Confessions of a Qanon Believer

[Airbrush]

As usual I'm trying to "figure out" obscure subjects.  I stumbled upon a Qanon believer when I was listening to music on Youtube.  It is a nice version of Bob Marley's song "Babylon System."  If you want to listen to it, I posted the song at the end of this post.  In the song Bob Marley sings:

Babylon system is the vampire, yea!
Suckin' the children day by day, yeah!
Me say de Babylon system is the vampire, falling empire,
Suckin' the blood of the sufferers, yeah!
Building church and university, wooh, yeah!
Deceiving the people continually, yeah!
Me say them graduatin' thieves and murderers
Look out now they suckin' the blood of the sufferers

A couple of Qanon enthusiasts commented about the words "vampire sucking the children day by day" that it referred to Hillary Clinton and the "Hollywood Elites" who are Satantic, pedophile, cannibal, vampires who torture children to get "adrenochrome" from their blood.  It's supposed to keep them young.  They suggested that Bob Marley could foresee Qanon and was calling them out. 

Ole B posted:  "Knowing the elites drink blood for adrenachrome and practice human sacrifice gives this song a whole new feeling. I wish I woke up earlier."

I replied to call foul, that Qanon was an absurd conspiracy theory with no factual basis, and saying Bob Marley was referring to Qanon was disgusting and they were LIARS!!  Marley was just being figurative not literal.  One believer replied to me, see below.  This should give some insight into the mind of a believer.  I asked him how he knew something that he cannot know about.  His reply was:

Ole B:  "It is hard to believe. It's also uncomfortable to believe. I sometimes wish I could unthink this shit and go back to normal life. It's hard to be happy knowing Satanists have been ruining the world on a scale I could've never imagined. I had hope for the future 3 months ago now I expect war anytime soon. Keep your family and friends close bro. Stay safe. Peace.

There’s nothing I could provide as solid evidence. Just a bunch of coincidences and gut feeling. I didn’t believe this stuff either but one night 3 months ago I discovered some disturbing things about actors while watching interviews on you tube. In the comment section of those videos there were strange comments and repetitive use of certain symbols ex:🤔🤫👌🦋🍕.

I followed the people posting those comments to other channels on youtube where people seemed to be recently systematically causing chaos around the world. I followed some names mentioned in these videos and in the comments to social media accounts of what appeared to me to be Cartel members that seemed to be selling and kidnapping children. Advertising things suspiciously, sort of in the same way Wayfair later came under suspicion for their overpriced cabinets.  I was distraught, my whole world was changed that night.

I'm not a man of faith but I prayed for the first time in over 20 years. I mentioned what I found about the actors to a few friends the next day at work. Leaving out the stuff about the children till I could do further research. The day after that I was approached by a man I knew for 4 years who called me a sheep and threatened my life. The four years I knew this man he was one of the kindest and politically smart people I knew so I was absolutely shocked. I looked into his social media that night and I see the same symbolisms, the same odd advertisements like a fruit for $500 with a small brown child sitting on it.

After that I started research into conspiracies like pizzagate and the Illuminati. I can’t prove it but I'm 100% sure of what I believe and I urge everybody who’s ready to accept it to look into it for themselves. I believe a mass awaking might stop this satanic insanity and I also believe it might be part of such an elaborate and well thought out plan that it may be beyond our power to stop it. From what I've gathered they are trying to create a new world under communism run by Satanist and pedophiles. Many people need to die for this to happen. They are trying to destroy and rewrite history."

There it is, from a true believer.  Could Q be a Russian troll sewing chaos in the US?

Anyone want to share what they know about Qanon?  They like Trump, so Trump likes them back.

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Airbrush

[CharonY]

16 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

Anyone want to share what they know about Qanon?  They like Trump, so Trump likes them back.

There are a lot of good articles about that. Essentially it is a social media phenomenon that started on 4chan. An overview without paywall is here, for example. I try very hard not to read the actual content of these conspiracy, I fear for my neurons.

[Airbrush]

On 9/1/2020 at 4:31 PM, CharonY said:

There are a lot of good articles about that. Essentially it is a social media phenomenon that started on 4chan. An overview without paywall is here, for example. I try very hard not to read the actual content of these conspiracy, I fear for my neurons.

