Am I the only one? I find most of the Qanon/bagger/Trumpie mouth breather

[Atticus]

"conspiracy" theories too transparently STUPID to even repeat or discuss.

My mind is revolted by even attempting to explain "No, the vaccines are NOT biological weapons sent over from China and Russia to spread communism."

Ugh! See---now I need a mind shower. Going for a walk.

[JonLP24]

1. I agree

[underpants]

2. Like the anti-vaxx crowd it seems time is a factor

People with waaaay too much time on their hands. They must be looking for something but both take a big leap.

[moose65]

3. Most of those conspiracy theories ARE too stupid to believe

How in the world could a vaccine spread communism? It boggles the mind.

[underpants]

12. Now that you mention it...

Yeah that is what they are saying. I just learned this week what this FREEDOM was that everyone was being denied. First Amendment Right to Assemble. Yep that’s it.

[jmbar2]

27. The right to assemble and die in ICUs

Forcing other people to have to clean your shit because you can't move.

FreeDumb.

[Progressive dog]

43. The conspiracy theory about

fluoride in drinking water being a communist plot is still humming along. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/conspiracy-watch-fluoride-pinko-plot/
Chavez or Fidel Castro is probably in charge of the fluoridation plot now. Of course they're both dead, but like Elvis they are immortal to some.

[JI7]

4. They don't actually believe it. It's what they make up to justify their support for someone who

is such trash .

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. And their general behavior

They will use whatever it takes to make it okay for them to be bigots, classists, and oligarchs. They will find anything that sounds like it is okay for them to be complete asshats, and they will swear by it. I ignore them. There are just not enough hours in the day to be bothered with such levels of idiocy. Again, I wish we had a website just for posting images and information about these people. So we can identify them in real life. That way, we can all ignore them and they will finally slink back into their caves. Or, do something stupid so we can put them away. (Right, LadyG?)

[AnnaLee]

5. Trying to be cute?

The absurdity just makes me think that many people who repeat these things do so to make a fool out of the other guy. They get a kick out of leading a parade of shared information that is obviously fake but believed by some people who apparently don't know better. The more inflaming the lie, the funnier and better.

[Shermann]

21. Just another way to make liberals cry

Flood the zone with shit and make the people who care about the truth give up and stop caring

[Mr. Ected]

6. I've always loved a conspiracy theory with enough factual basis to make it a possibility

What's remarkable about this Q bullshit is that the kernel of truth that you typically would use as your starting point DOESN'T EXIST.

[CatMor]

7. That 73 million people would support the garbage is astounding.

[paleotn]

14. Scares the crap out of me.

[Walleye]

10. When I was growing up, fluoridation of water was called a communist plot.We suffered the tooth decay

[Botany]

11. But what about N. Korea bringing in ballots to Maine by boat?

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed without evidence on Wednesday that North Korea had interfered in the U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continued to assert that fraudulent activity was prevalent during the November election.

Stone, who has previously spoken of his respect for some members of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying to investigators in connection with the Mueller probe into Russian election meddling during Trump's 2016 campaign. Trump commuted Stone's sentence in July.

With the Electoral College expected to meet on December 14, Trump has intensified his claims of widespread election fraud. Democrat President-elect Joe Biden was widely projected to be the winner of the election despite Trump's protestations. During an interview on The Alex Jones Show, Stone baselessly said he had received proof of election fraud.


"I just learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence of North Korean boats delivering ballots through a harbor in Maine, the state of Maine," Stone said. "If this checks out, if law enforcement looked into that and it turned out to be true, it would be proof of foreign involvement in the election."

https://www.newsweek.com/roger-stone-says-north-korean-boats-delivered-ballots-through-maine-harbor-trump-boosts-fraud-1551937

[paleotn]

15. But, but, but....

aren't Donnie and Kim buds? I'm so confused.

[Botany]

18. Those N. Koreans are clever they shipped out ballots by boat that match with bar codes ...

... the registered voter's information in different states and those ballots had all the
down ballot races and local issues correct too.

Down deep "they" know they are being lied to but Trump has given them his OK to use
the n****r word again so they are good with the bullshit. Just like the coal miners and their
families know that coal is never gonna come back but the whoop and holler for Trump
when he says that he will stop "the war on coal."

