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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   23862 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 10, 2024

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Think of it as the state’s interest in keeping people from being jackasses at trial.

The guy has been very consistent about 1) not cooperating, 2) not apologizing, and 3) continuing his business model. He keeps trying to make money off of slandering the people who have power over him. So he keeps racking up more punitive damages.

Does he? Ive heard him apologize for example on Joe Rogan. What also is wrong with Jones’ business model. It is part entertainment part conspiracy theorist. Both of those things are legal. He even sometimes is right!

Who is he slandering that has power over him?

You’re right, he occasionally apologizes. Or is forced into admissions/retractions. Or just claims he was psychotic.

For slandering—in the casual sense—I’m thinking of his statements about Heslin. Or about the cases in general. It’s probably legal, but mocking your jury and insisting they’re trying to “scare us away” is, in fact, a bad move.

I've heard him say he "got that one wrong" or something to that effect -- which to me implies that he no longer believes what he originally said. It was well before the lawsuit got rolling, and he did seem sincere.

Most of his business model looks very little like the S.H. stuff -- it's more like pro wrestling than anything else. And AFAIK this is the first time he's been sued?

Your three points seem mostly false; are you basing your opinion of Jones on something else? It's OK to just not like the guy, but a billion bucks seems a bit of a large penalty for that. He's not even very partisan; (again as I recall) he is pretty hard on GWB?

I’m going to stand by points 1 and 3, actually.

Failing to comply with discovery, shuffling the shell companies, still not paying the victims—those are all “not cooperating.” The more he does those things, the more penalties stack up, above and beyond the initial damages. And all the while he’s making money off the same kind of statements, except directed at the judge, jury, witnesses, anyone who isn’t on his side.

Is it unreasonable to look at these behaviors and think, hmm, that man doesn’t feel a shred of remorse?

As an aside—he was previously threatened with a lawsuit over Pizzagate, leading to a retraction. He settled another suit over the Charlottesville car video, as well as one for criticizing…uh…a yogurt company? These were all filed before any of the Sandy Hook suits, but hey, maybe they just smelled blood in the water.

Point is, he’s offended some people, and now he keeps offending them, even when they’re actively deliberating on his punishment. That’s bad strategy.

Failing to comply with discovery, shuffling the shell companies, still not paying the victims—those are all “not cooperating.” The more he does those things, the more penalties stack up, above and beyond the initial damages.

Those all seem pretty standard for litigants who are both naive and combative -- it does not 'stack up' to a billion dollars.

And all the while he’s making money off the same kind of statements, except directed at the judge, jury, witnesses, anyone who isn’t on his side.

He's claiming that the court is made up of crisis actors? I must confess I'm not really a watcher; what kind of things does he say? If it's stuff like 'this is a sham court designed to shut me up instead of seeking a just resolution' -- not only does that seeem like central 1A stuff, he's probably correct?

Is it unreasonable to look at these behaviors and think, hmm, that man doesn’t feel a shred of remorse?

Either that or he's upset about being targeted for destruction?

Point is, he’s offended some people, and now he keeps offending them, even when they’re actively deliberating on his punishment. That’s bad strategy.

He... does not seem like a really strategic guy? Again, I don't see how we get from 'Jones says crazy stuff and is bad at dealing with the legal system' to 'it's totally fair that he's on the hook for a billion dollars'.

Fine. In your expert opinion, how much should he owe for punitive damages?

The law is clear that punitive damages are allowed. The legal system, from judges to jurors, has concluded that he should pay various eye-watering sums. If you think this is so unjust, where would you set the bar?

A year's earnings? Equivalent to whatever he made off the media attention?

I can't come up with an exact figure but complete financial annihilation feels a thousandfold what'd be logical, especially when the tribe advocating for this would generally lean towards leniency in the vast majority of criminal cases.

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