...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 😀
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.