[paleotn]

20. Indeed. It doesn't matter how crazy the story....

as long as it allows them to keep on believing what they want to be true. Coupled with the freedom to be a racist asshole in public again. Strong stuff, apparently.

[Evolve Dammit]

38. And apparently addictive

[Atticus]

16. Yes, I read that yesterday and my response was "AR-R-G-G-H-H!!!!!!" Trying to deal with

this crap in some rational way is like voluntarily diving into a septic tank.

[Paladin]

19. So my feelings about that old Spencer Tracey movie are wrong.

There really IS a Northwest Passage! Looking forward to seeing N. Korea's maps.

[paleotn]

13. Average folks turning themselves into human pretzels...

to support their preconceived notions and propaganda fueled conditioning. The opposite to being open to where facts and critical thinking takes them. Nothing new. They've been doing this shit for years. "Death panels", really?? For these people, extreme cognitive dissonance is their super power. On the other hand, some are just dumb as bricks. Way out on the left tail. Moderately to barely functional. You wonder how they get through the day alive and with all their appendages attached. They're the reason for all the warning labels on chainsaws and "do not eat" printed on silica packages. Ugh.

[plimsoll]

22. Oh come on.

Are you telling me you never got so drunk/stoned/high that even Ayn Rand made sense? I get that you grew up and sobered up, but it’s not like most of us haven’t gotten our minds altered enough to have stuff like that make sense. The problem as I see it is that you’re not supposed to be publicly impaired or drive while under the influence, but these folks are and do. We should be asking if that kind of impairment also detrimentally impacts their ability to drive or perform other tasks that place others at risk.

Fundamentally saying your political opponents are insane is wrong, but the QAnnon stuff is so delusional that you must be concerned about adherents grasp on reality. Coupled with the Proudboys eliminationist rhetoric, I’d say this is extraordinarily volatile moment. Will the QAnnon folks recognize Proudboys shooting blacks, liberals and other “out groups” as murder? Given what we’ve seen to date I think we can guess.

[kwijybo]

28. I read Ayn Rand as a teenager

The Lord Of the Rings was better written and more believable.

I mean, come on. Rich people go off to a hidden valley to build their own society without a government. Who's going to grow their food? Make their clothes? Build their houses? Be their doctors? The Rich (Paris Hilton working in a field, hoeing weeds? Or operating to remove a ruptured appendix? Ivanka Trump doing any of this?)

Now, compare this to a fantasyland of magical creatures on a quest to defeat evil that is logical and self-consistent, within it's own boundaries.

[DBoon]

30. like this?

[kwijybo]

42. Never seen this before

but it's exactly right!

It's hard to bullshit people about things like where your food comes from when you've had to plant, weed, harvest, and can it yourself. Well, as much help as a kid (bright 8 year old to when I left home) can be. Same goes with cooking, house and car maintenance, and so on. When you've done the real work of the world, you get to know quite quickly that the world relies on you more than the rich.

And the people left behind? Why burn it down? Get a pair of bolt cutters, grab your union buddies and restart the company in your name. There would be stumbles, but it would continue. Fuck 'em

[DBoon]

45. "grab your union buddies and restart the company in your name"

That sounds like Worker Soviets! COMMUNISM!!!

(gotta give that idea a bad name so no one will actually try it)

[heckles65]

31. It wouldn't last a week.

Rich people are so incredibly intercompetitive. Within days someone would be recruiting mercenaries from the outside world to intimidate other rich people he/she didn't like. A lot like the more lawless parts of the globe.

[kwijybo]

23. "But we have videos"

And everything else is "fake news" or "it's BIASED". When you ask what's real, it's someRandomGuy on youTube or twitter, not the NYT, or even the National Enquirer!

[Tarc]

24. I have a co-worker, literally believes that Biden only got 30mil "real" votes

You can't even begin to have a discussion with someone who's on such an elevated plane of delusional existence.

[seta1950]

25. Exactly

They seem to be the dregs of humanity, these q**** people

[mountain grammy]

26. It's a big money grab..

the new Q representative from Colorado's 3rd District has taken over $30,000 from her campaign for mileage reimbursement, because obviously she drove around the world to campaign for Congress.

[kwijybo]

29. I've told them that several times

even showed them the articles on it. They got mad at me for lying about the God Emperor.

