QAnon: The deepest, darkest psychotics around
I needed something new to do on my breaks at work after using up all my phone’s data not even two weeks into the month of July, so I loaded my tablet with books and saved articles that I’m finally reading after saving them and then ignoring them for months, if not longer. (Google Books and Amazon’s Kindle app for Android gear are great, as is Pocket for saved stories).
It took a few half-hour breaks to get through it, but Joseph Bernstein’s story about Lane Davis was a compelling, though quite tragic, read that was one of the first things I ventured through after getting myself somewhat disconnected from the online world for 30 minutes of my day.
Lane was my introduction to the far right’s latest psychotic obsession, that all liberals are secret pedophiles who are working together to normalize child abuse. No, really: All of them.
If you’re familiar with the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, then what’s happening now is that all liberals are involved instead of just the high profile few that were attacked because of a Presidential election. Many people, it seemed, didn’t think that Lane actually believed the crap he was peddling — until he accused his father of being a secret pedophile and then murdered then man in cold blood with a knife.
It’s truly disturbing that we can’t sit here and say that these insane conspiracy theories need to be eradicated before a crazy person takes them literally and hurts somebody — the body count has already begun, yet the conspiracy has done nothing but grow and flourish. There are countless purveyors on Twitter, finding asinine conspiracies in coke bottles . Some I’m sure are just seeking attention for themselves, unemployed and too much free time on their hands and no healthy ability to deal with their political obsessions, fueled by their personal problems that likewise are unaddressed and firing their resentment.
Some, like Davis, are genuine threats to themselves and everyone around them. This isn’t a movement to be laughed at and dismissed. This level of paranoia and delusion is a coin toss away from hearing voices ordering a mass killing, and it’s working its way quickly and deeply into the hardcore trump base unabated. There has already been a killing and that was before this cult movement hit the mainstream.
Note… the “QDrops” app which peddles this garbage is still live on the Google Play store. Yikes..
Read more from The Washington Post:
‘QAnon’: A deranged conspiracy cult leaps from the Internet to Trump’s ‘MAGA’ tour
You’ll never guess how the QAnon conspiracy theorists feel about all this media coverage
Yay! You are “back”!