Friendly Reminder, Q Isn't Real

With Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon aligned Representative from Georgia, having to defend herself today and to acknowledge the conspiracy theories she has peddled in her past, this seemed an appropriate time to post this reminder:

Q isn't real.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to have no idea what I'm referring to, Q is the pseudonym of a supposed "Q Clearance Patriot" who claims to be a US intelligence official leaking classified information.  The leaks began on 4Chan, one of the darker corners of the worldwide web on October 2017 and later moved to 8kun, an even darker hole, where it continued to promote a vast conspiracy theory largely centered around President Trump.  The movement became known as QAnon, and the messages from Q were labeled Q drops.  The conspiracy positioned Donald Trump as the lead combatant fighting a secret war against a global liberal cult of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. 

QAnon commonly asserts that Trump has been planning a day of reckoning known as the "Storm", when thousands of members of the cabal will be arrested.  Q's supporters have accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials of being members of the cabal.  The conspiracy theories have been amplified by Russian state-backed troll accounts on social media, as well as Russian state-backed traditional media.

Q became a conservative Nostradamus with a track record for prophecy and revelation that is just as spotty.  Most centered around when the Storm would occur or when certain liberal or at least not conservative enough figures would be taken down.  Q continued to insist that Donald Trump would be re-inaugurated despite losing the election.  There are certain circles in the Q sphere that continue to spread that the Storm will happen in March and that's when Trump will be reinstated.

The scary impact of Q is the number of people that have bought into the lie.  Particularly within Christian circles.  Poll your contacts in particularly conservative evangelical circles and you would be surprised to find the number of people who have bought into some part of the Q and Q-adjacent conspiracies.  

So, it's important to dispel them now and to call them out.

Q isn't real.

The world is not flat.

We really landed on the moon.

Vaccines don't cause autism.

9/11 happened and was not an inside job.

Sandy Hook and Parkland were not false flag events, they are tragedies.

Comet Ping Pong is a pizza restaurant and was not selling children.

Wayfair did not traffic children through the sale of office furniture.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not actual demons and do not smell of sulfur.

Michelle Obama was not born male.

Barack Obama was not born in Kenya.

George Soros was not a Nazi collaborator.

The Democratic party is not part of a massive international child sex-trafficking ring.

The Rothschild family are not the ringleaders of a Satanic cult.

The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 did not make the United States into a corporation that could be disbanded.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. is dead and did not fake his death.

There was not massive fraud in the 2020 election on a scale that would change the outcome of the election.  Joe Biden won the election because there were that many people who were fed up with Trump and/or wanted to promote Democratic principles.

COVID-19 is real.

5G doesn't cause COVID-19, Alzheimers, autism, infertility...

Q isn't real.

Stay sane out there my friends.  The dis- and mis-information is only going to continue to spread.  

Plandemic Problem

I've seen a lot of people sharing or attempting to share a video entitled Plandemic.  The video, a 26 minute preview for their upcoming feature documentary, purports to reveal the truth about the Covid-19 pandemic, from the point of view of a suppressed scientist, Judy Mikovits.  I won't link to it here, because I refuse to spread dubious information.

The video is clearly conspiracy theory fodder.  It paints Judy Mikovits as a hero who has been jailed and silenced for her opposition to a global conspiracy of Big Pharma, national governments, and health organizations.  She is supposedly now able to speak because the five year ban has been lifted.  And she would have us believe that Covid-19 has been planned, it has been released to profit Big Pharma particularly through a yet undeveloped vaccine, and that governments, the World Health Organization, Dr. Fauci, etc., etc., etc. are all implicated.  And of course, it's been going on for years.

She goes on to add beliefs that autism is connected to viruses, to vaccines, and could be cured.  That chronic fatigue syndrome is caused by a virus.  That getting the flu vaccine make you more susceptible to Covid-19.  That our immune systems will crater because of stay in place orders (even after just a couple of weeks).  That there are healing microbes in the beach.

IT'S JUNK SCIENCE.

IT'S CONSPIRACY THEORY.

IT'S FALSE.

A quick google search on Mikovits would reveal that her one study was discredited because no one else could replicate her results.  That is how actual science works - through peer review and confirmation.  She was arrested and jailed for theft from her laboratory, though she would claim her innocence and that it was planted as part of the coverup.

I get it, conspiracy theories are appealing because they bring order to chaos.  They make things sound appealing because it provides a reason why everything is happening.  Even though it is a frightening reason when you consider the possibilities and implications, it still provides a reason compared to our reality where reasons are hard to find.

If you take just one minute to think through the implications, it all falls apart.

Let's put aside the profit angle that this video has.  I mean, it is a preview designed to get people to buy an upcoming documentary on the subject.  It's really trying to sell you on watching.  To scare you into watching, so that you know the "truth."

Just looking at the conspiracy claimed, it's too unbelievable.  Too outlandish.  It claims a global conspiracy - cross governmental, worldwide conspiracy and coverup.  Remember, we are not the only country that is reacting in this manner to this virus.  Lockdowns and stay in place orders are occurring on every continent across the globe.  Why would governments that are politically opposed to our government act in the same fashion, under the same conspiracy?  If this was really occurring, surely there would be countries that would be acting in opposition, right?  I mean, Dr. Fauci couldn't influence Iran?  Russia?  China?  You mean to have me believe everyone is united in this, when they can't be united anywhere else?  And no one else is going to leak it?

