{"id":3543,"date":"2026-07-18T14:10:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543"},"modified":"2026-07-18T14:10:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:10:01","slug":"the-book-that-accidentally-created-monster-alex-jones-and-the-authors-deep-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543","title":{"rendered":"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author’s deep regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon Ronson\u2019s book Them: Adventures with Extremists launched him to worldwide fame \u2013 and more dubiously, launched conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Though Jones has been deplatformed, his influence lingers: just this week, it was reported that Australia\u2019s far-right One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts praised Jones in 2024 as \u201ca beacon of hope around the world\u201d.<\/p>

Read more \u2018Invisible to the public\u2019: Baptist minister exposes new Trump con game<\/a><\/p>

Researched and written in the years preceding September 11, and published in April 2001, Them \u2013 which Ronson described in a preface to its second edition as \u201ca snapshot of life in the Western world on 10 September 2001\u201d \u2013 is turning 25.<\/p>

Ronson\u2019s original plan was to spend time with people who\u2019d been described as \u201cthe extremist monsters of the Western world\u201d as they went about their everyday lives. They included neo-Nazis, militias and Omar Bakri, a UK Islamic fundamentalist who called himself \u201cOsama Bin Laden\u2019s man in London\u201d, and whom Ronson shadowed for a year in 1996 for a documentary.<\/p>

Among other things, Ronson recorded the \u201cclownish\u201d Bakri watching the Lion King with a baby on his knee, and asking him to guard the money he\u2019d been collecting for Hamas in giant Coca Cola bottles, while he retrieved a coat \u2013 which he agonised over as a Jewish person, but did (seemingly to avoid awkwardness).<\/p>

Bakri, who told the Daily Mail the September 11 attacks were \u201cexciting\u201d, was barred from the United Kingdom after leaving in 2005. In 2010, he was arrested in Lebanon and sentenced to life in prison after a terrorism trial. Released pending retrial, he was sentenced again in 2015 to six years hard labour.<\/p>

\u201cI thought that perhaps an interesting way to look at our world would be to move into theirs and stand alongside them while they glared back at ours,\u201d Ronson writes. But what started as a series of profiles of extremist leaders \u201cquickly became something stranger\u201d, when he realised the very different people he was following all shared a belief in the New World Order: a conspiracy theory that imagines \u201ca tiny elite rules the world from inside a secret room\u201d.<\/p>

This tyrannical, shadowy elite, Ronson soon discovered, was said to launch wars and wield almost unimaginable power. It has the ability to, among other things, \u201cselect and cast out the heads of state, control Hollywood and the markets and the flow of capital, operate a harem of under-age kidnapped sex slaves\u201d.<\/p>

If there was any truth to the theory, Ronson reasoned, there must be an actual secret room, and it had to be located somewhere. So he resolved to find it. <\/p>

At various points, he found himself chased by men in dark glasses and surveilled from behind trees. He also managed to witness robed international chief executives participate in a bizarre effigy-burning ritual in the forests of northern California \u2013 an experience he shared with Jones, then a harmless-seeming regional radio crank, based in Texas.<\/p>

Now, 25 years on, that worldview has arguably become easier to sustain than Ronson could have imagined. Revelations surrounding figures such as Jeffrey Epstein \u2013 who did operate a network of underage girls he coerced into sexually servicing powerful men \u2013 have shown the wealthy and powerful can and do conceal serious and shocking crimes through networks of influence and privilege. <\/p>

But rather than confirming the existence of a secret cabal directing world events, such scandals have often been absorbed into far broader conspiracy narratives \u2013 from QAnon to claims about bloodthirsty global elites harvesting adrenochrome from children \u2013 further blurring sometimes porous lines between fact and fiction.<\/p>

Genuine curiosity and refusing caricature<\/h2>

The book helped to establish Ronson\u2019s distinctive investigative approach: an interest in the fringe and the unusual, approached with a genuine sense of curiosity and a refusal of easy caricature. <\/p>

