...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.
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 😀
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.