#QAnon: Slacktivism For Fascists

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RagnarokAngel: Oct 5, 2006; Black Magic Extraordinaire

Corsair Pool Boy posted:

Nah, just means they decoded the timing wrong. It's still coming.

Whenever Trump leaves office they will still think he's planning things from behind the scenes.

Hell maybe even when he's dead. It'll be a false flag to put the deep state off their guard.

# ? Aug 1, 2019 11:42

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# ? May 24, 2024 22:28

SneezeOfTheDecade: Feb 6, 2011; gettin' covid all
over your posts

quote:

"All the scholarly work that I did on these texts? Indicated that declas would happen."
"Oh, gosh, I'm as disappointed as you are, Herb."
"Yeah, but I went home and began to reevaluate the texts."
"You don't say."
"And I realized that I'd made some crucial errors."
"Well, math is hard."
"Yes, well, the actual declas is May 19."
"Okay, let's see what we've got. Um, oh, on the 19th we can't give you the Washington Monument. We have a Spring Spectacular free ice cream giveaway."
"Heh! I misspoke. Yeah, it's May 20?"
"That is free."
"Ah!"
"Okay. Declas, May 20th."

# ? Aug 1, 2019 15:28

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1156963220508282880
https://twitter.com/travis_view/status/1156971308631986176

e: lol

https://twitter.com/travis_view/status/1156974987091177473

zoux fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Aug 1, 2019

# ? Aug 1, 2019 17:55

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Warthur posted:

Hell, Charles Mackay identified a good chunk of the pattern behind this sort of thing in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions back in 1841 - this pattern's about as old as modernity and widespread news propagation itself.

I should mention that MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions is probably going to be the August Book of the Month in the Book Barn reading club. The thread's not up yet, but please do drop by and join in when it starts! The book's actually available in the public domain, so it's easy to get ahold of, and we'll have a hyperlink to it in at least a couple forms.

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:04

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

zoux posted:

https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1156963220508282880
https://twitter.com/travis_view/status/1156971308631986176

e: lol

https://twitter.com/travis_view/status/1156974987091177473

It's really weird how qanon and pizzagate are specifically generating a sustained stochastic terrorism movement; whereas equivalent scams like the Bible Code or the Web Bot have never produced a single violent radical.

Unless of course- generating a stochastic terrorism movement within a target population was always the true aim of pizzagate and qanon. (Reminder that pizzagate has been 100% publicly confirmed by US intelligence services to be a Russian psyop.)

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:08

The Chairman: Jun 30, 2003; But you forget, mon ami, that there is evil everywhere under the sun

Prester Jane posted:

It's really weird how qanon and pizzagate are specifically generating a sustained stochastic terrorism movement; whereas equivalent scams like the Bible Code or the Web Bot have never produced a single violent radical.

Unless of course- generating a stochastic terrorism movement within a target population was always the true aim of pizzagate and qanon. (Reminder that pizzagate has been 100% publicly confirmed by US intelligence services to be a Russian psyop.)

I'm not familiar with Web Bot, but I think the Bible Code's failing was that most of its "predictions" were actually just phrases found in the permutations after the "predicted" events occurred, and the few actual future predictions were extremely specific and failed completely.

The strength of Qanon is that it's self-repairing; if a prediction fails, it's just because the community's interpretation was wrong, or it actually happened but secretly, or something happened that required a change of plans, or it was intentional disinfo to throw off the deep state. It's impossible to dissuade a Qanon believer from believing any particular bit of Qanon lore because they've explicitly primed themselves to believe that a failed prediction is actually ironclad proof of their beliefs, and not just a disconfirmed expectation they have to rationalize somehow.

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:18

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

Discendo Vox posted:

I should mention that MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions is probably going to be the August Book of the Month in the Book Barn reading club. The thread's not up yet, but please do drop by and join in when it starts! The book's actually available in the public domain, so it's easy to get ahold of, and we'll have a hyperlink to it in at least a couple forms.

the title of the thread should be shocking bad hat

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:19

Dr. Killjoy: Oct 9, 2012

Makes sense, FBI investigated the MJ-12 documents just to evaluate if any actual top secret info was contained within.

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:23

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

The Chairman posted:

I'm not familiar with Web Bot, but I think the Bible Code's failing was that most of its "predictions" were actually just phrases found in the permutations after the "predicted" events occurred, and the few actual future predictions were extremely specific and failed completely.

The strength of Qanon is that it's self-repairing; if a prediction fails, it's just because the community's interpretation was wrong, or it actually happened but secretly, or something happened that required a change of plans, or it was intentional disinfo to throw off the deep state. It's impossible to dissuade a Qanon believer from believing any particular bit of Qanon lore because they've explicitly primed themselves to believe that a failed prediction is actually ironclad proof of their beliefs, and not just a disconfirmed expectation they have to rationalize somehow.