This sensibility has run through his work since, from The Men Who Stared at Goats (looking at bizarre, fringe tactics adopted by the US army) and You\u2019ve Been Publicly Shamed (an early critique of social media shaming) to his culture war conspiracy theories podcast series, Things Fell Apart. <\/p>

But Them also propelled Jones into the mainstream \u2013 which Ronson has publicly regretted. When Ronson got to know him, \u201cAlex was hollering his powerful apocalyptic vision down an ISDN line from a child\u2019s bedroom in his house, with choo-choo train wallpaper and an Empire Strikes Back poster pinned on the wall\u201d.<\/p>

Since then, Jones has been \u201csuccessfully sued\u201d and has filed for bankruptcy after being found liable for defamation for his claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged and \u201cno one died\u201d. <\/p>

Sadly, what once seemed extreme and marginal \u2013 the circulation of conspiracy theories and the associated peddling of prejudice and hate \u2013 now feels depressingly routine. <\/p>

Just as it inadvertently captured the historical moment about to erupt with the September 11 attacks and their aftermath, Them anticipated the mainstreaming of conspiratorial thinking, which would become a defining feature of our misinformation-ridden historical moment.<\/p>

Paranoia as the new common sense<\/h2>

\u201cParanoia was the new common sense,\u201d writes columnist John Ganz in When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s. \u201cThe country seemed to be seeking something new, a break with the exhausted possibilities of the past but also a restoration, a way to recover what had been lost.\u201d <\/p>

At the end of the 1980s, the Berlin Wall had been reduced to rubble and the communist bloc was crumbling. Excitable liberals were wittering on about the end of history. America stood triumphant, seemingly without rival. And yet something felt off. <\/p>

Ganz argues appearances were deceptive. \u201cAmerica felt itself to be losing out: losing its dominant place in the world, losing the basis of its security and wealth, and losing its sense of itself.\u201d<\/p>

There had to be an explanation. And there had to be someone to blame. <\/p>

This bled through in the culture of the early 1990s. \u201cJust because you\u2019re paranoid, don\u2019t mean they\u2019re not after you,\u201d sang Kurt Cobain, capturing the zeitgeist on Nevermind (1991). It was the time of Oliver Stone\u2019s JFK (1991) and The X-Files (1993). The truth, we were told, was out there. Trust no one \u2013 especially anyone in a position of authority.<\/p>

Ruby Ridge: ground zero?<\/h2>

This atmosphere permeates Them\u2019s second chapter, on the bloody Ruby Ridge standoff in regional Idaho in August 1992. Also permeating the chapter \u2013 and the book \u2013 are Ronson\u2019s stated aims of painting people \u201cas complicated grey areas, rather than magnificent heroes or sickening villains\u201d and sticking \u201cto the nuanced truth, rather than flattening it to make ideological points\u201d.<\/p>

Randy and Vicki Weaver were among the first Americans to articulate fears about the New World Order. In the 1980s, they moved from Iowa to a plywood cabin without electricity, high in the Idaho ranges. There, they home-schooled their children, living among bears and mountain lions.<\/p>

Randy felt the need, Ronson tells us, to socialise from time to time. He made friends within the nearby Aryan Nations community and attended their summer camps with his children four times \u2013 though he told Ronson he wasn\u2019t personally a white supremacist, but a \u201cseparatist\u201d.<\/p>

One such friend was an undercover agent, who asked Randy to sell him two illegal sawn-off shotguns. Once arrested, Randy was offered a choice: spy on Aryan Nations for the government or face time behind bars for illicit gun running. He went with the second option. Warned they could lose their house and convinced the New World Order was monitoring them (which was not untrue now), the Weavers stopped showing up to court. <\/p>

