Read on Twitter
People have pointed out that "QAnon shaman" guy has been seen supporting environmentalist causes and I gotta say, if you're surprised by the incoherent politics, you haven't been paying attention to QAnon. The cult is founded, and thrives, on incoherent politics.
I spent a very long time talking to a Pizzagate guy who I ended up on a Craigslist rideshare with in early 2017.
People get sucked into it from New Age culture, from a generic belief in God's plan, combined with the awareness that they're definitely being lied to by SOMEONE.
People get sucked into it from New Age culture, from a generic belief in God's plan, combined with the awareness that they're definitely being lied to by SOMEONE.
The guy I spoke to had been a Sanders supporter and a water protector in North Dakota - and from other things I've heard, he wasn't the only one who snapped that way.
It is kind of understandable: you think you've figured out your life's purpose, then the bottom drops out.
It is kind of understandable: you think you've figured out your life's purpose, then the bottom drops out.
There's a group of people in there who are seemingly close to leftist.
The psychological motivation for their earnestly held conspiracy beliefs is, and has been,
"Trump can't POSSIBLY be what he seems, because if that were the case, the timeline would be totally off the rails."
The psychological motivation for their earnestly held conspiracy beliefs is, and has been,
"Trump can't POSSIBLY be what he seems, because if that were the case, the timeline would be totally off the rails."
Some of them get pulled into overt white supremacist beliefs from there. Others remain covert ("Well, racial justice is good, but BLM is a psyop!") or cling to a narrative where nothing is as it seems - the symbols, the news, the President - while acting as fascist footsoldiers.
This isn't the only example of this dynamic playing out around us, all built on the same planks.
Including the specific, circular, "people who disagree with us are child abusers, because they disagree with us; therefore we're the good guys, because we oppose the child abusers".
Including the specific, circular, "people who disagree with us are child abusers, because they disagree with us; therefore we're the good guys, because we oppose the child abusers".
And it's always about an elaborately invented fantasy scenario, built as a sink to redirect the anger any time the just-world fallacy slips, to push emotional buttons without acknowledging what abuse *really* looks like.
The enemy is simultaneously powerless and omnipotent.
The enemy is simultaneously powerless and omnipotent.
On what to do if someone you know is getting pulled in: https://twitter.com/outliersgeorg/status/1347103459049316354?s=20
