QAnon goes mainstream

I'm paywalled on that one, but I assume the NY Post article is basically the same. I like that he says the theory never came up, because saying something directly to Trump would identify him. Talking about it on the internet for months does not identify him, I guess? Deep state liberal satanic pedovores don't read Twitter, but do have the Oval Office under surveillance?

https://nypost.com/2018/08/24/qanon-conspiracy-theorist-meets-trump-at-white-house/

“By the way never said anything about Q (to Trump),” LeBron said. “I would never ever want to be known as somebody who would connect the president for something. I think we all know he knows about. Never said it. Never came up.”
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There's an article in the Aug. 24th issue of Esquire.com about how belief in QAnon can effect relationships:

The mother of all conspiracy theories disrupts family dynamics and tests loved ones.

For some families in which politics is already a fraught topic, the emergence of someone who follows QAnon can transform family dynamics into a hothouse of raw emotion and test relationships in extreme ways.
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Yup. My dad lock, stock, and barrel believes the Qanon posts. Q will come up in conversations every now and then, and I just let my dad talk. The same goes when he brings up chemtrails (I push back a little on that one). When my dad first brought up Q I knew a little because of a friend on Facebook. I usually go to qanonpost.com to keep up with the nonsense. But we've gotten into some pretty heated arguments about conspiracies and how I don't have an open mind and I'm too young to know how things used to be.
 
In this article could you remove "Q" and insert "flat earth" and get the same picture about what these beliefs do to interpersonal relations. The conspiracy theory mindset is pretty consistent no matter what the subject of the belief system.

You might be a conspiracy theorist if ...

- your theories are unfalsifiable. If disconfirming evidence is presented it is dismissed as faked or otherwise rationalized away. The theory moves farther away from the credible without limit.

- you get angry and contemptuous when confronted with disconfirming evidence. When pressed you get evasive, relentlessly change the subject, hold onto a standard manta, or run away.

- you hold onto zombie beliefs - beliefs which have been explained and disproven over and over and should be dead. E.g. "It's only a theory."

- you never admit a mistake.

- your thinking is based in suspicion. Your default assumption in all situations is that you are being lied to.

- your emotions are primarily negative. Suspicion, anger, disgust, contempt and fear.

- you believe in multiple suspicion-based theories. Crank magnetism.

- you believe in suspicion-based theories which are contradictory. The filling cabinet syndrome.

- you present evidence that some people within a group have lied and use this as proof that all people within that group always lie.

- you have a personal devil. All evil flows from this devil; e.g. the Government, Masons, Jews, Bankers, Democrats.

- you seek any connection between your devil and your suspicion-based theory and use this connection as absolute proof of your theory.

- you aggressively sort people into negative categories: "awake," "sheeple," "evil" and "shills."

- your suspicion-based theories seem all consuming. Will not discuss other subjects and scorn people who are not consumed with these suspicion-based theories. "Sheeple watch their sports and gossip shows on TV."

- you habitually engage in argument by intimidation.

- you habitually engage in sophistry.

- you habitually engage in binary thinking. All true or all false, all good or all evil, for us or against us.

- your devotion to your theory (ies) is behaviorally and psychologically indistinguishable from addiction.
 
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-n...breddits-after-months-violent-threats-n909061

Reddit bans Qanon subreddits after months of violent threats
Reddit was key to Qanon’s emergence from the fringe corners of the internet and into more mainstream conspiracy and far-right media circles.
by Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins / Sep.12.2018 / 2:58 PM ET

Reddit banned its largest community focused on the fringe conspiracy theory Qanon on Wednesday, claiming the subreddit was cut off “due to repeated violations of the terms of our content policy.”

The community, called /r/GreatAwakening, had more than 71,000 subscribers making over 10,000 comments on average per day before it was banned. A backup subreddit, /r/the_greatawakening, was also banned, along with 17 other Qanon focused communities, including r/BiblicalQ and r/Quincels.
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Interesting development. QAnon seems to have grown in part because Reddit is easier to use than 4chan and 8chan. Cutting it off will slow that aspect, but also make the believers feel victimized and angry.
 
