...we're gonna have to re-evaluate old concepts of free speech and democracy.
Everyone's on anti depressants/sleepers/speed, the chuds are blasting testosterone out their ears until they stroke, weed is everywhere and as potent as heroin.
Add the perfect dopamine delivery system, a political internet economy modeled on the addictive technology of vegas slot machines.
It's gonna have an effect on the national psyche.
Is it a partial explanation for Q?
Shout out to the divorced, biker, small business tyrant, dad...caught with test injectables and thc edibles, and guns, after the Capitol. Just the only man for the moment.
*removed externally hosted image*
edit: gotta step away for now. will come back to this. Feels like this post was misunderstood, or I just didn't make enough sense. Hope it won't make things awkward when i slide into selected PMs asking for a plug 😀
cannabis use isn't the same as testosterone misuse.
testosterone misuse & illegal use of steroids isn't something I personally condone, but I am not going to call the substance itself evil. testosterone is just a hormone, it's inert on its own. and not all juice heads are violent. CTE & brain injuries are more correlated with that
When we're talking about psychoactive drug use, then we should talk about the legal drugs first. Caffeine & alcohol and nicotine are all drugs & all have marked effect on temperament & produce addiction in varying degrees. Yet they are completely accepted today within the culture, and newer methods are found all the time to repackage & resell the same old drugs. We have to look at the cultural context here and see that individuals are influenced by inculcated "demands" & "wants" that are transmitted from society
"Low T" in America is a marketing ploy lol, and I think a lot of these boomers just aren't culturally or emotionally equipped to go peacefully into their golden years, because our maddening & self-deluded consumer society prevents this.
The cultural context around stigmatizing& prohibiting cannabis & psychedelic drugs is a 180degree about face from how things like Testosterone & Oxycodone & Paxil & thalidomide other "legal" drugs were pushed on Americans
much more potent and available recreational psychoactive drugs + widespread test use + widespread SSRI use + endemic ONLINE political dopamine addiction + LSC alienation + white status anxiety + plummeting education levels
add these together and it may be an explanation for the crazy quick adoption of Qanon by the chuds.
thats the point.
not whether weed is "evil."
I just included information that said that cannabis use has been linked to reductions of benzodiazepine & SSRI & opioid misuse
IMO the explanation for the adoption of Qanon by chuds has little to nothing to do with psychoactive drugs, it's much more to do with the last few things you listed there.
There are material/socioeconomic reasons, as well as cultural/sociological/misapplied identitarian reasons, but there is also just the nature of mass media & internet addiction, like you said. Remember, the trigger for these latent mental pathologies& cultural "crazes" can be anything... Trump-led Millennarianism has plenty on its face to keep these weird chuds high on their own supply of self-delusion. It's no wonder there are wild eyed tweakers in the bunch too
But weed being legal in specific states & becoming stronger and more available as a result didn't cause QAnon, or even contribute to it.
Maybe Ashli Babbitt was spiraling on some drug binge when she got hooked on Q, but a lot of these QAnon boomers just seem to be jingoistic evangelical ultranationalist losers& wannabe fascists who use Trump as their conduit to God & absolution. The pseudoreligious element, something fundamental to American political & popular culture, can't go unexamined here
It's a good point. The religious grifters have only attached themselves recently though, in the last 9 months or so. It originated as a chan intelligence conspiracy type larp, and that's still the core imo.
There's still a widespread disbelief, on all sides, at how quickly it's metastasized.
Leaving aside the weed, since you're so touchy about it lol, I think the other factors + drugs I mentioned (forgot to mention ritalin too) have created a perfect storm. Something new.
Something that may change the way we view the concept of free speech and maybe democracy. It's like another virus.
Germany took action to prevent the virus of Ur-Fascism rising again after WW2, maybe similar action will be taken with Qanon.
I just don't think that sensationalism & blaming drugs for social ills like "Reefer Madness" has the same punch you think it does lol
The religious grifters are fundamental to all of this. America is a fundamentalist religious nation at its core, and that goes a long way to explaining the kneejerk dogmatic way these QAnon dupes cling to their ill-conceived stories
Also, overprescription of pharmaceuticals is legal, and I agree it contributes to dependence & chemical imbalances(things that cannabis appears to alleviate) but it doesn't explain QAnon.
