As 2020 nears its end and the COVID-19 pandemic continues, a rapidly growing far right conspiracy theory increasingly dominates headlines. QAnon is a crowd-sourced online mythology inspired by cryptic anonymous internet posts appearing since 2017 from an unknown figure (or group) known as “Q” or “Q Clearance Patriot.” It is an expanded successor to the debunked 2016 “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which claimed that Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats operated a child sex trafficking ring under a Washington, DC pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong. QAnon is also rooted in much older mythologies about sinister secret societies of Satan worshippers, witches, or Jews.
QAnon believers hold that our modern world is secretly ruled by a “cabal” or “deep state” of cartoonishly wicked evildoers hidden in plain sight. “Every President after Reagan was one of these deep state criminals,” believers claim.1 Indeed, most “famous politicians, actors, singers, CEOs, and celebrities” are supposedly part of the cabal. For example, entertainers Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Lady Gaga, and Tom Hanks are all thought to be prominent members. The Obamas and Clintons are supposedly sinister cabal leaders.
These criminals aren’t merely bad, greedy, or ruthless. They’re said to be deliberately, totally, breathtakingly evil. They worship Satan and may be in league with supernatural demons. They systematically abuse, torture, and murder children. They’re pedophiles. They maintain their youth through intoxicating injections of blood drained from children ritually murdered at the moment of maximum terror. The cabal also eats babies.
To maintain power, the cabal controls all mainstream news media and engineers every ill that plagues modern society. As one seductive introductory video2 asks curious viewers,
Have you ever wondered why we go to war? Or why you never seem to be able to get out of debt? Why there is poverty, division, and crime? What if I told you there was a reason for it all? What if I told you it was done on purpose?
The idea that Satanists rule the world is a story of Lovecraftian horror in which the normal world is an illusion and a much darker true world lies just beyond the veil. And yet, QAnon believers are more excited than scared. People who “take the red pill” or “wake up” to the claimed conspiracy are offered a simple explanation for all of the world’s problems. They’re also offered a reassuring prediction for a better future:
What if I told you that those who were corrupting the world, poisoning our food, and igniting conflict were themselves about to be permanently eradicated from the Earth?
According to QAnon mythology, an apocalyptic event called “The Storm” will soon cleanse the world and usher in a utopia. The unlikely savior in this story of revelation and renewal is none other than President Donald J. Trump. “Good patriots in the U.S. military” supposedly “asked Trump to run for President so they could take back control of America” from the Satanic overlords. This righteous struggle is the true purpose of the Trump administration. “The world is currently experiencing a dramatic covert war of Biblical proportions—literally the fight for Earth—between the forces of good and evil,” believers claim.1 Clues about the progress of this clandestine war are to be found in “Q drop” posts by the anonymous Q, and in Trump’s more cryptic statements and typos. Critical news stories about Trump are Satanic lies.
When asked about QAnon, Trump dissembled, describing QAnon believers as “people that love our country” and “like me very much, which I appreciate.” When asked during a pre-election televised town hall interview to denounce the claim that “Democrats are a Satanic pedophile ring, and that you are the saviour,” Trump refused to do so. When exasperated moderator Savannah Guthrie pressed Trump to admit that his political opponents aren’t devil-worshipping child molesters, Trump insisted, “I don’t know that, and neither do you know that.”3
QAnon is broadly compatible with whatever conspiracy beliefs one happens to hold regarding vaccines, Covid-19, fake news, Jews, vampirism, a New World Order, the Vatican, deep state conspirators, “false flag” hoaxes, white nationalism, immigrants, or practically anything else.
With Trump’s tacit encouragement, the QAnon community eagerly looks forward to a moment called the “Great Awakening,” when the good patriots will reveal all and Trump will seal his victory with mass arrests of high government officials. Hillary Clinton and all of the other alleged Satanists will be “severely punished.” As one QAnon YouTube personality gushed: “I’m excited. I’m happy! … Once you know the information you are not in fear; you’re, like, empowered! You are excited. You can’t wait for justice to go down, you can’t wait for the kids to be saved, you can’t wait for the bad guys to be put in jail.”4
The Power of QAnon
The anonymous Q purports to be a highly placed U.S. intelligence officer sharing classified inside information. Q’s posts provide fragmented source material about “pedo networks,” “child abductions for satanic rituals” and the supposed battle against the “powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” However, the style of these posts is generally opaque, vague, and posed in the form of insinuating questions. Dubbed “bread crumbs,” they require creative, collaborative interpretation by the QAnon community, allowing enthusiasts to fill in the blanks for themselves.
