Do we need a Q thread?

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.

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Q is, if not the apotheosis of, than definitely parallel to mainstream Republican idea. The idea that Democrats are degenerate freaks isn’t anything new, but Democrats stubbornly won’t go away for the rightful politician citizens, Republicans, to rule so there has to be some reason why they keep winning. So that there’s some cabal keeping them in power doesn’t seem odd at all

On Klein’s 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 wasn’t born in the US and therefore wasn’t 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 it’s a hop, skip, and a jump to believe that there’s a vast government conspiracy with the Democrats fueled by depravity to continue to thwart the justice of Republican domination.

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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 didn’t come, just as they’ve 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 Trump’s opponents of involvement in child sex-trafficking and sometimes cannibalism. Over its 17 months of existence, QAnon fans have regularly invented new “deadlines” for the pseudo-fascistic purges of their enemies, which they claim are coming at any moment. But the movement hasn’t passed with its deadlines. The original theory is morphing with time, not diluting as much as it is seeping into America’s 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, “Q,” implied he was a military official with access to privileged information about Trump’s 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 “taking back our great country” 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 Q’s claims. When expected mass arrests failed to transpire on Dec. 5, 2018, some QAnon followers churned out bizarre memes of George Bush’s funeral to claim the arrests had in fact happened on camera during the event. Others claimed Q’s references to “D5” 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 “National Popcorn Day” (popcorn is a common QAnon theme, in reference to Q’s appeals to “enjoy the show”).The promise of March 19 arrests were born of the same, increasingly absurd logic.

“3/19/2019 (7) is: 77 days from 1/1/2019,” one Twitter account reasoned, and “128 (11) days from 11/11/2018.”

Vague messages like this, frequently repeated, were enough to meme the date into QAnon significance.

“Restored Republic 3-19-19,” one QAnon follower posted. “Must see!”

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Don’t know why its rational people’s responsibility to “fight” against the crazies. Fuck em. If its not this its something else. Personally I’d much like to see HRC make a video that says “Yes, its all true, I drink the blood of children, its delicious, everyone should try it”. Maybe after November. :expressionless:

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You’ve got that backwards, chap. I do the weaponizing.

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I’m not being hyperbolic saying you literally can’t win this way. It’s wholly and completely irrelevant when they make a prophesy that doesn’t come true.

“It just means we misread the code”

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 I’m aware, i was posting it here moreso for the luls

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My bad carry on. :grin:

I don’t see how the laffer curve could be considered legitimate economic debate if we’re talking about reality and not fairy-tale hypothetical situations. It’s also important to understand the through-line from the laffer curve to Q. A ton of people understand that the economy hasn’t been working the way they’ve been told it’s supposed to work, whether it’s 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.

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The average Q nut has no idea what a laffer curve is and doesn’t 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.

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Counterpoint: Christianity

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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. It’s 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.

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Excuse me?

q-star-trek-villains

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Your pony is standing trial at Farpoint

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The twist is that the thread is actually running backwards and by solving that puzzle you will exonerate humanity.

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