...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.

Show 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 😀

  • late90smullbowl [they/them]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    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.

    • volkvulture [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      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

      • late90smullbowl [they/them]
        hexagon
        ·
        4 years ago

        I just don’t think that sensationalism & blaming drugs for social ills like “Reefer Madness” has the same punch you think it does lol

        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.

        • volkvulture [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          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...

          • late90smullbowl [they/them]
            hexagon
            ·
            4 years ago

            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.

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

              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

              • late90smullbowl [they/them]
                hexagon
                ·
                4 years ago

                Testosterone & Meredith are not the reason Q gained popularity

                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.

                • volkvulture [none/use name]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 years ago

                  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

                  • late90smullbowl [they/them]
                    hexagon
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    4 years ago

                    Drugs & overprescription of testosterone have little if anything to do with the nature & the spread of QAnon

                    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.

                    Bone-deep irrational religious fervor & the deterioration of social bonds & overall outlook in America are the key points imo

                    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.