QAnon (7 Viewers)

I was trying to come up with a good way to say that, xeno. We have had what porculator suggested as a “compromise” for years. It will never satisfy those who want to outlaw abortions, and they have only become more militant in response.

Women are clearly not supposed to have free will, and must submit to their religious beliefs. They will be fine with poor women dying, and the women of means will still be able to obtain safe abortions. The government will tell women what they and their doctor alone should be deciding. Women will die, but they’re okay with that.

porculator said:

Ben Sasse (Nebraska GOP Senator that pokes at Trump) wrote an interesting op-ed in the Atlantic, which among other things, opined on how crap like Qanon takes hold, and he brings up a good point.

QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within

Until last week, too many in the Republican Party thought they could preach the Constitution and wink at QAnon. They can’t.

www.theatlantic.com

"Support Donald Trump and you are not merely participating in a mundane political process—that’s boring. Rather, you are waging war on a global sex-trafficking conspiracy! No one should be surprised that QAnon has found a partner in the empty, hypocritical, made-for-TV deviant strain of evangelicalism that runs on dopey apocalypse-mongering. (I still consider myself an evangelical, even though so many of my nominal co-religionists have emptied the term of all historic and theological meaning.) A conspiracy theory offers its devotees a way of inserting themselves into a cosmic battle pitting good against evil. This sense of vocation that makes it dangerous is also precisely what makes it attractive in our era of isolated, alienated consumerism. "

This "deviant strain or evangelicalism" that Sasse talks about seems to be something that has gone under the radar with most people for a long time, but deserves attention.

Clearly there are a lot of people (maybe most people) who need a well-defined "north star" to give them purpose. Not everyone can just harmlessly float through life with only good intentions, without latching onto something to keep them out of darkness. And that "something" for many is Christianity, which, all things considered, is a pretty good "north star" for how to treat one's fellow man. That "something," for others, has been conspiracy and the extremist politics that result from it.

But there is also this strain of evangelicals, who have also joined the conspiracy party, ignoring the first commandment in favor of hero worship of Trump, and this "Q" fella.
I don't understand how they reconcile that. Like, is any of this being integrated into the teachings of these churches themselves, or is it just that the followers are just easily duped in general, and following these rabbit holes in their spare time?

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I'll just focus on this one: they are not ignoring the 1st commandment. Many see Trump as part of a Bible prophesy, the "stubborn king from the West", signaling the coming of the end of times.

porculator said:

And I totally get why some people are one issue voters on that, and personally think the left should be a little more open-minded on it, seeing as [abortion] s the only issue where conservatives seem to have any compassion for anyone or anything.

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Compassion has nothing to do with it. They base their anti-abortion stance on Bible passages like Jeremiah 1:5.

Q folks are talking about impersonating National Guard to get close to the inauguration.

SystemShock said:

Compassion has nothing to do with it. They base their anti-abortion stance on Bible passages like Jeremiah 1:5.

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You can poo poo it all you want, but the fact is that they believe they are doing God's work trying to save lives. Maybe compassion was too generous of a word, but it's at the very least a "soft spot" for a side of the political aisle that is otherwise driven by selfishness, greed, and spite. And I personally know plenty of Christians who are horrified by our treatment of refugees, the environment, the death penalty, etc, but still see abortion as the biggest sin of them all and that will always drive their political leanings.
So while we liberals write them off as zealots, we cement ourselves as the "opposition" while Qanon swoops in and capitalizes with this save the children crap.

porculator said:

You can poo poo it all you want, but the fact is that they believe they are doing God's work trying to save lives. Maybe compassion was too generous of a word, but it's at the very least a "soft spot" for a side of the political aisle that is otherwise driven by selfishness, greed, and spite. And I personally know plenty of Christians who are horrified by our treatment of refugees, the environment, the death penalty, etc, but still see abortion as the biggest sin of them all and that will always drive their political leanings.
So while we liberals write them off as zealots, we cement ourselves as the "opposition" while Qanon swoops in and capitalizes with this save the children crap.

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Rather than capitulate, Dems need to do a better job of selling the pro-choice position.
It's been done before. In the run up to Roe, clergy of all (but one) faiths used the pulpit to push for legalization. That coalition needs to speak up again.

porculator said:

You can poo poo it all you want, but the fact is that they believe they are doing God's work trying to save lives. Maybe compassion was too generous of a word, but it's at the very least a "soft spot" for a side of the political aisle that is otherwise driven by selfishness, greed, and spite. And I personally know plenty of Christians who are horrified by our treatment of refugees, the environment, the death penalty, etc, but still see abortion as the biggest sin of them all and that will always drive their political leanings.
So while we liberals write them off as zealots, we cement ourselves as the "opposition" while Qanon swoops in and capitalizes with this save the children crap.

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I am not poo pooing anything. Just telling it like it is. Personally, I don't think doing what one thinks is one's God's will has anything to do with compassion, and isn't really selfless. I personally don't think that they'd care that much about abortion or contraception if it weren't for Bible passages like "before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee". Too bad there are no Bible passages that said "thy baby shalt get free healthcare if thou cannot affordeth it". Although that would probably be reinterpreted to mean something different.

QAnon is not the first entity to capitalize on religion, and it is not going to be the last one. Religions, throughout the ages, have needed some sort of opposition, enemy, something to fear. And the people whose moral code progresses beyond the moral code embraced by that religion, or that accept the science that debunks that religion, or plain worship another god, will always be the opposition.

There isn't much you can do when people who are horrified by our treatment of refugees, the environment, the death penalty, etc turn around and with their vote enable the people responsible for our treatment of refugees, the systematic destruction of the environment, the carrying out of the death penalty, etc (and that etc is one long list) because of this one sin, a sin which could easily be virtually eradicated with proper sex education and by giving women free access to contraceptive medicine, but those seem to be unforgivable sins too, and therefore votes must be cast for those who do their damnest to prevent them.

So, the obvious plan of attack is to chip away at the ideology. And while ideologies never truly die, they can be marginalized to the point they no longer have a significant impact on society.

Good thread to read to get an idea how crazy these people are. Apparently there's now an inner debate as to whether Biden is in on things and part of the plan. And Trump had 17 flags behind him at his send off -- clearly a reference to Q!

well, at least 21% of them are non delusional.... Of course those are probably the ones who non QAnon and are just on that channel to poke fun...

Is it time for the arrests now?

cuddlemonkey said:

Is it time for the arrests now?

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Yep any minute now!

They don't want to interrupt the party.

The moose said:

Yep any minute now!

They don't want to interrupt the party.

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They have to. There's no way Q is a load of bullshirt just like literally every other conspiracy theory ever.

cuddlemonkey said:

They have to. There's no way Q is a load of bullshirt just like literally every other conspiracy theory ever.

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I would not say that.

Q is the most bullshirt ever in the history of man.

Q makes the knights templar crap and aliens and even that crazy hollywood religion completely believable.

Q people are a special breed of stupid. That I did not know existed.

Lol omg

Brandon13 said:

Lol omg

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The last one is great. That dude must have said some truly heinous stuff.

Other than here, I've never read anything QAnon. I'd be content if I never did. Those people are just absolutely batshirt crazy.

DaveXA said:

Other than here, I've never read anything QAnon. I'd be content if I never did. Those people are just absolutely batshirt crazy.

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Yep. The website they use is a cesspool.