th<\/sup> 2018<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\tI had a client once\nwho loved conspiracy theories. Not in the abstract; he didn\u2019t\ncollect them as amusing oddities; he earnestly believed each one, and\nstrove to work each into his own, very peculiar theology. Cover up\nat Area 51? Check! CIA putting chemicals in the air to make us\ndocile? You betcha! The Queen of England and the Bush family were\nsecretly extraterrestrial lizard people? Let\u2019s have them drop\ndrawers and check for tails! He came up with a few of his own: the\nPharaohs of Egypt were all secretly Jewish. (He self-published a\nbook about this, but for the life of me I couldn\u2019t figure out why\nthey would be secretly Jewish, or what advantage this gave them, or\nanyone.) He adored David Icke, and fairly routinely lost money to\ncults and online scams vowing to reveal hidden truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThis was back\naround the turn of the century, and the majority of conspiracy\ntheories, and their adherents, were harmless cranks. My client, when\nhe wasn\u2019t sputtering utter drivel gleaned from some mimeograph with\nan eye of Mordur letterhead, was pleasant, intelligent, kindly and\ncaring\u2014as nice a person as you could possibly hope to meet. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tBut even before the\nrise of the toxic and vicious Alex Jones, and the systematic cruelty\nof his followers, conspiracy theories had a dark side. Many were\nracist, or at least bigoted, and some could be utterly vile. Tony\nAlamo took the same stance toward Catholics that Hitler had toward\nJews, and with similar rationales. Conspiracy theories were a\nfavorite element of demagogues, religious cults, and sociopaths. A\nlocal new age movement has definable links to Nazi groups, often with\nmembers of either being aware of the links between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tMy client ran afoul\nof this dark element. He came in one morning with a self-written\narticle he wished me to put up on his website. I glanced at it, and\nspotted the words \u201cProtocols of the Elders of Zion.\u201d \nApprehensive, I gave it a quick scan. He was arguing that\n\u201cProtocols\u201d had been denigrated, not by the falsity of the\nclaims, but by a vast hidden conspiracy of International bankers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cYou should drop\nthis,\u201d I said. \u201cNothing good will come of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m not afraid\nof Israel,\u201d he declared stoutly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI wasn\u2019t worried\nabout Israel either. But we had a fairly large number of mutual\nfriends and acquaintances, and some of them were Jewish. I named\nsome of them, and pointed out they would be hurt, and feel betrayed\nby the claim that this viciously anti-Semitic tract was factually\nbased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tHe considered,\nnodding slightly\u2014either an affectation of showing deep thought, or\na resting tremor\u2014and drew a firm line with his mouth. Truth, no\nmatter how unpalatable, must be upheld. This was hidden knowledge,\nand therefore must be True.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI could advise, but\nI couldn\u2019t censor. I put the page up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tHe caught hell for\nit, of course\u2014not just from Jewish readers, but a lot of other\ndirected sorts who knew hate speech when they saw it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tMy client was hurt,\ndepressed, and resolute. Hidden truths, he believed, were the most\nimportant truths of all. I\u2019m happy to report that most of his\nfriends understood that his page stemmed, not from some dark animus\ntoward Jews, but from this odd psychological and intellectual tic of\nhis. A few stopped talking to him, but it was generally understood\nthat this latest page was a point on a continuum, and not a sudden\ndark descent into Nazism. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cHidden\u201d is key\nto understanding the psychology of the conspiracy theorist. It is\nthe element that, in their eyes, proves the validity of the theory. \nIf something is true, yet hidden, then clearly there must be a\nconspiracy involved! Conspiracy theorists don\u2019t care much for\nmysteries, but they love secrets. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tEvery once in a\nwhile, a conspiracy theory turns out to be true: The CIA really did\nconduct mind-control experiments; the military really did do dry test\nruns of toxic gases in the NY subways, they really did spread\ncontagion in Havana. The FBI really did track Martin Luther King and\nput spies in the anti-Vietnam peace movement. However: The instant a\nconspiracy theory is proven true, interest in it collapses. The\nattitude is \u201cYeah, it happened. Just proves government is evil. \n[Yawn]. But we still don\u2019t know who murdered Princess Di!\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tBut since the turn\nof the century, something nasty has happened: conspiracy theories\nhave become weaponized. They are more ludicrous, and at the same\ntime more vicious. The followers are less amiable cranks and more\nmeth-addled wannabee brownshirts. No longer content to dismiss\nnonbelievers as \u2018sheeple\u2019, they condemn, threaten, and sometimes\neven assault those who doubt their hidden truths. It is a confluence\nof several things; the rise of the web, the dark web in particular. \nA darkening of the public mood since 9\/11, a greater willingness to\nembrace authoritarianism and savagery. And a flood of\nmisinformation, either the paid-for variety of corporations and\nchurches, or the general nuttiness of the truth seekers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThere are vile\nlittle sociopaths who adhere to the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories,\nthat the shootings never happened and the bereaved parents are just\n\u201ctrauma actors\u201d–people paid to be professional victims by the\nmedia for interviews and ratings. They personify the aggressive\nviciousness of today\u2019s nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThis dark web of\nconspiracy theorists has coalesced around some anonymous crackpot(s)\nclaiming to be from the higher reaches of the \u201cdeep state,\u201d\nstriving to now destroy this deep state they served because Hillary\nor Infowars or some nutball thing. This entity goes by the name of\n“Q Clearance Patriot” and first showed up in the festering\nemotional swamps of 4chan. Q supposedly was highly placed government\noperative. This source has produced a panoply of conspiracy\ntheories, both familiar (The Rothschilds, CIA stooges as foreign\nleaders) and strange\u2014vast pedophile rings run by ranking Democrats\nand intelligence agencies, or that Mueller is secretly working with\nTrump to discredit Trump\u2019s enemies. The people bathing in this raw\nsewerage call themselves \u201cQAnon\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDespite that last\none, Trump is very warm to this pack of loons, and people wearing\nQAnon T-shirts are becoming more noticeable at his rallies. Yes,\nhe\u2019s encouraging them. Even worse, THEY are encouraging him. He\u2019s\nactually subscribing to their craziness, or at least strongly\npretending to. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWell, maybe not the\nMueller one. I\u2019m guessing he doesn\u2019t view Bob Mueller as his\nhidden enabler. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tIt\u2019s no surprise\nthat Trump attracts such as supporters. We\u2019ve long passed the\npoint where any Trump supporter should be considered a fool, a\ncrackpot, a crook, an enemy of the United States, or any combination\nof the above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThat Trump is\nopenly encouraging them is troubling, and a sign of how desperate\nBLOTUS (Biggest Liar Of The United States) has become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI suspect my\nclient, if he was still alive today, would be appalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe have to make\nsure Trump\u2019s desperation and recklessness in treating with these\nlunatics doesn\u2019t become our crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bryan Zepp Jamieson August 5th 2018 I had a client once who loved conspiracy theories. Not in the abstract; he didn\u2019t collect them as amusing oddities; he earnestly believed each one, and strove to work each into his own, very peculiar theology. Cover up at Area 51? Check! CIA putting chemicals in the air … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Ja-Qs! Well, Ex-Qs me! It\u2019s a Sign Qanon!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[458,457,459],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-psyche","tag-alex-jones","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-qanon"],"yoast_head":"\nJa-Qs! 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