This is why the MAGA-mania that has gripped so many of our fellow citizens is deathly serious. Some might enjoy having a chuckle at the Q-meisters’ expense, but this is where such “zaniness” can lead.
A more fully developed, historical reflection on this theme.
The stories people tell themselves about the world shape how they act in the world. When a large number of people coalesce around a single story, that story can become a movement. And when political and cultural leaders lend credence to that story, it becomes a political culture.
This is what blows my mind about how foolish actions like this are when taken by JV Trump. "Hahaha, let's joke about gunning down political leaders." Um, you know your father is President, right? If the Trumps think they can control this, they're kidding themselves. 
I eventually hope to write a longer piece about US conservatives' obtuseness about how culture works. On one hand, all they want to do is fight a war to change the culture, on the other, they act like Q is a joke, the ok hand symbol is a joke, "lock her up" chants are a joke, etc
Political and economic changes leave easily identifiable traces. Did X bill pass or not? Did X candidate or party win the election? What is the unemployment rate? Inflation rate? GDP? But measuring cultural change is much harder, yet it’s arguably just as important.
Take same sex marriage, for example. A tectonic cultural shift (with huge political and social implications) happened not just in my lifetime, but in my adulthood and I’m only 51.
Railing against this cultural shift was a major front in the conservative culture war. For now at least, that battle is lost, and so they’ve moved on to the battle over pronouns and gender identity.
But here’s the thing, conservatives intentionally choose cultural battles they know they are losing and are doomed to lose. Rather than exert agency where they can, they try to exert it exactly where they can’t. Hence the centrality of victim hood in conservative pol culture.
You’d think the libertarian threads in US conservatism might kick in here. “What do I care who someone loves or what pronouns they prefer. It’s no skin off my nose, so live and let live.”
Conservative culture warriors say they’re defending their own freedoms, but usually they’re trying to exert control over others.
The next step in the culture war is to accept (and even embrace) the very things you once fought tooth and nail against. Hence the GOP today rhetorically claims to support LGBTQ folk, as if they didn’t base their electoral strategy on homophobia 15 years ago.
Here’s a thread on how this dynamic plays out in the work of Andrew Sullivan, who’s getting noticed more and more these days.