Q sept.JPG
This is from qanonposts.com, and is the latest post. This one is concerning the up coming EAS/WEA test on Sept 20th. I have seen on other websites similar posts about this test and how Trump will use it to disseminate info to the entire population. There have been previous EAS tests, but it looks like this is the first WEA test with a Presidential Alert.


https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2...y-alert-system-be-conducted-september-20-2018

WASHINGTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on September 20, 2018 (primary date) or October 3, 2018 (secondary date). The WEA portion of the test commences at 2:18 PM EDT and the EAS portion follows at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether technological improvements are needed.

This is the fourth EAS nationwide test and the first national WEA test. The WEA test message will be sent to cell phones. Previous EAS national tests were conducted in September 2011, 2016 and 2017 in collaboration with the FCC, broadcasters, and emergency management officials in recognition of FEMA’s National Preparedness Month.
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I thought Bob Woodward was in charge of 'Presidential Alert' alarms, now...


(apologies in advance...couldn't resist...feel free to scrub)
 
and it means what? and what does it have to do with an Emergency Alert system?

add:

and.. isn't that exactly what the EAS is supposed to do?

Yes, when there is information to disseminate. But if it's a test "this is only a test" (preceded and followed by a really horrible sounding noise that you wish would go away as soon as possible).

I wonder what rationale the Q-anon posters will have when the only information Trump disseminates is that for the next 60 seconds there will be a test of the emergency broadcast system?
At some point you would think that the Q-anon people will realize that none of the prophesies of Q ever come true. I know that in my family the arrest of the Obamas, Clintons and Bushes will settle a long standing bet once and for all. But I'm not holding my breath...
 
Yes, when there is information to disseminate. But if it's a test "this is only a test" (preceded and followed by a really horrible sounding noise that you wish would go away as soon as possible).

I wonder what rationale the Q-anon posters will have when the only information Trump disseminates is that for the next 60 seconds there will be a test of the emergency broadcast system?
At some point you would think that the Q-anon people will realize that none of the prophesies of Q ever come true. I know that in my family the arrest of the Obamas, Clintons and Bushes will settle a long standing bet once and for all. But I'm not holding my breath...

...your theories are unfalsifiable. If disconfirming evidence is presented it is dismissed as faked or otherwise rationalized away. The theory moves farther away from the credible without limit.


It will be rationalized away. Some probable rationalizations:

1. Human error. This particular prediction was in error.
A. This prediction didn't really come from The Q.
B. Q's message was misinterpreted.
C. A rare instance in which Q was wrong. He's only human after all.

2. Change of plan. Trump realized this wasn't the right time.
A. The plan was recalculated and fine tuned.
B. Something happened to make him redefine the plan.

3. Enemies within the Deep State (the personal devil) successfully blocked this particular part of the Trump Plan. They are very powerful.

4. This particular prediction was a fake prediction planted by The Deep State to discredit Q.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails#Premise_of_study

When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World is a classic work of social psychology by Leon Festinger et. al. which studied a small UFO religion in Chicago called the Seekers that believed in an imminent apocalypse and its coping mechanisms after the event did not occur.

Festinger and his colleagues predicted that the inevitable disconfirmation would be followed by an enthusiastic effort at proselytizing to seek social support and lessen the pain of disconfirmation.
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http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2011/05/prophecy_fail.html
When Prophecy Fails.

What Festinger failed to understand is that [my emphasis] prophecies, per se, almost never fail. They are instead component parts of a complex and interwoven belief system which tends to be very resilient to challenge from outsiders. While the rest of us might focus on the accuracy of an isolated claim as a test of a group's legitimacy, those who are part of that group—and already accept its whole theology—may not be troubled by what seems to them like a minor mismatch. A few people might abandon the group, typically the newest or least-committed adherents, but the vast majority experience little cognitive dissonance and so make only minor adjustments to their beliefs. They carry on, often feeling more spiritually enriched as a result.
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Deuteronomy 18:21-22

You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
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http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2011/05/prophecy_fail.html
When Prophecy Fails.
Only predictions that come true are from God...
failed prophecies are... human slip-ups.
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Odd or dysfunctional thinking or mental illness is often based in normal traits which are exaggerated.

A general warning: Don't confuse religious or fringe beliefs with Conspiracy Theories.

Religious prophecies are a belief system based in a mind set in which the traits of System 1* thinking and rationalization are exaggerated, while aggression based suspicion may are may not be.

