I don’t pretend to understand the QAnon cult, but it seems to believe that the federal government is controlled by satanic pedophiles and that Trump was the one who would root them out. They apparently held massive online events to watch the dramatic overturning of Joe Biden on Inauguration Day and the triumphant return of Trump.
According to this article in Huffington Post, many in the cult expressed confusion and disappointment when “the storm” didn’t happen. Some thought they had been duped, others urged patience.
Since there has recently been an efflorescence of Trump enthusiasts commenting on this blog, perhaps one will show up to explain what happened and why their hero is luxuriating in Palm Beach instead of leading their battle against dark forces.
The virus of disinformation threatens democracy and education is the cure | The Star
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/01/25/the-virus-of-disinformation-threatens-democracy-and-education-is-the-cure.html
Check out Greene’s house.gov page her priorities as of now as seen through press releases: https://greene.house.gov/media/press-releases
And Boebert’s: https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases
Meanwhile, Cawthorn seems to be trying to get up to speed: https://cawthorn.house.gov/media/press-releases
Horrors!
These Q-Anon cultists are impervious to facts, data, information and education. They have their own versions of “facts,” “truth,” and “edumacation.”
Too bad they are supported in their delusion by people who have degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.
Which basically tells us that education is not the “cure” for this disease!
Meant to post comment below here. Also, Greene town halls are fascist rallies:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/536243-tv-crew-threatened-with-arrest-after-asking-marjorie-taylor
Greene belittled and berated David Hogg for not stopping and addressing her bullying questions, she called him a coward. Now this piece of detritus refuses to answer questions from the press. These neo-fascists are so vile that I have to stop before I start cursing. And surprise, surprise, Greene is all for expanding gun rights, whatever the hell that is? That’s at the top of her sick agenda.
Alternative facts….
And this … horrors. Are they NUTS?
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/28/appalling-dems-incensed-gop-appoints-marjorie-taylor-greene-sandy-hook-massacre?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
‘Appalling’: Dems Incensed as GOP Appoints Marjorie Taylor Greene—a Sandy Hook Massacre Denier—to Education Committee
facts, data, information, education :: fake, manipulated, cabalistic, indoctrination
One of many possible answers:
GregB :: Trump
Jahana Hayes
RepJahanaHayes
(1/2) I am circulating a letter to ask that RepMTG not be seated on Edlaborcmte. Her conduct is antithetical to the work of the Committee. HouseDemocrats & HouseGOP have a moral responsibility to bring forth healthy debate in our Cmte’s and work towards solutions.
Hayes is the teacher who was elected to the House. Her district includes Sandy Hook.
I live in a very pro-Trump area and there are really two parts of the Q anon cult. There are the ordinary Republicans who got sucked into it and there are the powerful Republican politicians and media people who exploit the ordinary Republicans and suck them into it.
IMO, the focus should be on the powerful Republican officeholders and media people who exploit their own partisans. They’re the people who are benefiting from this. The Q believers themselves are pathetic- it ruins their lives.
My older sister is deep into the Trump cult. Not sure if she is QAnon but she might be. We can’t talk because her knowledge of the world is so limited. Everything she knows comes from cult websites and FB pages. She is not well educated, and she is deep into the cult, whatever it is. She can’t provide a source for anything she believes. She persuades me that there is no common ground, because she believes (like some of the recent visitors to this blog) that Trump is a saint and Biden is a criminal.
Wow, so this whole issue is very personal for you, Diane.
I agree! QAnon is a business raking in the bucks from pathetic, desperate people looking for hope…..and it only got worse when the country shut down and more people lost income and lifestyle.
It’s really horrible when people you love get sucked into cults. This happened with a girlfriend of mine, years ago, who became a Scientologist. QAnon is just another cult. Or, as people sometimes say these days, a “new religious group.” All the characteristics of a cult. And yes, it ruins people’s lives, as many who are being arrested, right now, by the FBI are learning the hard way.
In a recent interview AOC stated that there is a difference in the House of Representatives this session. Last session they had a lot of zealous Trump supporters. This session there are some members of Congress that are overt White Supremacist sympathsizers, and Kevin McCarthy cannot control their behavior. https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/aoc-there-are-legitimate-white-supremacist-sympathizers-at-core-of-house-gop-100131909634
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/what-is-rep-mccarthy-doing-about-some-in-house-gop-100151365580
QANonsense
As a meme going around puts it:
QAnon: The Game That Plays You
Advisory: This game is for stupid people only.