I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle. The Bible Code never "failed", it still has loyal adherents who are making money for the grifters to this day. Not as many as years past mind you- but it's still an active grift.

The Web Bot and the Bible Code all play on the same basic psychological phenomena that qanon is playing on, the difference is that the Web Bot and Bible Code where scams being run by self-aware grifters, and qanon is a psyop by a state actor meant to create/support stochastic terrorism in the targeted population.

That's why qanon prophets keep picking a specific day for D class or some such equivalent That Never Comes to pass, yes from the outside to normal people it looks ridiculous, but there is a method to the madness here. Every time one of these D class events occurs there will be a small portion (5%-10% at best) I've qanon adherence that leave the movement behind forever, but the rest will resolve the cognitive dissonance they are experiencing by embracing their delusions on an even deeper level.

It has been my contention since the outset of this thread* that qanon was specifically meant to drive stochastic terrorism in the United States- specifically through the mechanism of repeatedly exposing qanon adherents to massive amounts of cognitive dissonance.

*at the time qanon was so obscure that guyovitch demanded the OP provide justification for this threads continued existence

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:29

ponzicar: Mar 17, 2008

I think the big difference is that normal crackpottery like the Bible Code doesn't have a strong political component. Without that, there's not much motivation for the nutcases to take direct action.

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:48

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

ponzicar posted:

I think the big difference is that normal crackpottery like the Bible Code doesn't have a strong political component. Without that, there's not much motivation for the nutcases to take direct action.

The Bible Code was 1000% political- one of its most important/popular predictions had to do with the assassination of Benjamin Netanyahu. Its largest base of adherents (in its prime of popularity) was Christian Dominionists.

Prester Jane fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Aug 1, 2019

# ? Aug 1, 2019 20:50

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

I think this NYT article about a Trump-promoting pastor (who bases part of his apocalyptic ideas on the Bible Code) will hit a bunch of very familiar notes:

New York Times posted:

“Some of you have been saying you want to live in biblical times,” Mr. Cahn said, pacing behind a lectern. Then he spread his hands wide. “Well, you are.”

Sitting at the end of a sleepy drive an hour from Manhattan, Beth Israel may look like any common suburban church. But the center has a highly unusual draw. Every weekend, some 1,000 congregants gather for the idiosyncratic teachings of the church’s celebrity pastor, an entrepreneurial doomsday prophet who claims that President Trump’s rise to power was foretold in the Bible.

Mr. Cahn is tapping into a belief more popular than may appear.

A recent Fox News poll found one in four Americans believe “God wanted Donald Trump to become president.” Celebrities like the televangelist Paula White and Franklin Graham have boosted the idea. The president’s own press secretary suggested as much in a January interview. And on the opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference this month, the millionaire businessman Michael Lindell took to the stage and declared President Trump “chosen by God.”

....

He has dedicated an entire book to this very thesis, an insight he claims to have received from God. “The Paradigm: The Ancient Blueprint That Holds the Mystery of Our Times,” in fact, is only the most recent installment of a best-selling series dealing with the supposed mystical meaning behind all manner of current events. In it, Mr. Cahn likens Mr. Trump to the biblical king Jehu, who led the ancient nation of Israel away from idolatry.

With his growing stature, Mr. Cahn is also a rising figure in some quarters of conservative politics. In an email to congregants, Mr. Cahn shared his latest good news: This weekend he is making his first trip to the president’s vacation retreat, Mar-a-Lago. He is set to address a small gathering of activists and advisers.

......

Gail Greenholtz, an elder member, stood near the end of the line. “Many of us consider him a prophet of our time,” she said. “A visionary.”

Michael Cooney, 58, had driven an hour to hear the pastor teach on politics and prophecy. “It’s all relevant for this moment,” he said. “He shows us that Trump was actually in the Bible.”

....

He devoured the writings of Nostradamus, the Virginia psychic Edgar Cayce and far-out conspiracy theories about ancient astronauts. Mr. Cahn soon stumbled on “The Late Great Planet Earth,” the 1970s best-seller that argued doomsday prophecies of the Bible were playing out with events like the Cold War and Israel’s Six-Day War. Mr. Cahn bought the book thinking it was about UFOs; instead he was given a crash-course in Christian eschatology.

....

In sermons, he began comparing the attacks to the ancient warnings of the Bible, drawing largely from the book of Isaiah, where God vows to punish the disobedient nation of Israel.

Mr. Cahn said abortion, gay rights and the perceived retreat of religion in the public square were all troubling signs that America, like ancient Israel, had lost its way.