In August 1992, US marshals hiding in the bushes shot the Weavers\u2019 barking family dog as it came too close. Ronson reports that Weaver\u2019s teenage son Sammy fired random shots in response, and was shot and killed. A marshal was killed too. Hundreds of federal agents descended, martial law was declared, and residents emerged from their homes bearing placards denouncing the New World Order. Vicki was shot and killed while holding her infant daughter.<\/p>

Read more The staggering corruption behind Todd Blanche\u2019s multi-million scheme<\/a><\/p>

Media coverage recast the human tragedy as a national psychodrama about extremism, government overreach and the collapse of public trust. <\/p>

In the following months, militia movements expanded rapidly across the US. The infamous siege in Waco, Texas, where David Koresh\u2019s Branch Davidians clashed with federal agents, ending with 75 members dead, unfolded in Texas less than a year later.<\/p>

For many in the American far right, the ruined Weaver cabin became a symbol of resistance and martyrdom, assuming a quasi-mythic status. One pilgrim who visited was Timothy McVeigh, later responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people and injured close to 700.<\/p>

Bilderberg: a secret society running the world?<\/h2>

Ronson soon realised the same name was on the lips of the various militia members and anti-government activists he spoke to: the Bilderberg Group. These are the people who actually run the world, they believed. Bilderberg was described as \u201cthe Roman Senate\u201d or \u201ca pyramid\u201d.<\/p>

Jones explained: \u201cThey\u2019re way up there. Below them you\u2019ve the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, then you\u2019ve got us down here, the cattle, the human resources.\u201d At the time, he was funding efforts to rebuild the Branch Davidian church. <\/p>

Ronson first encountered Jones while interviewing Randy Weaver, who considered the then regional radio host \u201ca true and tirelesss warrior\u201d. Jones explained the Bilderbergers were orchestrating world decline from the behind the scenes. As with many conspiracy theories, the line between fantasy and reality was not always easy to discern.<\/p>

The Bilderberg Group is real. It even has its own website. Established in the wake of World War II, it consists of annual private meetings attended by political and industrial leaders, financiers, media executives and royalty. It is, without doubt, a highly secretive organisation \u2013 which has intensified the suspicion around it. <\/p>

Interestingly, UK politician Peter Mandelson, former US ambassador and friend of Epstein even after his conviction, is named in the book as a Bilderberg attendee.<\/p>

This explains how Ronson eventually found himself sneaking into Bohemian Grove, the annual retreat (since 1878) of a secretive, elite club whose attendees \u201cread much like a Bilderberg roll-call\u201d, alongside Jones.<\/p>

There, hidden among the redwoods of northern California, wealthy and politically connected men, many of them drunk, gathered for an elaborate ceremony centred on burning an effigy before a giant owl statue. Harmless elite play-acting, or dastardly occult ritual conducted by the secret rulers of the world? Ronson saw the former, Jones the latter.<\/p>

In his short book on Donald Trump\u2019s first presidential campaign, The Elephant in the Room (2026), Ronson describes watching the alt-right move steadily closer to political power, propelled in part by \u201cleading voice\u201d Jones \u2013 who reportedly received a swift call from a newly elected Trump, thanking him for his support. <\/p>

Despite a lingering \u201cpersonal\u201d fondness for his fellow Bohemian Grove crasher, Ronson calls him \u201cbasically the most irresponsible man I have ever met\u201d, who \u201cuses his powers to inflame paranoia\u201d and \u201cboldly makes stuff up to suit his weird agenda\u201d.<\/p>

Lizard people<\/h2>

I first became aware of David Icke, former semi-professional footballer and respected sports journalist, now a believer in giant lizards, in April 1991. I was at home, watching TV, not yet ten years old.<\/p>

Icke was being interviewed live on a prime-time UK talk show, wearing an eye-wateringly lurid turquoise tracksuit. He had recently started to refer to himself as the \u201cSon of the Godhead\u201d. On air, he made a series of predictions about imminent and devastating natural catastrophes. The audience, not knowing what to make of it all, laughed. <\/p>

