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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338426: Nov 9th 2020 at 9:21:52 AM

[up]

Yes, this is very much a case of "taking the money and run." The thing is, we KNOW who Q is.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531

The followers can't confront them, though, because that would acknowledge Q doesn't exist.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#338427: Nov 9th 2020 at 9:22:15 AM

[up][up]You imply that out-and-out fascism isn’t where they already are.

Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Nov 9th 2020 at 12:22:23 PM

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CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338428: Nov 9th 2020 at 9:24:06 AM

That's swell and all, but considering how utterly fanatical their followers are, I'm pretty sure a good chunk of them will double down, simply dismiss it as "fayk nyewze from dae MSM" and keep propagating their nuttiness on social media and fringe circles.

These people are primarily followers and they have been organized, radicalized, and made prevalent due to social media. The fact they no longer have a leader is going to severely impact them. They've also lost the mainstream platforms of Twitter and Facebook.

And while I suspect a large chunk will not admit they've been suckered, at least some will. Because, of course, a lot of them had Patreons and donations for the cause.

It's been dealt a severe blow and I take comfort in that.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 9th 2020 at 9:27:29 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Xopher001 Since: Jul, 2012
#338429: Nov 9th 2020 at 9:38:50 AM

The Biden administration needs to seriously crack down on white supremacy. These people didn't just pop up when Trump was elected, they've been a problem for decades and already committed multiple terrorist attacks, even going back to the Oklahoma City bombings

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338430: Nov 9th 2020 at 9:41:18 AM

Maybe the FBI can finally deliver their report on white supremacist terrorism that they have been sitting on for 3 years.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#338431: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:00:11 AM

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has been fired (by tweet), will be replaced by Christopher Miller, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Trump twitter link [1]

Edited by nova92 on Nov 9th 2020 at 10:06:48 AM

Aszur A nice butterfly from Pagliacci's Since: Apr, 2014 Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
A nice butterfly
#338432: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:06:44 AM

I question whether the Qanon, literal goddamn Nazis, and KKK followers have been given a blow whatsoever with Trump's failed bid for the second term.

They do not need a leader that is politically viable. That their choice got to be president for a bit was a nice bonus, but they will follow anyone or anything that is mildly palatable whether they are real or not to justify their beliefs and actions.

This is why they will cling to whatever idiocy Shapiro, or Peterson, or any pseudo intellectual spouts. This is why there are policemen with the Punisher symbol.

Yes, their ultimate goal is to have their ethno nationalist state where they get to discriminate as they desire, and expect that capital interests will look after them. But because this idea is so evidently stupid, and it cannot fathomably be presented in a politically appetizing manner, all they do is dogwhistle and support the party that appeals to these dogwhistles. They embolden and recruit for the party while supporting them with their emotionally masturbatory conspiracy theories (in which they are the heroes and victims to literal demonic cabals). They do this by appealing to vulnerable communities: the dejected and abandoned elderly, the angry youths and the economically privileged whites who feel threatened by a woman or black man being on a cartoon.

They don't need to have a leader who says the quiet part aloud to still be voting Republican.

Edited by Aszur on Nov 9th 2020 at 12:09:33 PM

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
Kaiseror Since: Jul, 2016
#338433: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:08:05 AM

[up][up] So what's this new guy's track record?

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#338435: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:30:16 AM

According to Axios, Trump is discussing a 2024 run. It's not a very long article though.

But yeah, Trump is almost definitely running in 2024, barring imprisonment, a massive change in the sense of the nation, or his death.

ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#338436: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:30:52 AM

I hope he does run... as an independent.

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Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#338437: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:32:08 AM

Yeah, I don't expect Qanon to just disappear, but it may change shape and go back underground to some extent.

As for the age of the president, there are plenty of 30 somethings who become president or prime ministers in their own country. The US is a bit of an outlier in seemingly thinking no one under 60 is qualified for the job.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#338438: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:34:39 AM

Wasn’t Obama in his 40s when he first won? I think 2020 is a bit of an outlier for candidate age.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
Mio Since: Jan, 2001
#338440: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:37:15 AM

It might have stopped a couple of pages but I wanted to add my own two cents to the discussion, since it often infuriates me in the directions it takes.

I think something that people need to realize is that when Republicans talk about the working class they are not really talking about the working class, and I don't just mean that they only think about White People. The constructed identity of the "worker" the Republicans have cultivated is largely removed from whether or not a person has to sell their own labor as their primary means of survival and instead focuses on weird cultural signals like what products they consume, their taste in media, geography, what industry they participate in, general aesthetics, etc.

