The terrible thing that happened to me does not feel like "secret knowledge" or a "conspiracy theory" at all. It is very real and the consequences I deal with are relevant to every minute of every day of my life.
I don't feel depressed. My life is fulfilling and I find a tremendous amount of meaning in the work I do. I know many others who are prone to considering "conspiracy theories" who are the same.
You seem to be confusing "people in power abuse said power and never face consequences" (true) with Hilary Clinton operated a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza place" (not true).
People in power face consequences all the time. I never denied that. It just takes a long time for a reckoning to happen. Often decades, or lifetimes.
And I doubt QAnon conspiracy theory is as simple as "Hillary Clinton operated a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza place".
You are oversimplifying my point, turning it into a false dichotomy, and assuming the QAnon conspiracy theory is only the idea that Hillary Clinton operated a pedophile ring. My point was that depressed losers aren't the only people open to controversial theories about people in power.
I don't know many details about QAnon, and I don't care much to research it and come to an understanding myself. I have much more important things to spend my time on. But I do know from random posts I've encountered by QAnon people is that there is a wide range of beliefs regarding who is involved and to what extent. Actually, I haven't seen anyone accuse Hillary Clinton of involvement in a few years now.
There seems to be a growing consensus that child sex rings exist, corruption is involved, and something needs to be done about it. But it also gets blown out of proportion by less careful minded people. Isn't Jeffrey Epstein and "pedo island" considered to be part of QAnon? Isn't Epstein's involved with child sex trafficking generally accepted as true now?
> I don't know many details about QAnon, and I don't care much to research it and come to an understanding myself.
Cool.
> Isn't Jeffrey Epstein and "pedo island" considered to be part of QAnon?
No. They falsely took credit for bringing him down, when it was journalists in the "mainstream media" (specifically one reporter for the Miami Herald named Julie Brown) that broke the story and brought him down. To be clear, they had nothing to do with his downfall.
I think you're discounting the number of people involved with such conspiracies for whom that discription is not true.
Everything he is against doesn't affect his life one bit, its like hobby to him and it gets good reaction from others. His conspiracy theory articles can be debunked in few minutes and then he throws in even bigger article and he hasnt even read those, so if you keep pushing he has nothing to say.
But typically the person feels like they have no control, so inventing this universe that makes sense to them allows them to retain some (fictional) control. Or they may feel worthless or low-status, and if they imagine they "know" things that most people "don't know" that would restore them some of their perceived status. Or they may completely disagree with how the world looks like and the direction where it appears to be going, so let's invent this other world that's more satisfactory.
I mean, if all of the above (and similar) explanations fail, you'd just have to assume the person is not very intelligent. I'm not sure what else could possibly explain it at that point.
Or religions.
The reverse is also true, if someone has to say they are important, then they are likely not actually important.
Applying this to the QAnon 'motto' of 'Where we go one, we go all', I think you can conclude that if they have to say it, then it's not true. Most adherents are then, mostly, alone.
The feeling of community and belonging that these people get is obviously missing in their lives otherwise. That they find these feelings via image macros, chat boxes, and videos speaks to the depth of loss they feel in their lives.
It's not an issue of misinformation, but I think, loneliness.
I never understood that as a moto. Right wingers are known for being hyper-individualistic, WWGOWGA seems like some quasi-socialist slogan.
But you are right, there are multiple crises of poverty, loneliness and poor education in the US. The thing that really baffles me are the "Q" followers that are none of these things, and aren't American.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwnjx4/people-tell-us-how...