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A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon - Playing with reality (20min+ read. A bit lengthy, but it worth)
In brief - apophenia. Just a tad more elaborated - induced/guided aphonenia.
What's fascinating is the buttons of human psyche that are pushed to sink people deep into the rabbit holes:
- Follow The Breadcrumbs - don't tell, just select the dots that are to be connected
- The Eureka Effect - the rush of the Aha! moments and the feeling of being rewarded
- Lamestream Media - passivate against the reality that's not supportive to the agenda
- Community - sense of belonging, behavior reinforcement; a population large and motivated enough to adopt an evolutionary strategy in selecting the best CT-es
All the above are exemplified - and these examples is how I got to get WTF Beyoncé has to do with QAnon.
So, if all it's an Alternate Reality Game, there's no harm, right? Not so fast, the US Military Academy ran the The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making? article in its "Combating Terrorism Center" journal, stating
QAnon represents a public security threat with the potential in the future to become a more impactful domestic terror threat. This is true especially given that conspiracy theories have a track record of propelling terrorist violence elsewhere in the West as well as QAnon’s more recent influence on mainstream political discourse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @03:42PM (4 children)
I think this [bbc.com] explains that well enough. He's the one person I could find who was arrested for said attacks. And he's, shocker, a retard. He already had 29 previous convictions including for arson. The world would, in general, be a much better place if we could just get rid of people like him - but for some reason we place such a value on life even though I will give you about a million to 1 odds that as soon as he's out of lockup in 3 years, he'll be getting up to some new stupidity.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 18 2020, @03:53PM (3 children)
It explains 1 of the 77 incidents quoted in the article I linked.
Not incompatible with "acting under the suggestions from QAnon", is it?
I guess his 3 kids would beg to disagree. As I do. Because, for some reason I indeed place such a value on life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @04:38PM (2 children)
I could find no news of arrests for any other case. Do let me know if you see otherwise. I suspect you'll find comparable suspects.
The value of life is such an interesting notion. Will you be surprised when you find a guy with this sort of rap sheet standing charge for homicide? I used to hold the same view as you here until at some point you realize you end up defending the 'human rights' of trash who barely deserve to be called human. And the reason I say that is precisely because he *will* inevitably violate the rights of other, good, people. At some point you realize this world is just better off without some people. Though I would say this is entirely hypothetical. If we ever granted modern governments this sort of power, they'd decide those sort of people we'd be better without would be those who download movies or otherwise go against the various special interests that keep those election coffers filled.
Though I don't think there's much of a slippery slope if we actually carried out such change in laws solely for the betterment of society. 3 violent felonies? You're out. 2 felonies with a firearm? You're out. To slightly change Niemöller's old poem slightly:
First they came for the violent felons, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a violent felon.
Then, life was a whole lot better and people actually began to feel safe walking down the streets in cities at night.
Doesn't quite have that same je ne sais pas somehow, but it works.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @07:30PM (1 child)
And who gets to decide who is "trash who barely deserve to be called human?" You?
No thanks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2020, @01:29PM
That's rather the point I was making. I do think we can create some guidelines few people would disagree with, but anybody who was granted this sort of power would eventually come to abuse it. Even if I think "I" would do right and I was made emperor, it's still not a power I would necessarily entrust myself with because what happens with the emperor to follow me? Or what if I simply lose my mind in older age, or become emotional as any human is wont to on occasion?
This is why eugenics, what was once a mainstay of academic theory in the United States, is also a horrible idea. In a vacuum it can dramatically improve society even moreso when many of those called on to sacrifice the rights to bear offspring often would not even see it as a sacrifice. It was even endorsed by a who's who of society from Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood) to WEB Dubois to all of the big names in academia. But the problem these people did not consider is that in practice it *will* be abused. Hitler was not an aberration, he was an inevitability. When any government or leader is granted too much power, it is only a matter of time before that power is turned to evil.