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The GOP starts forging a new alliance with QAnon


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Well, after all, it's not that great of a leap from the MAGA-fied Republican Party to the QAnon Republican Party.  ;D

 

As tech platforms battle with QAnon conspiracy theorists, some Republicans are opening the door to the fringe group.

The QAnon world is no longer simply a social media community trafficking in conspiracy theories. It’s increasingly a new constituency for the GOP — one that’s fired up like the rest of the MAGA movement, warring with tech giants and ready to battle through Election Day on behalf of a struggling president.

Just this month, President Donald Trump has retweeted and highlighted several accounts with a history of posting QAnon content. He’s stoked conspiracy theories that originated in the QAnon world, even to the detriment of his own supporters. And along with other Republicans, he’s increasingly allowed into the arms of his MAGA movement a group that had been dismissed as fringe nonsense.

While both groups started from very different places, both MAGA and QAnon supporters share the belief that Trump is fighting conspiracies emanating from inside the Deep State — a notion Trump himself has invoked. “MAGA world kind of sees Trump as this epic hero, and QAnon does the same exact thing,” said Kristen Doerer, managing editor of Right Wing Watch, a nonprofit that tracks far-right groups.

The QAnon movement suffered another blow on Thursday when YouTube became the latest platform to block some content from QAnon believers. Facebook in August announced a ban on QAnon groups with “discussions of potential violence,” expanding it to a blanket ban on QAnon-affiliated groups and pages in early October. Twitter’s approach was narrower, simply banning nearly 7,000 accounts back in July. The Facebook and Twitter moves came in response to reports that QAnon pages had been spreading pandemic-related misinformation, as well as inspiring acts of violence nationwide.

But QAnon has already found other ways to survive. Parts of the GOP are falling into an uneasy relationship with the QAnon conspiracy theory, which alleges in part that a cabal of demon-worshipping, pedophile elites live in Washington and will stop at nothing to maintain their power.

At a NBC News town hall on Thursday night, Trump himself refused to denounce QAnon when asked about the movement. “I know nothing about QAnon. I know very little,” the president said. “I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard.”

The vast majority of current House Republicans have openly condemned QAnon, with all but 17 signing onto a recent House resolution calling it a “conspiracy theory.” But Republicans are starting with deal with potential QAnon adherents joining their party in Congress, and some have started reaching out to these believers. At least one sitting GOP member of Congress has appeared on programs that promote QAnon content, and even more candidates have gone to these networks to appeal for money. Major Republicans and ambassadors of the Trump orbit have appeared at events with QAnon adherents, and most notably, none has withdrawn endorsements of candidates specifically because of their affinity with QAnon — though they did make a point of withdrawing their endorsement of Greene for her anti-semitic and racist statements.

In effect, QAnon has become a voter bloc within the MAGAfied version of the Republican Party. As the official networks housing Q theories get taken down — platforms shutting down groups, Twitter cracking down on hashtags — the QAnon movement has found a home inside the MAGA movement.

As Trump has courted a wide range of supporters to expand his base, the beliefs of this mushrooming community are seeping into the Republican base. A recent Morning Consult poll found that 38 percent of Republicans believe that at least parts of the QAnon conspiracy are true, and 12 percent of all social media users who are familiar with QAnon have positively engaged with the theory on social media. A Pew Research survey last month found that 41 percent of Republicans believed that QAnon was “somewhat” or “very good” for the country.

Trump himself is at the center of the shift. He’s the public face of QAnon adulation, a focus since the beginning of the movement. At the core of QAnon’s belief is the hope that one day, the “Storm” will come, referring to a day where the satanic pedophiles get purged from government, arrested and possibly executed.

As the outsider, Trump would be at the vanguard. For months, QAnon supporters would obsess over his various gestures and nods, dissect videos to see whether he’d drawn a “q” with his fingers and eagerly disseminate content tied to moments when Trump mentioned storms and hurricanes.

