This article is from a week ago, but with Donald Trump's second impeachment trial not yet underway, it's still relevant to current news events. After not receiving a pardon for storming the capitol on January 6th along with a violent MAGA mob, the (apparently now former) "Q-Shaman" has announced that he is willing to testify against the former president.
"QAnon Shaman" who was seen in pictures of the Capitol riot wearing horns and red, white, and blue face paint is willing to testify against former President Donald Trump — because he feels "betrayed" he didn't receive a pardon for what he thought was following Trump's orders. Jacob Chansley, of Arizona, is accused of breaking into the Senate chamber and leaving a threatening message for former Vice President Mike Pence — who became a target of the rioters' wrath due to his refusal to overturn the election certification using a fringe legal theory.
"Lawyer Albert Watkins said he hasn't spoken to any member in the Senate since announcing his offer to have Jacob Chansley testify at Trump's trial, which is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8. Watkins said it's important for senators to hear the voice of someone who was incited by Trump," said the report. "Watkins said his client was previously 'horrendously smitten' by Trump but now feels let down after Trump's refusal to grant Chansley and others who participated in the insurrection a pardon. 'He felt like he was betrayed by the president,' Watkins said."
One of these days I hope to be able to quit posting about all this QAnonsense, but it's important to keep it in perspective at the moment. The fact that people believe in it at all is ridiculous, and I should point out that "Q-Shaman" must not have believed it that much if he's now willing to excuse the child-torturing and adrenachrome-huffing that he was advocating against only weeks ago. Is he now suddenly okay with torturing children?
I mean, so much of this QAnon stuff isn't really happening, but it's a serious question. If he really believes it's a thing, or even really believed it was a thing, would he just give it up the minute he felt betrayed by his beloved president? I think - or at least hope - that on some level a lot of the people involved realize it's not happening and were just pushing the narrative because they thought it helped Trump, the focus of their obsessed personality cult.
Every movement has dead-enders, and I expect QAnon will be no exception. But if the whole thing really was mostly a cynical ploy to demonize liberals, at least it means a lot fewer people have completely lost their damn minds - even "Q-Shaman," who sure looks like he has in the footage from the insurrection.
I think the more pertinent observation is that the right-wing is morally bankrupt per-se. And the reason it is so hard to present a convincing argument against their beliefs (which are ALL fundamentally about the individual and against any social responsibility... ie the love of fellow man - which is laughable considering how many of them regard themselves as Christian) is because they present simplified "solutions" to World problems (usually along the lines of: "it's the Jews/immigrants/blacks/socialists/gays/foreigners fault for all my (perceived) woes". And any rational argument to the contrary that invokes facts, logic or verifiable experience is dismissed in a howl of anguish as being an assault upon their rights of freedom and free speech.
ReplyDeleteThe Left is effectively emasculated by this because a chief tenant of moderate left thinking is the idea that people can think and say what they want.... the right know this and don't play by the same rules.
So, it's fine (in their book) to vilify black people or gay people or anybody that they feel like beating up on, but NOBODY is allowed to take them to task for their bigotry.... because that is an attack on their liberty to express an opinion.
Well.... racist, homophobic, bigots aren't allowed to express an opinion as far as I'm concerned... by dint of the fact that they're racist, homophobic bigots. And as the "Q Shaman" twat so apt illustrates, they are duplicitous cowards too.
I understand that the Universe necessitates balance (and hence opposites) but I can't help feeling it would be a lot more balanced if such people simply and immediately ceased to exist....
.... oh, dear, I seem to have morphed into a fascist....
Most of my articles here critical of right-wingers are not really directed at right-wingers per se. Psychologists have shown that for many belief systems, criticism and even outright mockery just make them double-down on their extreme beliefs. Besides that, I've been very up front about my left-wing political beliefs, which just makes me the enemy. So I doubt I can change any minds there, though if I can, I welcome the ability to do so.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing more for everyone else - people who might wonder something like "They accused occultists of all this awful stuff, and the occultists didn't defend themselves at all. Does that mean they're up to something?" I want to make sure that Augoeides is here to push back against the idea that "occultists" or "Satanists" are up to anything nefarious. And also, I want to keep it clear that there really are nowhere near enough of us to do anything like what QAnon - or for that matter the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" folks from the 1980's - claim.
