COVID, QAnon, and the best interests of autistic people?

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In the separate thread Anybody struggling to find their place here on WP? (but not on the first page thereof), a few people (I won't mention them by name here) appear to be saying that Wrong Planet, in its early days, had a generally more rebellious spirit. The rebelliousness is said to have included not just a rejection of the idea that we should all aspire to blend in socially with the NT world, but also more acceptance of talking about various illegal activities, and also more acceptance of extreme right wing political and social views.

The people voicing these opinions did so in a spirit of missing the good old days.

(Note to the mods: I'm responding here, instead of in the original thread, because the original thread is NOT in PPR, but I want to reply to posts that veered into PPR territory without condemning the thread to be locked. I'm paraphrasing and not mentioning usernames, because a mod has told me I shouldn't use new threads to call attention to specific users or specific posts in another thread. Hopefully what I'm doing now is nonspecific enough to be within the rules/guidelines?)

If you're one of the people I'm alluding to here, feel free to correct me if I've misinterpreted what you said.

Anyhow, to comment on some specific issues that were raised:

1) At least one person appeared to be hinting that, had the COVID pandemic happened back in 2005 instead of 2020, more people here on WP would have been fine with rejecting the COVID restrictions -- and rejecting what the "mainstream media" says about COVID generally.

To anyone with the above opinion: On what grounds do you reject what the "mainstream media" says about COVID and the need to avoid large in-person gatherings at the present time?

2) Also, one person praised a local QAnon group for being very friendly and accepting toward him. To me this sounds like possible love-bombing and, if so, would confirm the cult-like nature of QAnon. Cults (or at least fast-growing ones) are often very friendly to potential new members, for the purpose of converting them.

If you feel a post is in the wrong section you can report it and click on the off-topic on the drop-down list and explain that you think the thread should be moved. I have done this a few times.

This friendliness to new members isn't solely limited to "cults" - I've noticed similar friendliness exhibited by members of established religions, as well as certain political parties. I've found that the less "judgemental" a group is (or the more "understanding" of a person's flaws regarding the groups beliefs\doctrine), the more accepting they are of newcomers.

It seems to come down to how the group reacts to a person's "mistakes" - Ones where they are happy to explain the problem without making judgement of the person who made it are typically like this, whereas those who require strict adherence to "rules", with no allowance provided for mistakes, tend to be less welcoming to new members as they assume those who aren't a part of the group are of "lesser value", and require evidence of having accepted the groups beliefs before welcoming them - And these groups who are less welcoming are also the most likely groups to "ban"\ostracize a member who does something against the cult\group\religion's tenets.

In the case of QAnon, I have no idea what the group believes, or how the group works - I have noticed that there is an Australian member here who seems well versed in them, based on their posts often speaking of the groups beliefs\actions (including, based on his posts, their apparent raising money for people's bail in the USA), who may be able to assist here from his personal experience in the group - but it is likely the group is based around "friendship"\community, rather than hatred towards those who don't follow the "rules" from what you have said about their welcoming of the person you spoke of, and their acceptance of this person.

But I don't feel that the entire thread should be moved. The OP, and all the posts on the first two pages or so, were perfectly on-topic for "General Autism Discussion."

Yes, friendliness isn't limited to "cults," although "cults" are more likely to carry friendliness to the extreme of outright love-bombing. Any group with a sincere community-building mindset will be friendly if its leaders know what they are doing. (I try to make my own groups friendly.)


Well, yes, being accepting toward newcomers pretty much requires being as non-judgmental as the group's beliefs will allow.


Almost any group will, either formally or informally, ban/ostracize members who violate the group's rules and values too often or too drastically. But some groups are more patient with their members than others, yes. And I agree that a group that patiently explains issues is better -- especially for autistic people -- than a group that's quick to ostracize people.


See the following threads:

- QAnon - can anyone here defend it?
- QAnon, Blood Libel, and the Satanic Panic
- Q’Anon did not quite work out


Apparently QAnon doesn't represent any specific cause, but represents only a demonization of the U.S. Democratic Party. Perhaps it therefore welcomes anyone who dislikes the U.S. Democratic Party for any reason, even completely opposite reasons?

