I’m going slightly mad. It finally happened, I’m slightly mad Queen
Sweet Jesus, now I know I’m getting old. I saw this on the TV today, and it almost reduced me to tears. I never used to be such a wuss, but when you get older, you start thinking about things more seriously than you used to.
A couple of hundred QAnon supporters gathered today inh Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, the site of JFK’s assassination. They gathered because Q had told them that JFK Jr, who tragically died in a private plane crash en route to Martha’s Vineyard years ago, was not only dead, but was about to mystically reappear on Dealey Plaza and announce himself as Trump’s running mate in 2024. Oh yeah, and they said they had proof that Trump was genetically the son of
General George Patton.
JFK? Fucking really? The first Catholic ever elected US President, and one of the most progressive liberals of all ties, and his grandson faked his own death in order to reappear to announce that he will be Trump’s running mate in 2024? Fotget the shit about Trump and Patton, the thought of a liberal lion joining Trump is too fucking stupid to even consider. And personally insulting as well.
Look, we all know that we have a mental health crisis in this c9untry. . For the most part it was brought on by GOP spending slashed to local and state mental programs in the 80’s and 90’s, This led directly to the rise in homelessness, and clinics, shelters, and halfway houses were forced to close due to budget cuts. The genius of GOP government planning.
But this is different, and this is far worse. because when it comes to mental health, if you’re willing to spend the time, money, and resources, you can provide safe places for these people to go, and at least attempt to provide the with the therapy and resources they need to be productive. But what we’re looking at here is something completely different, and more inherently dangerous.
Your average QAnon supporter is not poor, nothomeless, and not uneducated. For the most part, they could be yoiur neighbors, they have, or until Covid-19 had jobs, they are educated, they have families, mortgages, cars and social moorings. The extra time and boredom brought on by Covid-19 brought then ti QAnon websites, and then it all went wrong.
These people ar not mentally ill. Instead, they have all made a personal choice to become congenitally stupid. Real life is so full of problems and issues, so many of them almost seemingly impossible to solve. How refreshing to find a world in which there are always others to blame, and a tacit vindication for your miserable lot in life.
How do we deal with this? With mental illness, you can at least try to use therapy to bring them back, but these people have made a conscious choice to inhabit a fantasy world. How do you deal with people who have made a willful decision to leave the real world behind?
This is not theoretical, and it is not a joke. By recent counts, there are more than 1.5 million QAnon followers out there. And as documentary evidence has shown, they were jore than willing to go to the ramparts of the Capitol on January 6th, and have no qualms about doing so again. They are in a world of their own.
From where I’m sitting, QAnon needs to be officially listed as a domestic terrorist organization, and their internet capabilities disabled. These people are not receptive to traditional thought, and at this point, the only therapy is to cut them off cold turkey.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
Grandson?
The former guy railed against immigrants, but his mother, his grandfather, and at least two of his wives were/are immigrants.
People who complain about immigrants aren’t complaining about WHITE immigrants. Remember, these are the same people who keep asking an Arizona sate representative whoo is a Natine American whether or not he is a US citizen. REality has nothing to do with it. It’s not even a dog whistle, it’s a fire siren.
Sorry Joe, I vehemently disagree. These people are not ‘educated’. Oh, they may have degrees, but you get degrees by following rules. How many pulitzer prize winning books have ANY of them read about ANY SUBJECT? My guess is none. I’ve read a half dozen in the last year alone, some quite thick. Educated people ask questions. They seek truth, not comfort or reinforcements for their opinions. If they get new information disproving their beliefs, they drop the old & embrace the new. I find few people like this around now that everyone’s attention span has been shaped by corporations. I do agree they should be treated as domestic terrorists. Educated? Seems we, as a culture, have gotten dumber not smarter & now we can join echo chambers that tell us we’re ‘smart’. Fredo’s speech in the Godfather to Michael comes to mind.
