Friend Infected With Right Wing Brain Worms - What to Do?

so you blame the lizard people?

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.

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.

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, 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)

Makes sense that Q would be a pedophile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Watkins_(businessman)

this is him

There is usually a lot of projection involved in paranoia

Ever heard of religion?

Even the dumbest religion is more appealing than this shit tbh.

And most religions have a lot to offer people psychologically. Their appeal isn’t inconceivable the way this is.

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”

“Lets” ducking autocorrect

Idk man

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

they are clearly desperate for meaning

And Rhonda Byrne, as I've been saying for years.

xp

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

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

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)

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).

Yes, agree, that is true, brainworms and conspiracists aren't the same thing, but they overlap in certain ways

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.

Yup

But why did they put their faith in a celebrity grotesque to transform the nation?

Because they want to be him? idk

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.

And Rhonda Byrne, as I've been saying for years.

xp

― pomenitul, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:51 (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You fuckin take that back

It had to come out sooner or later, deems. You've known this all along.

But why did they put their faith in a celebrity grotesque to transform the nation?

Because you think he is grotesque

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.

The lesson I'm taking away from this is that if you promise something, no matter what it is or how improbable it is that you or anyone else would be able to deliver it, there will be people who will believe you, because they want to. Trump could reach an unusual number of people with his promises because he had massive celebrity and the carefully constructed public image of an authority figure who could get things done.

I reckon that looking for a cause or looking for "the person" who triggers this stuff is misguided and there's too much of it in your questions treesh.

You're more than smart enough to know that trump doesnt rise to attention let alone power in an unsick society. A society with the symptoms displayed by the US since at least the tea party gained traction finds their trump, the more grotesque an example of a rejection of what a leader should be in the accepted incumbent regime that the malcontent rump are disaffected with the better

xp anvil otm

Trumps being hoisted in mockery of ordinary progress is mere evidence of his own inadequacy

Because you think he is grotesque

― anvil, Tuesday, January 12, 2021 3:40 PM (twenty seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean he is literally a grotesque, a cartoon, a self-parody. I feel like he knew this back when he was inventing his public persona in the 80s.

the notion that one is special and deserves to have their fantasies realized

This is a huge one, yeah. I don't think Trump-style fascism would work as well in more collectivist countries. Another kind of grifter is (and was) needed.

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.

Yes! 100% OTM

This isn't anything recent

Right,conspiracy theories aren't anything recent, but they sure seem to have recently grown in popularity. I think a lot of that is due to the internet, but the psychologist in me suspects the sense of powerlessness and ignorance, the feeling of being such a small thing in a big, uncaring complex modern world is driving it to some degree as well. The nature of the conspiracies lead me to think this ie nearly all involve explaining the true nature, controlling forces, and plot of global human society/economy. I This isn't anything recent def may be wrong!

I mean he is literally a grotesque, a cartoon, a self-parody. I feel like he knew this back when he was inventing his public persona in the 80s.

You look down on them, you look down on him.

You think you're saying "why do they think he is one of them he's rich he doesn't care about them"

You're actually saying "he is one of them".

No there is certainly something to this. I think the internet also collapses space and time in a way that is really disorienting to people. Metanarratives about how it all works can feel more real to people than the world in front of them, their communities, their families (if they’re lucky enough to have them).

Why am I the avatar of elite disdain all of a sudden? I agree that his followers like trump because they believe he is hated by the same people who hate them—the snobs. But i try not to be part of that.

I mean he is literally a grotesque, a cartoon, a self-parody.

So was Mussolini.

Conspiracy theorists also share a dystopian view of the ultimate endpoint of human nature that is deeply corrosive to whatever version of a soul one might believe in, and ofc taken to extremes is a self-fulfilling prophecy

Never mind that, have you checked the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland lately?

(xp)

Absolutely. This is a bitter vision of the world—the redemption promised by the storm isn’t a gentle one, there’s no redemption there