The result is a viral, organic, crowd-sourced ideology that can stretch to accommodate a broad diversity of conspiratorial views. It is also flexible enough to allow believers to dismiss Q’s failed predictions and shifting claims. (For example, Q’s earliest posts in October of 2017 predicted the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton, which did not occur.)
QAnon has emerged as a grand unified conspiracy theory. QAnon is broadly compatible with whatever conspiracy beliefs one happens to hold regarding vaccines, Covid-19, fake news, Jews, vampirism, a New World Order, the Vatican, deep state conspirators, “false flag” hoaxes, white nationalism, immigrants, or practically anything else. QAnon acts as a kind of glue that promotes and binds together seemingly unrelated conspiracy theories. When people approach social media with curiosity regarding one conspiracy claim (that vaccines cause autism, for example), those platforms’ recommendation algorithms often promote QAnon content that entices viewers into further conspiracy beliefs.
This flexibility allows QAnon to appeal to secular people as well as fundamentalist “spiritual warriors.” It is able to attract people we would normally expect to reject far-right positions. For example, some people in the “wellness” community find that their doubts about vaccines and mainstream medicine harmonize with QAnon’s rejection of mainstream media and public health. In QAnon’s bizarre melting pot, New Age hippies support a Republican president, adopt radical libertarian objections to pandemic safety measures, and help to inflame the passions of far right “militia” members and white nationalists.
Dangerous Beliefs
As I write this, the United States is confronting multiple serious and mutually compounding crises: a ferociously divided electorate; an unprecedented presidential election; mass protests against racial injustice; a severe economic recession; widespread unemployment; a pandemic that has already claimed 223,000 American lives; and the escalating threat of white nationalist domestic terrorism on the right and Antifa-fueled violent protests on the left. These crises created QAnon. In return, QAnon makes these crises worse.
The pandemic has thrown jet fuel on the QAnon fire, bringing in countless new believers. Those believers tend to interpret Covid-19 as somehow serving the agenda of the Satanic elite. Q suggests that the pandemic is part of a plot to steal the election from Trump by promoting the use of mail-in ballots. Other members of the community object to Covid-19 safety measures such as masks. For example, one woman who previously made headlines with her QAnon claim that actor Tom Hanks “purchased me from my father for sex as a dissociated mind control doll” has more recently claimed “masks are mind control” and “mandating masks is Satanic.” She argues in a YouTube video that masks are part of a “gigantic Satanic ritual initiation” intended for “evil and control, period.”5
QAnon claims are incitements to violence. They have already triggered isolated violent incidents, including an armed standoff at the Hoover dam and at least one murder. QAnon members anticipate further violence and civil unrest during the overthrow of the supposed cabal. For this reason, the FBI has warned that QAnon and other “anti-government, identity based, and fringe political conspiracy theories” will “very likely motivate some domestic extremists…to commit criminal and sometimes violent activity.” Further, QAnon encourages the targeting of specific people accused of membership in the cabal. “These targets are then subjected to harassment campaigns and threats by supporters of the theory,” warns the FBI, “and become vulnerable to violence or other dangerous acts.”
Especially worrisome is the possibility of QAnon-motivated violence during or following the 2020 U.S. presidential election. People radicalized into the belief that public figures are servants of Satan naturally pose a threat—especially when egged on by the President himself. When the perceived enemy is considered elementally evil, and the future of the world is thought to be at stake, the most extreme measures may appear reasonable to committed believers.
In recent months, this rising threat has motivated social media companies to take unusual steps to combat QAnon. Facebook has announced an evolving series of “measures designed to disrupt the ability of QAnon and Militarized Social Movements to operate and organize on our platform,” including the removal of “over 1,500 Pages and Groups for QAnon containing discussions of potential violence.” Facebook later expanded its restrictions on the conspiracy group, announcing, “we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content.” Twitter and YouTube have recently taken similar steps.