Belief in UFO's, Atlantis, Bigfoot, Alternative Medicine etc. does not necessarily include aggression based suspicion.

A Conspiracy Theory (with the Capital Letters) is a part of a complex and interwoven belief system based in Inter-Group Aggression, in which the traits of suspicion, System 1 thinking, and rationalization are exaggerated.


Inter-Group aggression is on the rise in many places, not just the US. Otherwise known as authoritarianism.




*System 1 thinking. MetaBunk link to one of my posts: Review: Flat Earth - The History of an Infamous Idea - Christine Garwood

"...the concept of intuitive thought and analytical thought. I'm once again going to point to this review of Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/b...-and-slow-by-daniel-kahneman-book-review.html

Kahneman describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts:

System 1: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, subconscious.

System 2: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious.

These are technical terms which I often refer to as intuitive thought and analytical thought."
 
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I wonder what rationale the Q-anon posters will have when the only information Trump disseminates is that for the next 60 seconds there will be a test of the emergency broadcast system?
At some point you would think that the Q-anon people will realize that none of the prophesies of Q ever come true. I know that in my family the arrest of the Obamas, Clintons and Bushes will settle a long standing bet once and for all. But I'm not holding my breath...

Today was the day.
 
Can someone tell me what these Q'anon conspiracies posts are? I find it hard to get any objective information on what the site actually contends..
 
Today was the day.
Here's an article reporting on their reaction to the emergency alert text:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon...ert-test-see-it-as-a-step-towards-martial-law

QAnon diehards cheered it as the perfect way for Trump to test how to deliver earth-shattering news to the entire country. On the internet forum 8Chan, QAnon fans also noted that the test message was 17 words long—a significant number for believers in the conspiracy theory, because “Q” is the 17th letter of the alphabet.
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Here's an article reporting on their reaction to the emergency alert text:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon...ert-test-see-it-as-a-step-towards-martial-law

QAnon diehards cheered it as the perfect way for Trump to test how to deliver earth-shattering news to the entire country. On the internet forum 8Chan, QAnon fans also noted that the test message was 17 words long—a significant number for believers in the conspiracy theory, because “Q” is the 17th letter of the alphabet.
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Rod Rosenstein didn't get fired or step down. Red October did not happen. It was a test that was delayed due to Hurricane Florence. BTW, Qanon is still not the new Tea Party.
 
A Google News search for Qanon brings up several hits for this month.

A Guardian opinion piece talks about its spread into Europe:
Stop the online conspiracy theorists before they break democracy
I found this article particularly interesting because (1), it was mildly reassuring to me that the person who introduced me to the conspiracy theorist mindset isn't alone in believing stuff like:
In QAnon forums, it is hard to overlook the holy mess of logical fallacies and contradictions. Its adherents link the MI6, Facebook and the Rothschilds to the Vatican, Hollywood, the Nazis, the Illuminati and aliens in order to explain that climate change is a hoax, the Holocaust never happened, the world is run by paedophiles, Satanists and cannibals and that the Queen is a direct descendent of prophet Mohammed.
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and (2), that this problem is recognized and efforts are being made to address it:
Last month, YouTube announced that it would change its algorithms to stop recommending so many conspiracy theory videos. Meanwhile, the NGO OpenAI decided that it would not release its “deepfakes for text” tool because its researchers feared misuse. And the release on Monday of the UK parliament’s DCMS select committee report demonstrates just how seriously the problems are being taken.
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The Washington Post posted a video yesterday, How QAnon, the bizarre pro-Trump conspiracy theory, took hold in right-wing circles online, which is in essence a Qanon 101 tutorial. Abby Ohlheiser, who covers digital culture for WP, reported: "
Experts I've talked to who study media amplification will often describe this paradox where journalists who are reporting on conspiracy theories or outlets that are pursuing these stories are simultaneously doing important and necessary work and doing the worst possible thing that they could do, which is giving these conspiracy theories an even wider audience
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."

NBC has an article from Feb 2nd: Russian troll accounts purged by Twitter pushed Qanon and other conspiracy theories:

When removing the spam-style messages that included multiple hashtags, the second-most tweeted topic for the Russian troll accounts was #Qanon, a baseless conspiracy theory that claims Mueller and Trump are secretly working together to take down a global pedophile ring run by celebrities and Democratic politicians.
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