Thank you for taking the time to put together those links.

Unfortunately, looking at the titles, the would appear to have been initiated by people with various degrees of dislike for the group with the probable intention to attack the group, so any information regarding the group would be likely to be severly distorted to give the worst possible view of them - much like the caricature of right-wing\conservative (or worse, "MAGA") people frequently put forward on this site, and which differs considerably from the right-wing people I have spoken with online (and in person, from time to time), so any information in those threads is likely to be tainted in a similar manner, sadly...

I prefer to find out about people\groups and their beliefs from them, rather than their detractors (first-hand knowledge\original sources rather than hearsay\"interpreted" information) as it allows a more accurate understanding of the person\group.

Fair enough, but I would suggest that you look at what "their detractors" have to say also.

Looking for me?

QAnon is more like MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) or the escort site I use, than Heaven's Gate. It's not a true cult, despite having a few shared traits. It's a decentralized belief system, uniting people on a shared concept, rather than a leader or an afterlife. There are a few prominent QAnon speakers, but by and large, the uniting factor is uncovering the Democrat politicians' sinister behaviors (no need to repeat which ones), or simply a dislike of Democrats in general.

YMMV when it comes to QAnon groups. Some are cult-like and prone to dangerous behaviors. Others are simply like-minded people who are tired of the Democrats' government overreach, and want to enjoy a social gathering: in person, with no stupid Zoom, no masks, and no social distancing. My QAnon group is more like the latter. It's on you to get a feel for what a specific group is like, and simply not return if your spidey sense says something's off. My own group lets anybody join, as long as you support the Republican party, have a basic set of social skills, and not creep on the women in the group.

Democrats closed everything that's remotely fun and banned social gatherings, under the feel-good pretext of "slowing the spread", where they failed miserably. And no, it wasn't the Covidiots that made them fail! And they still won't end the mask mandates and stupid social distancing "guidelines". I saw right through the lie since day one. I knew that the ulterior motive was to make Trump look bad, and manipulate (not steal!) the election. It was done by expanding mail-in voting, since mail ballots are scarily easy to forge, and most liberals voted by mail. Which they succeeded, apparently. I guess they liked the feeling of power from the hordes of sheeple obeying them, since they won't give it up even after Biden won.

That's why I ran into the arms of that QAnon group, about 6 months ago. Most of my friends fell for the Democrats' fearmongering: they completely stopped socializing, and plastered their Facebook profiles with "Stay Home, Save Lives" messages. (A few of them came around, and admitted they were lied to.) The damage was done. I got so fed up with it all, than I preferred to join a group affiliated with a sketchy concept, than let the government destroy my social life. I suppose it's how people felt about drinking during the Prohibition.

I found that coming to those gatherings, previously illegal and now semi-legal (it's OK to meet now, but we don't wear masks and sit close, which is against the law), is incredibly fun! It has a rebellious, illicit, taboo feel to it. Not unlike how I feel when riding a train to an escort's hotel room, as well as afterwards on the way home. Except that now, a mask obscures my goofy, ear-to-ear "I just had sex!" grin. (Masks are required on all trains and buses in the US.) The first time I went to an illegal social gathering with my QAnon group, after 2 months of isolation, it was literally better than sex! Now, that's a good reason to wear a mask on public transit: no one can tell I just did something naughty.

Actually, based on what happened here in NYC, it did slow the spread quite a bit. Didn't stop it completely, but definitely slowed it compared to what it would have been otherwise.

BTW, who exactly are you referring to as "Covidiots," besides people like yourself who are ignoring the rules?


You claim it's a "lie," but you haven't explained your grounds for this claim.

The mask mandates and social distancing guidelines are backed not just by "Democrats" but by pretty much the entire medical profession. Most doctors tend to be conservative/Republican-leaning.

While it's certainly possible for doctors to be wrong, your claim to know better than the consensus of the medical profession is an extraordinary claim, for which you haven't yet presented any evidence at all, much less the extraordinary evidence that should be warranted for such a claim.

