"As awful and dangerous as Trump undeniably is, there may be something worse ahead for Republicans. That thing is called QAnon, the online phenomenon that has declared war on an international conspiracy of elitist pedophiles and cannibals, which, of course, doesn’t exist." - Joe Conason, 'How A New Racist, Extremist Cult Is Eating A Debilitated GOP Alive'
The warning from the Financial Times' columnist Edward Luce (Sept. 10, 'QAnon Cult Shows America Should Fear Enemy Within') ought to be taken 1,000 times more seriously today than any mindrot blabber about "Islamic terrorists". The reason, as Mr. Luce shows, is that QAnon and the Right's batshit crazy conspiracy hatchers are the real threat to our Republic - along with Trump the Traitor. As Luce writes (ibid.):
"Mention terrorism and most Americans will instantly think of Islamist extremists. In reality, America should nowadays be far more worried about far-right threats. Two-thirds of its terrorist incidents last year were carried out by homegrown extremists from the far-right. That rose to 90 per cent in the first five months of this year. Many of these were inspired directly or implicitly by QAnon, the extremist cult that is often downplayed as a fringe conspiracy group."
Luce is absolutely spot on correct. Worse, we have now beheld - as I noted in my Aug. 20 post- at least one major media (CBS) correspondent (Nancy Cordes) comparing the real and serious JFK assassination conspiracy to the batshit nuts QAnon claptrap.
Cordes spouted:
"The QAnon conspiracy theories - as nutty as they sound - are not even that new. Some of the theories resemble the plot of Oliver Stone's movie 'JFK' thirty years ago."
Adding that:
"polling finds that five to ten percent of Americans actually believe this stuff. That President Trump is this secret crusader working to take down a cannibalistic cabal within government"
But as I observed, Stone made no reference to any "cannibalistic" cabal or conspiracy, i.e. which accuses one party of worshipping Satan, eating babies and committing sex acts on children - as the loopy QAnon nuts believe. So where is Cordes and her prof getting this baloney? Clearly, she's just pulled it out of her ass like Trump has the conspiracy codswallop he peddles.
Where I differ with Luce is when he writes:
"That label (fringe conspiracy group) should be kept for UFO spotters and people who think the British royal family killed Diana, Princess of Wales. As the FBI has concluded, QAnon bears all the ingredients of a “domestic terror threat”.
Ok, hold strain! I am a "UFO spotter", and make no apologies (or excuses) for being one. This is given the object I observed (with about 50 others in 1962, in the parking lot of a Miami Gardens shopping center), was as real as a heart attack. The full description of the event can be found in one of my first blog posts:
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2007/12/perspective-on.html
The orange object - the size of the full Moon - darted overhead, hovered, darted again then vanished within seconds. No man-made craft could have imitated that velocity and at the relatively low altitude (est. 1,500 ft.) it was observed. Indeed, Carl Sagan - we now know, See e.g.
is also in this company. Further, we know scientific investigation of so-called UFOs is feasible, i.e.
Is Scientific UFO Inquiry Possible? - Brane Space
So, Luce here chose a bad analogy. Worse, he made the error of mistaking a bogus conspiracy ideation for a real conspiracy (i.e. not a fringe threat) just because the bogus version itself poses a real threat. But a conspiracy claim can be pure twaddle and still be a genuine domestic threat, especially if backed up by a horde of crazies who need ECT.
The perfect treatment for most QAnon conspiracy spreaders would be ECT, as Dr. Pat Bannister used to order for paranoid schizophrenics in the 1970s.
Leaving aside Luce's unfortunate miscues and false analogies, he is spot on when he writes:
"QAnon has the sympathy of senior U.S. figures, including, implicitly, that of Donald Trump. Whether the president knows much about the group’s bizarre cult theology is beside the point. He retweets them and welcomes their support.
Luce's point regarding QAnon's crazies "having the sympathies of senior U.S. figures" is no exaggeration. Indeed, we learned only yesterday (Denver Post, p. 6A) that "Vice President Mike Pence and top officials from Donald Trump's campaign are slated to attend a Montana fundraiser next week hosted by a couple who express support for the main QAnon conspiracy theory."
Actually, main QAnon "ideation" as I keep saying. Which would be that (ibid.):
"Trump is fighting entrenched enemies in the government and its deep state which involves satanism, cannibalism and child sex trafficking."
No, you cannot make this B.S. up. The top officials of our government are actually in neck deep to monumental conspiracy horse shit and a mind virus that could well bring this country down if it spreads much further.
