By now I hope you are aware of the concept of Alex Stein. He’s a local guy who does his best to look like Tucker Carlson, sound like Alex Jones, and live large in his father’s Highland Park duplex. D Magazine published a story about him in our May issue, wherein we explained how he was using open-mic time at public meetings to troll municipal bodies and catapult himself onto a national stage. Stein wanted to be a reality TV star; he has settled on this.
So when I heard last month that the Dallas County Young Republicans planned to have Stein speak at one of their meetings, I emailed the group’s president, Chad Cohen, who is an SMU Cox grad and managing partner of Lone Wolf Oil, which doesn’t appear to have a website. I asked Cohen to confirm whether his group planned to host Stein. Cohen wouldn’t answer the question and wanted to know why I was asking. I told him I didn’t have a high opinion of Stein and was curious why the Dallas County Young Republicans would entertain his comments.
In part, Cohen replied: “I’m not going to share information regarding any of our upcoming speakers. I will tell you that our organization is committed to hosting a broad array of speakers with a diverse set of viewpoints. One of the fundamental tenets that we hold as Republicans and as conservatives is that the free and open expression of ideas is vital to the preservation of democracy. We welcome engagement with conflicting viewpoints that promote a climate of ideological independence.”
Cohen wouldn’t speak to me on the phone. I suppose engaging with my conflicting viewpoint was a bridge too far for him.
In any case, Stein is indeed speaking to the group tonight. On the Dallas County Young Republicans’ Facebook page, they call Stein “one of the most-talked about young conservative media voices in the country,” adding, “Alex Stein is a Dallas native and resident that has built a national following with his creative and fearless approach to attracting attention to critical issues in our country such as government policy regarding Covid lockdowns and mandatory vaccination, the war in Ukraine, and the radical exposure of our nation’s youth to sexuality.”
That’s one way to put it.
Here’s another way: Alex Stein is an attention-starved troll who spreads misinformation because that’s the coin of the realm in certain circles. A video was just posted of him on Tucker Carlson Today saying “the term ‘conspiracy theorist’ was created after the JFK assassination to demonize people looking into the official story.” Carlson asks him if that is a fact, and Stein replies, “100 percent, yeah that’s a fact, Tucker.” Then, a few sentences later, Carlson asks him, “What are the chances QAnon was created by the feds?” And Stein replies, “Of course, 1000 percent, duh. I mean, it’s obviously some sort of controlled opposition. And a lot of this stuff is, because these people are so powerful.”
The term “conspiracy theory” was in use at least as early as 1909. That the phrase was concocted after 1963 is itself a conspiracy theory. And QAnon was popularized on 8chan by a guy named James Watkins or his son, Ron. Read this and listen to this, if you’re curious.
These examples of Stein’s bullshit are just the most recent. They are fairly benign. But he likes to spout off about vaccines and other real-world matters where misinformation has cost people their lives.
Join the Dallas County Young Republicans tonight at 6:30 at Ozona Bar & Grill. It’s a free event, and it’s open to everyone.
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