Alex Jones' Bat Signal To Donald Trump  

The weird spectacle of the day out of the White House is a crazy list of "under-reported" terrorist attacks in recent years (including the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, which had saturation coverage in the media here for months, but not including the now infamous, nonexistent "Bowling Green massacre" made up by Trump PR lady Kellyanne Conway recently, to the mirth of thousands of Tweeters).

The Washington Post noted that the whole thing seemed to have been lifted from Alex Jones' "Infowars" conspiracy theory site, which has transitioned from notionally libertarian to outright fascist in outlook in recent years - InfoWars is behind President Trump’s idea that the media is covering up terrorist attacks.

Trump and Infowars seem to have a symbiotic relationship over recent years, with Jones claiming broadcasting on Infowars is like sending the "bat signal' to Trump.

Author Jon Ronson (of "Men Who Stare At Goats" fame) has had a long relationship with Jones (the two first hooked up for their now infamous visit to "Bohemian Grove" many years ago) and published a great little ebook called "The Elephant in the Room: A Journey into the Trump Campaign and the “Alt-Right”" not long before the US presidential election.

The ABC had an interview with Ronson before the election, which ended (in retrospect) rather ominously - Elephant in the room: Jon Ronson on Alex Jones, the Trump campaign and the alt-right.

MARK COLVIN: You've got a quote in your e-book, where you say, "In previous election campaigns there was a clear delineation between the serious main event and the reckless fringe, but not in this."

Is that the main point, as far as you're concerned?

JON RONSON: I think so, yeah. I think the egalitarian nature of the internet has done some really great things, but it's also created insane chaos. And Trump and the Trump campaign is part of that chaos.

It feels like all of us, with our polarised, divisive ways, have polluted the waters. And Trump emerged from them like a kind of three-eyed fish.

MARK COLVIN: Is it a form of mass hysteria? In other words: do you think that it will come and go and that, a couple of years from now, people will be looking back and saying, "How could we ever have done that?" Or do you think it's the beginning of a trend?

JON RONSON: Well, you know: I mean, Trump is losing - thank God, you know.

Is there some collusion between the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton campaign? You know, probably there is some collusion. You know, when Trump says that, I think it's true.

I think everybody has decided that Trump would be incredibly dangerous. And so I think Trump will lose the election and things will kind of go back to normal a little bit.

However, I think we need to think of these times as, "Oh, my God. If things had taken a slightly different turn, this could have been..." Look, I don't want to get too grandiose here, but this could have been Germany in 1929.