QAnon scores wins, creating GOP problem

[RandySF]

Gun rights activist Lauren Boebert’s upset win over Rep. Scott Tipton (R) in Colorado this week is the latest in a string of victories for candidates who have publicly expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

At least eight such candidates for the House will appear on general election ballots this fall, while another two are headed for runoffs. While the majority of them are running long-shot campaigns in uncompetitive districts, at least two are currently favored to win, including Boebert.

Meanwhile, Republican Jo Rae Perkins — who has supported QAnon, walked the support back and then committed again — is running against Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) in the safe blue state of Oregon.

The Republican establishment has largely avoided discussing QAnon so far, even as the once-fringe theory continues to pick up credibility from candidates.

“They’re sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place because the more the core of the Republican Party tries to disassociate from it, the more it actually validates the core tenants of what QAnon stands for,” said Angelo Carusone, president of the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America, which has been tracking mentions of QAnon by candidates.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/505745-qanon-scores-wins-creating-gop-problem

[BComplex]

1. Who the F*** is QAnon, anyway?

Is there one person behind it? Why do all these wackos believe whatever that asshole tells them?

[Quixote1818]

3. A naked incel in his mom's basement. Nt

[mahina]

8. Remember Pizzagate? More people than you would imagine believe conspiracy theories to support Trump

If you wonder why people are so crazy, whoever is pumping this crap out is one factor. Lots of military guys in my area are advocates. I see stickers and people I know even buy it. It’s nonsense but their brains buy in.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212359183

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2020/05/qanon-q-pro-trump-conspiracy/611722/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs6KVn6-06gIV3h-tBh196wvTEAAYASAAEgJirvD_BwE

QAnon is a pro-Trump conspiracy theory, yes, but it’s also more important than you might think. Adrienne LaFrance, our executive editor, spent more than a year trying to make sense of the movement and its followers. Her full, enthralling report is our latest magazine cover story.

Here are three ways to understand QAnon, as explained by Adrienne:

1. It’s a real-time participatory conspiracy theory.

The eventual destruction of the global cabal is imminent, Q prophesies, but can be accomplished only with the support of patriots who search for meaning in Q’s clues. … Surely there are people who know that Q is a fantasy but participate because there’s an element of QAnon that converges with a live-action role-playing game.
2. It’s a mass rejection of reason and Enlightenment values.

In the face of inconvenient facts, it has the ambiguity and adaptability to sustain a movement of this kind over time. For QAnon, every contradiction can be explained away; no form of argument can prevail against it.
3. It’s not going anywhere. In QAnon, we are witnessing the birth of a new religion.

Among the people of QAnon, faith remains absolute. True believers describe a feeling of rebirth, an irreversible arousal to existential knowledge. They are certain that a Great Awakening is coming. They’ll wait as long as they must for deliverance.
Read the full story.

[BComplex]

12. Wow. Just wow. I went and read the article on QAnon the Atlantic put out.

No wonder we're in so much trouble.

[mahina]

13. The flights are targeting Bernie supporters especially it seems

The flights are targeting Bernie supporters especially it seems Trying to peel off shit here in there I guess with their extreme nonsense.

[BComplex]

16. That's why I'm wondering which country it is that is behind this. Who has the most to lose?

Because this is definitely tearing the united states apart. Who benefits?

[mahina]

17. That's always my first question too

[magicarpet]

2. A nonstop full blast fire hose of Fascist propaganda that smears the libs.

The Nazis just love it. Can't get enough.

[BComplex]

5. Is he/she a russian agent inside the white house? Or someone who has the place bugged?

From what my cousin (who is a follower of QAnon) said, this person knows all kinds of things that are going to happen in government way before they do happen. I can only assume putin put a chip in the Cheeto in Chief, and they talk to his brain...what's left of it.

[mahina]

18. I am going with that it's a wing of the Trump campaign

[BComplex]

19. If that's the case, then it's definitely russian related.

[mahina]

21. No doubt

[mahina]

22. What does your cousin say about it?

[dawg]

4. At some point, we're going to have to seriously address the fact that ...

close to half of all white people in this country have become seriously delusional.

And I don't just mean that as a political jab at people I disagree with. I'm serious. The level of magical thinking has gotten so high that we are nearly ungovernable.

[BComplex]

6. I know that is true, Dawg. And fox propaganda is behind SO much of it. They're the ones that have

the megaphone.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Exactly.

This has gone way, way beyond "policy disagreements". I honestly don't know how, or whether, it's fixable.

[Maven]

11. Social media has created a form of mass psychosis among this group.

Last edited Sat Jul 4, 2020, 05:29 PM - Edit history (1)

It offers an echo chamber for the delusional (and likely, some unfriendly foreign agents) to reinforce each other's delusions. Uneducated white people in America have a complex of entitlement, grievance and racism, so they are highly susceptible to a theory that puts them "in the know" about a shadowy conspiracy to take down their white supremacist leader (Trump).


Until we regulate social media and stop the spread of this malignancy in our society, the problem is only going to get worse.

[CatLady78]

15. Indeed

And it is not just the US.
This is a global problem.

[uponit7771]

14. Yep, Something's wrong

[Crunchy Frog]

7. It's a problem of their own making.

[Baked Potato]

10. These people should not hold office. Easily bribed. Cray.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/local-goverment-politicians-qanon/

[Silent3]

20. The Republicans created this monster themselves

They've been appealing to conspiratorial and magical thinking for decades, whipping up fear and hatred over imaginary threats.

I had hopes that this would have caused the Republican party to implode before Trump was inflicted on all of us, but sadly that didn't happen.

I'm pretty sure that they can't win based on this insanity this time around... and terrified that I'll be wrong about that again.