Republicans are being eaten from within by the QAnon cult, and no one can stop it

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The bizarre and otherworldly QAnon cult—the conspiracist Donald Trump fanatics who believe that liberal Democrats and their allies have been secretly operating a global pedophilia ring that is going to end in mass arrests called “The Storm”—has not only been spreading farther and deeper into mainstream conservative politics, but the entire Republican Party appears on the verge of being completely consumed by it.

Trump himself retweets QAnoners’ authoritarian paeans to his presidency and its attacks on his critics. His former national security adviser posted video of himself and a group of friends taking the “QAnon Oath.” Trump’s son Eric tweets out open support of the “Q” conspiracy theories. Trump’s favorite cable-news channel features reporters who openly embrace the theories. Dozens of Republican candidates openly spout QAnon claims and rhetoric, and GOP organizations have used their Facebook accounts to promote QAnon theories.

The fantastic aspects of this conspiracism—particularly the obdurate insistence by the growing hordes of True Believers that “Q has always been right” in the face of the mounting reality that not one of the theories’ predictions or claims has yet proven accurate—make it difficult in many ways to take it seriously. In an ordinary world, it would be dismissed as a joke.

But the up-is-down belief system inherent in conspiracist worldviews like QAnon has spread so far that it not only has infected democratic discourse with garbage disinformation, but its underlying nature is profoundly violent—which presents the very real threat (one we’ve already seen playing out) of unhinged QAnon believers acting out and wreaking potentially significant levels of harm.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/16/1961352/-The-creep-of-the-QAnon-cult-threatens-to-consume-what-s-left-of-the-Republican-Party?detail=emaildksp

[dawg day]

1. The entire Republican party deserves to go down into ignominious defeat.

I know McConnell and Graham and the other cynical power-mongers thought they'd be able to control and use Trump and his loonies.

But the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

[BComplex]

25. The Lincoln Project needs to quit making ads about trump, and turn their full force on McConnell

and Bill Barr. We have to get rid of Bill Barr BEFORE the election, and we need to get rid of mcconnell during the election. Trump has already made enough enemies, but we need people to realize just how friggin' awful McConnell and Barr are, and how trump COULD NOT HAVE DONE ANY OF THIS without those two.

[Trenzalore]

2. It is a Russian intelligence operation

[mahina]

4. That's what i think too but I have no evidence. If you do, I would really like to know of it.

For my part it seems reasonable.

[Arazi]

9. Bannon is my guess. Q fits all of his subversive bullshit

[trueblue2007]

17. ONE OF MY RELATIVES appears to have swallowed the Q KOOL AID

[TheFarseer]

3. They need more people like John McCain

He was a war monger supply sider, but at least he challenged stupid stuff like birtherism. No one has thd balls to challegd pizzagate? Seriously? They have the mastermind pedophile in Epstein and they have to look somewhere else? Really?

[Newest Reality]

5. How...

How the world could go mad. This is interesting in regards to the idea of consensus reality and what happens when it starts to break down due to beliefs and delusional, paranoid views.

In that case, the old saying is that, the world is as we perceive it. Change the perception and you change the world.

Donald Hoffman has a great book called, The Case Against Reality. He makes a good and rather scientific case that we are conscious agents reacting to survival icons and that fitness beats truth, (FBT). The Interface Theory of Perception is compelling and relevant to the sociological implications of what we see with conspiracy theories as a world view.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. You can't reason somebody out of something they were never reasoned into. Gotta shock them out. .nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Mass arrests called the Storm? That's neo-Nazi terminology. Their publication is Stormfront?

[jimlup]

8. Thank you... I have a smart but not wise friend who has fallen for this shit...

Though it is admittedly questionable whether he is still my friend.

[BGBD]

10. I don't

understand how you can take yourself seriously and associate with anyone who believes this stuff.

[Quixote1818]

11. A lot of them are Russian bots

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/russian-troll-accounts-purged-twitter-pushed-qanon-other-conspiracy-theories-n966091

[2naSalit]

12. +1

[MyMission]

13. I met an older couple who spouted this crap

Several years ago, and it was the first time I'd heard of it. I was dumfounded.

They were visiting my town, had been in my shop, then later on I met them on the street, and they felt the need to enlighten me about Q, and others they met in their travels.

Creepy and crazy. Made me think they're the ones who do what they accuse lefties of doing.

[rusty quoin]

18. Yeah, it's like they know secret things. I'm immune to crazy.

[Johnny2X2X]

14. Q goes straight to the White House IMO

They are not a joke, they are brainwashing people to make them act eventually.

[docgee]

22. That's my fear.

Soon there will be a mass activation of brainwashed sleeper nut jobs.

[certainot]

15. americans cannot have fact-based national discussion about anything as long as we ignore

rw radio - the biggest political mistake in history. it makes all this bullshit acceptable merely through unchallenged repetition

[SKKY]

16. If your adversary is making a mistake...

...don't interrupt him. They can get their fill of QAnon. Couldn't care less.

[keithbvadu2]

19. One of their ideas was that JFK Jr was Q and would show up.

One of their ideas was that JFK Jr was Q and would show up.

[NoMoreRepugs]

23. As insane as that sounds a good friend who is a retired teacher

explained all of this in great detail to me a few days ago about JFK jr. I was speechless, she believes this with every fiber of her being.

[BlueIdaho]

20. First QAnon will destroy the Republican Party

And then they will be destroyed while committing attacks against the government.

[smiboy1956]

21. Q

This is just the Q-tip of the iceberg that Trump and his minions
are sailing our nation into. Be very afraid from now to January.
This spiteful cabal will take all of us down with them rather than
give in. They are fanatics in the mold of kamikazes willing to
give their lives (and ours) to a lost cause.

[blakstoneranger]

24. VOTE this ASSHOLE AND HIS SENATORS OUT OF OFFICE

One thing I know is that there is no pit shallow enough to reach the bottom of negative things to say about this MESS of a POTUS. The list of negatives are endless and worse trump loves it. It's like he can't wait for the next negative thing someone has to say about him. AND HE'S TRAINED HIS CRONIES AND SYCOPHANTS TO BE EXACTLY LIKE HIM. THE LIE LIKE HIM, THEY ABSORB CRITICISM AND LOVE IT JUST LIKE HIM.

SO FORGET THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS, IT'S USELESS, JUST REMEMBER TO VOTE BLUE ACROSS THE BOARD AND GET AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN TO DO THE SAME. IF WE WIN, I WOULDN'T CARE IF HE Q-ANON'D HIMSELF OFF OF THE TALLEST BUILDING.

MANY PEOPLE WANT HIM REELECTED JUST TO PISS OFF THE MEDIA AND THE DEMOCRATS--THEY DON'T CARE THAT HE'S A FUCKING DINGBAT. HELL THEY'RE WHITE SO WHAT POSSIBLE HARM COULD COME TO THEM (a lot really).