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

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Do you actually believe in what QAnon professes?

If you don't, then why hang out with them?

I wouldn't hang out with a Nazi-----even if the Nazi treats me well.....

I don't believe in everything QAnon says. Like that thing with children---that's a bridge too far. But I agree with them that Covid was made in a lab, and was "accidentally" released at a convenient time before the election to help Democrats win. Sadly, it turned out to be stronger and did more damage than they planned on. All in all, I find the group to be a breath fresh air. I'd rather hang out with people who are rough around the edges, but love the America we grew up in and love freedom. As opposed to virtue-signalers who plaster their Facebook with pro-Covid messages like "Stay Home, Save Lives" or "#Quaranteam", while attacking conservatives (read: people who disagree with them) like rabid pit bulls.

As for Nazis, the group has a zero tolerance policy on Nazi symbolism or speech. According to the rules, anyone who comes wearing a Nazi symbol or makes a Nazi statement is asked not to return. Not to mention, me and a couple other people in the group are Jewish. That's probably because most conservatives are pro-Israel, which was (re)established as a result of Nazi Germany's actions. (I once talked about Nazism with one other man there, but it was in a historical cautionary context, and that was OK.)

A Republican congressional candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, appeared to accuse George Soros and the Rothschild family of being involved in a cabal of Democratic pedophiles. On Twitter, she has repeatedly called Soros, a Jewish billionaire, of being an “enemy of the people.”

On September 11, a Facebook group’s post claimed that an Israeli company knew about the 2001 terrorists attacks in advance.

But are those anti-Semitic beliefs baked into QAnon? Or do some of the posters happen to be anti-Semites while believing in QAnon?

The answer, according to those who study extremism and have been watching the meteoric ascent of QAnon, is the former: QAnon is inherently anti-Semitic — and only growing more so. Researchers are still gathering data, but are seeing the trend pop up globally. The New York Times reported that there are 200,000 QAnon social media accounts on Germany’s far-right, and that the conspiracy was part of what inspired a faction of German extremists to storm its parliament in August.

“In terms of qualitative intelligence, there’s no doubt that it’s becoming more anti-Semitic,” said Joel Finkelstein, the director of the Network Contagion Research Institute, which studies hate and incitement on social media, and is gathering data on anti-Semitism in QAnon. “There’s just no doubt about that.”

The theory is expansive and elastic, stretching to include many different tropes in the service of its sweeping scope. That can make its core anti-Semitism hard to detect or track.

But the claim that rich Jews, including the Rothschild banking family, secretly control the world has long been a recurring feature. And other elements that don’t explicitly mention Jews also have anti-Semitic resonance, like the blood libel, an age-old anti-Semitic canard claiming that Jews kill Christian children to harvest their blood for ritual purposes.

“This whole blood libel is very prominent there, the idea of kidnapping children for blood,” said Magda Teter, a Jewish studies professor and author of “Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth.” “People are going to start googling ‘killing children for blood.’ That will lead them to anti-Semitism even if they may not be initially inclined.”

George Mason University professor of genocide studies Gregory Stanton, who published a piece earlier this month titled “QAnon is a Nazi cult, rebranded.”

QAnon is the latest version of “the conspiracy ‘revealed’ in the most influential anti-Jewish pamphlet of all time. It was called Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” Stanton wrote in his essay. He also said QAnon is a revamped take on the blood libel, which was spread in modern times through the “Protocols.”

In fact, according to Eric Feinberg, vice president of content moderation at the Coalition for a Safer Web, which aims to combat extremism online, references to the Elders of Zion and to a “Zionist-occupied government” are common on QAnon forums. He said QAnon adherents are latching on to widespread Jewish support for Democrats, especially as the election approaches.

“In terms of Elders of Zion, calling out Hollywood, which tends to be Jewish, calling out specific Jewish congresspeople as pedophiles,” said Feinberg, describing anti-Semitic ideas found in QAnon. “Also, it tends to be that Jewish people align more with Democrats. They use that against us to basically say that Jews are pedophiles.”

Some of QAnon’s supporters are surely aware that they are targeting Jews. But the ideas of harvesting children’s blood and controlling the world through a secret cabal are anti-Semitic even if the growing numbers of QAnon adherents don’t realize it, or don’t directly refer to Jews, Teter said. These ideas are so old and established, she said, that they function as codes for anti-Semitism and obviate the need to mention Jews directly.

