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I actually thought the comment you replied to made a good point, but I think I can explain it differently (with examples), which might make it easier to underst

I actually thought the comment you replied to made a good point, but I think I can explain it differently (with examples), which might make it easier to understand. I browsed some conspiracy sites back in the day, including 4chan and /r/conspiracy. There seemed to be three levels of thought about Jews. A small number of people thought that Jews had a conspiracy whereby they coordinated with each other to run the world (active collusion). A larger number of people thought that powerful people generally ran the world in a way that actively benefited the powerful and hurt the poor (without active collusion) and that a disproportionate portion of those powerful people were Jewish. A third, even larger group, didn't really think it was about Jews - like the second group, they thought powerful people subtly colluded to benefit themselves, but they weren't really interested in the religious background of those people, or recognized that the disproportionate representation of Jews among the powerful is more likely a result of a higher than average interest in education and a lower rate of divorce among Jews - just normal population demographics playing out. One of the things that was interesting is that all three groups (even those that disavowrd anti-Semitism) used "anti-Semitic" memes like (((globalists))) and that the vast majority of contributors (from the second and third group) looked down on the first group. Thinking that Jews actually got into a secret room and actively conspired - this was low-brow - and you'd see comments mocking such views - the village idiots of conspiracy village. It's my observation that the media often describes conspiracy groups as the first group only. E.g. with Pepe in 2016, the media described a green frog as an anti-Semitic symbol. But on conspiracy forums, commenters were saying "no, Pepe doesn't refer to Jews, it refers to globalists / illuminati." I think a similar thing is going on the Q. I have one friend who has been watching and describes himself as a fan - he doesn't believe it all, or even most of it - but he does believe that powerful people conspire to evade laws that is common people follow and that powerful people in particular often engage in illegal sexual liasions, including prostitution and in some cases, prostitution involving minors. The larger point is - there's a spectrum here that ranges from literally believing Clinton and Trump hang out in the same pizza parlor raping children, to believing that powerful people are generally aware of the availability of prostitution and the prostitution of minors at expensive hotels (hello, Russia Ritz Carlton, can I get a room in the presidential suite). Many of the softer versions of these "conspiracies" don't seem too far fetched to me - after all, we know that powerful people were aware of Epstein and purchased services from Epstein well before the rest of us knew. On sites like 8chan, you see the whole range - with, frankly, the majority of the commenters on the softer end - but the media represents those sites as dominated or exclusively the harder versions. And it's misleading. Such misleading descriptions attached to an attempt to restrict free speech are very dangerous IMHO, as they can be used to restrict legitimate speech e.g. about the extent of complicity of major hotel chains and just general awareness of rich people and illegal sexual transactions.

klmadfejno 6y ago
I don't disagree, but it's more or less what I meant by this line > All the logic in your great wall of text is nullified and is more or less amounting to a reverse straw man. Implying that an outrageous claim has merit because a severely watered down version of it might be accurate. If you think there may be some rich people who engage in with underage prostitutes, you are almost certainly correct. It's kind of dumb to make that a salient issue in your day to day if you don't have any specifics, but sure, it's probably still true somewhere. But let's say you, for whatever reason, still think its really important to make sure people ask the question, are there rich pedophiles. It should be patently obvious that aligning yourself at all with stupider ideas, even if they share a similar vein, is a bad idea. It harms your credibility to defend QAnon and then qualify that you only mean your portion. If you want to have a discussion, all you need to do is say "pizza parlor stuff is dumb, QAnon is dumb, but there is some merit to rich pedophiles somewhere. The weakness of conspiracy theorists is that they align themselves with other conspiracy theorists who offer some form of affirmation to their beliefs because they think a larger force is telling them lies. And maybe they are being told some lies. Because that's really all it is. You can adjust your level of craziness but the entire point of a conspiracy theory in-group is getting affirmation from others. If you had a genuine interest in an issue that you wanted to raise in public awareness or do something to combat it, the route of the conspiracy theorist is an awfully dumb way to do it. The spectrum is, at worst, dumb as rocks, and at best, unwise and lacking in self awareness.
- will4274 6y ago
  I see two issues with what you're saying. First, it's not just that some rich people are pedophiles. It's called a conspiracy theory for a reason - there's conspiring going on. The CEO of the Ritz knows that his hotels offer underage prostitutes. The personal concierge directs the CEO to club which is known to be "good for rich people." The club owner knows that the company they outsource to for renting table dancers on the weekends also has dancers doing some prostituting on the side. The other rich attendees of the club (who are not purchasing) can see that that girl is clearly not 21. There's more than just pedophilia going on here - a system of winks and nods whereby powerful people are offered the opportunity to engage in illegal behavior and make no moves against the powerful people who facilitate these opportunities. The second thing is that you're missing the point around alignment. These people DON'T align themselves with each other. They frequent the same forums as each other (e.g. 8chan) and disagree with each other on those forums. It's only in the eyes of the media and in people influenced by the media that the various flavors of conspiracy people are actually aligned. Edit: was thinking about this line. > If you had a genuine interest in an issue that you wanted to raise in public awareness or do something to combat it, the route of the conspiracy theorist is an awfully dumb way to do it. What is the right way to address e.g. the widespread availability of illegal prostitution in hotels owned by American companies in foreign countries? I saw a few news articles in the press exploring the phenomenon a few years back, but nothing changed. Am I supposed to found a non-profit? A newspaper? Do the investigation myself and publish it to LiveLeak? Write a letter to my congresswoman? I'm honestly not sure how to work that problem, other than just talking to other people about it.