Once rolling with this comparison, Mr. Cahn began seeing patterns everywhere. As the Israelites turned away from their God, they were attacked by Assyrians; America, in modern times, was also attacked by a foreign army from the East, Al Qaeda terrorists. After the ancient siege, the Israelites vowed to replant a destroyed sycamore grove with new trees; near ground zero, a huge sycamore tree was also destroyed, as the towers fell.

The supposed connections go on. Tenuous as they may seem, Mr. Cahn saw the links as compelling. His flock did too. “God revealed patterns,” he said. “I called it the download process.”

....

The book, published in the months after Trump’s win, again likens America to the ancient nation of Israel — two peoples, Mr. Cahn says, who have a unique relationship with God. He then argues that all sorts of figures in contemporary politics have biblical counterparts. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, for example, are the modern-day analogues to wicked Ahab and Jezebel. Trump is the warrior-king Jehu, who took control of the nation and cast idols out of the capital. “Jehu also sought to drain the swamp,” Mr. Cahn said.

Trump, “like his ancient predecessor,” Mr. Cahn writes in his book, was a “flawed vessel” being used by God. “The unlikely and controversial warrior was destined to become the new ruler of the land,” Mr. Cahn goes on. “The template would ordain that Donald Trump would become the next president.”

Pointing to Trump’s possible rollback of abortion rights, appointment of conservative Supreme Court judges and the move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, Mr. Cahn casts Trump as a heroic figure. “Trump is offering us a window for revival, a window to return to God,” Mr. Cahn said. “What happened in the election was not about Trump but about something much higher, the purposes of God.”

Prester Jane fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Aug 1, 2019

# ? Aug 1, 2019 21:33

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

The failure of yesterday's "declass" event seems to not have made any appreciable impact on the total number or level of enthusiasm among Q supporters; imo all its really accomplished is shaking loose some of the less faithful and leaving only the most faithful to continue radicalizing each other:

https://twitter.com/marcusdipaola/s...ingawful.com%2F

# ? Aug 1, 2019 23:22

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

I should mention that MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions is probably going to be the August Book of the Month in the Book Barn reading club. The book's actually available in the public domain, so it's easy to get ahold of, and we'll have a hyperlink to it in at least a couple forms.

The thread is now open!

# ? Aug 2, 2019 01:18

bird with big dick: Oct 21, 2015

Prester Jane posted:

The failure of yesterday's "declass" event seems to not have made any appreciable impact on the total number or level of enthusiasm among Q supporters; imo all its really accomplished is shaking loose some of the less faithful and leaving only the most faithful to continue radicalizing each other:

https://twitter.com/marcusdipaola/s...ingawful.com%2F

Brandon Straka?

The hair stylist?

# ? Aug 2, 2019 03:09

twistedmentat: Nov 21, 2003; Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to

Prester Jane posted:

I think this NYT article about a Trump-promoting pastor (who bases part of his apocalyptic ideas on the Bible Code) will hit a bunch of very familiar notes:

Yea, guys who bang porn stars while their 3rd wife is pregnant, openly lusts after his daughter and have almost certainly raped a lot of kids are usually the chosen of God. Not to mention he is more of a avatar of greed than Larfeeze.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 04:09

pseudanonymous: Aug 30, 2008; When you make the second entry and the debits and credits balance, and you blow them to hell.

twistedmentat posted:

Yea, guys who bang porn stars while their 3rd wife is pregnant, openly lusts after his daughter and have almost certainly raped a lot of kids are usually the chosen of God. Not to mention he is more of a avatar of greed than Larfeeze.

When was the last time you actually read the bible?

# ? Aug 2, 2019 04:58

Corsair Pool Boy: Dec 17, 2004; College Slice

bird with big dick posted:

Brandon Straka?

The hair stylist?

Google posted:

The WalkAway campaign, also styled #WalkAway, is a social media campaign that launched ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections by former liberal Brandon Straka, a hairstylist and actor from New York City, in a video released June 29, 2018, entitled #WalkAway - Brandon Straka, "Why I Left The Democrat Party".

# ? Aug 2, 2019 05:30

twistedmentat: Nov 21, 2003; Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to

pseudanonymous posted:

When was the last time you actually read the bible?

That's the joke.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 06:32

pseudanonymous: Aug 30, 2008; When you make the second entry and the debits and credits balance, and you blow them to hell.

twistedmentat posted:

That's the joke.

Sorry I can't tell anymore there're unironic christians asking people for pray to them on these boards in tyool 2019

# ? Aug 2, 2019 14:34

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

I've been praying for y'all

# ? Aug 2, 2019 14:37

GABA ghoul: Oct 29, 2011

zoux posted:

I've been praying for y'all

To what or whom? I never agreed to this. Please cease and desist

# ? Aug 2, 2019 14:49

bowser: Apr 7, 2007

I'm a Canadian that does quite a bit of travel around the US for work and I've seen my fair share of Q bumper stickers and baseball hats, and I've met at least one extraordinarily wealthy Q-follower. How prominent is this thing? Are there like, QAnon groups that meet up in real life or is it exclusively online?

