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Q anon

Crazy Q Congressperson from GA announces she’ll introduce articles of impeachment against Biden 1/21/21.

If the Pubs re-take the house, I'm sure that they'll impeach Biden twice just so Trump is not the only person with that distinction.
 
If the Pubs re-take the house, I'm sure that they'll impeach Biden twice just so Trump is not the only person with that distinction.

Probably three times just in case.
 
Makes sense to shift the date to March 4th, you just keep pushing the date to sometime in the future. They struck out when Trump lost because an easy 4 years was gone just like that. Then you had a ticking clock to inauguration which will happen so you need some other bullshit until you can come up with something else for the reason to keep believing into the future. It’s like the crazy doomsday people that put a date to it, the date comes and goes, and they just come up with a new date because they misinterpreted the signs.

Unfortunately, many Americans have always been gullible prey for doomsday prophecies, conspiracy theories, and the like. One of my favorite stories is the "Great Disappointment" of 1844. A preacher named William Miller used prophecies in the Biblical Books of Daniel and Revelation and came up with a complex series of calculations in which he concluded, and preached, that the Second Coming would be on October 22, 1844. His followers, called Millerites, and who may have numbered as many as 500,000, sold or gave away their worldly possessions and gathered on October 22nd for farewell picnics, dinners, and hilltop vigils waiting for Jesus to appear and take them away. When it didn't happen many of his followers were crushed, as well as humiliated. Miller said he had made a "miscalculation" in his prediction but never stopped believing in the Second Coming. Many of his followers divided into factions afterwards and argued over whether the Second Coming could be predicted (and what date), the meaning of the Second Coming, and so on. The Seventh-Day Adventists partly came out of the Millerite movement. What's interesting is the response from believers and non-believers, which sounds very similar to what's happening now.

Among the believers, many excuses were offered. According to Wikipedia, "Both Millerite leaders and followers were left generally bewildered and disillusioned. Responses varied: some continued to look daily for Christ's return, while others predicted different dates—among them April, July, and October 1845. Some theorized that the world had entered the seventh millennium—the "Great Sabbath", and that therefore, the saved should not work. Others acted as children, basing their belief on Jesus' words in Mark 10:15: "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Millerite O. J. D. Pickands used Revelation 14:14–16 to teach that Christ was now sitting on a white cloud and must be prayed down." A minister wrote that "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before... We wept, and wept, till the day dawn." Another wrote that "I waited all Tuesday [October 22] and dear Jesus did not come;– I waited all the forenoon of Wednesday, and was well in body as I ever was, but after 12 o'clock I began to feel faint, and before dark I needed someone to help me up to my chamber, as my natural strength was leaving me very fast, and I lay prostrate for 2 days without any pain– sick with disappointment."

Among non-believers, ridiculing Millerites after the Great Disappointment was common: "Some are tauntingly enquiring, 'Have you not gone up?' Even little children in the streets are shouting continually to passersby, 'Have you a ticket to go up?' The public prints, of the most fashionable and popular kind ... are caricaturing in the most shameful manner of the 'white robes of the saints,' Revelation 6:11, the 'going up,' and the great day of 'burning.' Even the pulpits are desecrated by the repetition of scandalous and false reports concerning the 'ascension robes', and priests are using their powers and pens to fill the catalogue of scoffing in the most scandalous periodicals of the day."

A substantial number of Americans have always been prey to this kind of stuff. Maybe a psychologist or sociologist can offer a detailed explanation of why - it's like collective nuttiness runs in our genes.
 
People need to feel a sense of belonging. Makes sense that QAnon has taken off during an election year when people are even more fractured into tribes and during a pandemic in which people are more physically separated. Keep in mind, we didn't have the Summer Olympics we usually have in presidential election years that brings us together for two weeks.
 
People need to feel a sense of belonging. Makes sense that QAnon has taken off during an election year when people are even more fractured into tribes and during a pandemic in which people are more physically separated. Keep in mind, we didn't have the Summer Olympics we usually have in presidential election years that brings us together for two weeks.

Would that have brought us together anymore? Magats have already turned on the US Women's soccer team.
 
My mom have a sticker on their car now. She has a master’s degree from Carolina. I think my dad, an MD from Wake, is also really into it. It’s insane that it’s basically an internet troll (or foreign agent) and the ego of a reality tv asshole that are driving the whole thing.

We're not currently speaking with my mom. It's insane how people get caught up in this shit.
 
There’s no easier group to scam than evangelicals. They want so desperately to believe that the end times are going to happen during their lifetime. That they are special. That they are chosen. Thankfully my evangelical mother is tech illiterate so she doesn’t know what Q is, but she’s been spouting variations of the BS ever since she retired.

That’s all this bullshit is, just another doomsday scam.
 
There’s no easier group to scam than evangelicals. They want so desperately to believe that the end times are going to happen during their lifetime. That they are special. That they are chosen. Thankfully my evangelical mother is tech illiterate so she doesn’t know what Q is, but she’s been spouting variations of the BS ever since she retired.

That’s all this bullshit is, just another doomsday scam.

And they're still at it. A good article out today discusses the fact that evangelicals still mostly support Trump even after the attack on the Capitol. The comments are what you would expect.

Like millions of other Americans, Franklin Graham watched the disturbing images of last week's riots at the U.S. Capitol with swelling concern and anger. Graham...said he was sickened to see "people attack my Capitol and break down the doors of my Capitol" and was dismayed to see how President Donald Trump riled up the protesters. "I don't think it was the president's finest moment," he said.
But Graham said he doesn't expect the tumult at the Capitol to deter evangelical Christians from supporting Trump. "I don’t think he had any understanding in that moment of what was going to take place," he said. "None of us did." Graham added, "He regrets it."

