This is also a super dangerous angle to take. Conflating the actual legitimate economic debate with literal lizard people gives the lizard argument credibility. Supply siders were wrong but hardly believers in lizard people.
Q is, if not the apotheosis of, than definitely parallel to mainstream Republican idea. The idea that Democrats are degenerate freaks isnât anything new, but Democrats stubbornly wonât go away for the rightful politician citizens, Republicans, to rule so there has to be some reason why they keep winning. So that thereâs some cabal keeping them in power doesnât seem odd at all
On Kleinâs podcast he had a guest who said that Q was just the continuation of the birther conspiracy. The birther conspiracy, of course, was that Obama wasnât born in the US and therefore wasnât a legitimate political citizen of the US, but somehow got to become President through nefarious machinations. How did one guy manipulate his way into illegitimately becoming President? He had help through every aspect of the government and the Democratic Party to cover up the truth of course. From there itâs a hop, skip, and a jump to believe that thereâs a vast government conspiracy with the Democrats fueled by depravity to continue to thwart the justice of Republican domination.
They both have the exact same truth value and exactly the same logical consistency. Both started as self conscious lies to con the rubes but spread to become a true belief among those with power.
The lizard people thing at least makes sense emotionally. To become a member of the ruling class you have to give up your empathy. You do have to embrace the cold reptilian part of the human condition.
https://twitter.com/cjane87/status/1296866907866505217?s=20
Tuesday was supposed to be big for QAnon followers. Mass arrests were coming. Or revelations of satanic pedophilia rings. Or something, any payoff after nearly a year and a half of agitating for their bizarre conspiracy theory.
The arrests didnât come, just as theyâve failed to come at umpteen other prophesied dates. Then, seven minutes before midnight, QAnon fans got something almost as comforting: President Donald Trump tweeted the video of a prominent QAnon personality.
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy that falsely accuses President Trumpâs opponents of involvement in child sex-trafficking and sometimes cannibalism. Over its 17 months of existence, QAnon fans have regularly invented new âdeadlinesâ for the pseudo-fascistic purges of their enemies, which they claim are coming at any moment. But the movement hasnât passed with its deadlines. The original theory is morphing with time, not diluting as much as it is seeping into Americaâs bloodstream.
When QAnon began with a series of anonymous posts in the troll-ridden forum 4chan in late October 2017, the theory promised near-immediate results. The poster, âQ,â implied he was a military official with access to privileged information about Trumpâs foes. Former Hillary Clinton aides John Podesta and Huma Abedin would be indicted on Nov. 3 and 6, respectively, the anonymous poster claimed.
Readers on the right-leaning forum rejoiced. When the date passed without the predicted arrests, Q spun up more predictions. New revelations about âtaking back our great countryâ would come in the following days, he wrote. Trump opponents in the media would be arrested. Trump opponents would commit suicide over a specific weekend.
None of the prophecies came true, and some followers defected. But rather than turn on their anonymous prophet, other followers simply adopted looser interpretations of Qâs claims. When expected mass arrests failed to transpire on Dec. 5, 2018, some QAnon followers churned out bizarre memes of George Bushâs funeral to claim the arrests had in fact happened on camera during the event. Others claimed Qâs references to âD5â were actually military code.
The interpretations grew even less credible in the following months. Some QAnon fans claimed mass arrests would occur Jan. 19, because the date was âNational Popcorn Dayâ (popcorn is a common QAnon theme, in reference to Qâs appeals to âenjoy the showâ).The promise of March 19 arrests were born of the same, increasingly absurd logic.
â3/19/2019 (7) is: 77 days from 1/1/2019,â one Twitter account reasoned, and â128 (11) days from 11/11/2018.â
Vague messages like this, frequently repeated, were enough to meme the date into QAnon significance.
âRestored Republic 3-19-19,â one QAnon follower posted. âMust see!â
Donât know why its rational peopleâs responsibility to âfightâ against the crazies. Fuck em. If its not this its something else. Personally Iâd much like to see HRC make a video that says âYes, its all true, I drink the blood of children, its delicious, everyone should try itâ. Maybe after November.
Youâve got that backwards, chap. I do the weaponizing.
Iâm not being hyperbolic saying you literally canât win this way. Itâs wholly and completely irrelevant when they make a prophesy that doesnât come true.
âIt just means we misread the codeâ
No amount of debunking can ever work because the conspiracy theory has a robust and built in immune system that fights off facts with ease.
I once played poker with this black guy who said he was a sovereign citizen. Other people were confused, but I knew what he was talking about. They thought he was a joke, but I was a bit more concerned.
Gotta say I have spent more time than to care to admit watching those sovereign citizens guys at internal border checks. It makes goooood YouTube content.
Yea Iâm aware, i was posting it here moreso for the luls
My bad carry on.
I donât see how the laffer curve could be considered legitimate economic debate if weâre talking about reality and not fairy-tale hypothetical situations. Itâs also important to understand the through-line from the laffer curve to Q. A ton of people understand that the economy hasnât been working the way theyâve been told itâs supposed to work, whether itâs how the supply of middle class jobs has all but dried up or how most of the stuff we buy today is cheap stuff from halfway around the globe. Q provides a reasoning for why things are the way they are. People hear that lowering tax rates is going to raise government revenue, then we lower tax rates and the deficit grows, so they look to the cabal of pedophiles ruining the country as an explanation.
The average Q nut has no idea what a laffer curve is and doesnât care.
The world is a super complicated place and these people feel unable to understand it in any way shape or form So they turn to magical simplifications (much as our cave dwelling ancestors did) because they feel like it gives them some semblance of control.
Counterpoint: Christianity
I got sued by a couple who eschewed the SC label, declaring themselves Native Sovereign Inhabitants in their complaint. They also specified in the complaint that anyone who self applies the SC label to themselves are merely displaying their own ignorance as one cannot be both a sovereign and a citizen. Itâs an impossibility, akin to Atheist Christian or Virgin Whore. I read that part of the complaint to 30 people one day and got a huge laugh. Suit was eventually dismissed.
Excuse me?
Your pony is standing trial at Farpoint
The twist is that the thread is actually running backwards and by solving that puzzle you will exonerate humanity.