call QAnon what it is: not a cult, a hate movement

[paulkienitz]

We commonly hear QAnon believers described as crazy, kooks, deluded, brainwashed, in a cult, and a whole laundry list of other terms which treat them as if they were suffering from hallucinations or mental illness. That needs to stop, because what that description does is absolve them of responsibility for their bullshit.

When we see someone acting without sanity and ignoring reality in favor of some bogus story, our natural assumption is to frame it in terms of a deficiency in their ability to know fact from fancy, and thereby imply that they are in some way powerless over what has happened to them. But that's not true here. Though occasionally someone mentally ill will surface in that scene, for the great majority of people there was nothing helpless or powerless about how they started avowing such nonsense. Every step of the process was a choice made by a capable and responsible adult.

The essence of the Q bullshit is that it's a libel that justifies hatred and violence. It accuses non-conservatives of heinous acts so that conservatives can be justified in hating them. And QAnon believers were not tricked into hating because the libels somehow magically overpowered their sense of reality -- they chose to set aside their sense of reality because they wanted to believe the libels. There is no otherworldly hypnotic power to Q's bullshit, any more than there is to Trumpsky's. Nothing about it can take away someone's ability to be skeptical. What takes away people's skepticism is the desire to join a hate movement. Hate isn't a side effect of delusion -- delusion is a side effect of hate. The hate isn't an accidental consequence of the fantasy, it's the motive for why the fantasy was ever taken seriously in the first place.

The majority of people in QAnon are indulging in hate because they want to. Implausible libels are the excuse, not the cause. The reward they seek is not to find meaning in a confusing world, as with most cults or conspiracy theorists -- the reward is that they get to enjoy hating. It's a powerful feeling and they love feeling it. From that, all the bullshit and the lies follow. Some of them have totally suppressed their critical thinking and will naively believe whatever the movement tells them (and if so, some can be saved when they see the predictions fail)... but for a lot of others, I think you'll find that they are not just passively being led around by propaganda, but are actively participating in the doublethink, and are just as likely to produce lies of their own as to uncritically believe someone else's.

QAnon is a vicious hate movement, and the people in it bear full moral culpability for participating. They are responsible for freely choosing to support hate and violence, not to mention supporting a public discourse based on lies. Barring evidence to the contrary that may come up for individual cases, we need to treat them as fully responsible for the harmful behavior they indulge within this movement.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. It can be both.

[paulkienitz]

4. well that's the magic of doublethink

it lets you be the deluder and the deluded at the same time.

[Maru Kitteh]

5. Those are the EXACT words I planned to post.

Qanon IS a cult.
Qanon IS a hate movement.

ETA: Qanon is a terrorist group.

[hlthe2b]

7. It IS both.

[H2O Man]

9. You are 100% correct.

When the ancient philosopher Confucius was asked what he would do with absolute political power, he said, Insist that people use words correctly."

The Q-anon bit is, by definition, a cult. Indeed, it is a specific type of cult, that is hateful and prone to violence. More, unlike numerous "hate groups," it does not require potential memers to be hateful before joining its ranks. Indeed, a surprising number of people who begin to look at Q-anon become indoctrinated as they go deeper. This, of course, is a feature that is common in various subgroups of cults. All rational people who have studied sociology recognize Q-anon as a cult.

I think the OP might have been of more value if it focused on the process of indoctrination, which involves inflicting a more paranoid -- eventually delusional -- group-think. For example, previously on the internet, group members targeted potentially vulnerable populations that belonged to other non-cult groups, including environmentalists. It includes "secret" knowledge that the media "refuses" to cover (because it is not true). That process brings the person into the "special" group of "enlightened" people.Classic cult process.

Another topic of value would be how to, for lack of better term, de-program the cult's victims.

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. +1

[paulkienitz]

13. the "process of indoctrination" isn't the issue IMHO

"I think the OP might have been of more value if it focused on the process of indoctrination..."

My whole point is that if we focus on the cult indoctrination process, we frame the members as deluded dupes and end up absolving them of some of the responsibility for choosing to embrace hate, and I think we should avoid such dilution. In the end, people join a cult -- hate-oriented or not -- because the cult tells them what they want to hear. If it's a false promise of love or heaven, we can forgive them for being conned, but if the promise is hate and violence, then that excuse doesn't fit.

[mzmolly]

2. How about calling it a hate movement cult?

Good point though!

[lagomorph777]

3. Trump's Terrorist Organization.

[Arne]

6. Very well put, I'd say you nailed it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Why can't it be both?

[roamer65]

11. Not all cults are hate movements.

But all hate movements are cults.

[Iggo]

12. I can't think of anything meaner than calling it Qanon.

[paulkienitz]

14. and might I add

Regular Trumpism is the same as QAnon except with less overt wishful thinking. It's just as founded on lies, and just as attractive to people whose motive is to participate in hate and violence. In both cases, people mostly join up not because they are tricked, but because they are assholes.