The great danger to the U.S. will come if Mr. Trump loses in November as opinion polls indicate is likely. In QAnon theology, that will be the equivalent of the infidels occupying the Holy Land. QAnon’s world view is literally predicated on Mr Trump as their only hope of defeating the satanic forces that control America’s deep state. Many Americans do not take the threat seriously. This is despite the fact that QAnon-inspired gunmen have carried out or attempted several recent attacks."
But there is no danger if we are aware of this, and what these crackpots might do if the Dotard loses. So we then have National Guard troops as well as SWAT teams ready across all 50 states, and we order them to act as they would be trained to do in response to any terrorist outbursts. You break the law with violence, you pay the price. What we cannot do is allow ourselves to be intimidated by QAnon or any other domestic, Reich extremist terrorists. In particular Luce's words below are apt and need to be taken seriously:
"Americans are used to screening out white perpetrators as lone wolves or people with mental health problems. They should listen more closely to the FBI, which says QAnon has the crucial markers of a terrorist group. QAnon thinks we are in a Manichean fight between the forces of dark and light. ... QAnon claims that George Soros, the Rothschilds and other well-worn Jewish culprits are behind the plot. "
Adding:
"That one wraps itself in Islam and the other Christianity is beside the point. Nor are technological differences salient. Al-Qaeda exploited the early internet. QAnon is the spawn of social media and the dark web. What binds them is a violently apocalyptic world view."
These are critical insights that Luce has offered, and even more remarkable given how he blew it in regard to the "UFO spotters" balderdash and QAnon being a "real" conspiracy because its believers pose a threat. Indeed, QAnon, as my Psych post doc (now tenure track) niece Shayl observes is "composed of sociopaths who have too little going on in their lives so discharge their skewed energies by investing in irrational beliefs that provoke violent reactions."
But left unsaid is how many "normal' citizens are still lured into the nutso loop of QAnon by investing or attending to seemingly ordinary coalitions or organizations. As Luce informs us:
"Barely a day goes by in the U.S. when groups of parents do not hold a “#SaveOurChildren” protest. Some are witless recruits to what sounds like an obvious cause. Others believe that “dark hats” in Washington protect a subterranean cabal that literally snatches children off the streets."
Luce (above) is referring to how this past year QAnon's minons, in an effort to grab some kind of normalcy, tried to co-opt the group. This led to a temporary blocking of the hashtag on Facebook. What thinking Americans need to process here is that all the most pathological mind virus-seeded belief systems seek to harness legitimate cover for themselves, to dupe the unwary into becoming unwitting allies. Hence, it is essential to always have one's "spidey" radar up and working. That includes having that radar full on when one enters a social media domain. As Luce writes (ibid.):
"Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube bear huge responsibility for directing users towards such derangement. It took until June — almost three years after QAnon emerged — for Facebook to start taking down the group’s posts. "
Which is an absolute travesty and shows the extent to which Facebook - in its lax approach to "free speech" - bears enormous responsibility for helping to spread this mind virus. But it is also wise to know WHO are the most virulent spreaders of this pathogen of the mind. Mr. Luce takes pains to point out one, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who "describes Mr Trump as a righteous sword against evil."
In effect, Greene confers on the orange maggot pestilence fouling the White House and the nation a preternatural nobility or sanctity. Presumably against the "left wing hordes" and "deep state" these cranks believe are poised to take over the country under Biden. This leads Luce to arrive at his somber conclusion:
"Common sense suggests the biggest terrorist threat would thus come in the aftermath of his defeat, which would trigger QAnon thoughts of apocalypse. The group’s theories existed before the arrival of “Q”, an anonymous poster who claims to be inside the deep state. Its first attack came a month after Mr Trump was elected when a man named Edgar Welch broke into a Washington pizza parlour with a semi-automatic weapon. He believed the parlour was run by Hillary Clinton and kept child sex slaves in its basement. “The intel on this wasn’t 100 per cent,” Welch later admitted in what ought to be the motto of our age."
Indeed. And in the wake of a Biden landslide, now being predicted by more and more pundits, we need to have ready the full array of lawful authorities and state military deployments (e.g. National Guard) if need be.
This is to deal with any sore loser QAnon types who believe Trump's (rightful) clobbering represents some nefarious plot to destroy the nation. In fact, it will be Biden and the 'good guys' who deliver a return to normality, decency, honesty and civility - totally absent during the past 4 years of Trump's malevolent reign.
See Also:
by Joe Conason |
by Bill Berkowitz | September 11, 2020 - 5:57am | permalink
AND:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel
