Thu Jan 28, 2021, 04:52 PM
Mike 03 (16,616 posts)
Checked by reality, some QAnon supporters seek a way out
Associated Press via Press Herald
BY DAVID KLEPPER ASSOCIATED PRESS Posted 3:41 PM Updated at 3:41 PM Some followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory are now turning to online support groups and even therapy to help them move on. PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ceally Smith spent a year down the rabbit hole of QAnon, spending more and more time researching and discussing the conspiracy theory online. Eventually it consumed her, and she wanted out.
She broke up with the boyfriend who recruited her into the movement, took six months off social media, and turned to therapy and yoga. “I was like: I can’t live this way. I’m a single mom, working, going to school and doing the best for my children,” said Smith, 32, of Kansas City, Missouri. “I personally didn’t have the bandwidth to do this and show up for my children. Even if it was all true, I just couldn’t do it anymore.” More than a week after Donald Trump departed the White House, shattering their hopes that he would expose the worldwide cabal, some QAnon adherents have concocted ever more elaborate stories to keep their faith alive. But others like Smith are turning to therapy and online support groups to talk about the damage done when their beliefs collided with reality. ...snip... Former believers interviewed by The Associated Press liken the process of leaving QAnon to kicking a drug addiction. QAnon, they say, offers simple explanations for a complicated world and creates an online community that provides escape and even friendship. Read more at link: https://www.pressherald.com/2021/01/28/checked-by-reality-some-qanon-supporters-seek-a-way-out/
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27 replies, 3119 views
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Author | Time | Post |
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Mike 03 | Jan 2021 | OP |
TwilightZone | Jan 2021 | #1 | |
Glamrock | Jan 2021 | #2 | |
BComplex | Jan 2021 | #3 | |
TwilightZone | Jan 2021 | #6 | |
Glamrock | Jan 2021 | #8 | |
Guy Whitey Corngood | Jan 2021 | #14 | |
paleotn | Jan 2021 | #21 | |
ProfessorGAC | Jan 2021 | #9 | |
TwilightZone | Jan 2021 | #11 | |
zipplewrath | Jan 2021 | #24 | |
Progressive Jones | Jan 2021 | #4 | |
tblue37 | Jan 2021 | #12 | |
PAMod | Jan 2021 | #22 | |
tblue37 | Jan 2021 | #26 | |
PAMod | Jan 2021 | #27 | |
samnsara | Jan 2021 | #5 | |
MerryBlooms | Jan 2021 | #10 | |
gratuitous | Jan 2021 | #7 | |
Vivienne235729 | Jan 2021 | #13 | |
lunasun | Jan 2021 | #15 | |
Hermit-The-Prog | Jan 2021 | #16 | |
orangecrush | Jan 2021 | #17 | |
Wicked Blue | Jan 2021 | #18 | |
Grokenstein | Jan 2021 | #23 | |
Auggie | Jan 2021 | #19 | |
sandensea | Jan 2021 | #20 | |
Traildogbob | Jan 2021 | #25 |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:02 PM
TwilightZone (21,570 posts)
1. "offers simple explanations for a complicated world"
No, it offers ridiculously convoluted explanations for things that are blindingly obvious.
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Response to TwilightZone (Reply #1)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:08 PM
Glamrock (11,455 posts)
2. Right?
Dude, if you think a global cabal of leftwing politicians and Hollywood insiders are controlling a child sex trafficking ring with the point, outside the pedophilia of course, is to harvest adrenachrome...all in service to lizard people.... You're a fucking moron. There aren't words to express the level of stupidity. How this is a simple explanation for a complicated world? I'll never know.
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Response to Glamrock (Reply #2)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:10 PM
BComplex (6,964 posts)
3. I'm with you.
WTF???
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Response to Glamrock (Reply #2)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:22 PM
TwilightZone (21,570 posts)
6. Agreed.
It's kind of amazing what people will allow themselves to be convinced of, simply because they want it to be true.
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Response to TwilightZone (Reply #6)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:31 PM
Glamrock (11,455 posts)
8. My wife came to me one day a few months back
and said her sister wanted Mrs. Glam to see this video that her son had showed her.
Me: Don't even fucking tell me dude... Wife: Oh yeah, it's that ridiculous Qanon bullshit. Me: Fer Fuck's SAKE! Ok. And? Wife: She want's to know my thoughts. Me: Gimme your phone, I'll share my fucking thoughts! Wife: No. NO! I'll tell her what I think...not like you. But it's my sister....blah blah blah. I've not touched it because I'm not going to fuck with my best friends family relationships. But, are you fucking kidding me? Jews, lizard people, canabalistic/pedophile Democrats and Hollywood folks? Whatthefuckswrongwitchoo?!?!?!? I've been so biting my tongue since Joe took over. Like, "I guess Q was nothing more than a weatherman...The storm never came." |
Response to Glamrock (Reply #8)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:56 PM
Guy Whitey Corngood (25,701 posts)
14. Clearly the Reptilian "Rothchild" (wink, wink) Cabal has gotten to you too. Believe it! A storm is
coming........ and by that I mean I looked at my weather app and we're supposed to get more snow....
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Response to Glamrock (Reply #2)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:48 PM
paleotn (15,306 posts)
21. Seriously. I just don't get it.
I cannot wrap my mind around such incredibly stupidity. I probably don't want to.
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Response to TwilightZone (Reply #1)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:33 PM
ProfessorGAC (56,764 posts)
9. Beat Me To It!
What it also provides is a handy excuse for why they aren't hugely successful, rich & famous.
Can't be because they aren't unique & talented enough! No, has to be some labryrithine conspiracy. |
Response to ProfessorGAC (Reply #9)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:38 PM
TwilightZone (21,570 posts)
11. Yep.
Same reason they're racist and bigoted. It can't be their own fault - must be the fault of the "others".
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Response to TwilightZone (Reply #1)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:53 PM
zipplewrath (16,522 posts)
24. Ex-sister in law
So she's driving us back to the airport because my brother had to work. At some point it becomes a tad political because of local/state politics in a state in which I don't live. So mostly I'm just letting her vent. I have no skin in the game and it isn't really a left/right thing anyway. Then she comes out with, "but it's all related to the pyramids". I suddenly perk up. Um, what? " Ya know, those pyramids they found on the moon." Just like the ones that are on Jupiter and in the
Arizona desert." Ya, it went downhill from there. "They" had something to do with 9/11. It was impossible to follow the insanity. No surprise that the marriage went downhill over the next 2 years. She was a 9/11 "MIHOP" type even though I explained at length at the buildings were prone to that type of failure. I even demonstrated with a beer can. It's a mental illness. Not one that is so severe that they can't hold a job, at least a rudimentary one. But their critical thinking skills are almost nonexistent. I'm not sure the DSM5 manual has quantified the problem yet, but they need to get to work on it. |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:17 PM
Progressive Jones (6,011 posts)
4. They bought into Q, knowing damn well that
the lizard people create the chemtrails, which bake the pedophile pizzas. Thus is common knowledge, as we saw it in Hillarys' emails to Ben Ghazi !!!!1111
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Response to Progressive Jones (Reply #4)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:39 PM
tblue37 (57,207 posts)
12. Ben Ghazi--didn't he star in "The Fugitive"?
Response to tblue37 (Reply #12)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:50 PM
PAMod (893 posts)
22. Excuse me while I wipe off my screen.
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Response to PAMod (Reply #22)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:57 PM
tblue37 (57,207 posts)
26. I think we just outed our age.
Response to tblue37 (Reply #26)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 09:30 PM
PAMod (893 posts)
27. Age? Wear it as a badge of honor...
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:21 PM
samnsara (16,815 posts)
5. ...but they are friendships with people who believe there are satan worshiping baby eating..
...cannibals, don't these folks recognize red flags when they see them?
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Response to samnsara (Reply #5)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:37 PM
MerryBlooms (11,257 posts)
10. I recognized it all in my sister, but she was too deep into it all.
Probably still is. A completely different issue finally caused her to move out. She's a verbally abusive narcissist, compulsive liar and I don't know what all else... Borderline personality disorder is one official diagnosis. She thinks nothing is wrong with her, because she meditates. Well, part of those nightly meditations were listening to creepy YouTube q videos. You can't force people into therapy. I haven't spoken to her since October. I don't miss her and am relieved she is gone from my life.