However, QAnon has been growing since 2017. Much of the damage is already done. Polls suggest that around 23 million Americans hold a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” view of QAnon. Larger percentages are prepared to accept individual QAnon claims. For example, 18 percent of respondents in one survey agreed that it is “probably or definitely true” that Trump is secretly preparing for a “mass arrest of government officials and celebrities.” Although some of these respondents heard this “mass arrests” claim for the first time from the survey itself, this finding suggests that almost 60 million Americans could become receptive to this essentially fascist QAnon claim.6
Recycled Antisemitism
QAnon’s extremist claims are certainly outlandish, but this does not make them original. QAnon largely repackages older conspiracy beliefs dating back decades and even centuries.
For example, the belief that scheming elite puppet masters control the banks and the media merely rehashes tired but dangerous antisemitic tropes. The scenario envisioned by QAnon echoes the infamous early 20th century antisemitic hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. That malicious document purported to record a secret Jewish plan to take over the world and oppress gentiles. The Jewish elite would achieve “absolute despotism” over all nations by controlling the banks and the press. Although discredited as a plagiarized forgery in 1921, the Protocols hoax went on to influence Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. Hitler claimed the Protocols were authentic, and said they revealed the true “nature and activity of the Jewish people and…their ultimate final aims.” Given this blood-soaked history, it is noteworthy that QAnon claims prominent Jewish Americans such as George Soros are secret despotic rulers of the Earth.
Conceptually, QAnon’s antisemitic roots extend back much further to the medieval “blood libel” that Jews ritually murdered and ate Christian children. These wildly dangerous false allegations had terrible and predictable real-world consequences: sporadic massacres of European Jews.
Satanic Panic
QAnon also rehashes debunked old claims of Satanic Ritual Abuse cults, which were based in turn upon Renaissance era claims about sinister secret covens of witches. QAnon’s imagined Satanic cabal is essentially identical to the network of highly placed Satanists imagined during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s—especially in their shared claims of systematic ritual abuse of children.
The Satanic Panic was ignited by a bizarre memoir called Michelle Remembers. Published in 1980, it tells the supposedly true (but later discredited) story of a girl ritually tortured for months by a Satanic cult. The story emerged during intense therapy sessions in which the adult Michelle was pressured to “recover” increasingly outlandish “memories” of her supposed childhood ordeal—false memories that did not previously exist.
The book’s claims were not true, but they were horrifying. Michelle allegedly endured ritualized humiliation and sexual abuse. In one passage, a woman wearing a “black cape with a hood” dipped a colored stick into a “silver goblet and inserted” the stick “in Michelle’s rectum.” The woman shoved other sticks “everywhere I had an opening!” Several scenes feature dead, murdered, or dismembered children and infants. In the book’s grisly, absurd climax, Satan himself appears as a character. He recites bad poetry and accepts tribute from the cult, including offerings of dead infants “in a pile at his feet.”7
This lurid tale proved much more influential than it deserved. It created a “script” for countless later claims of Satanic abuse of children. Many misguided therapists pressured their own patients to “recover” stories like Michelle’s. These copycat stories were then repeated in books, workshops, and TV interviews, reenforcing the moral panic’s standard narrative template: hidden legions of Satanists are secretly abusing thousands of children. Books warned of the “ever growing web being spun by those who desire to lead your children into satanism.” Ensnared youngsters could suffer “all manner of sexual perversions,” “sexual orgies which involved children and animals,”8 and even human sacrifice and cannibalization of infants.
None of these Satanic abuse stories was true. Years of investigations by journalists and law enforcement failed to uncover even one single genuine case. Nevertheless, the resulting international panic led to numerous false accusations against individuals, some of whom were tried and wrongly convicted for imaginary crimes against children.
Covens of Witches
In retrospect, Michelle Remembers was clearly inspired by fantastical horror movie depictions of Devil worshipers. Those films were inspired in turn by centuries- old folklore.
It was widely believed in Renaissance times that society was plagued by hidden covens of witches who worshipped Satan and conspired against Christians. The witches were supposed to be utterly, unspeakably evil. “So heinous are the crimes of witches that they even exceed the sins and the fall of the bad Angels,” said the infamous witch hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”). The manual claimed that witches “are in the habit of devouring and eating infant children.” For example, one man allegedly “missed his child from its cradle, and finding a congress of women in the night-time, swore that he saw them kill his child and drink its blood and devour it.” The witches were also “taught by the devil to confect from the limbs of such children an unguent which is very useful for their spells.”