klmadfejno 6y ago

I don't disagree, but it's more or less what I meant by this line > All the logic in your great wall of text is nullified and is more or less amounting to a reverse straw man. Implying that an outrageous claim has merit because a severely watered down version of it might be accurate. If you think there may be some rich people who engage in with underage prostitutes, you are almost certainly correct. It's kind of dumb to make that a salient issue in your day to day if you don't have any specifics, but sure, it's probably still true somewhere. But let's say you, for whatever reason, still think its really important to make sure people ask the question, are there rich pedophiles. It should be patently obvious that aligning yourself at all with stupider ideas, even if they share a similar vein, is a bad idea. It harms your credibility to defend QAnon and then qualify that you only mean your portion. If you want to have a discussion, all you need to do is say "pizza parlor stuff is dumb, QAnon is dumb, but there is some merit to rich pedophiles somewhere. The weakness of conspiracy theorists is that they align themselves with other conspiracy theorists who offer some form of affirmation to their beliefs because they think a larger force is telling them lies. And maybe they are being told some lies. Because that's really all it is. You can adjust your level of craziness but the entire point of a conspiracy theory in-group is getting affirmation from others. If you had a genuine interest in an issue that you wanted to raise in public awareness or do something to combat it, the route of the conspiracy theorist is an awfully dumb way to do it. The spectrum is, at worst, dumb as rocks, and at best, unwise and lacking in self awareness.

will4274 6y ago
I see two issues with what you're saying. First, it's not just that some rich people are pedophiles. It's called a conspiracy theory for a reason - there's conspiring going on. The CEO of the Ritz knows that his hotels offer underage prostitutes. The personal concierge directs the CEO to club which is known to be "good for rich people." The club owner knows that the company they outsource to for renting table dancers on the weekends also has dancers doing some prostituting on the side. The other rich attendees of the club (who are not purchasing) can see that that girl is clearly not 21. There's more than just pedophilia going on here - a system of winks and nods whereby powerful people are offered the opportunity to engage in illegal behavior and make no moves against the powerful people who facilitate these opportunities. The second thing is that you're missing the point around alignment. These people DON'T align themselves with each other. They frequent the same forums as each other (e.g. 8chan) and disagree with each other on those forums. It's only in the eyes of the media and in people influenced by the media that the various flavors of conspiracy people are actually aligned. Edit: was thinking about this line. > If you had a genuine interest in an issue that you wanted to raise in public awareness or do something to combat it, the route of the conspiracy theorist is an awfully dumb way to do it. What is the right way to address e.g. the widespread availability of illegal prostitution in hotels owned by American companies in foreign countries? I saw a few news articles in the press exploring the phenomenon a few years back, but nothing changed. Am I supposed to found a non-profit? A newspaper? Do the investigation myself and publish it to LiveLeak? Write a letter to my congresswoman? I'm honestly not sure how to work that problem, other than just talking to other people about it.