Occam's Razor most often wins out.  The simplest answer is usually the right one. What's more likely - all governments acting together under some great Big Pharma conspiracy?  Or all governments not knowing what to do and reacting how they see best given the information they have, looking at other countries for example?  It's scary to think that everyone is just doing their best to adjust and deal with something they were not prepared for, but that's most likely the truest answer.

Conspiracy relies on pointing to topics where we should have a healthy skepticism and stretches that beyond credibility.  Videos like this work, they make you start to accept even their outlandish claims, because they make you latch on to about 20% of the information in them that posits genuine questions.

It's one thing to question.  We should be cautious about the eventual vaccine.*  We need to make sure that it has been thoroughly tested and that its potential side effects are well known before administering it to a population.  That does not equate with believing that any vaccine will be some sort of control mechanism.   Nor does it make all of their other statements in the video true.

Please, please, please, think through these.  Look at them critically.  There will always be people who try to convince you that someone is out to get you.  One of the most disastrous trends in American society is this belief that experts are out to get us.  A distrust of intellectualism.  These people are not on your side.  The will continue to stoke fear, for their own gain, to divide us further, to make us reliant on them.

We can do better.

* Side note - What really bugs me about their vaccine skepticism is that they don't have any internal consistency in their argument.  They would have us distrust any vaccine, because the people that are making it are bad, but we should jump on hydroxychloroquine because of anecdotal evidence and it needs no further testing.

Domestic Terrorism

Over the first few days of this week, pipe bombs have been mailed to prominent Democratic leaders and influencers including former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, former CIA director John Brennan at CNN, political donor George Soros, former attorney general Eric Holder, Representative Maxine Waters, and Florida congresswoman and former Democratic National Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  Oddly, the return address on each package used Debbie Wasserman Schultz's address.  The explosive device in the packages was constructed from a length of pipe a little longer than six inches and wrapped in black tape with what appeared to be epoxy on the ends.  What could be a timer was attached to the side of the pipe and wires were visible at both ends.  These packages were treated as live explosive devices and dealt with accordingly.

If you want to see what hate looks like, this is it.

This is a photograph of the suspicious package sent to the CNN building in New York City earlier this morning. Police say it appeared to be a live explosive device. https://t.co/aG9JsTfwhx pic.twitter.com/tcICHJErda

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) October 24, 2018

More troubling than the terroristic acts of this individual or group of people has been the apathetic response by large swaths of people on social media.  Posts and comments decrying this as a "false flag" or a plot by the Democrats to gain sympathy before the election or to distract everyone from the caravan of migrants seeking asylum in the United States.  Methinks the tinfoil is strong with this group.

These bombs and the threats and attacks behind them should be recognized for what they are - acts of terrorism.  Acts of hate.  Criminal, despicable acts against our fellow Americans.  Our fellow citizens.  Our fellow humans. 

I do not agree with the current administration often, but I agree with their response to these events.

I agree wholeheartedly! https://t.co/ndzu0A30vU

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2018

To further quote the President, "In these times we have to unify, we have to come together and send one very clear strong unmistakable message, that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America."

And while I agree with these sentiments, I also have to wonder if we are here because of two and a half years of chants of "Lock her up!" at political rallies.  Because of continued fear mongering with "If Republicans did lose big to Democrats, they will overturn everything that we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently, and violently."  If we're here because of images that say "It's no longer Democrat versus Republican, it's Communism versus Freedom."  Are we here because we've not only allowed but encouraged our politicians, and particularly our Commander-in-Chief, to engage in the lowest form of muckraking and rhetoric?

While we do not have a revealed motive from the bomber(s) regarding the attacks, it should not seem coincidental that all of the targets so far are not only Democrats, but targets of President Trump's attacks.

These actions and the response must be seen as the sad, ugly, and inevitable result of the constant portrayal of an opposing party as crooked, un-American, liars, Socialists, Communists, bigots, racists, Fascists, and immoral.  The result of continuing to buy into the line of thinking that says everyone who is not with us is against us.  That everyone against us is evil.  The line of thinking that forgets we are all American citizens.  That we are all trying to make this country better, though we may have different visions of what "better" entails.  That we are all in this together.

We have to do better.  We have to stop giving into this impulse to assume the worst of anyone who disagrees with us.  To stop impugning the motives of the other half of the country that has a different political opinion.  To stop judging opposition by the worst examples of their character while attributing only the best of intentions to our side. 

We have to stop believing a political party can save us.  And to stop assuming that the only candidates that can do any good will have a specific letter following their name.   And this is especially true for those who claim to follow Christ.  Only He can save us and this country, and no political party or candidate will always align with His purpose. 

We have to stop viewing compromise and consensus as dirty words and start having hard conversations about political issues.  To start really digging into try and solve them, not just digging in our heels when someone will not give in to our position.  To end this obstructionism and to actually work together to learn and grow from each other.

To start voting out of office people who have been abusing the system for far longer than any founding father could have imagined.  To do whatever we need in order to end the ability to be a "career politician," implementing term limits in Congress and other agencies.

To do more than pay lip service to the fact that we are all Americans, and to start acting like it.

I hope we are up to the task.  I really do.

Because this current environment is getting really tiring and wearing on me.  Wearing on us all.  And I fear how long we can keep it up without resorting to something far worse than this week.