It's how you get people who own businesses (the infamous "small business" appeal), and property owners (including some small landlords), and even large scale farmers and ranchers to consider themselves working class, while urban salarymen, service economy wage salves, and gig economy workers are not.

This has the (not coincidental) effect of excluding most minorities from the working class, even if their relations to capital would suggest they a greater claim then who is generally allowed to be "working class" in a cultural sense.

The thing that bothers me is that there isn't much push-back against this completely incorrect idea of what the working class is, that Black, Urban, Hispanic, LGBTQIA, etc, workers have just as much claim to being working class as their white, heterosexual, cisgendered, Suburban/Rural counterparts, even more so in many cases.

But instead, especially with Democrats there is not really desire to engage with this contradiction, and in some cases they will even play into it like how Hillary Clinton claimed that Bernie Sander's "Socialist" policies would not help against racism, homophobia etc. It also doesn't help that leftist, including Bernie Sanders sometimes play into this idea as well when they talk about the working class.

I generally think that an aggressive social democratic program that addresses the needs of all workers (including the specific needs of minority workers) could be what helps dispel this false worker identity, but it would require a much harder focus on economic policy, and an ability to link the economic policy to social issues.

Until then I think the Democrats are going to continue having the problem of Republicans being able to chip at some fronts of their support by engaging in populistic appeals to the "working class" identity they have cultivated.

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#338441: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:46:47 AM

Wasn’t Obama in his 40s when he first won? I think 2020 is a bit of an outlier for candidate age.

He was 47 years old.

The youngest President we've had, at the age of 39, was Theodore Roosevelt who became President after President William Mc Kinley's assassination in 1901. The youngest President elected was John F. Kennedy at the age of 42 in 1960.

SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#338442: Nov 9th 2020 at 10:52:24 AM

Kinda troubles me to see trump voter interviews in tv over here. Like lot of them seem bizarrely gullible. Also lot of them are small town people who think that "there is something odd about this election" because Trump keeps saying so(and probably have never been outside their small town so they have really small reference pool of what is happening".

Then again lot of trump voters in twitter feed don't seem to notice they are playing songs insulting their beliefs tongue So I think them being super gullible is probably the right word for those who aren't straight up openly malicious

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#338443: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:04:02 AM

Like I said in the other thread, if you voted for Trump, you're either racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, discriminate on the basis of religion, stupid, gullible, or ignorant. Everyone who voted for Trump is at least one of those.

You can be a wonderful, tolerant person, but if you voted for Trump, you must be stupid, gullible, and/or ignorant.

TitanJump Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: Singularity
#338444: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:06:22 AM

Trump voters who still support him are basically people who given up thinking for themselves all together.

The true definition of "lemmings".

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#338445: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:08:38 AM

Or is it sheeple tongue

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#338446: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:09:42 AM

I just heard from my mother that one of her friends thinks Biden tried/is trying to make pedophilia legal in LA, which is a new one for me as far as BS Q-tinted conspiracy theories. She accepted that it was bunk pretty quickly.

Semi-relevant I guess

Edited by PhysicalStamina on Nov 9th 2020 at 2:10:00 PM

i'm tired, my friend
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338447: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:17:09 AM

Re: Q

One of the scary things is that it seems that violence WAS planned and riots where they were going to march on voting locations or assault them ala the Brooks Brothers Riot. The thing is that the followers were coordinating via Facebook when their groups were all suddenly (as in that day) deleted and all of their accounts banned. Most of them didn't have other contact information for one another and found they couldn't get in touch with one another.

So, yes, the one time Zuckerberg did a good thing in his life.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
AnoBakaDesu Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
#338448: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:20:02 AM

Just now, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. This is it, the Taking You with Me scenario has started.

"They played us like a DAMN FIDDLE!" — Kazuhira Miller, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#338449: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:20:59 AM

Are we sure Zuckerberg deserves any credit? It seems more likely to be the kind of thing a lower level, maybe ground-level, employee would be responsible for. Especially since a moral person could easily end up working for such an immoral company since they need to pay the bills somehow.

I guess Zuckerberg could be credited for not actually preventing the employee from that, but at that point, that’s less than wanting a prize for basic decency.

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PresidentStalkeyes Eats moldy bread and flies into windows from United Kingdom of England-land Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: Do you like me? (Yes ⎕ Definitely ⎕ Absolutely!!! ⎕)
Eats moldy bread and flies into windows
#338450: Nov 9th 2020 at 11:21:08 AM

Wait, that's why it's called QAnon, it's named after a person (or 'person')? Ah shit, now I'll never be able to look at that other Q the same way again. :V

Those sell-by-dates won't stop me because I can't read!

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