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You not having heard of 8kun really hasn't done a damn thing to slow down QAnon, actually. You're not in their target audience and they don't need you on board
by AndrewBissell 6y ago
You not having heard of 8kun really hasn't done a damn thing to slow down QAnon, actually. You're not in their target audience and they don't need you on board to achieve their purposes.
The best way to combat conspiracy theories like QAnon would be for our elites and institutions to stop constantly preying upon the people and lying to them about it via a neutered press, and actually hold some members of their own class accountable for once. The massively corrupt corporate giveaway that was the Covid stimulus is a great recent example. The Epstein case being slow walked by the FBI for 25 years and then trying to sweep it all under the rug with "oops he killed himself while the guards were asleep and the cameras malfunctioned!" is another. As long as this kind of stuff continues, people will attempt (often haphazardly and incorrectly) to understand how and why it isn't being stopped, and who's in charge of it. They will be easy targets for grifters and bunkum artists who rush in to fill the gaps left by complete radio silence on the part of mainstream media sources.
You know, I don't agree with QAnon and think it has many properties of a dangerous cult, but they do at least have one advantage over run-of-the-mill liberals in correctly identifying the ruling elite as the chief cause of the world's problems, instead of constantly focusing blame on "deplorable" Trump supporters with zero actual power or influence.
- shadowgovt 6y agoI'm not sure how one concludes that the body politic that elected Donald Trump as President of the United States has zero actual power or influence.
- AndrewBissell 6y agoBy recognizing that electoral success doesn't actually translate into direct implementation of the voters' preferred agenda, as both the Trump and Obama administrations starkly demonstrate.
- shadowgovt 6y agoAh, okay. And thank God it doesn't, as both the Trump and Obama administrations starkly demonstrate.
- AndrewBissell 6y agoYeah god forbid we get something like accountability for the financial sector after 2008, an actual end to our ruinous wars in the Middle East, any sort of investment in real infrastructure or re-industrialization in the U.S., or an actual draining of the swamp of corruption in DC. Thank heavens the power elite knows what's best for the voters better than they do.
- shadowgovt 6y agoAnd by the same coin, thank God we didn't get a giant wall along the border, didn't kick out people from the United States who have lived here their entire rememberable lives, and didn't abolish social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The problem with expecting representative government to do "What the people want" is the people want a lot of things. Many of them incompatible. Some of them terrible ideas.
- AndrewBissell 6y agoAre you seriously under the impression that the impetus to cut entitlements is coming from the broad base of voters and not the ruling class? Trump campaigned on not cutting Social Security and Medicare.
- shadowgovt 6y agoAnd then he tried, and the only thing that stopped him was Congress. I do not know what to make of that, other than to suggest the "elite vs commoner" division may not be politically clear.
- krapp 6y ago>I do not know what to make of that, other than to suggest the "elite vs commoner" division may not be politically clear. The mistake is believing "elites" comprise an organized group with a single motivating purpose and unified agenda exercising arbitrary power over the facade of government. The problem with using terms like "elites" and "ruling class" when referring to American politics is that while they're a great basis for conspiracy theories and class warfare, the simple dimensionality of "left vs. right, elite vs. commoner" don't describe the actual complex dynamics of political reality, or the fact that checks and balances do sometimes work.