South Korea had a similar issue in the last few years with entirely-too-online right-wingers thinking the government are pedophile evil elites who eat children. It plays out in much the same way as QAnon and resulted in those ya-hoos storming the parliament in Seoul. Which leads me to believe there are larger forces at play in both instances
https://thediplomat.com/2019/12/protesters-storm-national-assembly-capping-off-a-divisive-year-for-korean-politics/
it's not because of drug use, it's because of internet & mass media & misinformation being specifically tailored to tap into this deeply troubling part of the brain in those who are politically illiterate
West Germany after WWII had lots of issues with fascism, because many of the Nazis retained posts in the government and larger European rebuilding efforts
Someone like Cleveland Grover Meredith, from my OP, probably wouldn't have had the punch, at his age, to travel armed to the Capitol without his Test (and possibly ritalin). Scale that up and you've got a new societal problem.
Was aware of the Cho scandal but didn't realise they stormed the parliament and slapped around the MPs. Based lol. Appreciate the link.
Yeah, knew about the lingering Nazism in Germany after WW2. My point was that they recognised fascism as something like a virus and at least passed legislation to prevent it rising the same way again. The anti hate speech laws for example. Although recent discoveries in the police and military aren't good.
Sorry, but that idiot Meredith isn't representative of the drug habits & personal proclivities of most of the other nutballs, who I am sure are themselves given over to idiocy in their own right. Whether an individual does drugs isn't reason to paint an entire group as drug addicts, nor is drug addiction an excuse to write people off or make them into pariahs. That's literally the US Drug War's conceptual "justification". Pass laws and arrest Black political activists & LGBT & Indigenous & Chicanos & socialists for drug possession, because their political awareness is threatening the status quo
Drugs are not the primary crux of the QAnon issue, kind of weird you keep trying to make that clunky argument. Internet-based misinformation & obsessiveness & fanaticism stoked by political & economic tensions is
No, it's not based what the right-wingers did in South Korea, it's similar to the situation with QAnon, they literally try to trace the 2014 ferry drownings with insane conspiratorial notions (based in reality & based in fantasy) to trying to storm the legislature just as the right-wingers in DC did
The German anti hate speech laws online weren't really put in place until a few years ago, and I definitely wouldn't call them effective as they largely rely on civilians ratting one another out & filing reports against others...
There are more Merediths than people realize. Every second ad on Fox is for test boosters. Jones flogs his own ffs.
As per the OP it’s gonna have an effect on the national psyche and may be a partial explanation for the Qanon issue.
Based was a joke. That's why I wrote lol.
The first law against Holocaust denial was passed in 1960.
Testosterone & Meredith are not the reason Q gained popularity
It's not an explanation really at all, because plenty of apolitical & liberals also take these supplements
QAnon is silly but it's not blatant Holocaust denial
Again, I said they are part of a piece, not the sole reasons, as per many posts.
Qanon is a pipeline, it's part of a cohort of beliefs that commonly include white supremacy and holocaust denial.
Drugs & overprescription of testosterone have little if anything to do with the nature & the spread of QAnon
Bone-deep irrational religious fervor & the deterioration of social bonds & overall outlook in America are the key points imo
QAnon would lead someone to other harebrained right-wing conspiracy theories, but as such doesn't really touch on Holocaust denial... though I agree there are tacit "white nationalist" underpinnings
from another post: Say one in a thousand people have an adverse behavioural reaction to a psychoactive medication. If that medication is prescribed on an indusrial scale, even overprescribed, you then have a lot of those people in society that may be more suggestible, more volatile, more irrational. Then consider poly drug scenarios, for psychoactive drugs taken daily, and the effect that might have on a wider, macro, societal level. There are examples, but I don’t want to trigger anyone. I mean, caffeine has been proven to make people more suggestible.
I’m suggesting that this may be one factor contributing to the rapid rise of Qanon.
Agree that they are major factors, but in light of widespread disbelief and confusion at the rise of Qanaon, I'm suggesting that the pharmacologisization (©️ 2021) of society is another major, perhaps unnoticed, factor.
Have had Qanon people extremely close to me. Holocaust denial comes up in their suggestions overtly and covertly. The message is absolutely connected imo.
