Has the Republican Party Lost Its Mind?
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Alice in Q-Land
The Republican Party has devolved into a group of chaos agents feeding voters a virtual political fantasy through social media called “political technology,” for the purpose of creating false narratives around an election or other event in order to control public debate.
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney
Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country by Adam Kinzinger
There are those moments in life when you immediately develop a first impression that locks into your psyche and stays there forever, part of those I know it when I see it moments. For example, when Donald Trump walked sown the stairs and said that “Mexico would pay for the wall,“ I knew right then and there this guy was a liar, a braggadocio, a fraud, a buffoon, and no way should he be the President of the United States. It would appear that the multiple indictments against Trump (2023) are proving this out.
A similar first impression as a kid was when I saw for the first time, (fake) wrestling on TV. I thought, What is this? They’re just fake wrestling! And yet the crowd was yelling and screaming and frothing at the mouth and shaking their fists and loving their favorites and demonizing the opponents. I just could not understand why these people were so rabid about something that wasn’t real. I think that (fake) wrestling on TV was an early signal that there was a growing conspiracy theory culture that was here to stay.
I understand now that this false anger and outrage made the crowd part of the performance. For 99.99% of the people in the crowd, this was as close to acting on a stage as they would ever get. The audience was part of the act, whether they knew it or not, and they loved it, whether they were at the wrestling match in person or watching it on TV.
The fake wrestling phenomena was a petri dish for a growing conspiracy theory culture, average people hungry for the absurd, the outrageous, the violent, the extreme, the unreal. And it has spread virally across our nation, accelerated by the networking and broadcasting power of TV, Internet, and social media. It’s OK to be entertained, or to play a role in a performance, but you gotta keep wacky conspiracy theories and real word truth clearly separated in your brain. Otherwise, you will get sucked into a never-ending rabbit hole of delusion that will slowly melt your critical thinking into a pile of mush.
Social media platforms and cults share a similar underlying goal: influencing people. Social media platforms keep users engaged in order to profit via ad revenue, while cults keep members committed in order to keep power and, in some cases, make money.
How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics by Rachel M. Blum
Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind by Robert Draper
Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories by Rob Brotherton
Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth by Elizabeth Williamson
Alex Jones always wanted to be the smartest guy in the room, but after admitting to his heinous lie about Sandy Hook, he instantly became the dumbest guy in the room, on the wrong side of history.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire
Did somebody say “Q”?
Q is an irrational conspiracy weirdness!
When Trump was president, Q-Anon’s adherents believed that only Trump, a Washington outsider and “nonpolitician,” could unmask and purge the evil cabal secretly masterminding a pedophilia network, by launching mass arrests taking place on a day known as “the Storm.” Hmmm….. Trump had four years to pull that off, but it didn’t happen. It’s hard to unmask something that’s not real.
Everything is connected, nothing happens without a purpose, and nothing is what it seems because there is a secret alternative truth.
QAnon (for Dummies)
Those Q true-believers would be better served to turn off all of their digital devices, stay away from the internet, put down that bag of chips, get off their ass, and go for a long walk through the woods…. for a month! Followed by a cold bucket of water poured on their heads. They need to repeat this process as many times as required to wake up and climb out of the Q-conspiracy rabbit hole.
Because you see, conspiracy theories are started and spread by people who either don’t have the brains or the guts or the heart to solve the problem at hand themselves, so they invent somebody and/or some thing to blame so they can cowardly hide behind them/it. In an untruthful, deep-fake META world, you have only your instincts, heart, values, and common sense to guide you to the right sources of information to trust.
If it leads you to Dystrumpia, you did not choose wisely, grasshopper!
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