Got this thought in my head and just can't shake it. Is this a dumb take or anyone think I'm on to something here?

First and most importantly, I am in no way saying that the QAnon stuff in it's current iteration is anywhere near as harmful as the vile anti-semitism of this insane "theory." Like, no contest. The whole Protocols of the Elders of Zion stuff directly murdered millions of innocent people with its total nonsense.

Also important to note that it didn't cause anti-semitism by itself and Jews in Europe faced persucution for thousands of years before this.

That said, let's go down this dark rabbit hole... First, a quick summary of both of these crackpot theories just so you know what I'm referring to here.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a conspiracy theory that Jews are part of an international conspiracy to undermine Western civilization and control finance. I think that there was also a part of it that alleged that labor unions and COMINTERN were part of this conspiracy.

QAnon theory alleges that there's a cabal of political, financial, and business leaders who are running a satanic child sex ring. There's a small group of "deep state" operatives who are trying to expose this conspiracy to the public and Donald Trump is also actively working to expose this too.

So, both theories take something with a tiny kernel of truth to it - with PEZ - yes, shockingly, Jewish people tend to associate with other Jewish people... just like people who go to the same churches/schools/etc. tend to do. With QAnon, there's no doubt creepy, consequence insulated, social elites doing dubious stuff behind closed doors with little apparent justice for victims.

Key difference is that the PEZ theory snowballed out of control and became national policy under Fascism. I remember from history class that many normal folks were shocked when their grocer down the street, or their kid's teacher, or someone they worked with was rounded up by the state.

QAnon is not there yet, but I'm getting some errie vibes that it's all from the same playbook and could eventually have similar consequences...

Because, at the end of the day, for anyone who truly believes either of these crazy theories - it justifies pretty much doing anything in response to the perceived "problem." Therefore, this QAnon stuff scares me much more than it probably has any right to..

  • anarchokamalism [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/io8i0l/this_is_getting_scary/g4cgzzb/

    It has something to do with the massive failure of right-wing governance in America. Instead of questioning the values of those leading the right-wing, they've retreated into a fantasy where the lone individual who is most responsible for America's current failue and predicament is somehow its savior.

    This is what happens when these people's belief system starts to backfire. Instead of taking responsibility for Trump's failures, they're going to pretend he's the greatest president of all time and he's only failing (at literally everything) because of some elaborate, massive yet hidden conspiracy. Is it bonkers? Hell yes. Is it sad? Hell yes. But it's somewhat akin to calling shooting victims "crisis actors" when your love of guns and gun-rights collides with the reality of school shootings. It's a way of maintaining your preexisting belief system in the face of its utter failure in the real world.

    It's also very much like their desire to drill for more and more oil while pretending climate change is also a hoax (see a pattern here?). Anything they don't want to hear is a hoax, any new information that's coming in that threatens the foundations of their preexisting beliefs is bent and smashed to fit that preexisting worldview...

    Examples?

    "Oil is good, so it can't cause climate change, that's a hoax."

    "Guns are good, they don't kill innocent kids, those must be crisis actors."

    "Trump is good, we voted for him, we're good people, he just can't be the corrupt, lying failure he appears to be in every way, there must be a conspiracy against him."

    It fits this pattern of magical thinking and willful disbelief of any information that might impune their personal belief structure and/or their personal sense of morality. If you want to feel that you are a good and moral person, but you also want to support to Trump and think the same of him, that's going to require a massive amount of willful ignorance and blindness. That's going to require a ton of excuse-making and unrealistic rationalizations. That's essentially what Qanon is.

    It's the way to rationalize their support of this destructive, racist failure in the White House. How do you make anything he does morally acceptable? Just accuse his opponents of worse, even if your accusations are completely fabricated. They only exist to make the qultists feel better, so they don't care if their smears are even real, they want what they want, reality be damned.

    Their ideology is more important to them than the truth.