The shutting down of Parler has these people running for other Social Media. My FB page has been overrun by them lately. I must say that their posts are INTERESTING. I’ve long had a fascination with writing by people diagnosed with profound psychiatric disorders because I’m interested in these ways in which minds go wrong. So, I’m always up for reading the manifestos of paranoid schizophrenics and psychotics and so on. Posts by the Q folk: same genre.
cx: So, I’m always up for reading the manifestos of paranoid schizophrenics and psychopaths and so on. Posts by the Q folk: same genre.
Sorry, Mr. Bob (or Uncle Bob)….that guy last week posting on this blog was a tad bit scary. You handled him very well! I don’t want to read their depraved rantings. Deprogramming is a very hard process.
I am fascinated by these people. The shocking thing is that there are so many of them. Better access to mental health treatment is definitely needed!
Deprogramming is another fascinating topic. Very, very difficult. Next to impossible. As with alcoholism, the person seems to need to have reached rock bottom before he or she can be reached. It’s much easier to describe how to attract people to a cult than it is to design effective treatment for cultists. Here, a little essay on the former: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2020/11/16/a-dummies-style-guide-to-becoming-a-cult-leader/
QAnon is a perfect example of the phenomenon of rationalization on the part of cult members. You can show the Trumpeteers, for example, a video of Trump saying something that they find completely appalling, and they will cook up an elaborate rationalization for it. That’s of course, what all of Trump’s press secretaries did, too. Well, he wasn’t REALLY saying that. He said that to throw people off while he executed The Plan.
No. He said that. He meant that. The man is ignorant and crazy.
Fake news!
Anything that challenges a core belief of a cultist is fake news.
The best rationalizing of all: “he is kidding. you liberals do not have any sense of humor. This is satire and libs are too ignorant to see it”
Conspiracy theories are addictive indeed. It is a profound thing to have to question your entire world view. I would say that few people are up to it. For the average person, assuming a conspiracy allows a sense of comfort attained by avoidance.
The amazing thing is the change in germans after WWII, who had to confront collective guilt on a scale unmatched in history
I know 2 women who went down the QAnon rabbit hole via the “Save the Children” slogan. One is a teacher (and evangelical christian) and the other is my son’s female barber. I hope that next time I see them, they will have moved on from this nonsense.
There are some signs of splintering among the QAnon folks in their attempt to make sense of the failures of a) the Trump candidacy and b) the insurrection (e.g., “the Storm”). Lots of recrimination among them–well, this happened because people like you didn’t understand that. . . . and then various bizarre explanations, and the variety of those is the splintering. I hope that this means that the whole thing is falling apart. I’m wondering whether the authorities are going to give Trump time to hire his Goebbels to write his Mein Kampf to bring order to his movement. If they do, that will be a BIG mistake. It’s important that the man be indicted by various state AGs ASAP to prevent this from occurring.
Apparently some QAnon people think that the real inauguration will occur on March 4, the original date in the original Constitution (you know, communicating by horse and buggy is slow).
A story this morning in the New York Times says that this QAnon faction believe that there will be a real inauguration on March 4, and Trump will be president again.
Access to mental health services is so important.
Reagan closed a lot of places that provided mental health services and resources.
Now I understand why Reagan did what he did. Many of his programs and lack thereof are coming home to roost.
Reagan’s defunding of mental health services is one of his most shameful legacies. Also shameful were the provisions of the 1965 Medicaid and Medicare Act that provided funding if people were living in the community but not if they were living in psychiatric facilities. The deinstitutionalization resulting from this double whammy led to the many, many thousands of mentally ill homeless in this country.
Please be careful, Bob. Many of us with mental health challenges that are rational and not conspiracy theory nuts. Mental illness is often blamed when people do dumb things, but many of these people do not actually have mental health issues, but other problems, such as racism, that are NOT mental health issues.
Please don’t add to the stigma. I can’t tell anyone about my challenges with horrific depression, anxiety, and OCD, which I have suffered with since I was 6 years old. Parents would be scared I would do something, and pull their kids out of class, and I’d probably lose my job. I am no threat, but the stigma is real.