The threat of pure evil justified even the most extreme measures to protect society. Suspected witches were brutally tortured until they told the expected stories that interrogators wanted to hear. When they inevitably did so, they were burned to death. Their extorted false “confessions” appeared to confirm the beliefs of the witch hunters,and justified further attacks on innocent people—usually the most vulnerable, such as destitute women and the mentally ill. Many thousands of innocent people were murdered in the name of this conspiracy theory.
QAnon Will Not “Save” Children
President Trump has claimed that QAnon believers “are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard.” QAnon does indeed rally under a banner to “save the children!” However, both Trump and QAnon are mistaken. QAnon isn’t doing anything at all to fight pedophiles. They’re railing against imaginary witches.
One of the tragedies of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s was that it created confusion and diverted attention and law enforcement resources away from the genuine social evil of child sexual abuse. The people locked up for Satanic sexual abuse were innocent. People guilty of actual sexual abuse all too often went unpunished.
In an effort to protect children, moral campaigners in the 1980s led crusades against supposedly Satanic music, role-playing games, Disney movies, and young adult fiction. Their pamphlets and seminars taught law enforcement officers to look for imaginary signs of imaginary abuse by imaginary cults. Supposed signs of Satanic cult activity included everything from teenaged boredom to the hippie “peace” symbol.9 Activists and counsellors accomplished nothing for children with their bad advice about nonexistent threats. They did nothing to bring criminals to justice. Instead, they sent police on wild goose chases, left children in the hands of misguided, overzealous investigators, and ruined the lives of innocent people who were falsely accused.
Likewise, QAnon’s baseless accusations against Democrats and celebrities will not help children. Like the moral crusaders of the Satanic Panic, QAnon imagines that perpetrators of both genders conspire in a vast national network, abduct children, and gather in groups to commit abuse for ritual purposes. In reality, child molesters are most often lone males who are known to their victims and motivated by pathological sexual desires.
Instead of saving children, QAnon’s incitements to violence put children and adults in danger. On December 4, 2016, an armed gunman walked into the Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor intending to rescue children from Hillary Clinton’s alleged child sex trafficking ring located in the basement…of a building that does not have a basement. Despite internet rumors, the only children in the pizzeria were customers. Those kids were placed in jeopardy when the wouldbe rescuer fired three shots from an AR-15 rifle. Thankfully, no one was hurt. (The man surrendered to police. He was later sentenced to four years in prison.)
The threat of QAnon-motivated domestic terrorism diverts law enforcement resources from real problems. Every minute cops spend watching QAnon is a minute not spent investigating other crimes—including abuse against children.
Conclusion
QAnon’s conspiracy claims are not based in fact. The anonymous Q poster could be anyone from an overseas “troll farm” to a teenaged prankster. Q’s claims are frequently meaningless or factually wrong. There was never any good reason to believe this absurd story.
However, some people do believe it, to their own detriment and ours. Intense fringe beliefs tend to harm believers by isolating them from friends and loved ones. In this case, the content of their beliefs also threatens society at large. It is dangerous when groups are radicalized to perceive their adversaries as irredeemably evil. What wouldn’t one do to stop people who eat babies? As one former QAnon member recently told CNN, it “still bothers me to this day, how willing and happy and joyfully I would have reacted to something that I would normally want no part in,” such as cheering for the extralegal arrest of Hillary Clinton. “This is how you get good people to do bad things.”10
This article appeared in Skeptic magazine 25.4 (2020)
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Eliminating QAnon’s threat to society would take more than watchful cops and social media bans. It would require QAnon supporters to change their minds about a cherished belief and a community they’ve invested in heavily. Admitting serious error is an extraordinarily difficult and courageous thing for anyone to do. Generous, respectful, personal outreach can sometimes help; shaming will not. Believers need support if they are to have any hope of transitioning away from their misguided movement. “It has to start with empathy and understanding,” the former QAnon member told CNN. QAnon believers are highly insulated from contrary information by their beliefs that news media are untrustworthy and nonbelievers are blind to the truth. True communication can only take place when barriers to communication are removed through compassion.
That’s easier said than done. However, there’s urgent reason to try. Conspiracy theories thrive most dangerously during times of uncertainty and societal stress—such as during a pandemic. During the medieval Black Death, conspiracy theorists claimed that Jews were secretly causing the plague by poisoning wells. As a result, mob violence erupted across Europe. Hundreds of Jewish communities were wiped out; many thousands of men, women, and children were burned to death.