[OregonBlue]

32. I am shocked and depressed by how many Americans fall for this crap.

[SpankMe]

33. And, Joe's foot fracture conspiracy

The con-con (conservative conspiracy) blogs are saying he's wearing a boot to hide an ankle monitor he's wearing because he's been arrested.

I'd laugh at the craziness if I didn't know that too large of a segment of this demented crowd actually believes this.

[Arne]

34. This thread could go on ad infinitum until a cure is found.

I might recommend mushrooms, or some of the Mr pillow guy ground Oleander poison.

[HariSeldon]

35. I think we need a multi-network, engaging debunking

It should be broadcast like a Presidential national address, the same show on every network (or at least the ones which can be convinced to carry it). It should show interviews with Trump conspiracy theory (CT) nuts and disparagingly debunk the CT reasoning. The interviewers should be journalists specializing in debunking CTs, not these "What do you think about the election results?" hacks.

The show need a serious marketing lead-up, too, to get grassroots buzz that might penetrate the right-wing "news" sphere. Maybe it could be along the lines of "Biden's best case why he did win the Presidential election." But I am no marketing expert.

Fox News especially should be challenged in the lead-up to air this piece, since it's their viewership more than anyone else who needs to believe that they will be absolutely ridiculed into a puddle of gibbering goo if they so much as breathe toward support of these CTs.

[BobTheSubgenius]

36. I was talking with a friend of mine last night.

Greatest guy you'd ever want to know. I would trust him with my life, or the title to my house, if he said he'd give it back.

That being said, he fully admits he's not the brightest guy you could ever meet, but with common sense, cheerful disposition, unfailing honesty and hard work, he has built himself a nice...accent "nice" life.

But he obviously thinks about things, and he came up with the same dismay over the same possible problems with dispensing the vaccine....and I can guarantee that he doesn't follow anyone on the Interwebs. No FB, no IG, no Twitter, not a single blog.

He opined that fully 25% of Americans will resist the vaccine, based on all kinds of made up nonsense, and some with bizarre religious convictions. Maybe even the autism crap will make a bit of a comeback - some people STILL hang on to that. And yes, that QAnon fantasy, as well. He figures that Covid will still be around, although greatly diminished, obviously, until 2030.

If someone with such a faith in "things will work out" has that bleak an outlook, I wonder what chronically worried people feel about it.

[wiggs]

37. intentional. 40 years of propaganda, lies, polarization, fomenting hate have worked

Think tanks and oligarchs used the power of marketing and lessons of autocratic leaders to concentrate wealth and power and have carefully cultivated techniques/strategies to control a significant number of citizens.

They created reality for a lot of people...and have installed fictions (or a willingness to believe in fictions) in a lot of brains. Trickle down voodoo economics....science is a hoax...sex is bad...education is elitest...white is right...Obama is a marxist anti-colonialist from Kenya...dems want to destroy our country...covid is the same as the flu...government is the problem...regulations are un-necessary and market forces will control pollution...Trump is the greatest president...and more

Many years and a lot of money were spent getting us to this point.

[Evolve Dammit]

40. AM hate radio has amplified for 30 plus years, everywhere

[Silver1]

39. Wait ...

... that's not right. I thought Bill Gates had nanoparticles added to the vaccines that are going to make us all sterile so the human population is decimated and the lizard people can take over.

It's not you. It's hard to know where to begin.

[The Roux Comes First]

41. When You Are Desperately Clinging to a Belief

That there are at least some groups to whom you are inherently superior, no amount of mental gymnastics can be spared. Even if otherwise the ability to breath through your nose and put the toilet seat back down comes hard.

“You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe”
― Carl Sagan

Also see Wilkerson's "Caste."

[Progressive dog]

44. It's hard to forget some of those conspiracy theories

no matter how hard I try. Stupid is too mild and sympathetic as a description of the people who spread these "theories". I prefer deranged.

[The Roux Comes First]

46. I Finally Came Upon the Quote I was Seeking For My Prior Response

In the course of chasing threads on the Netflix movie "Mank" and Upton Sinclair (highly recommended):

Greg Mitchell:
One final note: Bill Nye — yes, “The Science Guy” — might seem like an unlikely choice to portray Sinclair. He doesn’t get Sinclair’s voice right, but his portrayal of the author-candidate is suitably combative and intelligent. Long before Nye filmed his one scene for Fincher, he posted one of Sinclair’s most famous quotes on his Facebook feed: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

That seems an apt reply to the OP.