If anyone with the courage to read a Qanon manifesto would read what Ole B wrote, please tell me if it sounds like someone wrote all of that spontaneously, or if it sounds like a script that internet trolls (Russians?) read whenever someone, such as myself, expresses an interest in how they know what they know.  I did go down 2 rabbit holes, Frazzledrip and John Podesta's artwork, and I could not find anything of substance, just blurred photos, weird sound effects, and outrageous claims about them.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=frazzledrip+video&docid=607993745213688016&mid=136D7AA32F86143ED365136D7AA32F86143ED365&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

[dimreepr]

9 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

If anyone with the courage to read a Qanon manifesto would read what Ole B wrote, please tell me if it sounds like someone wrote all of that spontaneously, or if it sounds like a script that internet trolls (Russians?) read whenever someone, such as myself, expresses an interest in how they know what they know.  I did go down 2 rabbit holes, Frazzledrip and John Podesta's artwork, and I could not find anything of substance, just blurred photos, weird sound effects, and outrageous claims about them.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=frazzledrip+video&docid=607993745213688016&mid=136D7AA32F86143ED365136D7AA32F86143ED365&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Maybe, you should try a little understanding before you condemn; otherwise you're just part of the problem... 

[Airbrush]

4 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Maybe, you should try a little understanding before you condemn; otherwise you're just part of the problem... 

That's right, a little "understanding" and sympathy for the freedom fighters against Satan?  You have a little explaining to do.

[dimreepr]

40 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

You have a little explaining to do.

Indeed, FTFY

FFS, is it so difficult to understand? 

Satan, is just a guy with a grudge...

And you're a guy? Right???

[Airbrush]

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

Indeed, FTFY

FFS, is it so difficult to understand? 

Satan, is just a guy with a grudge...

And you're a guy? Right???

Not enough explaining yet.  What does FTFY and FFS mean?  Would you care to elaborate?  What does Satan's grudge have to do with anything related to Qanon?

Again I ask, does the Qanon manifesto posted above by Ole B sound spontaneous or scripted?

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Airbrush

[iNow]

48 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

What does FTFY and FFS mean

Fixed That For You. For Fuck's Sake

[Area54]

2 hours ago, dimreepr said:

FFS, is it so difficult to understand? 

While I am aware of the meaning of the acronyms you used, I have no idea what you are driving at. So, yes, for at least two of us it is difficult to understand.

[MigL]

3 hours ago, dimreepr said:

Maybe, you should try a little understanding before you condemn; otherwise you're just part of the problem... 

As with all conspiracy theories, people who 'THINK' they understand, ARE the problem.
No evidence, just 'coincidences and a gut feeling' ???
I thought we didn't do conspiracy theories on SFN.

And with crap like this, the more exposure they get, the worse it becomes.
( I'd actually consider shutting down the thread, but that would be censorship )

[StringJunky]

1 hour ago, MigL said:

As with all conspiracy theories, people who 'THINK' they understand, ARE the problem.
No evidence, just 'coincidences and a gut feeling' ???
I thought we didn't do conspiracy theories on SFN.

And with crap like this, the more exposure they get, the worse it becomes.
( I'd actually consider shutting down the thread, but that would be censorship )

Yeah, don't give it the oxygen of exposure.

[MonDie]

As much as I love empiricism and science, these mass delusions show that we are social first and empirical second, and that even what we call "history" is a record of what people believed at the time as it includes, by extension, what people knew and/or believed about whatever was really happening at the time as it happened.  In social contexts we largely do whatever the crowd is doing, say whatever the crowd is saying, and simply assume all of it to be reasonable by proxy of being popular.  This makes us all too easy to manipulate because it creates a positive feedback loop, and the problem can be expected to worsen as the size of the crowd increases, e.g. the massive crowd sizes seen in modern contexts.  This undoubtedly interacts with the social psychological phenomena that researchers call deindividuation, diffusion of responsibility, and the false consensus effect + pluralistic ignorance, to name a few.  We are, intentionally or unintentionally, negligently or maliciously, being repeatedly gaslit by our own sources of information.  Thus we are all compromised agents, the victims of gaslighting, unless we can cautiously contemplate whatever the simpler alternatives to whatever the prevailing wisdom might be might be.  A perversion of the simplicity principle is actually one of the virtues of a lie, a lie which is false enough to achieve the ends of the liar but still true enough to seem functionally 'good enough' to the dupe... sorta like Rutherford's atomic model / nuclear model of the atom.  Alas, that is in an idealized model of how we should operate, not how we actually operate.  In truth, it is tautologically true that we don't know how we operate when we aren't paying attention to how we are operating, and that we may not be able to know what a lack of scrutiny looks like if a lack of scrutiny cannot be properly scrutinized.  One thing social psychology told me was that how we really think is very different from how a philosopher might think a person should think, and that we may be optimized for group behavior at the expense of critical thinking functions.  Moreover, I think groupthink might be a bigger problem now than it ever was for our hunter-gatherer ancestors two-hundred-thousand years ago.

[MonDie]

On 9/1/2020 at 6:09 PM, Airbrush said:

Ole B:  "It is hard to believe. It's also uncomfortable to believe. I sometimes wish I could unthink this shit and go back to normal life. It's hard to be happy knowing Satanists have been ruining the world on a scale I could've never imagined. I had hope for the future 3 months ago now I expect war anytime soon. Keep your family and friends close bro. Stay safe. Peace.