# ? Aug 2, 2019 16:31

Blue Moonlight: Apr 28, 2005; Bitter and Sarcastic

Corsair Pool Boy posted:

bird with big dick posted:
Brandon Straka?

The hair stylist?

Google posted:
The WalkAway campaign, also styled #WalkAway, is a social media campaign that launched ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections by former liberal Brandon Straka, a hairstylist and actor from New York City, in a video released June 29, 2018, entitled #WalkAway - Brandon Straka, "Why I Left The Democrat Party".

I encountered a flag for this campaign in, of all places, a family-owned Mexican restaurant in the Bay Area.

It�s a shame. They had good food.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 16:46

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

bowser posted:

I'm a Canadian that does quite a bit of travel around the US for work and I've seen my fair share of Q bumper stickers and baseball hats, and I've met at least one extraordinarily wealthy Q-follower. How prominent is this thing? Are there like, QAnon groups that meet up in real life or is it exclusively online?

There are a variety of local qanon groups now. In all honesty if one could ascertain and accurate count of qanon followers, it probably would rank in the top 15 or so religions in the United States at this point.

Prester Jane fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Aug 2, 2019

# ? Aug 2, 2019 16:47

bowser: Apr 7, 2007

With the religion comparison in mind, are there certain major "sects" of QAnon, like are the JFK jr. theories universally believed or is there a segment of Q-followers that think that's just too out there? Sorry if I missed this in the thread, I've been skimming through it but probably overlooked some stuff.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 16:51

I AM GRANDO: Aug 20, 2006

Not yet. Expect the qanon equivalent of the Nicaean Council to take place in the flooded radioactive ruins of human civilization about 300 years from now.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 16:57

InsertPotPun: Apr 16, 2018; Pissy Bitch stan

I wish white grown ups could fill that howling emptiness inside them by starting a social club around something NOT actively harmful to the world and its people. Like a sewing club. Ferrets are fun and frisky.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 17:13

90s Cringe Rock: Nov 29, 2006

Like, ferret-legging?

# ? Aug 2, 2019 17:14

bird food bathtub: Aug 9, 2003; College Slice

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Like, ferret-legging?

Is this bootlegging, but much, much cuter?

# ? Aug 2, 2019 17:43

Fiend: Dec 2, 2001

zoux posted:

I've been praying for y'all

I save vs spells and cast �charm nitwit� on you.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 17:59

InsertPotPun: Apr 16, 2018; Pissy Bitch stan

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Like, ferret-legging?

Look, as long as it's not white supremacy it's a step up.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 18:00

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Fiend posted:

I save vs spells and cast �charm nitwit� on you.

The most dangerous game is....D&D

# ? Aug 2, 2019 18:01

Fiend: Dec 2, 2001

zoux posted:

The most dangerous game is....D&D

Advanced & 2.0

# ? Aug 2, 2019 18:02

Kangxi: Nov 12, 2016; "Too paranoid for you?"
"Not me, paranoia's the garlic in life's kitchen, right, you can never have too much."

bowser posted:

I'm a Canadian that does quite a bit of travel around the US for work and I've seen my fair share of Q bumper stickers and baseball hats, and I've met at least one extraordinarily wealthy Q-follower. How prominent is this thing? Are there like, QAnon groups that meet up in real life or is it exclusively online?

I've seen an occasional Q sticker on a truck in rural areas but I have no idea how many people actually believe this.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 19:25

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Like everything on the internet, it's probably a very small number of very loud people.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 19:31

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

zoux posted:

Like everything on the internet, it's probably a very small number of very loud people.

It's gone far beyond that now.

https://twitter.com/marcusdipaola/s...ingawful.com%2F

# ? Aug 2, 2019 19:51

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

That's six people.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 19:52

Prester Jane: Nov 4, 2008; by Hand Knit

zoux posted:

That's six people.

Read the tweet. Trumps pre-rally speaker dropped "Where We Go One We Go All".

# ? Aug 2, 2019 19:54

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# ? May 24, 2024 22:28

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Brandon Straka is a maga grifter.

Until there's some actual data, I'm going to assume that, like most internet fringe werido cults, their actual numbers are a lot smaller than they seem. Also complicating this is that the qanon "movement" is full of non-true-believer grifters and trolls. (Q themselves, however many there have been, is/are troll(s)) Q anon is something to make fun of, not something to worry about.

# ? Aug 2, 2019 20:03

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