All you have presented, so far, is conclusions you've jumped to about the motives of Democrats. That's not evidence for any medical-related claim.


Democrats didn't need to "make Trump look bad," they just needed to take advantage of his incompetence. Trump knew about the pandemic very early on, but chose not to take the quick, decisive actions that would have been necessary to stop the pandemic in its tracks.


Really? I would be interested in your comments on the following:

- Do Mail-In Ballots Increase Risk of Voter Fraud?


No, we just believe that the medical profession knows what it's talking about regarding what it takes to slow down a pandemic. The relevant science is over a hundred years old. And COVID -- although not as deadly as, say, the bubonic plague -- is deadly enough to cause vast overloading of hospitals if not slowed down.

Hopefully it will all be over within six months or so, if the anti-vaxxers don't convince too many people not to take the vaccine.

We all want it to be over with ASAP.


Again you haven't provided any evidence for your claim that it's a lie. You haven't even stated exactly what the alleged lie is. What are you denying, exactly?

- That COVID is deadly enough to overwhelm hospitals?
- That masks and social distancing slow down the spread?

Gov. Cuomo packed the nursing homes with Covid patients. Since the elderly and the immunocompromised are the only high-risk groups, that sent the death count skyrocketing! And the hospital ship that got deployed to New York barely got used. He just wanted to get more federal aid. If that doesn't make Gov. Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio rotten pieces of garbage, then I rest my case!

Guilty as charged!

Maybe the wealthy doctors are Republican. But the (fake) nurses picketing the anti-quarantine protests are as leftist as Antifa, and they drowned out any and all truths.

I call them as I see them.

It's spelled "scamdemic", just FYI. Trump knew that it's a glorified cold virus, as do I, and acted accordingly. So did Kristi Noem of SD. So did Ron DeSantis of FL. So did the governor of AR; I forgot their name. And Greg Abbott of TX is a RINO, who still locked down his state.

Now, THAT'S a 100% lie! Democrats don't want it to be over, and neither do liberal voters. From what I see, they all want masks, social distancing, and lockdowns to become a permanent part of society! Is it any wonder I jumped into the arms of that QAnon group? And before you call me an anti-vaxxer, I made an appointment to get my shot. I just hope the side effects won't incapacitate me.

All in all, WrongPlanet is clearly a leftist, government-obeying site now. So my contrarian views will fall on deaf ears, I'm sure of it. The anti-establishment, "us against the world" feel WP once had is long gone.

"Packed" is an exaggeration.

The rule, back in early-to-mid spring 2020, was that nursing homes had to accept patients who had been released from the hospital, if the patients had been living at a given nursing home prior to being admitted to the hospital. The problem was that the patients were required only to be "medically stable," but not fully recovered from COVID, before being released back to the nursing home. There was a lot of criticism of this rule at the time, and there is now controversy over how many people died as a result, and over how they were counted.

But, on May 10, the rule was changed to require hospitals to make sure patients tested negative for COVID before releasing them back to nursing homes.


The highest risk groups, but certainly not the only people who can get seriously ill or die from COVID.


Indeed the nursing home rule before May 10 was a major mistake, but it was not the sole or main cause of the spread of COVID. For example, my neighborhood has been, at times, a major COVID hotspot. As far as I am aware, there are no nursing homes in my neighborhood. I think the most likely cause of the spread of COVID around here has been some local stores (primarily some local bodegas) that have been lax about social distancing rules.


There was good reason to fear that the spread of COVID would be worse than it turned out to be, and that hospitals would be much more overwhelmed than what ended up happening. (That was also the reason for the pre-May 10 nursing home rule.)

Experts agree that what slowed COVID down was our masks, social distancing, and staying at home whenever possible.

Moreover, this should be plainly obvious not just to experts but to any New Yorker. Without our masks, social distancing, and staying at home whenever possible, this entire city would be one big super-spreader event all day every day. That's how densely populated we are.


On what grounds do you claim that these nurses were "fake," or that they are "as leftist as Antifa"?

In any case, "fake" or not, nurses are not the medical authorities. Doctors and epidemiologists are.


To me this sounds like an admission that you have no evidence for your medical claims, and that you just believe what you want to believe.


Making up a word does not constitute evidence.


No. He knew that it was much more serious than a typical cold, but he deliberately downplayed it. See Woodward tapes show Trump knew the dangers of COVID-19 but downplayed it (short video).


South Dakota could maybe get away with it, at least for a while, being a very rural state. But they are paying for it now: "As of February 19, 2021, the state with the highest rate of COVID-19 cases was North Dakota, followed by South Dakota," according to Statistica. The vast majority of the states listed on that page, as having high rates of COVID, are red states.

Florida is managing to do relatively well currently, probably because its weather (comfortable during the winter months) makes it easy for people to gather outdoors. (The virus is transmitted more easily indoors. See Florida has relatively few coronavirus restrictions. Is it doing better on COVID-19 than 'locked down' states?, by Louis Jacobson and Amy Sherman, PolitiFact.com, Dec. 3, 2020, via Austin-American Statesman.)

As for Texas, looking at the Wikipedia article about Greg Abbott, he sure doesn't look like a "RINO" to me. He seems pretty hardcore conservative for the most part.


No. The only aspects of the COVID era that I hope will continue after we all get vaccinated are these:

1) That most of those white-collar and pink-collar workers who have been working from home will continue to be allowed to work from home, at least most of the time.

2) That most of the people who have moved out of cities will not come back, thereby making the cities more affordable for those of us who need to live in cities.

I agree with you about many American cities depopulating, especially those in blue states, both due to the needless lockdowns and the Democrats' support of BLM/Antifa looting. NYC was once a bastion of urban revival; Manhattan used to be a crime wasteland, but blossomed into a model downtown under Giuliani's conservative rule. Now, it's becoming a shadow of its former self; residents, fed up with Cuomo's unconstitutional lockdowns and DeBlasio's pro-crime politics, are leaving en masse. I'll still give NYC credit for reusing an old post office for the elegant Moynihan Train Hall. It was long overdue; the Penn Station was a spartan cellar, where you scuttled through gray tunnels like rats through a burrow. But until New York, both city and state, elect Republicans, it's only a matter of time until NYC turns into Detroit, and the state becomes emptier than Wyoming.

As for working from home, I can't do that in my job. I gotta ride a train for 30 minutes each day. At least I live with in walking distance to the train, and can walk to work from the downtown station too. Funny how I originally moved to my current place to have easy access to downtown hotels where escorts rent rooms, only to develop a visceral aversion to sex that lasted 3 years. Thankfully, the aversion resolved naturally last year, probably due the social isolation caused by the scamdemic.

In the same way you would suggest I look at what anti-trans groups have to say about trans issues, misogynistic groups to find out what they say about womans rights\issues, conservative groups to learn what they say about progressive views\issues, etc?

NYC did pretty well under the progressive, pragmatic rule of Bloomberg.

QAnon is an ideology of ridiculousness and absurdity. Reminds me of Caligula and Nero, frankly.

What you are seeing is a rise in the number of members who seem to have come here hoping for a non-confrontational environment to express their ignorance through racism, sexism, and conspiracy theories.  Recently, they have begun to attack the most reliable sources of information against these things.  Unless the moderators act soon, WrongPlanet will become a haven for hate-filled people who seem to take pride in agitating for controversy and silencing their opposition, at which point WrongPlanet will become and echo-chamber for their opinions, turning this website into a mirror website for QAnon and other anti-truth movements.

The fact that QAnon even exists means it serves an otherwise unmet need, for disenfranchised, "canceled" people like me. It's just how a free market works. I wanted to get out and socialize, so I found a like-minded group. And to my own surprise, I fit in with them pretty well.

It was surprising because I never thought of myself as a rightist. I voted for Obama twice and for Clinton in 2016. But when Democrat tyrants created mass lockdowns over a silly cold virus and destroyed my social life, I flipped my political beliefs, registered as a Republican, and embraced the right-wing populism.

Many countries that turned totalitarian, like Russia and China, started out by banning social gatherings other than pro-leftist rallies, turning people on each other by telling them to snitch, and undermining friendships. Think about it.