Another pandemic rages today. As millions suffer and mourn and political divides deepen into chasms, one simple truth can help make us safer: we are in this thing together. 
About the Author
Daniel Loxton was a professional shepherd for nine years before he became editor of Junior Skeptic. He illustrates and authors most of the current Junior Skeptic material. He wrote and illustrated the best selling award-winning Evolution: How All Living Things Came to Be, and the award winning children’s three book Tales of Prehistoric Life Series.
References
- “Q — The Plan To Save The World.” YouTube, March 20, 2019. https://bit.ly/3olxxVH (accessed October 18, 2020.)
- Ibid.
- “Trump refuses to denounce QAnon conspiracies.” CNN Politics, October 16, 2020. https://cnn.it/3mj8hxx (accessed October 18, 2020.)
- Kim Cohen. “Why I’m Not Scared & You SHOULDN’T Be Either! THE GREAT AWAKENING! (5 Levels To Q.)” YouTube, April 9, 2020. https://bit.ly/2Tn2lal (accessed October 18, 2020.)
- Sarah Ashcraft. “Masks are Mind Control.” YouTube, July 17, 2020. https://bit.ly/3dRWYJQ (accessed October 18, 2020.)
- Brian Schaffner. “QAnon and Conspiracy Beliefs.” Institute for Strategic Dialogue, October 5, 2020. https://bit.ly/3kFvdqB
- Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder. Michelle Remembers. (New York: Congdon & Lattès, 1980.) pp. 23, 216.
- Pat Pulling with Kathy Cawthon. The Devil’s Web: Who Is Stalking Your Children for Satan? (Milton Keynes, England: Word Publishing, 1990.) pp. 1, 67.
- Gayland Hurst and Robert Marsh. Satanic Cult Awareness. (Self published pamphlet, date unknown, acquired by NCJRS Jan 27, 1993.)
- Bronte Lord and Richa Naik. “He went down the QAnon rabbit hole for almost two years. Here’s how he got out.” CNN Business, October 18, 2020. https://cnn.it/3okuMUR (accessed October 18, 2020.)
This article was published on January 14, 2021.
This discussion reminds me of some quotes from Hanna Arendt’s book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” Published in 1951, it reads as though it was written today.
“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of the man who can fabricate it. . . . The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
Then there is Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
These ideas, in my opinion, accurately describe those who are the adherents to QAnon.
Reading Skeptic magazine for 20 years has trained me to be skeptical of articles like this. I’ve been a reader of you for years Daniel, so I can’t believe how tone deaf you are here.
You write, “It is dangerous when groups are radicalized to perceive their adversaries as irredeemably evil.” And then you fail to even mention or explore how or why Democrats and Democrat leaders have been saying for years that conservatives are indeed “evil.” Hell, for 5 years, most of what we’ve heard about Trump from major media is that he is racist, authoritarian, a Nazi—basically irredeemably evil—all based on no or spurious evidence, and in many cases in the face of evidence to the contrary!
Yeah, I know your article is about QAnon, but there’s little discussion here about the core of what makes QAnon so attractive to conservatives. It’s because media constantly characterize conservatives as villains, while liberals (Dems, “the Left,” whatever) are portrayed as heroes—even when they’re engaging in violence and intimidation as they did during the 2017 inauguration, and in countless “mostly peaceful” protests ever since. But no, it’s the conservatives who are the villains; they are evil. They are racist. They hate women. They hate anyone who’s not white and heterosexual, etc. etc. sickeningly ad infinitum.
Here’s an analogy you’ll understand: the “Mainstream Media” is the paranormal show that spends 50 minutes hammering whatever theory the show has to offer before relegating the last bit to the obligatory Skeptic to give his or her side—that’s the media and the extent of the truly (not radical, not “alt right,” but measured and widespread) conservative viewpoint they represent.
Unrelated but related: the next issue of Skeptic magazine should be all about election fraud in the 2020 election. Any talk of the evidence is being scrubbed by social media, and few media will even breach the discussion. Skeptic should step up to assess whatever evidence (or “evidence” if you want to write it that way) that’s been presented to legislatures across the country, and debunk it as necessary to the extent that you are able.