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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:26 PM
gratuitous (80,048 posts)
7. It can be heady stuff
In a confusing world, thinking you're on the inside with people who know what's really going on can make the randomness of it all less frightening. The farther in you get, the less you concern yourself with contradictory information. It's all being explained in real time, and when things go sideways, there's a fresh explanation.
Not only are you "in", you get to laugh up your sleeve at those who are out. Sooner or later, they'll see reason just like you have. Work on not being too smug when the scales at last fall from their eyes. And if they never perceive the Truth, they'll get theirs and you get to watch, and cheer their destruction along. I'm hopeful that now that Trump is off Twitter, some of the glue that holds these clowns together starts to fail, and more of them shake off the spell. It really requires a lot of effort to keep the charade going, but as reality continues to refuse to cooperate with the apocalyptic vision, some of the less convinced will begin to fall away. |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 05:45 PM
Vivienne235729 (3,161 posts)
13. I think that it is part disinformation designed to provide a quick salve. But like any cult or gang,
It is the community that they seek, But at the core, they’re also lonely. It is sad the isolationist world in which we live. Sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with me as I really enjoy my solitude. I have attributed that to be a singleton gen Xer. But I can understand why for some people, it is very difficult and like any gangs or cults, they prey on this vulnerability.
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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 06:06 PM
lunasun (21,646 posts)
15. They wanted to have celebrities and politicians arrested and some executed
after election day . They are obsessed with Satan ,dead people and peodphilia
They all need serious help |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 06:16 PM
Hermit-The-Prog (26,525 posts)
16. Where is Cambridge Analytica in all of this?
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:22 PM
orangecrush (16,053 posts)
17. Cult deprogramming
It's a thing. |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:31 PM
Wicked Blue (5,066 posts)
18. They really need QA
QAnon Anonymous
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Response to Wicked Blue (Reply #18)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:51 PM
Grokenstein (5,395 posts)
23. Reddit's r/QAnonCasualties/ has switched from mockery to group therapy
There are still stories of QAnon assholery to smirk at (which, to be honest, is why I bookmarked the site) but also posts describing family members breaking free of the cult and even personal confessionals. The mod (quoted below) is ex-Q. This is good. Those left behind who haven't actually done anything wrong need an exit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/l40c7l/meta_the_state_the_sub_right_now_warning_long/ It's a national security issue, it's a widescale public mental health crisis. Q is like a coronavirus of the mind, highly infectious with a low mortality rate. Like any virus its mutating, with different countries having different strains. Some more infectious than others. Now its a race to find a cure before it mutates again into something much more lethal. If we add to their despair, if they think there is nowhere to go, everyone is against them and there is no peer group for them they will join these groups. |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:38 PM
Auggie (29,483 posts)
19. Bet some of their lawyers suggested this action to plea down ...
a way to show judge and/or jury remorse.
It's bullshit. They planned. They traveled. They damn well knew what they were doing. |
Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:42 PM
sandensea (18,295 posts)
20. But will this mean latching on to something even FURTHER to the right?
Sadly, that's where many will probably go.
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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)
Thu Jan 28, 2021, 07:54 PM
Traildogbob (6,373 posts)
25. Why argue with em
I just admit they are right. Tell em I love fetuses on a half shell. Preferably on a sea turtle shell. I wash it down with a shot of warn stressed out baby blood, like a warm after dinner cognac. The fetus is appetizer. The main course is baby back ribs. Gotta be no older than six months. The bones are as tender as mountain stream brook trout. The real delicate meat is the less than 6 month old buttocks filet seared in oil from make pot plants, Organically raised in liberal California mountains, with organic scallops from Whole Foods. White meat is top shelf. It it has to be certified never been in diaper. Ya don’t want the meat to have sit in baby poop for any time.
Baby liver pate with a fine French Pinot Noir rounds out the meal. This magnificent meal has to be served during the Rachel Maddow show and the pate with wine during Lawrence. A communist Cuban cigar tops it off. Really riles up a MAGA. No premeal grace holding hands either. |