The total solar eclipse on April 8 will be the first to appear in Texas skies since 1878. Credit: NASA / Aubrey Gemignani

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is howling at the moon again.

With April 8’s highly anticipated total solar eclipse drawing near, Jones has fired off tweets suggesting the event is something out of biblical prophecy that somehow involves the Department of Homeland Security and a “New World Order.”

“The government is hyping the solar eclipse like it’s the end of the world. I think it’s bull shit,” Jones wrote Tuesday on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. “What do you think is going on?”

Jones’ comments were accompanied by a video in which an unidentified man ginned up a sinister hypothesis to explain why Texas counties, including Kendall, Kerr and Travis, have issued disaster declarations in advance of the solar event.

“Could this be part of the reason why the millionaires and billionaires are building their big bunkers?” the man in the clip says. “I don’t know, but I just find it really odd that they’re canceling schools and putting out eclipse tips for something that we have experienced multiple times in our lifetime.”

Of course, the real reason why counties just north of San Antonio have made declarations is because hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected to descend upon rural Central Texas to experience a total eclipse — the first visible in Texas skies since 1878.

That massive influx of visitors means traffic congestion and limited cellular service may accompany the once-in-a-lifetime event.

“The influx in population threatens to strain local resources and their ability to respond to routine emergencies in a timely manner, while also threatening the ability of residents to obtain daily needs,” states the proclamation issued by Burnet County, for example.

Despite that apparently rational explanation, Jones maintains that darker plans organized by the “deep state” are at play.

In a video tweeted out by Jones earlier this month, InfoWars producer Jon Bowne explains that the eclipse has “similarities to the Bur-Sagale eclipse or Assyrian eclipse during the time when Jonah approached Nineveh and urged the Assyrian people to repent.”

“Like Jonah, despite our reluctance, we all must be prepared for repentance, even the repentance of our oppressors,” the video ominously concludes. “We must also be prepared to respond to whatever the New World Order has up its sleeve. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on armor of light.”

Whatever the fuck that means.

Despite the ominous nature of Jones’ tweet and the InfoWars video, he’s not bothered to provide details about what the New World Order has in store for us common folk. It’s a fair guess that — as with many of Jones’ wild past claims — it’s not the hype around the eclipse, but his proclamations that are the real “bull shit.”

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Mar 20 – Apr 2, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...