Ronson describes the moment:<\/p>

He said this with such ferocity, such conviction, that the audience stopped laughing for a moment [\u2026] You could feel it sweep across the television studio, sweep across the land, a stirring of some primordial paranoia. Could David Icke actually be a soothsayer?<\/blockquote>

But in fact, ridicule and opprobrium followed the segment. In the period after his very public shaming, Ronson records, Icke came to believe his mockery had been orchestrated by shadowy elites. He immersed himself in conspiracy literature, including on the Bilderberg Group. <\/p>

Icke became convinced the global elite were not merely corrupt politicians or financiers, but something much stranger: shape-shifting reptilian beings manipulating humans across millennia. Ancient civilisations, occult rituals and modern political institutions were all folded into a single explanatory system. <\/p>

The reptilian invaders, he concluded, were the secret rulers of the world.<\/p>

Critics have long argued his talk of secret reptilian elites functions as a coded form of antisemitism, echoing older conspiratorial myths \u2013 including ideas traceable to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. <\/p>

Yet Ronson suggests Icke genuinely believes the world is controlled by interdimensional lizard people.<\/p>

The promise of hidden forces<\/h2>

This creates a puzzle. If someone claims giant lizards secretly control the planet, are we dealing with metaphor, coded prejudice, mental instability, opportunity or sincere belief? Increasingly, it seems the answer may be some unstable combination of them all.<\/p>

Part of what makes Them feel so relevant now is that Ronson rejects the reassuring assumption that extremist or conspiratorial thinking falls outside the bounds of ordinary life. <\/p>

Long before social media turned paranoia into a viable business model, he grasped that bizarre ideas do not emerge from nowhere. Rather, they are shaped by spectacle, distrust, insecurity and the seductive promise that hidden forces can explain an increasingly bewildering world \u2013 often with disastrous consequences.<\/p>

Given Ronson\u2019s record of books on topics just hitting (or about to explode into) the mainstream, the topic of his forthcoming one, to be published in August, is unsurprising: the masculinity crisis.\n

\"The<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney<\/em><\/p>

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.<\/p>

Read more What Trump really revealed in his secret documents \u2014and what he left out<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jon Ronson\u2019s book Them: Adventures with Extremists launched him to worldwide fame \u2013 and more dubiously, launched conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Though Jones has been deplatformed, his influence lingers: just this week, it was reported that Australia\u2019s far-right One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts pr…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author's deep regret - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author's deep regret - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jon Ronson\u2019s book Them: Adventures with Extremists launched him to worldwide fame \u2013 and more dubiously, launched conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Though Jones has been deplatformed, his influence lingers: just this week, it was reported that Australia\u2019s far-right One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts pr...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-18T14:10:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e19854c1d6118b1dbc9877dd2d616107.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\"},\"headline\":\"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author’s deep regret\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-18T14:10:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543\"},\"wordCount\":2323,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543\",\"name\":\"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author's deep regret - Next Address America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-18T14:10:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=3543#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author’s deep regret\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Next Address America\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author's deep regret - Next Address America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author's deep regret - Next Address America","og_description":"Jon Ronson\u2019s book Them: Adventures with Extremists launched him to worldwide fame \u2013 and more dubiously, launched conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Though Jones has been deplatformed, his influence lingers: just this week, it was reported that Australia\u2019s far-right One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts pr...","og_url":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543","og_site_name":"Next Address America","article_published_time":"2026-07-18T14:10:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1,"height":1,"url":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e19854c1d6118b1dbc9877dd2d616107.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3"},"headline":"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author’s deep regret","datePublished":"2026-07-18T14:10:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543"},"wordCount":2323,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543","url":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543","name":"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author's deep regret - Next Address America","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp","datePublished":"2026-07-18T14:10:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7a0237f9373a8833456a5cad3af804b3.webp","width":1200,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3543#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The book that accidentally created monster Alex Jones \u2014 and the author’s deep regret"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/","name":"Next Address America","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com"],"url":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}