Terrorism Experts Say QAnon Conspiracy Theory a Threat to National Security
vice.com
vice.com
Do you deny that there was Communist infiltration into government decades ago? McCarthyism may have caused a lot of collateral damage but it's clear to anyone that there was plenty of espionage work happening on behalf of Russia at that time. Hell, if you believe the election tampering meme, it's still happening to this day.
Both of those things are/were real. We may never know the whole story, but that doesn't mean there's no reason to look into it.
Witches don't need to be brought into this, though of course it seems clear to me that Salem was successful since there aren't any witches now ;)
No.
It is hard to understand what you are arguing. Are you criticizing the comparison because it is not apt, or because it is?
In the mid-20th century, there really were communist moles in governments; just not as many as were claimed, and mostly not the ones accused. The craze to root them out mainly swept up, and blighted the lives and careers, of innocents.
There really were individuals who would supply poisons, but the overwhelming majority of those hung for witchcraft were women who owned property the Church wanted.
The people who take advantage of Q will not be rooting out actual offenders, and any of those who are in positions of authority can use Q to divert attention from themselves.
I suspect, but cannot support, that obsession with witchcraft arose only after, and largely because, the supply of heretics dried up.
Well, you appear to be drawing a false equivalence between pedos and communists (real, proven) and witches (not real, unless you believe in magic).
Who do they accuse whom you think has a really solid excuse? Some demonstration of a false or plausibly-false accusation would be nice.
Well, we do know that someone or a group is making those Q posts. That is factual, indisputable. Digital signatures on anonymous messaging boards work. So I'm confused as to why the article never mentions the Q posts.
They even misrepresent what it is: "QAnon can be confusing for the outside observer." Actually, it's quite clear: a person or group who identified as "Q" started posting that a bunch of stuff is going on behind the scenes.
Whether or not Q is truthful or not is not the problem. The Vice article doesn't represent the origin of the QAnon "movement" correctly.
Q validates their posts with what's called a trip code. Urban Dictionary actually explains it pretty well:
"A trip code is a code used in anonymous threads like 4chan to determine whether or not the anonymous poster is authentic or not. It assigns a code to the end of your name. When you add the pound (#) symbol to the end of your name followed by a word, like a password that only you know, it scrambles the word into a code. That way it's undetectable and can be used over and over again." [1]
As long as you keep your password secret, trip codes are quite reliable.
Now, Q has apparently changed tripcodes over time. A good resource for looking at Q posts is qmap.pub. I just did some searching to find out how Q does these changes.
This is just one example, but the poster claiming to be Q (1) says a change is coming and (2) announces the change. It's clearly imperfect, but the old trip code isn't used again. I would have to look at all other trip code changes to be certain. However, there's no reason to automatically assume other trip code changes would be different than this.
Here's a big weakness: Q didn't use trip codes at first. Ultimately, you have to believe that the Q today is the same as the one from 2017. However, the chain of trip codes does demonstrate at least some continuity for the last two years or so.
Sources:
[1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trip%20Code
Just like how the Comet Pizza conspiracy theory should be taken seriously even though it's kinda silly- it becomes dangerous when people start shooting up restaurants looking for non-existent children in a non-existent dungeon
Jim Jones was not a conspiracy theory. It was a real belief system. By admitting the existence of the beliefs, we don't automatically recognize correctness. So why should QAnon be flat out labeled as a conspiracy theory when its existence as real as Jim Jones?
Is it? My completely uninformed impression was that it was dying.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/30/qanons-cons...
How many of those 3% who have heard or read a lot about it actually believe it is hard to estimate.
I have family that are fervent believers so this hits close to home.
If you've heard or read a lot about it, it's either because you believe it or are personally invested in it (I presume most likely due to having relationships with people who believe it).
Take a rough slice and say 10% of those people who have heard or read a lot about it are believers and the other 90% are their friends and family.
Sooo... 55 million registered republicans; Guesstimate 50% of those are considered "conservative" republicans by the terminology of the Pew poll; 3% of those have heard a lot about Q; 10% of those are believers. 55 * 0.5 * 0.03 * 0.1 and that's ~800,000 Q followers.
Is 800,000 mainstream for a conspiracy theory? I wonder how many people believe the earth is flat.
Consider the possibility that it's not designed to convince you earth is flat.
It's harmless. It's a distraction. It's not a threat to anyone - if anything it takes people who could potentially be activists and redirects them into inaction.
Antifa is a much bigger, more real, more visible threat to national security. Where's the Vice article calling them out?