The Democratic Party Has a Fatal Misunderstanding of the QAnon Phenomenon

[friendly_iconoclast]

Their belief that this surreal conspiracy has arisen because of the poor education of its adherents is based in classism, not reality

https://newrepublic.com/article/161266/qanon-classism-marjorie-taylor-greene

On Thursday, the House voted to strip Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, putting an end to one chapter of what’s sure to be an ongoing saga in the chamber’s Republican caucus. In a meandering nonapology in the hours before the vote, Greene, who has endorsed an impressive array of conspiracy theories, including QAnon and claims that Hillary Clinton had raped, mutilated, and consumed the blood of a child, characterized negative coverage of her as—surprise, surprise—more “cancel culture” run amok. While Greene’s rise bodes poorly for the country, some have already decided her newfound celebrity is good news for the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects. On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee intends to focus on QAnon in its messaging, ahead of the 2022 midterms, in the hopes that the specter of more Greenes in Congress will push more people away from the GOP. “They can do QAnon, or they can do college-educated voters,” DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney said. “They cannot do both.”

Actually, they can. Trying to tether the GOP more tightly to the extremism it’s cultivated makes sense, and the strategy may help prevent some moderate suburbanites from returning to the party’s inordinately big tent. But polls have shown few differences on QAnon between voters with and without college degrees—Civiqs’s latest survey, for instance, registers 72 percent opposition and 5 percent support for the theory among graduates. The split is 71 to 5 among nongraduates and 78 to 3 among postgraduates. And, notably, Americans without college degrees are less likely than graduates to have heard of QAnon in the first place. If this is a surprise, consider the fact that Greene herself went to college. And when she runs for reelection next year, she’s sure to enjoy the support of many college-educated Republicans who, whether they personally believe in QAnon or not, want to keep as many right-wing firebrands as they can in Congress. Those who think such voters will inevitably doom the party would do well to remember the 2010 midterms—despite the Tea Party’s rhetoric and antics, Republicans took the House in a historic wave.

Of all the “big lies” distorting our politics, one of the largest and most popular—back in 2010 and now—has been the notion that our political divisions are the product of under- or miseducation. The Republican Party’s flight into lunacy, it’s often suggested, has a fairly simple cause. The unwashed aren’t getting The Facts in school or from their media sources, and it’s up to the enlightened to shower The Facts upon them—perhaps, as some “disinformation” experts recently suggested to The New York Times, with a “reality czar” at the White House manning the hose. This was the explanation many turned to as the Trump era began, and it was the explanation many turned to for how it ended...

...This week, The Atlantic published what amounted to a rebuttal. According to court records and media coverage reviewed by the University of Chicago’s Robert Pape and the Chicago Project on Security and Threats’ Keven Ruby, a full 40 percent of the 193 people charged with breaking into the Capitol grounds were business owners or white-collar workers. “Unlike the stereotypical extremist, many of the alleged participants in the Capitol riot have a lot to lose,” they wrote. “They work as CEOs, shop owners, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, and accountants.”...

The mentioned NYT article, and a dead-on criticism of same from the comments:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/technology/biden-reality-crisis-misinformation.html

"If President Biden wants to bring extremists and conspiracy theorists back to reality, he can start by making that reality worth coming back to."

Simplistic and Pollyanna. The overwhelming majority of the people who stormed the Capitol could afford to travel. They could afford plane tickets and to stay in hotels in one of the most expensive cities in the country. They could afford fancy weapons and ammo, which they were happy to brandish as they were threatening people's lives.

These are not the great dispossessed of the country. These are not the underserved and underprivileged. And they aren't uneducated. On the contrary. They are spoiled, malevolent, sociopathic brats who have been fed a diet of lies and quack theories by a former president and a GOP only too happy to whip them into a frenzy. Some of them are military vets or current military members, trained to kill and looking for an outlet for their violent impulses.

They are a danger to this country. And unless we call them out for what they are and punish them severely -- including their enablers in the GOP -- they will come back to bite us again and again and again and again.

[elleng]

1. 'Spoiled, malevolent, sociopathic brats' give great concern for our future,

especially 'our' grandkids. Thanks for posting.

