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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'This Crap Means More to Him Than My Life': When QAnon Invades American Homes
Before long, there were further turns. Peter started saying things that bordered on bigoted and xenophobic, Emily told me. Most shocking to her, Peter made her feel like an enemy for disagreeing with him. When she pushed back on his new strange ideas, like Tom Hanks being a pedophile, he answered her with disdain and treated her as if she were stupid.
I was told that I buried my head in the sand and couldnt see the real problems, said Emily, who shared her story under the condition of anonymity because she fears Peters retaliation and feels disloyal for speaking up. (Emily and Peter are not their real names.) Sometimes he undermined her this way in front of their kids.
Emily knew her husband was wrapped up in something called QAnon. She had heard the term beforePeter, prior to his conversion, had once dismissed it as nutsbut she didnt fully grasp what QAnon was until early October, when she watched a few of the videos Peter kept talking about. That was when she learned that her husband had been consumed by a complex and false conspiracy theory that accuses deep state elites of running a secret pedophile ring. By then, it was too late to pull him out.
...
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/19/qanon-conspiracy-theory-family-members-reddit-forum-469485
UpInArms
(51,284 posts)Am certain Putin is rejoicing
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)TNNurse
(6,929 posts)Lives with mama, understood he was unemployed.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)TNNurse
(6,929 posts)Under all that crap, he might be an attractive man, but it looks well hidden.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)(Did I really need that? )
Buns_of_Fire
(17,195 posts)And best of all -- he's organic!!!
(Now, now, there's plenty of him for everyone -- don't push!)
not fooled
(5,801 posts)So many jokes, crammed into a single post. Well done.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,195 posts)So that'll probably be it for the rest of the year. Shame it's only February. Premature jocularity, I guess.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)On r/QAnonCasualties forum, most of the post titles reflect the pain of the people behind them. A little funny, a lot sad. Bye, dad, My mother kicked me out for calling Trump racist and Way worse than I thought are all anecdotes of people failing to get through to their loved ones.
In late October, user acidalice posted Another family wrecked... and wrote about her partner of two decades. Hes gone from the kindest, chilled man to constant anger and major depression. Im at a loss, not so easy to walk away either - been together 20 years, married 14, 2 kids under 10, mortgage.
PatSeg
(47,587 posts)So many heartbreaking stories.
brush
(53,862 posts)Limbaugh/24/7 hate radio, FOX and PNAC, all in the '90s, led ultimately to a re-flowering of alt-right/white supremacy BS, trump and then QAnon, which considers him its central figure?
All of these entities and phenomena seem to share policies of white grievance, victimization and loss of status, jobs and opportunities which for generations were all but guaranteed to whites. This certainly seems possible as in all the images of Q-idiots one never sees Blacks or other POCs.
What's up with that? And is it mostly working-class whites, or are there some affluent whites believing this crap? And why, why are they vulnerable to these outrageous fantasies? I don't get it. Even though they feel their grievances are real, why the hell don't they know white privilege still exists in this society and is to their advantage?
This movement is gaining followers even and is just nuts. I hope the denouement of trump and him being revealed to be nothing but a sore loser will lead to a similar fate for this idiocy.
handmade34
(22,757 posts)Newt Gingrich...
all these people could have just as easily used their energy to work for the good of the whole... instead they all play the 'zero sum game' and that certainly isn't what life is (should be) about
brush
(53,862 posts)He was one of the leading proponents of the PNAC.
Turin_C3PO
(14,047 posts)seemed to suggest that the people in deep for Qanon are college educated, for the most part. Study said that working class tend to be exposed to the theory less.
brush
(53,862 posts)those in Q-idiot garb seemed to be more working-class than college educated. But who knows, images can be deceptive.
Turin_C3PO
(14,047 posts)Ill try and dig up the article.
Turin_C3PO
(14,047 posts)brush
(53,862 posts)puzzling. I mean college-educated republicans believing Democrats are deep state, blood drinking, baby eating pedophiles is hard even to write. I know republicans are generally wired differently than Democrats, but, God...