Or people who think "I've heard of this - I wonder what people online are saying about it." Ideas repeated over and over again can become persuasive, even if they make no sense under closer analysis. In this little corner of the Internet, I want it to be clear that what I'm saying about it is that it is not just implausible, but flat-out ridiculous. Sort of like an anti-Alex Jones - but granted one with nowhere near his audience.
It's entirely possible for one to be "infinitely tolerant, save of intolerance" as Crowley put it. I'm opposed to full-on censorship like what you see in Germany, but I'm perfectly fine with private entities denying platforms to fascists. And I strongly support prosecuting them to the full extent of the law whenever they try to terrorize people.
The Overall lack of discernment on the part of most liberal or progressive types is becoming so tiring. It's almost as though people are afraid of doing any kind of research. Qanon is certainly garbage as a movement, to me it just looked like another species of hope porn with this "trust the plan" nonsense. However, that doesn't mean that some of the things that they were saying are untrue. This notion of the Elites or politicians being involved with "satanic" rituals and the sexual abuse of children by both sides of the aisle, not just Democrats, is a true story. As hard as that may be to understand, 30 minutes of actual research, and by research I DO NOT mean Wikipedia, Google or Youtube, would prove the truth of the matter. You should start right here: "The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska" by John W.DeCamp. It is impossible for one to read that book and come away thinking anything other than that the elites and politicians are involved in the organized ritual abuse of children. You could read "The Finders" as well. There is plenty of legitimate, footnoted research proving the truth of this so called "conspiracy theory". Don't be afraid to do some research, perhaps then you will be able to see the massive propaganda and social engineering we are all being exposed to.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you are one of those people whose minds I could never change. But I suppose I will waste a little time here anyway.
ReplyDeleteI've studied the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" panic for years. I've read up on the allegations involving "The Finders," and also the extensive debunking by the FBI from 1991. I've dug into several accounts of the Franklin case, too. Just because I reach different conclusions than you doesn't mean I haven't done the research.
Some things that we appear to agree on: Some wealthy people are pedophiles. Some of those wealthy pedophiles have been politicians or have been involved in politics, on both sides of the aisle. Some people do run pedophile rings catering to the wealthy. For example, it sounds like Epstein and Maxwell did, and from what I've read about the case probably Franklin as well. Abuse of children, sexual and otherwise, is despicable and should be stopped.
Here's where I think my conclusions depart from yours. Only a small percentage of the population are pedophiles, and many of those folks don't actively abuse children but instead collect child pornography and so forth. I will grant that wealthy and/or politically connected pedophiles are probably more likely to abuse children since they have a greater ability to get away with it do to their class and social position. That being said, we're still talking about a very small percentage of people.
So the idea that "elite pedophile rings" could be that widespread is likely not true. Most abused children are in fact abused by family members, not wealthy politically connected strangers. But I will reiterate that I'm not trying to argue that such rings don't exist at all. If somebody "on the left" is telling you that, I would agree that their discernment is lacking.
Where these claims really get into my area of expertise is when people start trying to argue that occultists are involved, or that this has something to do with magical rituals. It doesn't. There are very few occultists in the world, they're not connected to the rich and famous with a few exceptions here and there, and the "rituals" that these wealthy, connected pedophiles are supposed to be doing don't make any sense.
In the past I've commented that if more people understood how magick actually works, they would be much more capable of seeing through a lot of the claims that come out of Evangelical Christianity. Nothing that the SRA folks were alleging could have ever worked in a magical context. It was just a bunch of "evil for evil's sake," which is hardly ever something real people do. Having researched this subject for a long time, I never have come across an account of a functional magical ritual that would have accomplished anything.
And that's probably enough time on that. I've posted various versions of these points for years here on Augoeides, in reference to the historical SRA panic before QAnon was even a thing. Once QAnon pulled in the occultists it in fact turned to much of the same nonsense that was debunked a long time ago.