right-wing media

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<v Speaker 1>was getting a little weird. I'd grown up in central Missouri,

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<v Speaker 1>driving a car with no CD player before the days

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<v Speaker 1>of iPods, so I listened to a ton of standard

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<v Speaker 1>blowhard talkers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and what

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<v Speaker 1>I was seeing in 2016 felt insane. The right-wing media

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<v Speaker 1>machine always will galvanize around the Republican candidate, and it

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<v Speaker 1>never surprised me for these guys to back whoever their

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<v Speaker 1>team's horse happened to be. The same pundits who supported

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<v Speaker 1>George W. Bush could easily stump for Mitt Romney, and

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<v Speaker 1>it wouldn't feel weird. So for a lot of these

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<v Speaker 1>idiots to be cheerleading for Donald Trump's candidacy, it wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>that confusing. But when I saw what Alex Jones was

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<v Speaker 1>up to, I was baffled. I smoked a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>weed in high school and college, so I watched plenty

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<v Speaker 1>of Alex's content in my younger years. I was aware

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<v Speaker 1>of him as a guy who had a penchant for yelling.

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<v Speaker 1>He liked guns, and he thought 9-11 was an inside job.

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<v Speaker 1>I knew him as a conspiracy theorist, a small government guy,

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<v Speaker 1>and one of the few very loud right-wing voices I

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<v Speaker 1>remembered opposing the Iraq War. I remembered him from his

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<v Speaker 1>small role in Richard Linklater's film Waking Life, and I

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<v Speaker 1>had a vague sense of him being a dude who

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<v Speaker 1>I didn't agree with, but who had a list of

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<v Speaker 1>principles that he stuck to. I imagined him to be

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<v Speaker 1>a sincere person, but I hadn't kept up with him

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<v Speaker 1>over the years. Now here he was, and I'm seeing

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<v Speaker 1>him pop back up as a completely insane Trump supporter.

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<v Speaker 1>I was confused, so to learn more I watched a

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<v Speaker 1>few episodes of his show, and I only got more confused.

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<v Speaker 1>He was screaming about Trump being the best, how the

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<v Speaker 1>world was going to end if Hillary won, and he

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<v Speaker 1>was much more religious than I remembered him being. He

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<v Speaker 1>was fake crying on air a lot, too, which was

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<v Speaker 1>really upsetting. Over the course of the 2016 election campaign,

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<v Speaker 1>instead of watching the debates on normal TV, I watched

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<v Speaker 1>them on InfoWars, mostly for the spectacle of it. It

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<v Speaker 1>seemed like dumb entertainment, but I was also curious to

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<v Speaker 1>make sense of how this was the same guy from

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<v Speaker 1>the Bohemian Grove video I watched back when I was

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<v Speaker 1>really stoned in someone's garage. That culminated in me watching

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<v Speaker 1>the election night coverage on InfoWars, which turned out to

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<v Speaker 1>be a Spider-Verse-style canon event in the way that it

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<v Speaker 1>altered the trajectory of my life. A lot of people

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<v Speaker 1>had their political bearings shifted after the 2016 election, directly

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<v Speaker 1>as a result of Trump winning. They couldn't believe that

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<v Speaker 1>a clear con artist and self-centered liar could possibly get

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<v Speaker 1>elected as president in our system. The fact that it

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<v Speaker 1>happened caused a shock that pushed people strongly in one

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<v Speaker 1>direction or the other. I was shocked, and I admit

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<v Speaker 1>that 10 years ago, I was quite naive about the

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<v Speaker 1>stability of our system. I thought there were backstops in

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<v Speaker 1>place where the adults would show up eventually and they'd

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<v Speaker 1>clean up this mess and everything would be more or

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<v Speaker 1>less normal. But it wasn't Trump's election itself that gave

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<v Speaker 1>me the big shock. That came from watching the Infowars

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<v Speaker 1>coverage of election night. The image that'll probably never leave

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<v Speaker 1>my mind was of Alex Jones, Owen Schroer, Roger Stone,

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<v Speaker 1>and some of the other creeps at the company playing

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<v Speaker 1>live feeds of people at Hillary rallies and laughing about

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<v Speaker 1>how many of them were crying. In the moment, I

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<v Speaker 1>understood that the Infowars studio was almost exclusively full of straight, white,

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<v Speaker 1>Christian nationalist men And on this night of their great victory,

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<v Speaker 1>their preferred way of celebrating was to mock these diverse

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<v Speaker 1>crowds who were brought to tears by the fear of

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<v Speaker 1>what Trump represented. These people were afraid of losing access

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<v Speaker 1>to reproductive health care, of the risk of fundamental LGBTQ

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<v Speaker 1>rights being rolled back, of the racism and general bigotry

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<v Speaker 1>that Trump's election would enable, and InfoWars chose to spend

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<v Speaker 1>some of their time laughing at these people's distress. I

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<v Speaker 1>still didn't really understand what InfoWars and Alex Jones were about,

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<v Speaker 1>but seeing the inherent cruelty in that moment gave me

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<v Speaker 1>a drive to try to figure that out. And from

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<v Speaker 1>that drive, Knowledge Fight was born. Over the course of

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<v Speaker 1>my time covering InfoWars content, I noticed a consistent trend.