Trump has, either intentionally or not, stoked that obsession through his online content. Over the past year, his habit of retweeting QAnon-linked content, and sharing conspiracy theories that originate from the Q swamps, has skyrocketed. On July 4 alone, he posted 14 tweets from accounts that were QAnon-linked. In the past week, he tweeted content from similar accounts: one that has theorized that Stephen Colbert had interviewed a John Bolton body double, and one from high-profile QAnon supporter Joy Villa.

Trump’s most attention-grabbing retweet of the week was from an account with Q references in its name, promoting a belief that President Barack Obama had actually killed Osama bin Laden’s body double. That retweet led Robert O’Neill — a Navy SEAL who claims he put the bullet in bin Laden’s head in 2011, and a high-profile Trump supporter himself — to openly denounce Trump and his QAnon adherents.

“You can sort of clock the velocity and intensity and craziness of the Q posts by the real political peril in which Trump finds himself over time,” said Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist who is now part of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, and had for years been a subject of QAnon intrigue.

The hardcore QAnon believers, in turn, have become major MAGA power players. Some of the splashy QAnon celebrities, such as those who have been retweeted by the president, have gained a big enough following that they’ve been invited to conferences where they’ve spoken on panels with Trump allies such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Roger Stone. Kelly Loeffler, fighting for her Senate seat in Georgia, has been touting her endorsement from Greene.

Last month, Vice President Mike Pence was forced to cancel an appearance at a Montana fundraiser after it was revealed his hosts were sharing memes and following QAnon groups on Facebook.

Less publicly, the GOP has made outreaches to QAnon through less obvious means: appearing on podcasts and video channels that focus on making QAnon messaging and sharing it to millions of followers. At least eight GOP congressional candidates — including sitting Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) — have made appearances on QAnon programs in this cycle alone, according to Media Matters president Angelo Carusone. One, Utah candidate Burgess Owens, had appeared on at least two QAnon-linked programs — Patriots’ Soapbox, a livestreamed pro-QAnon show, and Flocktop, a podcast that has boosted QAnon content in the past — to raise money.

“There is no audience and no part of the Trump universe that is more dedicated, more active and in terms of just pure producing work, consuming content, hours spent, than QAnon adherents,” Carusone said. “And so if you're thinking about it from that perspective, this is the most diehard audience you could possibly have.”

Researchers who’ve followed the rise of the QAnon movement believe that part of the reason the MAGA movement has embraced QAnon is that while the FBI has classified the group as a domestic terrorism threat, it views the movement as an overly enthusiastic but relatively harmless group of pro-Trump enthusiasts who share his content in their spaces.

“That’s likely why pro-Trump commentator Bill Mitchell of YourVoice America argued that people should not criticize the QAnon movement because even if it’s false, Q is giving people confidence in Trump as Election Day approaches,” said Doerer of Right Wing Watch. “This seems to sum up the Republican strategy: Don’t criticize the QAnon movement because the movement is useful to Trump’s reelection prospects.”

It could also be that the movement was simply too big to ignore at this point, said Travis View, a conspiracy theory researcher and co-host of the podcast “QAnon Anonymous.“

“Imagine any political movement going from not existing to having elected representatives in just three years,” he said, referring to the extremely high likelihood that Marjorie Taylor Greene — a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories regarding QAnon and anti-semitic tropes — would be a member of congress in 2020. “That is a stunning political success story.”

Regardless of Trump’s fortunes, the QAnon community will be inclined to follow someone as a leader in Washington. “The true believers are too radicalized to let go of it now after dedicating years of their lives to the movement,” View said.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/15/qanon-trump-maga-movement-429739

 

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I'm not sure exactly what QAnon is, but the Democrats have a firm alliance with CNN and MSNBC. Maybe a counter-balance is a good thing.

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6 hours ago, Mikey said:

I'm not sure exactly what QAnon is, but the Democrats have a firm alliance with CNN and MSNBC. Maybe a counter-balance is a good thing.

:angryfire: WTF?

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2 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

:angryfire: WTF?

WTF? Here's what: CNN and MSNBC are nothing but propaganda groups for leftist extremists.. The truth is not in them. I don't see how this QAnon, who or whatever it is, can be any worse.

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16 minutes ago, Mikey said:

WTF? Here's what: CNN and MSNBC are nothing but propaganda groups for leftist extremists.. The truth is not in them. I don't see how this QAnon, who or whatever it is, can be any worse.