[alwaysinasnit]

2. k&r for visibility

[consider_this]

3. It was interesting that Bill Maher...

on his last show, painted them with the common brush of hyper-religious 'Christians' - he seemed to think they all have that in common, in that they are ready and primed to believe stuff that is crazy to begin with (he cites bit of Christian stuff that is on the surface 'out there', like the contents of 'Revelation') saying they already have the mindset to believe the crazy Qanon stuff. And the way he told it, he sure had a way of aligning the nuttiest of both things as being of the same ilk. Interesting observation - is it true? I wonder how many are super religious right wing nut jobs?

[BComplex]

6. I agree with Bill Maher on that. eom/

[Beartracks]

4. "Republicans... want to keep as many right-wing firebrands as they can in Congress."

"... whether they personally believe in QAnon or not..."

For the simple reason that right-wing firebrands and fascists and terrorists are not Democrats/liberals.

Republicans, it seems, will gladly sell their souls to keep Democrats away from the levers of government, even if democracy dies in the process.

==============

[LaMouffette]

5. "Spoiled, malevolent, sociopathic brats" seems spot-on. They are like an army of "Karens."

Male and female Karens. (I don't know what the male equivalent of a "Karen" would be. Hmm. How about "Kevin"?)

How did they get to be these self-centered, self-righteous, entitled brats?

[Alpeduez21]

7. Chad

Is the male equivalent of karen

[LaMouffette]

13. Chad! I love it!

My impression from the DC insurrection arrests is that many of these radicalized right-wingers are white men in their 50s. So they are about my age. We are the "That 70s Show" generation. That was us portrayed in that series. What happened to the men of my generation?! I should correct that: What happened to a portion of the men in my generation that they ended up so frickin' mean?

[Aristus]

8. Two of their most prominent figures are a high-school dropout and a 33 year-old guy

who lives with his mommy. So far, they're exactly what I think they are...

[friendly_iconoclast]

9. Counterpoint: A large percentage of them are at least solidly middle class, not obvious losers...

...like the two you mentioned.

Those that write the insurrectionists off as merely disaffected yokels with meth habits would do well to
actually read the Chicago Project on Security and Threats article in the Atlantic, as mentioned in the OP.

They have money, they're educated, and they've got far more social connections than the previous violent
right-wingers we've seen over the years:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/the-capitol-rioters-arent-like-other-extremists/617895/

The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists

We analyzed 193 people arrested in connection with the January 6 riot—and found a new kind of American radicalism.

...(A) large majority of suspects in the Capitol riot have no connection to existing far-right militias, white-nationalist gangs, or other established violent organizations. We erred on the side of inclusion; we counted an arrestee as affiliated with such an organization if any court documents or news articles describe the person as a member, refer to social-media posts expressing an affinity for a certain group, or attest to patches or apparel that directly indicate support.

By these standards, 20 of the Capitol arrestees we studied— one-tenth—can be classified as supporters of gangs, militias, or militia-like groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters. The role that such groups played in the riot has attracted considerable news coverage. But 89 percent of the arrestees have no apparent affiliation with any known militant organization.

Connections were far more common among the suspected right-wing extremists arrested after incidents of deadly violence from 2015 to 2020. Of these, 26 percent were members of white-nationalist gangs (including skinhead groups and the Aryan Brotherhood), and 22 percent were part of militias and other organized groups (such as the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters).

Third, the demographic profile of the suspected Capitol rioters is different from that of past right-wing extremists. The average age of the arrestees we studied is 40. Two-thirds are 35 or older, and 40 percent are business owners or hold white-collar jobs. Unlike the stereotypical extremist, many of the alleged participants in the Capitol riot have a lot to lose. They work as CEOs, shop owners, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, and accountants. Strikingly, court documents indicate that only 9 percent are unemployed. Of the earlier far-right-extremist suspects we studied, 61 percent were under 35, 25 percent were unemployed, and almost none worked in white-collar occupations...

Tl;dr: These are not addled down-and-outers. These are people who have money and connections.

As the OP indicates, it is a serious mistake to underestimate them

[Aristus]

10. I don't care what they've achieved in life, every one of those professions has someone

who graduated at the bottom of his/her class.

Stupid is stupid. Bottom line.

[friendly_iconoclast]

11. Agreed, stupid *is* stupid- but stupid with power and motivation is a menace.

The career of one Donald John Trump I hope would have made that clear to all by now...

I have a drink cozy someone gave me years ago that I thought was amusing for a long time-

it says on the side "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups"

It's not so funny anymore...

[Aristus]

12. I agree.

n/t