Hekate
(90,793 posts)I think that and the rage behavior may have led to some mistaken notions about class. I mean for gods sake, there were a bunch of real estate agents who showed up. The initial arrests were very educational for me in that regard a lot of people with white collar jobs got sucked into the vortex.
Withywindle
(9,988 posts)These are people who drive pickup trucks that cost $40,000.
All that military LARP gear, the armor and whatnot, hella pricy. These aren't poor people buying this stuff.
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)CaptainTruth
(6,601 posts)A world view based on lies & fear/hatred of "others" who are demonized by believers.
Caliman73
(11,744 posts)People talk about "sane" Republicans but the reality is that Republican ideology is based on conservative thought and conservative thought is based on the idea that people are inherently unequal and that a hierarchy exists "naturally" that should be maintained.
That hierarchy is based on gender, skin color, wealth, and often religion (though it is more a tool than a required feature). Conservatives rely on fear of chaos, fear of "others" taking what rightfully belongs to you, fear of violence, etc...
If left unchecked, Conservatism will eventually lead to authoritarian leaders like Trump, and to conspiracy theories like Q-Anon.
brush
(53,862 posts)Jon King
(1,910 posts)Knew one since we were kids, so been buds for over 40 years, the other have known for almost 30 years. One went full Trump 5 years ago. The other I thought was okay until every text was suddenly about BLM and other conspiracy nonsense.
These guys were good guys for their entire lives until this convergence of Trump, Qanon, and pandemic took them out. The perfect storm took folks who could have stayed sane and drove them into madness.
KT2000
(20,587 posts)a Qanon megaphone. They will post something insane and fellow Q people chime in with more crazy. They are in the know. If this does not get fixed, we are done as a country because there is no reasoning with them.
BobTheSubgenius
(11,564 posts)It takes a little more to wind them up than the victims of the virus in 28 Days Later, but they edge up to that when in large groups.
oldsoftie
(12,599 posts)And if it becomes known, I think everyone will be in for a surprise. I've long thought it is someone or a few people who are actually trolling the Trumpists. Because NOTHING major Q has predicted has ever come through. Wouldnt be surprised if it turns out to be someone like these guys, who are actually liberals, who make these fake news sites & troll the RWers to get them to repost ridiculous fake shit. All the while making money off each click. 60 Minutes even did a story on them.
leftstreet
(36,112 posts)It helps feed narratives that keep media getting clicks, and it keeps us peasants 'divided'
brush
(53,862 posts)any liberals would be involved.
Glorfindel
(9,734 posts)oldsoftie
(12,599 posts)JohnnyRingo
(18,641 posts)Offers great insight to what it's like when a loved one falls into the conspiracy pit.
I recommend it. Thanx for posting!
Woodwizard
(846 posts)Incredible stuff, I know a few Qnuts but none are family or close friends.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)I had a co-worker tell me with a straight face he witnessed Tom Hanks being arrested at the Van Nuys airport 2 years ago and that Trump had him secretly executed and replaced with a body double.
From time to time you get reminders of just how many people manage to live and function on the lunatic fringe.
Talitha
(6,613 posts)STILL believes President Obama wasn't born in the United States.
The stupid truly does run deep in some people.
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)Talitha
(6,613 posts)He's always been an overbearing, bossy smart ass - which is why he fits right in with the Repugs and his FOX-addicted 'Karen' wife. I haven't talked to him since he said "Wow, they really brainwashed you!"
Makes me wonder how much of the orange kool-aid he chugged.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)It should be a national priority to find out who is and has been behind this bullshit.
My guess is that it was started by some overgrown middle aged punk who wants to see the world burn because he never got his pony. I'm sure it's spread out from there.
SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)This is sophisticated psy-ops warfare against the American people.
The government should find the source and eradicate it.
