QAnon and the plethora of conspiracies are intentional fracturings of reality that serve to deflect blame from Right Wing ideology for the current state of the world and redirect it toward hidden plots by its enemies.

It’s dangerous, murderous denial.

religionnews.com/2021/02/11/sur…
We’ve reached a point where Right Wing and neoliberal policies simply don’t work anymore and the only alternative is to blame the failure on clandestine, unseen actions. This is the very essence of fascism, to demand more power to right the wrongs you’ve constructed.
Denying these conspiracies and ridiculing them only gives them space to grow and fester. We need to address the failed policies of the Right, reimagine a realer, more human society, and move beyond this shambling walking dead system.
We’re already seeing what happens when we fail. The adherents of these conspiracy theories, white-identity evangelicals, become more and more radicalized until they threaten to destroy any trace of democracy.

The stakes couldn’t be any higher.

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More from @JYSexton

8 Feb
All right.

For people who want to know just how dangerous conspiracy theories like Qanon are, and want to know how and why we must defeat them, let's talk about the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and what these paranoid appeals are capable of doing.

1/
We need to start back in 1682, with a cartoon printed by Francis Barlow called "A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot."

From the beginning of the printed word conspiracy theories about deep states and international plots were being disseminated.

2/
This "Popish" conspiracy theory claimed that the Pope and the Catholic Church planned on overthrowing England using a "state within a state" that would undermine the nation and turn its citizens into Catholic slaves.

That's right. It's Qanon in the 17th century.

3/
Read 17 tweets
8 Feb
Hear me out here, but maybe it would help sell your agenda to fully prosecute a tyrannical, irresponsible, criminal of an ex-president, which is the right thing to do anyway, and make the case that an ambitious new direction isn’t just necessary but imperative.
But, what do I know. I’m not an overpaid political consultant who’s lost 98% of the campaigns I’ve worked on and eaten dirt every time I’ve been in power but keeps getting massive jobs because I already know everybody anyway. Maybe it really is “complicated.”
The degree to which the Democratic Party can continue to make the same, predictable mistakes, and how those mistakes are so often spurred and directed by a class of centrist, talentless mercenary consultants, is just truly and breathtakingly astounding.
Read 4 tweets
6 Feb
Thinking a lot today about how fortunate we all are that Trump is an absolute coward. Coup attempts, plots to overthrow the election, war-brinksmanship. Things could’ve been so, so much worse if he was made of sterner stuff.
Watching Mike Lindell’s documentary was like realizing I’d narrowly avoided being struck by lightning in the past. The madness Lindell and Sidney Powell surrounded Trump with, and the madness Trump listened to, was as toxic and deranged as it gets.
Reading accounts now of the meeting Powell and Flynn had in the Oval Office, where Trump listened to their plans for coups and takeovers, waiting on someone to just carry it out for him...if he would’ve acted on any of this we would’ve been in real trouble.
Read 6 tweets
5 Feb
Again. Do not retweet or respond to these blatant attempts to provoke outrage. It only amplifies her reach and gives her impressions. She isn’t in DC to govern, to make anyone’s life better, she’s there to build a brand for herself.

We have to learn from the past.
We’re dealing with an incredibly dangerous thing here, a generation of fame-obsessed people who traffic in fascistic ideas and inspire violence as a means of self-aggrandizement, profit, and, sadly enough, brand development. We have to change how we deal with this.
If you feel the need to deal with people like MTG, to get information out, don’t retweet, quote tweet, or respond. Screenshot, explain what she’s doing to try and distill the poison, and recognize this is a communications strategy she’s employing.
Read 4 tweets
4 Feb
Politics has been turned into a reality television show. It’s no surprise that we’ve reached the point where fame-desperate grifters are performing in an attempt to get elected, act as disrupters, and push the political system into dangerous chaos.
Actors like MTG and Boebert are running a no-lose grift. They’ll either gain political ascendency, with no actual platform beyond self-aggrandizement, or they’ll fail and profit off that failure as perceived persecution. None of it has anything to do with making America better.
Trump’s turn at using politics as a grift broke the seal wide open and the shift is toward politics-as-entertainment-as-a-grift-as-a-platform-builder. It’s a cynical, dangerous shift, especially as paranoid, fascistic appeals are inherent in the process.
Read 4 tweets
2 Feb
By saying something stupid, offensive, cruel, and misogynistic, the troll set off an outrage that grew his profile and undoubtedly raised disturbing levels of money from people who love it when people are rightfully outraged.

This political economy is broken.
And yes, I’m talking about the most recent incident, but this bad faith grift has trended this country toward authoritarian fascism, has powered the entire Right Wing ecosystem, boosted Trump and MTG and Boebert and that whole gaggle of dangerous grifters.
As long as people see a financial incentive to being cruel and racist and misogynistic and fascistic and in destroying shared society they’re going to take it and it’s going to continue to cost us lives and valuable, precious time.
Read 6 tweets

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