“Some of them are using anti-Semitic tropes even though they may not be directly talking about Jews,” she said. “There are a number of elements that they promote that are definitely coming from the vocabulary and from the cauldron, reservoir of anti-Semitic ideas even though they may not be saying directly that Jews are doing it.”

Teter added that these ideas will act as dog whistles for neo-Nazis and other anti-Semites, such that they have the effect of propagating anti-Semitism regardless of their original intent.

Maskless gatherings w/ no social distancing in enclosed spaces almost anywhere on Earth = playing Russian Roulette with your health & possibly life.

You think you've just found some democrat haters to hang out with, but in reality you're being led down the garden path by a weird internet cult full of dangerous people & ideas that are especially preying on people with too much free time during the pandemic to get sucked down their rabbit hole of craziness.

Have you actually read up on the beliefs of QAnon?

You seem like a bright guy. People are sometimes "nice" to you because they want to con you, or convert you. Jim Jones was very nice to people BEFORE they joined his cult.

The beliefs of QAnon are nuts (and that's putting in nicely).

So what if COVID happens to be some Democratic way to get power over you.....even if that were so, why would you join QAnon?

Just like one doesn't have to like Trump in order to be a conservative.

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.

So are you one of those people who puts everyone else at risk by not wearing your mask when you go into public buildings and into stores then?

No. I (emphasis) know it's just a cold virus. But I live in an area where people think it's a nuclear bomb in virus form. So I man up and wear a mask in stores and on trains, lest I get jumped on and beat up. Plus, I'm following the rules of a non-monopolistic private business (like a grocery store), not some nutty Democrat.

And honestly, attending gatherings with my group, where everyone is unmasked and dancing with each other, feels literally better than sex. (Not saying that sex isn't also good.) Going there, knowing that I'm doing something Democrats would have a heart attack over, and hanging out with fun, friendly people in the process, is a great feeling that has no words to describe it.

Speaking of sex, masks have a fun unintended bonus. When I ride the train home after having sex with an escort, the mask covers my goofy ear-to-ear smile. So no one has any idea I just did something illegal. (Well, it's kind of possible to "smile with your eyes", but it's a lot harder to detect than a mouth smile.)

Disclaimer: None of this is intended to troll or antagonize. These are my true feelings and opinions, the expression of which is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

I even get some of your concerns, but the lockdowns and things were meant to stop the spread of the virus in this case its not about oppression, its about trying to save people. So I don't think it can be equated with anything totalitarian. Hell where I live there is not even legal enforcement of masks, so it's basically on the people to shame the crap out of any a**hole they see not wearing a mask going into a place. And in this case well maybe peer pressure is a good thing...me and my boyfriend were quite harsh to a couple women not wearing their masks and later we went by them again and they had masks on. I guess they just needed someone to call them out.

Yeah the lockdowns suck but its not oppression, it's just the way it is when there is a pandemic this big. Things like Q-anon are targeting people who are frusterated about it and sick of it. Giving an alternate reality where none of it is real and it's just the 'evil' democrats causing all the problems. But that simply is not the truth of it. I mean sure maybe you are disgruntled with having less ability to physically interact...but is that really enough to throw your lot in with the MAGA? Like us Biden supporters, we have a big tent you're not unwelcome under said tent...if you gave it a chance.

I don't want you to fall for Q-anon nonsense.

It's properly spelled "scamdemic". The "pandemic" pronunciation is a Democrat dialect.

I'll take my chances with the Democrat virus and the Q group, thank you very much. Their New Year's Eve party was awesome, and nothing happened to me. The hoax will never go away until people tell the Democrats to shove it up their butts.

Too late! Hehe! That being said, I do like wearing a mask when riding a train home from an hour of escort sex. It covers my smug, goofy grin. Speaking of which, my 15 years of experience in dodging the police while traveling to escorts' hotels also helps me travel completely undetected to those QAnon parties. Still, much I like wish I didn't have to pay $350 for an hour of sex, I also wish I didn't have to join a cult-like group to have close social experiences. But it is what it is.

Still, much I like wish I didn't have to pay $350 for an hour of sex, I also wish I didn't have to join a cult-like group to have close social experiences. But it is what it is.