Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: GOP putting some hope in red meat referendums
Next Post: Rauner’s new TV ad hits Pritzker on mileage tax
Posted in:
* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
Have you heard of QAnon? It’s a bizarre conspiracy theory that’s turned into something of an online cult. Its adherents believe there’s a person with ultrahigh Q-level security clearance sending them messages on the internet.
They believe Hillary Clinton and other Democrats and Hollywood types are involved in a massive pedophilia ring. The first dispatch from “Q” claimed Clinton was about to be arrested. That didn’t happen, of course, but it didn’t deter the cultists. They’ve gone on to accuse a congresswoman of plotting to kill a party staffer. They think Clinton, George Soros and former President Barack Obama are plotting a coup against President Donald Trump.
As the online movement has grown, the QAnon conspiracists have been roundly and rightly ridiculed and criticized in news stories and on social media for their hateful gullibility.
You may not know this, but we’ve had similar conspiracy theories in Illinois politics for years, and its messiahs are the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties. Both parties routinely whack legislative candidates on the flimsiest evidence for cozying up to pedophiles and sexual predators.
Click here to read the rest before commenting, please. Thanks.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 9:10 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: GOP putting some hope in red meat referendums
Next Post: Rauner’s new TV ad hits Pritzker on mileage tax
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
Equating the Qanon phenomenon with campaigns that utilize guilt by association negative ads? OK. I think that’s a stretch, but it’s an interesting theory.
Sometimes lies are just lies, while crazy is always crazy. A candidate who took money from Dick Uihlein, arguably, agrees with Dick Uihlein on at least some things and welcomes the support. Change Dick Uiehlein to George Soros and the argument is the same. Guilt by association is fair game.
But Qanon? Hillary Clinton and Hollywood celebrities are involved in a world-wide pedophilia ring? That’s just crazy and whoever is funding those folks should be exposed.
I don’t think they’re comparable, but I understand how telling guilt by association lies helped get us to the post-truth world we now inhabit, so I think there is some value in pointing that fact out. It’s definitely worth thinking about.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 9:35 am
===Both parties routinely whack legislative candidates on the flimsiest evidence for cozying up to pedophiles and sexual predators===
I’ve often found the mailers ridiculous, and then a literal Nazi got the nomination for a US House Race so now someone can produce a mailer calling someone a Nazi with sincerity.
Like some kind of sick self fulfilling prophecy.
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 9:37 am
Today, if you choose, you can use your gadget of choice for unprecedented and virtually instant access to facts, truth and the wealth of the world’s knowledge gathered throughout history up to this moment.
Or, if you choose, you can take that same gadget to feed your insane fever dreams and receive the instant gratification of discovering that there’s a multitude out there who are as bat-stuff crazy as you are.
Because no matter your “opinion,” there are “lots of people who believe that,” the battle cry and rationale of the New Flat-Earthers like Q.
Trump made his political bones on Obama’s birth certificate. I don’t think politicians are going to give up stoking the willfully ignorant and comfortably gullible anytime soon.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 9:41 am
==But there is now a strange sickness across the land, and our political leaders shouldn’t be nurturing it.==
Amen. And of course everyone on both sides of the aisle absolutely agrees with you . . . . except when it benefits them or their cause!
Comment by Out Here In The Middle Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 9:44 am
The president of the United States constantly pushes conspiracy theories and attacks our national security institutions and media. This type of “leadership” is dangerous and may have recently manifested, with the guy who allegedly threatened to shoot Boston Globe employees.
I respected John McCain because he tamped down on this stuff, like when he gently corrected a woman who said Obama was an Arab (no offense to Arabs).
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 9:52 am
It is going to get worse, not better. The bar has been dropped and there s no “too low” out there anymore. AS I write that I realize that things were even worse at times historically speaking. The difference maker is social media and the internet where disinformation is spread at light-speed.
Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 10:05 am
I don’t think the comparisons are completely warranted.
For example: “Lindsay Parkhurst is standing with the same insiders who gave $100,000 to an extreme Republican politician, even after he was accused of repeatedly sexually molesting young girls,” is really mostly true. I think you could argue over whether “accepted money from” amounts to “standing with” but Uihlein is an insider, he did give money to Roy Moore, More was accused in public by a number of people of harrasment and assault, and some of those people were underage when they assaults happened.
I think the budget attacks are hyperbolic but not outright false. Budgets really are necessary to fund those programs. Republican “small government” austerity has real consequences. If they don’t think they can support a budget that includes these programs, they need to articulate why. I don’t think the reason is that they support sex crimes, but pointing out that austerity has real consequences seems like fair game to me. At least, it’s not a conspiracy theory.
Comment by Actual Red Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 10:15 am
I would love for everyone to use complete thought and sentences, backed up with evidence, and ideally stick to policy debates instead of ad hominem attacks. But I see QAnon completely making up things as different than reminding everyone of the low standards some politicans/donors have (meaning Roy Moore in particular). Uihlein made his choice and now he and the people who take his money need to live by that choice.
Comment by Perrid Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 10:29 am
It’s a bit of a stretch to equate Q with some of the political attack ads. It seems like comparing a bee sting to a blanket. Both start with the letter ‘b’, but after that the similarities and relationships quickly diverge.
On a tangent:
I remember the days when conspiracy theories like this were more entertainment than anything else. Late night AM radio(Art Bell) was fun to listen to. Not because it was something that was real, but because the way the stories were presented was entertaining from a storytelling point of view.
But then, people started to believe these things were REAL, and it stopped being as entertaining.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 10:48 am
“If we only had 7 words in our entire history, oh how we’d cherish them. We’d examine them from every angle, philosophize about their grandeur and wring from them every possible drop of meaning. Today, we have immediate access to trillions of words. Facts, figures, reports, statistics, data sets, analyses and research of all manner is ours only for the asking. And a sizable minority of us aggressively refuse to believe any of it. Some days I think we’re all going to perish from voluntary ignorance.” - Jack McDevitt
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 11:35 am
Agreed Rich; I’ve felt that way a long time. The all-consuming goal of “winning” has been the horse-race excuse for getting further and further from truth. One day even the cynics wake up and say, “How did we get here?”. It’s because we followed a path, and many political hands helped us walk it.
Sacrificing truth and values for power has damaged Illinois and it has damaged our nation. Utopia is impossible, but we haven’t even been putting up a fight.
“Today, if you choose, you can use your gadget of choice for unprecedented and virtually instant access to facts, truth and the wealth of the world’s knowledge gathered throughout history up to this moment.
Or, if you choose, you can take that same gadget to feed your insane fever dreams and receive the instant gratification of discovering that there’s a multitude out there who are as bat-stuff crazy as you are.”
Agreed Word. All the knowledge of the ages right at our fingertips…and what is it most often used for? Sigh.
Comment by Liandro Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 12:03 pm
I give up on the longer post. Well said Rich.
Comment by Liandro Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 12:05 pm
well, we can try and uphold some standards in Illinois. but with Trump as president, a man who is shameless in his conduct and his allegations but wins anyway, we have a moral swamp at the top that attracts the unhinged. and it flows down on all of us.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Sep 4, 18 @ 2:22 pm
Any disagreement from me is mostly quibbles but for one: Your call for change is at least 40 years too late.
Comment by Robert M Roman Wednesday, Sep 5, 18 @ 5:52 am