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<v Speaker 1>On his own show, Alex Jones would say the stupidest

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<v Speaker 1>shit and ramble about movies, often while very clearly drunk,

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<v Speaker 1>and periodically he would say things that people found offensive,

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes even defamatory. On the rare occasion that someone else

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<v Speaker 1>invited him onto their show for an interview, sometimes these

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<v Speaker 1>offensive things he'd said would come up, and he would

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<v Speaker 1>always say that he'd been taken out of context. Even

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<v Speaker 1>when he was in court or a deposition, and he'd

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<v Speaker 1>be played a clip of him literally saying something, he

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<v Speaker 1>would refuse to answer any questions about what he'd said,

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<v Speaker 1>claiming that these were short clips cut out of a

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<v Speaker 1>longer show, so the context was missing. It was impossible

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<v Speaker 1>to say what he could have meant by the thing

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<v Speaker 1>that he clearly said. This is a really great dodge,

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<v Speaker 1>because almost all of the people who would be confronting

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<v Speaker 1>Alex could not claim that they had watched the whole

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<v Speaker 1>shows that these clips came from. Alex's show is long, boring,

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<v Speaker 1>and it feels stupid to watch, so almost no one

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<v Speaker 1>really watches more than just some of the clips. I

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<v Speaker 1>realized that this presented me with a unique opportunity. I

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<v Speaker 1>had nothing but time, and I was working a horrible

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<v Speaker 1>dead-end job, so I could listen to his whole show

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<v Speaker 1>and seek out the context for the things that he said.

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<v Speaker 1>What were these clips taken from? If he really was

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<v Speaker 1>being taken out of context, then society was doing him

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<v Speaker 1>a great wrong, and I would like to get his back.

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<v Speaker 1>As insane as it sounds now, I did enter this

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<v Speaker 1>project with a completely open mind, willing to be convinced

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<v Speaker 1>of even seemingly insane things. I did over a thousand

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<v Speaker 1>episodes of our podcast, and what I discovered was really interesting.

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<v Speaker 1>In the most meaningful sense, these clips did not take

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<v Speaker 1>Alex Jones out of context in a substantive way. Almost

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<v Speaker 1>all of the time, when people posted clips about him,

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<v Speaker 1>the surrounding context of the episodes they came from don't

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<v Speaker 1>really change the point that he's making. But, in a

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<v Speaker 1>very important way, all of the clips that people post

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<v Speaker 1>and make memes out of are very out of context.

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<v Speaker 1>They make Alex Jones look kinda dumb and kinda fun,

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<v Speaker 1>like a goofy idiot that you might want to go

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<v Speaker 1>get a drink with. Even when he's making points you

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<v Speaker 1>disagree with, the short clips of him are entertaining, and

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<v Speaker 1>his larger show is generally not. I realized that even

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<v Speaker 1>media outlets that were ostensibly critical of him painted a

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<v Speaker 1>very generous picture of him that they wouldn't have if

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<v Speaker 1>they had the full context. It seemed very clear that

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<v Speaker 1>no one was misrepresenting Alex in the way that he claimed,

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<v Speaker 1>but that by not dealing with his show for what

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<v Speaker 1>it was, everyone was doing him a massive favor. This

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<v Speaker 1>became my basic mission statement. I wanted to take Alex

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<v Speaker 1>Jones and content creators like him in context and take

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<v Speaker 1>them at their word. I would listen to their shows

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<v Speaker 1>and not get shocked or offended by the horrible things

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<v Speaker 1>that they may say, but instead accept that they chose

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<v Speaker 1>to say those things. and try to understand why they did.

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<v Speaker 1>The process taught me a lot, and it led to

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<v Speaker 1>me appearing on CNN, being cited in multiple bestsellers and

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<v Speaker 1>academic papers, and serving as a consulting advisor to the

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<v Speaker 1>plaintiff's attorneys in the Texas litigation against Alex Jones over

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<v Speaker 1>his claims around Sandy Hook. As it relates to Alex Jones,

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<v Speaker 1>I went from complete confusion to understanding, and in time,

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<v Speaker 1>it became clear that he was a depressing bore to

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<v Speaker 1>do a show about, So just as Donkey Kong evolved

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<v Speaker 1>to Donkey Kong Country, now Knowledge Fight evolves to Knowledge

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<v Speaker 1>Fight Country. On this show, me and a guest companion,

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<v Speaker 1>a Diddy, a Dixie, or maybe even a Cranky, will

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<v Speaker 1>set off on a quest to take someone who looks

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<v Speaker 1>pretty shitty and put them into their proper context, using

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<v Speaker 1>their own show as primary source material. At times it'll

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<v Speaker 1>probably be funny, at times it'll be awful, but it

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<v Speaker 1>will be in context. Stupid and in context.