Lukewarm take: Helen's 100% right that this isn't mental illness, but it's not weakness. Cults take people like Helen all the time. https://twitter.com/hels/status/1348017296367878145

Cults take normal people who feel disenfranchised with society, life, vales and prey on them. They provide meaning to a chaotic world and a found family with shared beliefs.

Q was just that. It built meaning from the innocuous, giving folks a belief that something bigger was going on. Was it bonkers? Yes! But there's a reason why scientologists don't mention the Xenu shit until you've dropped a mortgage on clearing your thetans.

You always start small and base it in reality. "There's a group of people who work in the background who influence the government." Yeah, lobbyists. The community rewards you for going further until you're sure you can turn into light if you just sing away your sins loud enough.

Im sure a ton of these people came in on racist, homophobic, xenophobic beliefs, but I bet a lot of them got swept up by the sense that they're part of something big. Something only they and a select chosen few know. If they shun the unbelievers and focus, they can see the Truth.

Then, when things go absolutely snooker loopy, you've cut ties with non-believers and only read doctrine, they say "Soros engineered COVID to distract from his pedo brothel". Dismissing that means losing everything.

Anyways, hold people accountable for their actions, but don't think for a second that it can't happen to you.