The violence at the Capitol is the result of this evidence going unreported, and not presented in any court. Perhaps skeptic can help put the controversy to bed before more conservatives go looking for it, and find themselves being seduced by QAnon or some other BS. Thank you.
Jeff, you live in an alternate universe. I feel sorry for you. QAnon has nothing to do with conservative values.
You consider yourself a skeptic?
Hi Jeff, first: tell us about the satanic panic generated by the Democrats. Second, tell us your thoughts on the GOP painting the Democrats as “radical socialists” or “communists,” including Biden. Third, why are you bringing up the Democrats in a discussion about QAnon? Fourth, tell us how mainstream Democrats have openly embraced right wing conspiracy theory wingnuts, or pandered to them, as Trump does. Fifth, are you a fan of QAnon, by chance? Last, this is a long shot, but do you think maybe your viewpoint was formed by political bias? note, for example, that you did not quote a single source of anything remotely comparable to QAnon being embraced within GOP ranks. I look forward to your reply.
You mention elections fraud. Here is the biggest clue to you’re not a skeptic. There is no evidence of mass country-wide fraud committed by hundreds of thousands of people that somehow never manages to leak even just slightly. Even the NSA can’t brag about that and they’re in the business of secrets. Present evidence to be assessed and it will be assessed. Until that happens, real Skeptics can dismiss you out of hand. There was no fraud, there were no Chinese planes loaded with fake ballots, there was no boat full of fake ballots from North Korea that landed in Michigan. There is nothing but claims, and it is the responsibility of the claimant to prove the claim. What is required is solid evidence, not third-hand stories regurgitated on conservative pundit circuits stuck in a feedback loop. Now you may subscribe to Lyle Hutz’s belief of what constitute evidence (“We have conjecture and hearsay, your honor, those are kinds of evidence.”), the rest of us do not.
Onto the rest:
You call yourself a skeptic. You keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
Reading Skeptic Magazine for 20 years does not make one a skeptic any more than reading the bible makes one a christian or reading Twilight makes one a vampire. It’s a focused development of the skills of skepticism and critical thinking.
The first problem is the massive confirmation bias balanced on your shoulder. You have an idea and anything that detracts from that idea is wrong, no questions asked.
This isn’t an article about politics or political parties. If the two parties were switched, if qanon acolytes identified overwhelmingly as democrats, the only change to this article would be the party. Are all qanon acolytes republican? No. Does a large majority identify with the republican party? Yes. The rhetoric and the identity and the cult worship of tRump attest to this fact.
What we have heard about tRump is well earned. Take off your blinders, remove the shackles, and leave the cave. Often things are spoken hyperbolically or broad generalizations. Is the left, the dems, the liberals, innocent of this or name calling? No. But in numerous studies of ad campaigns, slurs are more often slung by the right than the left. When the rare political discussion springs up at work, it’s consistently the conservatives who sling insults. Anecdotal to be sure, but telling in my over 25 years working in the same place. The left are often more baffled by the right than worried about slinging insults. (I’ve heard libtard more times than I’ve heard contard, which is to say never.)
You are entirely wrong about why qanon acolytes are primarily conservative. It’s not the media. Your view is entirely too simplistic.
On the whole many conservatives are good people that don’t fall for all the shit-slinging. But our political industry only gives us two options creating a false dichotomy. When I speak about the shit the republican party does, I speak of the leadership, but still many conservatives are offended until I clarify, and often they agree with me.
Media as you perceive it is entirely wrong. There is plenty of media on both sides. Faux News, Breitbart, OAN, and Alex Jones are all right leaning media that eats up and defends the right and all it’s atrocities to no end. The media, or fake news, is anyone who doesn’t agree with tRump, or you. You have zero understanding of the world around you, which is really sad.
The protests during tRumps inauguration weren’t caused by the media, they were reported by the media. All around the world. I know this for a fact. Being stationed overseas, I don’t live in the US. One indictment I will level against the American media is the abysmal coverage of world news. Did you know that an Icelandic volcano grounded all flights across Europe for an extended period of time? Possible. But hotels in Las Vegas, a major world destination were totally unaware of why so many Europeans were cancelling. Speaking hyperbolically, if we aren’t beating the rest of the world at something or killing them, it’s not being covered in the news. Most American’s never even leave the US. Foreign countries are just abstract concepts. We know they exist, but they’re all just shithole countries that people are fleeing for the Promised Land of America the Great. Except Europe, it’s just old world. And white. But not much to pay attention to except for vacations and honeymoons.