Here’s my take, for what it’s worth, Threatened. This is apples and oranges. The term “mental health challenge” covers a range of issues so broad as to be meaningless as a set to which any characterization would apply. I certainly would not wish to denigrate all people with mental health challenges. I have a good friend who is way out on the autism spectrum but a terrific fellow and a world-class mathematician. I have another friend who is one of the finest living poets, in my estimation, who has for years battled severe depression. I believe, or would not have so posted, that many of the QAnon folks I’ve encountered online are exhibiting paranoid ideation. Trump, almost certainly, is a classic case of Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. One needs to be able to talk of such matters. I do think, btw, that racism is a mental health issue.
I am sorry to hear that you have had these challenges, Threatened. Proper treatment is really, really important.
So, if someone generalizes comments made about folks who appear to be clinically paranoid or narcissistic or psychopathic to people with mental health issues as a whole, then he or she is committing what language philosophers refer to as a “category error.”
It’s an incredibly powerful and beautiful thing for people to share their struggles with others, Threatened–an important step toward destigmatization. I think you are right, however, to be cautious about whom to share such things with. Depression and anxiety are widespread and, as you doubtless know, treatable.
While I appreciate your optimism, Bob, my depression and anxiety are pretty treatment resistant. I am also allergic to many of the traditional medications. I am high functioning and mask my symptoms from the outside world, but it’s a daily, exhausting fight.
The stigma is truly real. I am not saying that all these Q Anon types are sane. Some are not. But I truly believe in evil, having studied the Holocaust and other genocides, and I believe that many of these cult members, as you so aptly called them, are evil, not crazy.
And many of who struggle day in and day out with crippling mental health conditions are rational and see where all of this has led. Mental health issues DO need to be taken seriously, but, for some of us, wellness will never come in this life.
Your posts are extremely moving, Threatened! Much love to you and yours! And strength to you!!!
“A story this morning in the New York Times says that this QAnon faction believe that there will be a real inauguration on March 4, and Trump will be president again.”
It’s sad and scary…. but my impulse was to laugh when I read that.
It’s sinister that unstable people are being used in such a nefarious way…. and that Republican leadership can’t stand up to it.
Republicans have gone very far down the road in embracing the Q Kooks. The Republican Party of Texas, for example, had a banner on its webpage that featured two words, in enormous letters, the phrase “We Are the Storm.” This also appeared on lots of other party materials. This is, ofc, the term, “The Storm,” that the QAnon folks and lots of neo-Nazi groups use to denote their coming revolution. The party has taken the phrase down on its websites in response to an avalanche of criticism that followed upon the Capitol insurrection.
This post is inspiring me to contact my Repub. senator. I have not written her a while. If enough people put ongoing (peaceful) pressure on the right senators – maybe it would make a difference. If those in San Francisco area bombarded Kevin McCarthy’s voice mail with pleads to hold house rep’s accountable…..and visited his office with protest signs…. ongoing….. maybe it would make a difference.
Greene (similar to Cawthorne) is anti-abortion.
GlobalRiskInsights.com, 11-25-2020, wrote about Poland’s right wing political leaders’ rejection of abortion rights. “What is the origin of the attack on women’s rights, the populist agenda of the (right wing) or…?”
From the article’s concluding “forecast …unless they intend to target women’s voting rights next.”
From a psych/physiological point of view, it is really fascinating and frightening at the same time. It seems to be a textbook of cognitive dissonance, which we all do to some extent to protect our brain/body from stress. “This inconsistency between what people believe and how they behave motivates people to engage in actions that will help minimize feelings of discomfort. People attempt to relieve this tension in different ways, such as by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding new information.”
It’s why people rationalize what they do (the good, the bad, and the ugly), even if it means going further down that rabbit hole and never coming back. Those brain chemicals are so powerful that they would rather reject every bit of rational knowledge and common sense rather than feel uncomfortable with the truth. They literally are trying to keep their brain from getting hurt, but one has to ask why they are so uncomfortable in the first place. Because of the sheer amount of SM algorithmic unfiltered material that has been allowed to propagate and pour into their heads. At its worst (rationalization of harmful behavior), it contributes to cults, violence (Stanford experiment), and mass murder.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-dissonance-2795012
Definitely at work in these folks. Thanks, Oakland Mom!
SM algorithmic? Spaced Memory?
Social Media. I highly recommend viewing “The Social Dilemma” documentary if you haven’t already. It’s a real eye-opener in terms of how SM companies designed these algorithms to keep you chained to your computer/phone, all for that advertising $$$. Some smart people thought up the upside ($$$), but no care or thought as to the downside of what this kind of quasi-mind control has on the human animal. But now, we know.