There’s nothing I could provide as solid evidence. Just a bunch of coincidences and gut feeling. I didn’t believe this stuff either but one night 3 months ago I discovered some disturbing things about actors while watching interviews on you tube. In the comment section of those videos there were strange comments and repetitive use of certain symbols ex:🤔🤫👌🦋🍕.

I followed the people posting those comments to other channels on youtube where people seemed to be recently systematically causing chaos around the world. I followed some names mentioned in these videos and in the comments to social media accounts of what appeared to me to be Cartel members that seemed to be selling and kidnapping children. Advertising things suspiciously, sort of in the same way Wayfair later came under suspicion for their overpriced cabinets.  I was distraught, my whole world was changed that night.

I'm not a man of faith but I prayed for the first time in over 20 years. I mentioned what I found about the actors to a few friends the next day at work. Leaving out the stuff about the children till I could do further research. The day after that I was approached by a man I knew for 4 years who called me a sheep and threatened my life. The four years I knew this man he was one of the kindest and politically smart people I knew so I was absolutely shocked. I looked into his social media that night and I see the same symbolisms, the same odd advertisements like a fruit for $500 with a small brown child sitting on it.

After that I started research into conspiracies like pizzagate and the Illuminati. I can’t prove it but I'm 100% sure of what I believe and I urge everybody who’s ready to accept it to look into it for themselves. I believe a mass awaking might stop this satanic insanity and I also believe it might be part of such an elaborate and well thought out plan that it may be beyond our power to stop it. From what I've gathered they are trying to create a new world under communism run by Satanist and pedophiles. Many people need to die for this to happen. They are trying to destroy and rewrite history."

There it is, from a true believer.  Could Q be a Russian troll sewing chaos in the US?

Anyone want to share what they know about Qanon?  They like Trump, so Trump likes them back.

Does the message strike anyone else as psychotic?  I suppose some people, with schizotypal and paranoid personality disorder, do have some baseline level of psychosis that does not worsen with time.  Maybe asking them to explain how they got into it could help them get out: schizophrenics, schizotypals and paranoids all have lower than average theory of mind skill, which is related to self-monitoring skill and emotional intelligence et cetera—Think gorillas looking at themselves in mirrors.  In any case, the conspiracy theory might already be about to get some "oxygen".

I've switched to Majority Report recently (R.I.P. Michael Brooks).  Majority Report had two recent callers who were  worried about QAnon.  I don't know how pervasive QAnon belief actually is, but Michael Flynn posted a video endorsing QAnon a few months ago, and now a few Republicans who have voiced support for it have won their primaries.  The candidates Marjorie Greene and Lauren Boebert are expected to win the general election.  It is hard to say whether this family of conspiracy theories is propelling itself or is something being peddled by neoconservatives, but having those candidates in congress will increase whatever aura of credibility it already had, and that could be the point.  Both parties deserve scrutiny and both constituencies have an obligation to scrutinize their nominees.  The whole of congress has been taken over by corporatism, and I can't wait to watch the conspiracy theories jump the partisan divide too.  P.S. Trump definitely colluded with the Russians.  We understandably have a hard time proving something so difficult to prove, but it's there, we just know it.  Who is Guccifer 2.0!?  Who is she!?

[joigus]

I'm no expert, but I'd say confinement and other restrictive measures are playing a part in boosting the paranoia.

[CharonY]

5 hours ago, joigus said:

I'm no expert, but I'd say confinement and other restrictive measures are playing a part in boosting the paranoia.

On the other hand, giving them a platform legitimizes them. Lose-lose.

[joigus]

9 minutes ago, CharonY said:

On the other hand, giving them a platform legitimizes them. Lose-lose.

Yeah, it's a tough one.

Perhaps sarcasm can be more efficient than either indifference or disagreement...

Disagreement seems to reinforce the wildly speculative mind.

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, joigus said:

Disagreement seems to reinforce the wildly speculative mind.

The issue with a wildly speculative mind is that basically everything will reinforce the assumptions. This is how conspiracy theories thrive, evidence against it are evidence of the conspiracy itself and evidence for it is self-evident. The speculations are untethered from fact and reality which basically makes it impossible to address it.

[Area54]

20 hours ago, joigus said:

Perhaps sarcasm can be more efficient than either indifference or disagreement.

Sarcasm feeds the attention the conspiracy theorist welcomes and lacks the evidence that a formal disagreement could deliver. I suggest it offers only a momentary satisfaction to the deliverer, while cementing the beliefs of the theorist.

[joigus]

1 hour ago, Area54 said:

Sarcasm feeds the attention the conspiracy theorist welcomes and lacks the evidence that a formal disagreement could deliver. I suggest it offers only a momentary satisfaction to the deliverer, while cementing the beliefs of the theorist.