BeerBarrelPolka
(1,202 posts)First in the 2016 election, Russia convinced many Americans of all sorts of stuff for them to vote for Trump. To this day, basically none of them admit to being duped by Russia. Then to continue, they create Qanon to feed them even more lies and keep the con going.
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)Marriage in process of destruction
although my spouse is not strictly q, she is very close in ideology. Nearly 20 years of marriage means little. For years we were close to agreement on nearly all topics. Then came trump.
I have a science backround and read carefully. I pointed out factual discrepancies to her daily until I was told "I can't talk to you" , "when did you become left wing?", "I'm a patriot". Anything bad that happens, becomes antifa's fault.
She's been a health care provider for 30 years, but now says she will never get the covid vaccine.
I just can't understand how this happens. It's like dealing with a drug addict.
I have never posted on any sort of forum like this before, but
I feel hopeless.
Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)I just didn't know how common this was
It started with the constant drone of Fox News in my (34M) parents house anytime my wife and I were over. As time went on, my father slipped more and more into his iPad. It became nothing but a Facebook machine, the holding place for the echo chamber. Content systematically delivered to find into the fringe things he started digging into.
He's from a generation where the news was more trusted. Where not everything was a blatant opinion piece, doling out strictly partisan politics and us versus them ideologies.
As the 2016 election went on, he already was a pro Trump guy because... Well, his reasons were copy pasted from news sources. Crooked Hillary. Benghazi. She's a career politician and he's a billionaire business man.
Then he started pandering Sandy Hook conspiracies and I thought this guy is really going over the edge.
I remember the day he casually said, "One of the pages I follow on Facebook, this Q Anon person said...."
And I'm in my 30s, grew up on the internet and yeah even 4chan. I knew what it was. God, wasn't it obvious trolling and incitement? Wasn't it so clearly just bullshit?
I don't support either party. Nothing but crooks, too much money in politics. Class division is the true unfought fight in our world.
I tried to temper him, reading him Trump quotes out of context and watching his brain short circuit when I said, "That was Trump who said windmills cause cancer." He would huff off, knowing the jig was up but too much at battle with cognitive dissonance.
It got to the point where all he did was respond with Q talking points and corporate for-profit news bullshit. I could predict what he would say, because it was all that predictable and just utterly programmed.
I tried to tell him this and he told me I was brainwashed. Just like when I said I wasn't for Trump, he put it on me that I must have been for Hillary. He couldn't compute that I don't support any of this type of garbage. I watched him fall apart from a good man with a sharp mind into just another parroting qultist.
He started treating my wife poorly, despite her having no such interactions. She was guilty by association. In July 2019, my wife asked him to walk her down the aisle at our wedding, because her parents are not with us. We mutually cried and he accepted.
In August, he lost it. Told me I was brainwashed. Started treating her like shit. I told him we were done and that he would have to come before me like Christ himself to apologize to my wife for ruining our family and our wedding.
Nothing. We were pregnant at that time, and he didn't know. I shared the news months later. Nothing.
Our daughter turns 1 year old this weekend. I have not seen or heard from him since August of 2019. My parents, both alive and well, were not there for the birth of my daughter. They won't be there for her first birthday. They're nearing 70 and both smokers, so I don't know if I will ever see them again.
Maybe like others, I was foolishly hopeful that the election cycle would shake a lot of this off. But the truth is, we've been calling them cultists and the election cycle doesn't effect that. I have no doubt he would have traveled to DC on Jan 6 if he was physically able. I have no doubt he thinks Trump will just reappear in the Oval Office in March like these people are saying now.
I often say that the people in our lives will show us who we want to be.... And others will show us who we must not become. My only solace is the standards I have as a father and husband are informed by this.
Just another story, same as so many. Thanks for providing a place I could write it down.
I am here to support anyone going through this.
Edit: I want to thank everyone for their compassion. It's a huge comfort to hear from you all. I'll try to be a more active and helpful participant in the community.