For the past four years, evangelical leaders created an "echo chamber" where they blamed all of Trump's digressions and missteps on the Democratic Party or the mainstream media, said Sarah Posner, an investigative journalist and author of "Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump."

After the deadly Capitol riot, evangelical leaders deflected blame from Trump, while those who have been critical of the president denounced the riots and blamed him for playing a role, she said.
Evangelicals "are so conditioned not to trust the media, it's going to be really hard to convince them of the truth of what happened on Wednesday," Posner said. In the wake of the Capitol riots, many evangelical leaders have continued fueling Trump's baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in last year's elections, she said. "Because it’s the leaders who are again churning the same conspiracy theories, I don’t see a lot of progress in changing anybody’s minds", Posner said

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the 14,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, said Tuesday he had “absolutely no regrets” over his “enthusiastic support” of Trump over the past four years. “He is without doubt the most pro-life and pro-religious president in history,” Jeffress said in an e-mail. “The president has every right to hold the view that the election was fraudulent and to invite those who share that belief to peacefully protest. He neither called for nor condoned the despicable actions of those who invaded our Capitol and assaulted the police.”

For other evangelicals, Trump's role in the Capitol attack will be minimized because many see him not just as an elected official but one anointed by God, Posner said. "They feel he should remain president because God wanted him to be president," she said.

Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-regrets-evangelicals-other-faith-233636622.html
 
For other evangelicals, Trump's role in the Capitol attack will be minimized because many see him not just as an elected official but one anointed by God, Posner said. "They feel he should remain president because God wanted him to be president," she said.

God is so easily defeated by Dominion voting machines?
 
From that piece

In an article in the online portal The Gospel Coalition, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, condemned the attacks on the Capitol and called on Christians to reject the falsehoods surrounding the elections and embrace the truth.

"Enough is enough – and indeed was enough a long time ago," Moore wrote. "It will take decades to rebuild from the wreckage in this country. But, as Christians, we can start now – just by not being afraid to say what is objectively the truth. Joe Biden has been elected president."

He said, "If Christians are people of truth, we ought to be the first to acknowledge reality."


This guy gets it...too bad he doesn’t speak for the majority of evangelicals, apparently.



It’s a warped world view, largely dependent on “us vs them” thinking. And characterized by proudly shared belief in things the “world” rejects or scorns. Often things that fail to “acknowledge reality”. Thus Mr. Moore is fighting an uphill battle. And indeed evangelicals will remain an easy mark for a charlatan and scoundrel like Trump.
 
If you really want to get a feel for how wide spread this is, I highly recommend perusing the subreddit r/qanoncasualites. It's made up of a ton of people posting about family, friends, loved ones, etc. that they're losing or have lost to q anon conspiracies. It's not dissimilar to a support group for people dealing with someone else's addiction to drugs or alcohol. It really hits home on how widespread this shit is. It's not just the yahoos storming the capitol. There are way more believers and sympathizers out there than a lot of us realize.
 
I imagine much of it is a subset of people who already lost their families to Fox News.

Evangelical leaders aren’t going to admit they were lying or fooled about this. Admitting one lie leads to admitting other lies.
 
I imagine much of it is a subset of people who already lost their families to Fox News.

Evangelical leaders aren’t going to admit they were lying or fooled about this. Admitting one lie leads to admitting other lies.

In a lot of the posts I've read on there Fox News is the gateway drug, so to speak, before graduating to OAN and then going down the YouTube rabbit hole. It's not uncommon to read posts on there about people making violent threats against family, wishing death upon friends and family because they haven't bought into the fantasy, marriages disolving, and, in some extreme cases, people killing themselves because they've become so paranoid about the conspiracy theories. It's wild stuff. Based on the levels of paranoia and anti-social behavior described on there it's probably also indicative of A LOT of untreated mental illness.
 
mental illness? nothing to see there so why bother treating it?

if only nancy reagan had just said no to fox news rather than marijuana we'd all be better off.
 
I'm honestly coming around to believe that the only thing that can solve this issue is a massive denazification effort akin to what was implemented in Germany post-WWII. The biggest problem is that I don't see how you could implement such a program in the US (I also question the morality of it, but some type of deprogramming work is needed). In Germany there is an entire domestic intelligence agency that monitors and arrests people based on extremist political views. This would never work in the US because a) it would almost definitely be weaponized against black, brown, and indigenous people, the LGBTQ community, anarchists, unions, etc. and b) it definitely does not jive with the first amendment.

In short, I think we're screwed.
 
I agree with Frosty. I think there are plenty of gateway drugs. Pro-life movements, churches, the thin line between patriotism and nationalism. But part of it is fueled by a rightful skepticism about our social institutions.

Should we be skeptical about our for profit medical system? Yes. But should we be skeptical about vaccines? No.

Should we be concerned that wealthy elites see not punished within our criminal justice system? Yes. But should we assume they’re all part of a cabal of child traffickers? No.
 
In short, I think we're screwed.

Seems like it.


However, while the first amendment won’t allow state prohibition of most speech, the state can and should make good efforts to educate its people as to what is true and what is not.
 
I'm honestly coming around to believe that the only thing that can solve this issue is a massive denazification effort akin to what was implemented in Germany post-WWII. The biggest problem is that I don't see how you could implement such a program in the US (I also question the morality of it, but some type of deprogramming work is needed). In Germany there is an entire domestic intelligence agency that monitors and arrests people based on extremist political views. This would never work in the US because a) it would almost definitely be weaponized against black, brown, and indigenous people, the LGBTQ community, anarchists, unions, etc. and b) it definitely does not jive with the first amendment.

In short, I think we're screwed.

ah yes re-education camps. What could go wrong.
 
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