it was erased by Bill Gates iirc
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:29 (three years ago) link
Is it really not known who is behind this?
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:31 (three years ago) link
Harry Styles was behind the last ~mysterious~ online thing I looked into...
― kinder, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:34 (three years ago) link
I don’t think my man is behind this one
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:35 (three years ago) link
I heard it was the founder of 8chan. Whoever is driving these “breadcrumbs” is evil, as is Alex Jones. It’s destroying lives.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:36 (three years ago) link
Are they still doing it? Can anyone join in or does 'the community' only believe a/some specific accounts?
― kinder, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:37 (three years ago) link
I think the original Q is still posting through a verified account on 8chan. And there is a broader network of pages and videos and things around it.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:39 (three years ago) link
That Medium article is great, thanks DJI!
― kinder, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:46 (three years ago) link
You're welcome. It's crazy how even just looking at the collages of people making innocent hand signs (in an essay about Apophenia!) made something in my head go "is this really a coincidence?"
― DJI, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 18:48 (three years ago) link
yes but hundreds of thousands of mostly old people
I know that we've come to think of it this way but I fear it's not true, there are dummies every age all over this
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:07 (three years ago) link
Why is society producing so many people who are willing to throw their lives away for a fantasy? And not even an appealing one?
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:09 (three years ago) link
I said my take on a conspiracy theory thread: alienation and feelings of powerlessness and paranoia (experts, govt, trad media can't be trusted) brought on by living in an incredibly complex modern world
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:13 (three years ago) link
Ever heard of religion?
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:16 (three years ago) link
Why is society producing so many people who are willing to throw their lives away for a fantasy?
I think you are misdiagnosing the source of the problem; it's not so much that these people were raised wrong or mis-educated by society. Far more of the blame lies with the people who understand exactly what they are promulgating and the means by which they are doing it, through constant lies and emotional manipulation, preying on the weaknesses that reside in all of us. They are amoral lizards, actuated only by the desire for power, money and control. They laugh at their dupes as much as we sometimes do, then continue to destroy the world for their own petty gain. Blame them, not their handy fools.
― Respectfully Yours, (Aimless), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:18 (three years ago) link
so you blame the lizard people?
― Wayne Grotski (symsymsym), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:20 (three years ago) link
People like alex jones are certainly predators, exploiters, but they seem to have many willing “marks.” It does seem like people are adrift from their local communities and workplaces and too plugged into national and global issues, which are overwhelming, and looking for personal meaning there — that seems to be a part of it.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:22 (three years ago) link
Also maybe a lack of interest in being an ordinary, hardworking and ethical person. In the US, that isn’t valued enough. People thirst for glamor and following Q breadcrumbs seems to give that to them.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:23 (three years ago) link
― treeship., Tuesday, January 12, 2021 10:39 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
a guy bought 8chan from its founder, he is a sexpat pornographer who lives in southeast asia, it is believed that he is Q (although he may not have been the original Q)
― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:26 (three years ago) link
Makes sense that Q would be a pedophile
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:26 (three years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Watkins_(businessman)
this is him
― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:27 (three years ago) link
There is usually a lot of projection involved in paranoia
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:27 (three years ago) link
Even the dumbest religion is more appealing than this shit tbh.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:28 (three years ago) link
And most religions have a lot to offer people psychologically. Their appeal isn’t inconceivable the way this is.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:29 (three years ago) link
The fascist base aren’t dupes! A shared framework of lies—even or especially outrageous, obviously untrue lies—provides them with a base upon which to build political power. Their goals are objectively immoral and indefensible from every factual perspective, but inhabiting the same shared fantasy world let’s them pursue those ends anyway. It is, like others pointed out, exactly the same function, politically, that religion has traditionally served: a way to conjure power “out of thin air”
― Dan I., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:30 (three years ago) link
“Lets” ducking autocorrect
― Dan I., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:31 (three years ago) link
Idk man
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:32 (three years ago) link
I think there are dupes involved here. On that reddit people talk about family members terrified that the cabal is after them
And maybe some people in Salem really believed in witches, but the uppity loud-mouthed womenfolk got conveniently burned all the same.
― Dan I., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:34 (three years ago) link
This is even more appealing than established, venerated religions. This makes you feel like you're in a secret decoder ring special club, you have access to this knowledge that has been purposely and thoroughly hidden from you. You are one of the select few who have seen The Truth.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:34 (three years ago) link
This is def working in some people’s interests Dan I agree. But it’s also poisoning a lot of minds.