Reading a “pulitzer prize winning book” is NOT a sign of education or even intelligence. It’s merely a sign of elitism and, often, a sign of fake elitism. Why is a “pulitzer prize” more valuable than a Nobel-winning book? Which of these “pulitzer prize” winners displays a greater sign of education than the other: “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry or “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” by Michael Chabon? And which of those displays the greater education compared to Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road?”
Am I “better educated” because I read the play “South Pacific” instead of “A Streetcar Named Desire” or “Death of a Salesman?” Or that I found “Rent” to be better than “Hamilton?” (All of those won Pulitzers for Drama: Respectively, 1950, 1948, 1949, 1996 and 2016.)
Or, do you believe that the only *valid* “pulitzer prize winning books” are those awarded for non-fiction works (ie, History, Biography/Autobiography, Poetry and General Non-Fiction)? The Pulitzers award a prize for “Editorial Cartooning” but that’s not generally a subject that requires much “reading,” now does it? But are you suggesting it’s somehow LESS valid than any other Pulitzer? Or what about LISTENING to “pulitzer prize winning” recordings? There IS a category for music which has largely gone to classical works but a few jazz recordings have won and so has rapper Kendrick Lamar.
People do NOT need to read some particular book to display their intelligence. One of the biggest problems for kids in school is they’re rarely afforded the opportunity to read what THEY want–what interests THEM. I generally loathed fiction as a kid–even into high school; I preferred non-fiction. Give me a book on comparative linguistics and you’d keep me engaged for hours. Atlases and geography books? I would literally lock myself in my room, studying the features, looking at borders, imagining countries dissolving or conquering. As I got older, though, I’d see something on TV like the good Agatha Christie adaptations with David Suchet as Poirot and Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and those would interest me in picking up the original Christie works (I actually managed to read through every single work of Dame Christie’s in the course of two years). I’d get interested in this author or that author from time to time; I’d flit between genres on a whim (fantasy for a couple of months, science fiction for a couple of months, classic horror, modern horror, westerns–usually just as a “break”–even romances and “best-selling” fiction). But the stuff that I was FORCED to read in school *ALWAYS* bored me. I liked reading FOR FUN–not because I felt someone was going to test me on it. Even the “fun” books in school generally meant a book report (which, of course, took ALL the fun out of it). Some of the stuff that school said I *had* to read, I’d go back and try later on–for “fun”–but, somehow, any “magic,” any “adventure” was gone. Tell me that I *HAVE* to read something and I’m not going to like it–even if it’s a genre that would otherwise fascinate or intrigue me–but if you SUGGEST that I read it “just for funsies,” and I’ll likely devour it. (I ultimately may not like the book but I’ll still have gotten more enjoyment from reading than something that’s been “required.” That’s one reason I’ve never wanted to participate in a “book reading club” or group.)
And, believe it or not, even “educated people” do want “comfort” at times. But you tend to really get on your high horse, acting like YOU know what’s best for everyone else. Yes, most of the MAGAts should be treated as terrorists but for their ACTIONS not because you may find them not up to your “intellectual level.” What a person chooses to read or watch or listen to in their leisure time doesn’t mean diddly squat in terms of intelligence. Hell, Stephen Hawking WILLINGLY chose to appear on “The Big Bang Theory” and he loaned his voice to “The Simpsons.” That didn’t make either show any more intellectual nor did his decision to appear impugn on Hawking’s intellect.
We still need those 74 million strait jackets and padded cells! We need them NOW!
I have never seen a piece by you with so many typo’s in it.
You are really upset, aren’t you?
Typo’s? Joseph? Really? Surely you jest?
You can’t make a choice to be CONGENITALLY stupid (contradiction in terms) but yeah, you can definitely make a choice to be stupid. Even educated people can make that choice, Scott. As Dan Quayle put it, “It’s a terrible thing to lose your mind.” Look at Lin Wood, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Bill Barr, others too numerous too mention.