Seriously, I'm not saying this to be flippant....you really need to take a look at what QAnon is. You're only digging your hole deeper by spouting stuff like this.

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2 minutes ago, Leftfield said:

Seriously, I'm not saying this to be flippant....you really need to take a look at what QAnon is. You're only digging your hole deeper by spouting stuff like this.

What hole? It's safe to assume, judging from comments here, that QAnon is some sort of righty extremist site. CNN and MSNBC are lefty extremist sources. Same coin, different sides.

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Just now, Mikey said:

What hole? It's safe to assume, judging from comments here, that QAnon is some sort of righty extremist site. CNN and MSNBC are lefty extremist sources. Same coin, different sides.

I'm trying to help you here. Honestly. Don't dismiss this. Learn who they are and make your judgment then.

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4 minutes ago, Leftfield said:

Seriously, I'm not saying this to be flippant....you really need to take a look at what QAnon is. You're only digging your hole deeper by spouting stuff like this.

Whether he's being honest or not, the fact that he's saying he doesn't know what QAnon is tells you exactly what level of engagement with reality he's prepared to maintain. 

He's digging his hole as purposefully and diligently as he can.

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1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Whether he's being honest or not, the fact that he's saying he doesn't know what QAnon is tells you exactly what level of engagement with reality he's prepared to maintain. 

He's digging his hole as purposefully and diligently as he can.

He’s also been told what QAnon is multiple times. 

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4 hours ago, Mikey said:

WTF? Here's what: CNN and MSNBC are nothing but propaganda groups for leftist extremists.. The truth is not in them. I don't see how this QAnon, who or whatever it is, can be any worse.

Bro, if you are having problems conflating Q-Anon and CNN and MSNBC, then you are the one with the problems. Q-Anon is to the Neo-White Supremacists as the SA was to the Nazi Party. They were the early form of what was to come. The SA gave power to Hitler and a Rival, Ernst Rohm. The Night of the Long Knives was Hitler's disposing of his last potent rival for power in the Nazi Movement. The SA was the fore-runner of the SS AND was made up of far more pedestrian men than the SS. The SS had racial qualifications, bloodline checks, Degreed Leadership, etc. The SA were the original Brown Shirts and was made up of commoners and street thugs. While violent, the SA was nowhere near the SS. Ernst Rohm was building them into what would become the SS however. They were going thru real military training etc. 

Hitler actually showed a little remorse for Rohm, but he still ordered his killing anyway. Rohm was openly gay and is an icon of the some in the Skinhead Movement even today. 

https://www.historyhit.com/hitlers-bullyboys-the-role-of-the-sa-in-nazi-germany/

hitler-at-SA-rally-1.jpg

 

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19 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

Bro, if you are having problems conflating Q-Anon and CNN and MSNBC, then you are the one with the problems. Q-Anon is to the Neo-White Supremacists as the SA was to the Nazi Party. They were the early form of what was to come. The SA gave power to Hitler and a Rival, Ernst Rohm. The Night of the Long Knives was Hitler's disposing of his last potent rival for power in the Nazi Movement. The SA was the fore-runner of the SS AND was made up of far more pedestrian men than the SS. The SS had racial qualifications, bloodline checks, Degreed Leadership, etc. The SA were the original Brown Shirts and was made up of commoners and street thugs. While violent, the SA was nowhere near the SS. Ernst Rohm was building them into what would become the SS however. They were going thru real military training etc. 

Hitler actually showed a little remorse for Rohm, but he still ordered his killing anyway. Rohm was openly gay and is an icon of the some in the Skinhead Movement even today. 

https://www.historyhit.com/hitlers-bullyboys-the-role-of-the-sa-in-nazi-germany/

hitler-at-SA-rally-1.jpg

 

There's the old adage that the first person to invoke Hitler in a debate is the loser so.....

The bottom line is, I do not care who or what this QAnon thing is. It's easy to tell from the posts here that it's a righty lunatic fringe site, simply the flip side of lefty lunatic fringe sites CNN and MSNBC. I don't think any of the above are going to change America. To paraphrase: "The idiots will always be with us". So, why give them any attention?