I’ve seen it. It’s outstanding. And thanks for your superb posts, Oakland Mom!
You will appreciate this: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/he-sees-you-when-youre-sleeping-2/
Spaced Memory is a term from psychology that refers to the maximum amount of time that can elapse before a learning needs to be rehearsed in order to secure its permanent inclusion in memory. One of the things that happens on these sites frequented by right-wing extremists is that they get this constant reinforcement of what they think they have learned. It’s mostly repetition, but it feels like confirmation and extension.
A Neuroscientist Explains What Conspiracy Theories Do To Your Brain | Inverse
🙂
For the cowardly Republican Party to install a school shooting denier on the Education Committee is just…… it’s just who the Republicans have become – antagonizing Q-infected anti-American cultists.
To all elected officials from “dog catcher” to the President of the United States and all the people of the United States.
We were right…all along.
Why did it take an insurrection by a MOB and 5 deaths incited by the former occupant of the White House for Republican senators and congressmen and women to FINALLY realize that “getting behind” that person was a mistake from the onset? The condoning of violence, the condoning of white supremacy, the Executive Order of lowering gas mileage standards for vehicles and thus paying MORE for fuel by US, the public, and making huge profits for the recently named former President’s friends/cronies in the oil business, bullying members of his own party (that’s YOU Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Lindsay Graham!) both of whom were personally attacked by him. And yet, AND YET, you let it happen. There are dozens of other examples of “blind allegiance” to this ignorant narcissist that will soon be put into book form, no doubt.
Some of the elected officials who cow-towed to this person who NOW feel emboldened, somewhat, have zero integrity. Sen. Graham said “Enough is enough!” Really!? You mean even when you called him “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” and “he doesn’t represent my party” in 2015? Hmmm, what exactly made you change your mind into thinking this poor excuse for a man had any idea of how to run a country (much less 6 of his businesses that declared bankruptcy)? Even now you want to let him off the hook because it might cause more division. Every mom on earth knows that when their child gets hurt, say the scrape of an elbow or knee, that the wound has to be cleaned out before it can heal. If you want more of the same, “yeah, just let it go.” Doesn’t work that way.
Didn’t the fact that THAT man said of people from Mexico and other places termed “s*%@hole countries” trying to come to the U.S. for protection and a better life, “they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” give you any sort of a hint? Not to mention the President Obama “birther” crap.
Losing an election is not a crime.
It is a humbling experience that USUALLY makes people stronger and smarter. He must’ve been ABSENT that day to learn that lesson…in 3rd grade!
Impeachment 2.0? What are we to do? Our republic and the former President were NOT one in the same.
This “straight talker” who “told it like it was” struck a nerve with people. But, he is also a liar. BIG LIAR. They recognized him. On “The Apprentice” reality show (yeah, right) they laughed at the “suckers” on the other side of the big desk when the sharp tones of “You’re fired” cracked into that “loser’s” dream of being a big CEO.
So, what is the meaning of all this?
He is gone. I have friends who are Republican or Democrat or Independent. They go to work each day, pay taxes, some have kids and all have bills. They are my friends. They voted, but they didn’t feel disenfranchised, they don’t think their vote was stolen. Or that anyone else’s were, for that matter. We have different opinions on politics…and restaurants (when they’re open),…and music and sports teams. We get along. So should those that we’ve elected to keep this country on the right track.
People we know have died from COVID-19. People we know lost jobs or have had them severely curtailed. People we know don’t have much or any health insurance for themselves or their kids.
And yet the former White House occupant didn’t do much to lead in overcoming this disaster, other than lie, or mislead the public.
Congress and senate work for US to help US, our fellow Americans in their time of need. Well, NOW is that time of need. Figure it the hell out! If you think a mere $2000 will be THE answer, or make someone NOT want to work – then you are out of touch with the American people. Believe it or not, there might even be a few people like American boxer in the 1920’s and 30’s, James J. Braddock (from the bio-film ‘Cinderella Man’) who, after receiving public assistance during the Depression paid the government back when he got on his feet and into the ring again. Yes, people want to EARN a living.
You can haggle over the details…but do something. Work with each other. Politics and sports have two sides, but politics ISN’T a game for us. It’s real life.