The drugs are an insignificant factor in this, if they're even a factor at all. These people whether they're overmedicated or not are more likely to believe QAnon for other reasons, because plenty on the left & those who are apolitical are also taking illegal & far too many legal drugs. Misuse of drugs is not a partisan phenomenon. QAnon's spread has to do with confused politics/insular worldview & regionalism & urban/suburban/rural class divides far more than it does with "Drugs Bad" specifically. Please stop trying to blame drugs for the fault of right-wing individuals & the cynical propagandists purposely misleading them lol.
I would even say that drugs have nothing to do with the individual QAnon believer's willingness and devotion to these lies. It's much more to do with a lack of proper historical & political education coupled with mass media and Internet misinformation centering around anonymous online message boards and their supposed "alt-tech" novelty.
There is no evidence that pharmacology created QAnon, it's just political excuses made by people who are both cowed by conservative obstinacy as well as by American civil religion and evangelical self-delusion
Individual QAnon believers may hold these beliefs as well, but the QAnon mythos itself has little if anything to do with Holocaust denial. Although I will say its anti-elitism & "blood libel" rhetoric does border on anti-Semitic tropes.
Again x100, I'm saying it's likely an under-considered factor, not the sole reason.
Absolutely. Have been following it from the start. Have direct experience of people radicalized by it. 5 years ago they would have been aghast at holocaust denial. Now they are watching videos about it and "just asking questions." Asking me about bitchute. You know the rest.
Drugs are not a contributing factor for why QAnon believers are compelled to believe & act on these things. I do not think Ashli Babbitt was on testosterone or illegal drugs when she stormed the capitol and was shot, though if you can find information proving otherwise I would be glad to walk that back.
QAnon wasn't around 5 years ago, it wasn't formulated until 2017.
Saying that your personal anecdotal experience with people close to you is applicable to the entire phenomenon or to objective reality is just subjective bias & group attribution error on your part.
Feels like quite a disingenous point. Of course Babbit wasn't on test, and likely not on illegal drugs.
It is undeniable that psychoactive drugs, used daily in poly drug scenarios, will have adverse behavioural effects on a small minority of people. A small minority of 70 million Trump voters is a lot of people. This modern phenomenon is now extremely common. This could be one factor in the rapid rise of Qanon.
I'm well aware. The the online radicalization began before Q imo.
Yet you bring up Babbit.
To try and universalize Meredith's personal proclivities and say it is representative or an explanation for the movement generally is a similarly disingenuous point, so I am glad you noticed that point.
It is not undeniable that psychoactive drugs are a significant underlying explanation for the fertility & immense growth of QAnon mythos. Drug use is not a significant factor in QAnon's rise.
I brought up Babbitt because you brought up Meredith trying to say he is representative of the entire movement & its motivations. Neither of these people's personal drug habits are representative or sufficient explanations of the entire movement & its motivations.
I was using Meredith as an amusing example of a wider modern phenomenon. All my points have been extremely broad, you have been attempting to narrow the discussion.
That's not what I said, and you're making an assertion.
Again, it is undeniable that psychoactive drugs, used daily in poly drug scenarios, will have adverse behavioural effects on a small minority of people. A small minority of 70 million Trump voters is a lot of people. This modern phenomenon (the poly drug scenario) is now extremely common. This could be one factor in the rapid rise of Qanon.
This discussion has reached a productive end imo, I won't be replying unless you come up with something new.
This is a narrow discussion about QAnon and its causes, it's not about general rates of drug use, or poly drug use, or trying to stigmatize drug users as right-wingers & conspiracy loons. Polydrug use and whether it has behavior effects on a small minority is not the cause of QAnon, or a significant factor in the least
Plenty of apolitical & moderate & left wing people are poly drug users and want nothing to do with QAnon. The two are not correlated.
Polydrug use is also not a significant explanation for the "small minority" of Trump voters who showed up at the capitol based on QAnon-related sensationalism, many of whom do not engage in such behavior.
You haven't come up with anything new, you keep doubling down on this personal assumption you're making. Drug use and polydrug use are not even contributing factors or partial explanations for the rabid QAnon conspiracy explosion, you're just trying to blame QAnon on polydrug use that you appear to have a personal aversion to.