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18 minutes ago, Mikey said:

The bottom line is, I do not care who or what this QAnon thing is. It's easy to tell from the posts here that it's a righty lunatic fringe site, simply the flip side of lefty lunatic fringe sites CNN and MSNBC. I don't think any of the above are going to change America. To paraphrase: "The idiots will always be with us". So, why give them any attention?

You've had your chance, Mikey. In fact you've had multiple chances. It would take you less than five minutes to get a decent idea of what QAnon is so that you can make proper arguments about them. Failing that, as @ShocksMyBrain pointed out above, you have been told several times what they represent.

I do not for a second think that you don't know what QAnon is.  The only proper inference is that you actually support them, and there is no hope at having any kind of reasonable or fruitful discussion with you.

All I have left to say is this: If you really do support QAnon, I truly hope you step back and take a look at what you're getting into. Think of your family, your friends, all the people around you, and realize what this can do to your relationships with them. Think about how constantly jumping at shadows is going to make you feel in your life. I'm not saying anyone in the Democratic party is a saint, but you're getting into something that is going to make you see others as evil, rather than run-of-the-mill flawed human beings, and it's going to make you miserable.

Hoping for the best for you.

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11 minutes ago, Leftfield said:

I do not for a second think that you don't know what QAnon is.  The only proper inference is that you actually support them, and there is no hope at having any kind of reasonable or fruitful discussion with you.

I have no idea what they are, the only times I've heard of that outfit is on this forum. Further, I do not care who or what they are. I've never been to any site associated with them/him/her and would have to use google to find the group or individual. But, I appreciate you calling me a liar. That clears up any confusion about what sort of person you are.

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Just now, Mikey said:

I have no idea what they are, the only times I've heard of that outfit is on this forum. Further, I do not care who or what they are. I've never been to any site associated with them/him/her and would have to use google to find the group or individual. But, I appreciate you calling me a liar. That clears up any confusion about what sort of person you are.

Hoping for the best.

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1 minute ago, Leftfield said:

Hoping for the best.

If you are hoping for the best for America, then be sure to vote against the Harris/Sanders/Pelosi/Schumer/AOC/Biden ticket.

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8 hours ago, Mikey said:

There's the old adage that the first person to invoke Hitler in a debate is the loser so.....

I can take that. Because I firmly believe that "the first one to Hitler" has lost. My point was not to "WIN" the debate, it was to share information and enlighten. In that vein, I was trying to inform more than to debate. But if i must take the hit, then i will.

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16 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

It's becoming abundantly clear that the big kids' table for political discussion is a little out of Mikey's depth.

Only said because I'm not an anti-Trumper. Were I on the Socialism at any cost bandwagon my depth would be deemed fine.

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15 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

I can take that. Because I firmly believe that "the first one to Hitler" has lost. My point was not to "WIN" the debate, it was to share information and enlighten. In that vein, I was trying to inform more than to debate. But if i must take the hit, then i will.

Now that we've disposed of Hitler, do you consider this QAnon source to be more dangerous than some Marxist group, say, Black Lives Matter? Are the QAnons  rioting, looting and killing people? Or is that simply in their manifesto for some future date?

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2 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Only said because I'm not an anti-Trumper. Were I on the Socialism at any cost bandwagon my depth would be deemed fine.

No, it's said because you don't study issues, you comment on articles without even reading them, you bloviate on things you know little about, you can't even demonstrate you really know the definition of the term "socialism."

I'd give my eye teeth for some conservatives of intellectual depth and gravity around here.  All we get instead are mindless drivel peddlers like yourself bogging down discussion and wasting everyone's time.

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4 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

All we get instead are mindless drivel peddlers like yourself bogging down discussion and wasting everyone's time.

That's what the Cancel Culture says about any and all who don't agree with their Leftist agenda.

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1 hour ago, Mikey said:

That's what the Cancel Culture says about any and all who don't agree with their Leftist agenda.

At this point you're just an automatic buzzword generator.  You don't even attempt to have worthwhile conversation here. You can just stick to the smack forum going forward.

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