The violence at the capital is not from the lack of evidence going unreported, it the result of fabrication and lies. There was no evidence. Just lies feeding conjecture and hearsay.
You call yourself a skeptic, but you misapply all the tools and fall well short of using anything that could be considered critical thinking. You work from motivated reasoning. You are no skeptic. Keep that word out of your mouth.
I totally agree. Well written response
“For example, one woman who previously made headlines with her QAnon claim that actor Tom Hanks “purchased me from my father for sex as a dissociated mind control doll” has more recently claimed “masks are mind control” and “mandating masks is Satanic.” She argues in a YouTube video that masks are part of a “gigantic Satanic ritual initiation” intended for “evil and control, period.”5”
GW: Is this woman delusional or is she lying? Does it matter? I think she is more dangerous if she is delusional. If she is lying, then she is less likely to break the law herself or to encourage others to break the law. Is her goal primarily to stir up others more governed by their emotions to engage in violence to destroy current institutions? Probably. What does she say if challenged with “You have no good evidence to support your claims. Nobody should believe you. You shouldn’t even believe your own claims.”
“QAnon claims are incitements to violence. They have already triggered isolated violent incidents, including an armed standoff at the Hoover dam and at least one murder.”
GW: It depends what the QAnon statements are. I suspect some of them include incitements to violence, but the statement of a delusion by itself is usually not an incitement.
“Facebook later expanded its restrictions on the conspiracy group, announcing, “we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content.” Twitter and YouTube have recently taken similar steps.”
GW: I’m not sure I agree with this. It might be a suppression of speech gone too far. What if I were to say “It has now been proven that God does not exist” on some media platform, and what if some crazy atheists go burn down a church after reading my claim. Does this mean that my claim should be suppressed by the media platform? I don’t think so. Claims need to be examined very carefully to determine whether they are more than inflammatory and do in fact incite violence or other law breaking. If they do, then the authors should be charged with a crime. False, unproven, and/or misleading content needs to be challenged, not banned, IMO. We need to have more discussion and debate about what constitutes “incitement to violence or other crime.”
“These copycat stories were then repeated in books, workshops, and TV interviews, reenforcing the moral panic’s standard narrative template: hidden legions of Satanists are secretly abusing thousands of children.”
GW: If critical thinking skills were more prevalent much fewer people would believe that Satan exists, or that God exists.
“ QAnon does indeed rally under a banner to “save the children!” However, both Trump and QAnon are mistaken. QAnon isn’t doing anything at all to fight pedophiles. They’re railing against imaginary witches.”
GW: TRUE!
“In this case, the content of their beliefs also threatens society at large. It is dangerous when groups are radicalized to perceive their adversaries as irredeemably evil. What wouldn’t one do to stop people who eat babies?”
GW: If somebody X makes a false claim that a group Y is engaged in evil behavior, then the more extravagant or outlandish the claim, the more likely that some other person or group Z will act violently to punish the alleged offenders Y. The false claims should be challenged, criticized, and debunked as soon as they are issued to the public. And the purveyors of falsehood should be identified so that their reputations can suffer.
“Admitting serious error is an extraordinarily difficult and courageous thing for anyone to do.”
GW: Yes it is. What percentage of Trump supporters will finally admit they were wrong before they die? What percentage of God believers will finally admit they were wrong before they die?
I am quite astounded at the rhetoric published in the Skeptic that seems to be focused on one side of the political spectrum. I purposely subscribed so I could see how much effort is wasted by those people who think they are smarter than the average person. Remember what James Randi did to those very smart people. Quit wasting brain power on agendas – because both sides of the spectrum do the same thing.
Here comes the “Both Side Do It” argument. NO! Both side do not falsely claim satanic rituals, murder and pedophillia! Both side do NOT advocate the violent overthrow of the “Cabal”. Stop diluting the justified call to stop this moronic charade.
The Cabal and ‘moronic charade’ are phrases exactly representing how the discussion is emotional and both sides waste time and brain power on instigating tales and hate. But, a rational Skeptic should avoid the emotional aspects or just admit what the true intent of the discussion is attempting to achieve.
Did you vote for Trump?