Rick Wilson, The Daily Beast; Trump Fans Are Suckers and QAnon Is Perfect for Them
"Conspiracies are hard. They're even harder when you're stupid.
They
are, however, deeply compelling. Some people need a single, grand
unifying theory of why the world refuses to line up with their
expectations. When difficult realities confront people without the
intellectual horsepower to understand and accept the truth, some turn to
conspiracy theories to paper over the holes in their worldview. No
matter how absurd, baroque, and improbable, conspiracies grow on their
own like mental kudzu where inconsistencies aren't signs of illogical
conclusions, but of another, deeper layer of some hidden truth, some
skein of powerful forces holding the world in its grip...
[Q] works because stupid people are stupid and because Donald Trump's
Administration loves what QAnon does to stoke the fires of paranoia,
resentment, and division. QAnon works for Trump because people who are
not knowledgeable about the world, politics, government, the
intelligence community and reality more broadly are desperately looking
for confirmation that they're on the winning team. Q tells them that
they're on the right side of history and that for once in their dreary
little lives they and only they possess the secret, hermetic knowledge
from inside the esoteric cult."
Showing posts with label Q. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Q. Show all posts
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Thursday, August 2, 2018
What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory; The Guardian, July 30, 2018
Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian; What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory
"Meet Q
On 28 October 2017, “Q” emerged from the primordial swamp of the internet on the message board 4chan. In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.
Since then, Q has continued to drop “breadcrumbs” on 4chan and 8chan, fostering a “QAnon” community devoted to decoding Q’s messages and understanding the real truth about, well, everything...
Imagine a mix of Pizzagate, InfoWars and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, multiplied by the power of the internet...
For years now, YouTube has been a quagmire of conspiracy theories, the more outrageous and thinly sourced the better. Under pressure from the mainstream media for the platform’s tendency to promote inflammatory and false information in the aftermath of mass shootings and other breaking news events, YouTube has introduced reforms that it claims will promote more “authoritative” news sources.
A YouTube spokesperson provided a statement that did not directly address the Guardian’s questions about the Hanks videos, but noted that the company’s work to “better surface and promote news and authoritative sources” is “still in its early stages”."
"Meet Q
On 28 October 2017, “Q” emerged from the primordial swamp of the internet on the message board 4chan. In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.
Since then, Q has continued to drop “breadcrumbs” on 4chan and 8chan, fostering a “QAnon” community devoted to decoding Q’s messages and understanding the real truth about, well, everything...
Imagine a mix of Pizzagate, InfoWars and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, multiplied by the power of the internet...
For years now, YouTube has been a quagmire of conspiracy theories, the more outrageous and thinly sourced the better. Under pressure from the mainstream media for the platform’s tendency to promote inflammatory and false information in the aftermath of mass shootings and other breaking news events, YouTube has introduced reforms that it claims will promote more “authoritative” news sources.
A YouTube spokesperson provided a statement that did not directly address the Guardian’s questions about the Hanks videos, but noted that the company’s work to “better surface and promote news and authoritative sources” is “still in its early stages”."
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