1. I just received a link to this video from an 80+ year old woman in my community who was the chair of the Marion County @gop in the 1990s. "Good one!" she said. I'd urge you to take 9-minutes to join the 118K ppl who have already watched it today.
2. The production values of this Q video are pretty impressive. The history it tells is, of course, completely ludicrous. But the message to viewers is clear--Donald Trump is your salvation, and the salvation of the nation. Anyone who opposes him is an enemy to America.
3. Such apocalyptic conspiracy theories have a long history in the US. But this is the first time they've flowered in the internet age, in an age when such narratives can be consumed by millions of like-minded people within the span of a few days.
4. I receive e-mails from this former county-level @gop leader just about every day. Here's a link to a thread where I discuss one of the more troubling ones--the one which compared Hitler to Jesus...both being "one of the good guys."
5. There's a long history of American elites laughing at these sorts of conspiracy theories. Here comes "the tin foil hat brigade" we say, chuckling. But if you watch that video, you'll notice how many of the references and talking points pop up on Fox News.
6. Key terms like "globalism" or "the deep state" feature in the public language used by the President, and they saturate the language used in the conservative media.
7. Sure, neither Fox News nor the President has gone full Q yet and they probably never will. But they don't have to. Far right conspiracy red-pill dispensers like this YouTube video have primed a large audience of low information viewers to get the key message.
8. The message is this..."opposition to Trump is opposition to America. Opposition to Trump comes from a sinister place, a Jewish place, a Hollywood place...and it cannot be reasoned or compromised with. It must be destroyed."
9. I recognize that my source for this (1 former @gop leader from the 90s) does not indict the entire party or anyone involved with the party back in those days. But I also don't think this woman is an entirely unrepresentative outlier. Nor are the 100s of ppl on her e-mail list.
