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by bearjaws 2141 days ago
As someone with a family member who is falling into this non-sense, I will tell you it is extremely dangerous.

We essentially have some teenager on 4chan trolling an entire audience of probably hundreds of thousands of individuals. They now believe Trump is our savior and the deep state wants to take him down. There are violent undertones to the entire conspiracy and I do worry they are going to turn into terrorists.
2 comments
tjpnz 2141 days ago
>We essentially have some teenager on 4chan trolling an entire audience of probably hundreds of thousands of individuals.

That's the most plausible explanation and I've explained it that way to several people already. Doesn't work though - you'll either be dismissed or discover later on that they've found a way of reconciling it with their already crackpot worldview.

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matwood 2141 days ago
Maybe that's how it started, but I think foreign actors work to amplify what's happening. I can't help but thinking of this paper though:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/

> Conclusions. Whereas bots that spread malware and unsolicited content disseminated antivaccine messages, Russian trolls promoted discord. Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination.

Substitute any other absurd topic. By having any discussion at all, it legitimizes position.

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_fat_santa 2141 days ago
It's funny, I remember seeing the original thread on 4chan for QAnon, not sure if I was actually on the site or just saw a screencap.

Anyways I thought it was kind of dumb and tolling, got a laugh and went on with my day. I think 2-3 days later I see QAnon being talked about on Fox News and CNN. My exact thought was "some guy in his basement must be thrilled that his shitpost on 4Chan landed on national TV".

It's crazy how people have fallen for it. Because if you read the actual conspiracy theory of QAnon it's batshit insane. The world order is being taken over by the Obama's and Democrats and the only guy that can save us is that dude that used to be on The Apprentice.

Like how do people not read that and think that the story is just too perfect to be true. Like seriously: Obamas are bad, Democrats and Hillary wants to take over the world. But WAIT WAIT!!! DONALD J TRUMP of all people is going to save you from the evil Democrats!

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krapp 2141 days ago
>Because if you read the actual conspiracy theory of QAnon it's batshit insane. The world order is being taken over by the Obama's and Democrats and the only guy that can save us is that dude that used to be on The Apprentice.

Minus the part where Donald Trump is the literal Messiah, most of QAnon's beliefs have been mainstream among the American right wing for years. The only real difference in that regard is the shifting of the Overton window, so what used to be the subject of fringe rants on AM talk radio is now more or less accepted in the mainstream.

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bearjaws 2141 days ago
There are also members who believe Hillary and Biden are clones, controlled by the deep state.

How????? When did we get to CLONES?

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mindslight 2141 days ago
One of the effects of mass media psychosis is feeling that what you're seeing is a simulation. Biden on TV looks like Biden, but isn't actually physical Biden himself - therefore clones.
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