Am I off base in assuming that Q is just some n-chan troll who decided to see if they could spout utter nonsense just to see how far people would take it?
I imagine some asshole in a garden-level studio apartment laughing themself silly in a cloud of cheeto dust.
AITA?
We desperately need more and better mental health care - not just here in Yankistan - all over the world. Our socio-political-economic systems are a major (if not the major) threat to mental health, and that must also be addressed. A psych degree isn’t required for plainly seeing that.
We also have a dire need for critical thinkers teaching that skill at all levels of education. Adults shouldn’t be buying into ridiculous absurdities I would have seen right through when I was four years old!
That’s true, but also irrelevant to the discussion. I doubt that Qanon are significantly more likely to be mentally ill than the rest of the population of the world.
This Many Patinkin? Qanoner David Icke would have a few things to say about the credibility of his knowledge:
Please, fellow Mutants, let’s not conflate mental illness with belief in conspiracy
theories:
Posts that make assumptions about anyone’s mental state, race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, group affiliation or sexual orientation without it being explicitly stated somewhere (either in a post or other verifiable source) will be considered inappropriate.
Thanks, everyone! 
As Q relies on a tripcode to verify themself, and the tripcode is verified by 8chan’s server and not reproducible on other imageboards, Q was not able to post when the website went down following the 2019 El Paso shooting.[67] This apparent conflict of interest, combined with statements by 8chan’s founder Fredrick Brennan, the use of a “Q” collar pin by 8chan owner Jim Watkins, and Watkins’s financial interest in a QAnon super PAC that advertises on 8chan, have led to widespread speculation that either Watkins or his son, 8chan’s administrator Ron Watkins, knows Q’s identity.[31][68] Both deny knowing Q’s identity.
Nope. As a NY state parent, this is kicking responsibility down to the district level and, from what I’ve seen thus far, that means there will be virtually no communication with families, no training provided to teachers and nothing even resembling a comprehensive plan.
As a neighbor of Woodstock, you have my deepest sympathies. What must have been an amazing artist’s colony pre-‘65 is now mainly just a venue for the wealthy to cosplay as hippies. At least there are a few good restaurants there now!
Um, (don’t) hate to break it to ya, but Bill Clinton really DID fly Epsteins’ “Lolita Express” about 25 times, as well as visit his “Lolita Island” retreat. He (along with many others) was constantly palling around with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at their parties.
Yes, really:
You’re going to want to pick a different example.
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 12 hours unless flagged)
I mentioned this issue because it is something our country and world desperately needs, and the news story says that the woman in the story has had issues.
The problem is that it never works out that way, and what we end up with is a witch hunt against the mentally ill.
I have PTSD and depression, and I’m worried about Qanon and transphobes who accuse trans people of being child abusers joining together. I don’t think it is mental illness that causes those groups to do what they do any more than it causes fascists to be fascist.
Things need to change so that people in need get proper, compassionate care. That is the point I was trying to make.
[edited to add:] I would delete my flagged comment if I could. Offense was completely unintended.
You’re absolutely correct about Bill Clinton. But Bill Clinton isn’t running for president.
The point is that Trump and QAnon are turning the pedo ring theory against the actual presidential candidate, Biden, and ordinary pedestrian Democrats. There currently is no evidence that Biden was involved, nor is there evidence that the 30-year old victim was involved, but there is evidence that Trump may have been involved.
Until that changes, I will be sticking to my aforementioned example.
Rule of goats.
This is what a terrorist death cult looks like
The prepared foods that we eat are spiked with sugar to activate but never sate our atavistic desire for calories that evolved in a food scarce environment. Facebook and social media algos are designed to reinforce emotional responses. They feed us ever more of whatever we react to, and people fall deeper and deeper down whatever rabbit hole they start down. They’re intellectual empty calories, all about feeling and not thinking. Emoting rather than analyzing. And now they have given us a president that doesn’t read, and always goes with his gut and has the attention span of a cocker spaniel.
Edited to add. People don’t put on the canonical tin foil hats because they think they’re doing fine. They KNOW something is wrong with them and are trying to do something to fix it. People don’t buy into conspiracy theories because they think everything is right with the world. They think that the world is really fucked up, and conspiracy theories offer an explanation of WHY.One that is more satisfying than “shit happens.” Taking the evils in the world and mashing them together into one bigger evil can give you a handle on things. It’s like debt consolidation for your psyche.
Maybe…
More to the point, a functioning democracy demands that particular parties not intentionally poison the well of public discourse. I mean, the issue here isn’t lack of education, or even a lack of ‘civility’ (with all its encoded baggage) - it’s that there are vast media-machines that spin very particular partisan narratives that happen to neatly coincide with the interests of a privileged few.
I mean, I’m aware that the bulk of Q-Anon is a kind of consensus monomyth that you can map pretty much anything on to, but I feel like the symbiotic relationship that myth has with FOX or OAN is understated …
I think the biggest reason is that, for a long time now, being a Good Conservative American has meant closing your eyes to the reality and actively swallowing a whopper of lies. Voodoo economics, scare stories about “welfare queens” and immigrants and LGBTQ+ people, denial of climate change, Young Earth Creationism that goes against everything the science has said since about 1850, “Prosperity Gospel” that goes against everything Jesus Christ ever teached…
There are a lot of Americans who have been emotionally primed and intellectually stunted to eagerly accept any kind of obvious nonsense and untruths, as long as it makes them feel special and allows them to hate the Other.
damn, that’s a really great analogy. i hope we find a way out of it before too much is broken beyond repair.
