The SWIFT DEATH of QANON

The conspiracy theories adopted by the far-right are definitely concerning.

They need to be discredited, but they should not be deplatformed. Ironically, I think the issue is propagated further by such behavior (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter targeting Alex Jones and others for example).  While I understand the intention is to take down harmful conspiracy theories before they become an issue, it ends up backfiring. When you have a group of very paranoid people convinced that there is some sort of elitist conspiracy, the worst way to take down that conspiracy is to try and silence/deplatform them. People see it is a confirmation of their worldview: that there is something the elites are hiding. "Why else would Alex Jones be kicked off platforms? Clearly the media is mad at him because he is telling the truth!" 

@oromagi

😱😱😱

Woah, be careful Oro, Moloch isn't going to be very happy with you after this post...

--> @oromagi

Wait, has this actually caused people to stop believing all the "Q level top super spy secret" nonsense? I would have expected them to just claim that Ron is lying as part of the coverup.

are you saying all conspiracy theorists have a physically detectable impairment- that x-rays or CT scans can show who is being a conspiracy theorist and who is not?

While I understand the intention is to take down harmful conspiracy theories before they become an issue, it ends up backfiring.

Is that a mental issue?

I've never met a true believer who really stopped believing anything and I'm sure there is some core membership that will mutate and persist if only for fellowship.  The new Russian security/domainname ought to cut deep into the old Q's reputation but perhaps somebody can recreate a new version of 8kun with a new version of Q.  Q's access becomes a lot harder to pretend in a Biden administration.  So not the end of believing, no, not in the short term anyway but the steady increase in believers that has surged pre-election is a tide we might hope has turned.

the collapse of QAnon came less than three weeks after YouTube bans and 3 months after Twitter bans.

ANY DISTRUST OF ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY IS OBVIOUSLY CAUSED BY SEVERE BRAIN DAMAGE.

I'm pointing out how easy it is to maintain authority when you can just accuse everyone who disagrees with you of being EVIL and or INCINCERE and or irredeemably stupid and or brain damaged (lunatics).

Disbelief in The "official" "government" "narrative" in-and-of-itself does NOT constitute a diagnosis of "brain malfunction".

Furthermore, accusing everyone who disagrees with you of being EVIL and or INCINCERE and or irredeemably stupid and or brain damaged (lunatics) is a TRIED-AND-TRUE "tactic of AUTHORITARIANS.

• In spite of last fall's revelations that QAnon was just a father and son pornographers running Stormfront and the QAnon servers out of their Filipino pig farm using Russian Intel for cybersecurity, QAnon's popularity has managed to increase somewhat.  In May, the New York Times ran an article stating that the cult of QAnon was the same size of the Christian Evangelist movement and met many qualifications for calling itself a mainstream religion.
  
• QAnon was the origin point for many of the most outlandish claims about the 2020 election including the Hugo Chavez and Dominion server stuff.
  
• It's started to look like five or six of Trump's most prominent lawyers might actually get disbarred for trying to present some of these cuckoo claims in court.  Two are facing one of the largest libel claims in US history, Dominion is asking for more than a billion dollars in damages from each.
  
• QAnon was prominently represented at the Jan 6th insurrection.  Hundreds of people could be facing jail time for acting on the beliefs put forward by QAnon.
  
• Since Jan 6, the St. Petersburg cybersecurity firm shared by Stormfront and Russian military intelligence dropped QAnon as a client.  It is no longer clear who provides cybersecurity for Watkins' QAnon server but it still seems to be happening in Russia somewhere.  Interestingly, a rival QAnon server is now gaining popularity- QSear.ch.  The .ch indicates China's internet domain.  So, a website that claims to run by a guy with high ranking Q level clearance in the US  Dept. of Energy is now actually multiple sites with China and Russia openly competing for control of the Republican Party's belief system.
  
• HBO ran a really interesting 4 part documentary about QAnon generally and the Watkins specifically.  The documentary ends with Ron Watkins accidently revealing that he and his dad were QAnon.  So that 's two confessions by Ron although most of the time when asked he still denies it.
  
• The Federal Election Commission sent a letter this week to Lauren Boebert asking why her campaign kept venmo'ing her money from the election fund to her which she deposited in her personal accounts.  Immediately afterwards Boebert amended her tax filings to show that although she claimed a net loss of $300,000  over the past two years her husband actually made nearly a million in consulting fees from Terra Energy and they'd just forgot to report it.  Boebert also forgot to disclose her conflict of interest when introducing Natural Gas legislation this year for which Terra Energy was the priniciple lobbyist.
  

I'd agree in theory except the  practice seems to be proving the theory wrong.  In 2012, The Alex Jones show pulled better ratings than Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck combined and Jones was claiming about $20 mil/yr, mostly in supplement sales.  Since the big wave of social media bans in 2018, Jones' listenership is estimated to be down about 90% and Jones whole net worth is now under $5 mil.  Even conspiracy theorists  online seem to want to distinguish themselves as something more substantial than Jones these days.  Likewise, our case in point- the collapse of QAnon came less than three weeks after YouTube bans and 3 months after Twitter bans. Perhaps some judicious gatekeeping can prove more effective than theory supposed.

So as a liberal, you think that it is better to defeat arguments you disagree with by banning the arguments, than it is by confronting them?

CENSORSHIP is like an inoculation against REVOLUTION.

CENSORSHIP is like an inoculation against REVOLUTION.

Revolutions are usually a result from lack of freedom.  Not sure how restricting freedom, prevents it