I think it’s appealing in a very childish way. They are forsaking the responsibility to be a real person in the real world with real commitments, beliefs. They’re throwing their mind in the trash, which isn’t what you do if you become a Christian, Buddhist or Jew. Those creeds — the good versions etc — are all about how to have meaning in your everyday life.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:40 (three years ago) link
Treesh, brainworm “beliefs” arise from motivated doublethink. These people exhibit all the signs of genuine belief, but if someone like Trump or Fox News tells them otherwise they will instantly and seamlessly “believe” the opposite. It is the weaponized bad faith of fascism turned inwards. It really is not belief in the same way that a reasonable person believes in a fact.
― Dan I., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:40 (three years ago) link
The other mainstream religions I missed should be in there too. There’s redeeming features along with the drawbacks that we’re all aware of too
these ppl would have all been better with the actual religion their parents had, at least in the small churches that one thrived in (geographic) communities and as a sort of extrareligious, civic responsibilty
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:44 (three years ago) link
This makes you feel like you're in a secret decoder ring special club, you have access to this knowledge that has been purposely and thoroughly hidden from you. You are one of the select few who have seen The Truth.
So basically Dan Brown's to blame.
― fish quits shock (Matt #2), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:44 (three years ago) link
they are clearly desperate for meaning
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:45 (three years ago) link
And Rhonda Byrne, as I've been saying for years.
xp
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:51 (three years ago) link
DJI posted this to uspol and I found it to be an interesting counterpoint (thread):
Let me explain something to those of you who didn't grow up around violently abusive white supremacists.*They absolutely do not believe their own bullshit*, but it's useful for them to pretend they do.— Lili Saintcrow (@lilithsaintcrow) January 7, 2021
This is the best explanation i've seen of why it might be happening, where it came from, etc. Unsurprisingly the top comments are full of people who came back to watch it again after last week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfhYyTuT44
― piscesx, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:57 (three years ago) link
I don't think its anything to do with the modern world (unless we mean going back to the enlightenment). I think of it as more a reaction to education, an antipathy to measuring things, a disdain for city folks, to things learned in books and not from hands
This isn't anything recent
(I think this applies more to brainworms more so than consipratorial thinking. Though there's overlap I don't think they are the same)
― anvil, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:01 (three years ago) link
things learned in books and not from hands
Not necessarily. Plenty of conspiracy theorists are very well read (perhaps less so in the US, however).
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:04 (three years ago) link
Yes, agree, that is true, brainworms and conspiracists aren't the same thing, but they overlap in certain ways
― anvil, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:07 (three years ago) link
i think the main appeal of Q is as coping mechanism, to prevent disillusionment, when the trump presidency didnt actually result in a complete overthrow of the existing society and the reign of justice on earth which people were hoping for. we know all the damage that trump has done to the "others" (undocumented immigrants most notably), but that's not enough for a lot of his supporters. essentially america is the same country it was in 2016: he didn't reopen the factories and coal mines, he didn't stop immigration or revert america to a whiter past, popular culture has if anything gotten more liberal and more geared towards representation, BLM protests increased in size and intensity, the hated liberal elites are still thriving, obama and clinton making money hand over fist on media deals, democrats winning elections, etc.. basically every grievance that existed before trump was elected still exists and for some people pretending that actually secretly trump is waging sacred warfare on the the satanic forces of darkness suits them more than reality.
― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:10 (three years ago) link
Yup
― sound of scampo talk to me (El Tomboto), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:27 (three years ago) link
But why did they put their faith in a celebrity grotesque to transform the nation?
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:33 (three years ago) link
Because they want to be him? idk
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:34 (three years ago) link
The whole trump story has been bizarre from the start and Q is perhaps the most sinister chapter of all. The sheer weirdness is overwhelming, the unreality, like something from a nightmare. I don’t know if there is a path back to reality for these people or not but it’s very important that this is contained in some way.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:35 (three years ago) link
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:51 (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
You fuckin take that back
― Ole Blueyes Solskjaer (darraghmac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:37 (three years ago) link
It had to come out sooner or later, deems. You've known this all along.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:38 (three years ago) link
Because you think he is grotesque
― anvil, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:40 (three years ago) link
The magical thinking stuff goes back to norman vincent peale, the preacher at the church Trump attended growing up. Maybe the underlying illness behind all this—I mean America—is the notion that one is special and deserves to have their fantasies realized. You can’t really be an ethical human being if you’re a narcissist.
― treeship., Tuesday, 12 January 2021 20:40 (three years ago) link