Point taken, but I'm not so sure about that. Being thwarted seems to defeat the purpose with "true believers." But even true believers are bound to be sensitive to the possibility of becoming a laughing stock, as long as they're not made the object of cheap laughs. I think humour, in some of its many forms --perhaps not necessarily sarcasm--, as long as it's refined and intelligent, and has a seed of reasoned criticism in it, and not bordering sheer insult or epicaricacy*; can be quite useful.

Give you an example. I've heard many arguments against belief in the Christian god, but IMHO nothing as powerful as that memorable bit by George Carlin:

"Organised religion has actually convinced people that there is a man living in the sky; who watches everything you do every minute of every day; who has a list of ten specific things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he's got a special place for you to burn and suffer in anguish till the end of time...

...But he loves you.

He loves you and he needs money. He's all-knowing, all-powerful,... But somehow he can't handle money!"  

-----------------

*Epicaricacy: Rejoicing at or deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

[dimreepr]

1 hour ago, Area54 said:

Sarcasm feeds the attention the conspiracy theorist welcomes and lacks the evidence that a formal disagreement could deliver. I suggest it offers only a momentary satisfaction to the deliverer, while cementing the beliefs of the theorist.

Imagine that... 😉

It feels similar to the army of the righteously indignant, a legitimate feeling of being able to change what they find abhorrent, with little thought of the consequences.

If we want to persuade them to change their intuitive understanding of our world; we, as a society have to stop trying to scare them into agreeing to a status quo, that only offers reduced privilege's.

We are capable of critically thinking past the fear and TBH I'm not sure who should be taking the piss out of whom. 😵

10 minutes ago, joigus said:

"Organised religion has actually convinced people that there is a man living in the sky; who watches everything you do every minute of every day; who has a list of ten specific things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he's got a special place for you to burn and suffer in anguish till the end of time...

...But he loves you.

Ditto with Trump and his ilk...

Religion also offers heaven and a path to find it; But Hitler hates you.

 

 

[joigus]

30 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Ditto with Trump and his ilk...

Religion also offers heaven and a path to find it; But Hitler hates you.

<video>

I was a little confused when he started talking about fighting height with height.

It became clear when I started listening to it from an Antipodean point of view.  🤣

"Love" is perhaps not the word I would have chosen for the brilliant point he makes, but I understand.

As to Trump and his only-too-obvious scratching anybody's back as long as they scratch his... The only possible antidote I see is education. Not his, it's too late for that.

As to his ilk, it's too late too: Once people are in their forties+ they're just too set in their ways. I hope it's not too late for the upcoming generations.

Good standards of education that only the most ignorant of course will fear as indoctrination, ignoring the extent to which they have been indoctrinated by others. Education in critical thinking is critical.

[MigL]

That's the problem with conspiracy theorists...

They will not be educated, making fun of them re-enforces their beliefs, and if you ignore them, they run wild.

It's settled, then.
Off to concentration camps with the lot.

[dimreepr]

11 minutes ago, joigus said:

I was a little confused when he started talking about fighting height with height.

It became clear when I started listening to it from an Antipodean point of view.  🤣

"Love" is perhaps not the word I would have chosen for the brilliant point he makes, but I understand.

As to Trump and his only-too-obvious scratching anybody's back as long as they scratch his... The only possible antidote I see is education. Not his, it's too late for that.

As to his ilk, it's too late too: Once people are in their forties+ they're just too set in their ways. I hope it's not too late for the upcoming generations.

Good standards of education that only the most ignorant of course will fear as indoctrination, ignoring the extent to which they have been indoctrinated by others. Education in critical thinking is critical.

 

4 minutes ago, MigL said:

That's the problem with conspiracy theorists...

They will not be educated, making fun of them re-enforces their beliefs, and if you ignore them, they run wild.

It's settled, then.
Off to concentration camps with the lot.

Imagine that...

[joigus]

10 minutes ago, MigL said:

Off to concentration camps with the lot.

The last thing you want is for them to be able to concentrate. Distraction camps would be better.

[Area54]

39 minutes ago, joigus said:

I think humour, in some of its many forms --perhaps not necessarily sarcasm--, as long as it's refined and intelligent, and has a seed of reasoned criticism in it, and not bordering sheer insult or epicaricacy*; can be quite useful.

While some humour can be cruel, most forms are quite different from sarcasm. Humour, gently applied and inclusive, not discriminatory could help to persuade, something I thin sarcasm can rarely, if ever, achieve.

I thought schadenfreude would be the more usual word choice, rather than epicaricacy. The latter, given its recent currency, appears to be more an affectation than sound lexicography. (That's an informative statement, not a sarcastic one. :))