Posted on 02/20/2021 4:53:58 PM PST by eekitsagreek
History has a funny way of repeating.
Q...IMHO treatment of those following Q threads is similar to the Trump supporters’ rally threads here in 2015—Oh yes, please recall that early on, anyone supporting Trump was treated as a heretic (And I recognize at least one poster on this thread who was rabidly against Trump supporters back then). FR was Cruz country...and some made it their mission to attack and silence anyone who had a different opinion even tho they are not in charge. Trump supporters wanted a place where they were safe from attack, so the rally threads were considered off-limits. Seems to me that is all people who support Q want, and this has been allowed.
It amazes me how individuals and groups here go after people who don’t follow the orthodoxy—I have seen it with COVID and vaccinations too. Sort of like the intolerant left. Free Speech? You’d think & it should be as this is Free Republic.
BTW, I did not follow the Q drops, etc., but I sure hope Trump comes back one way or another.
are you a Winter Park grad? :)
We’re probably a lot closer in our views than you may think, Steve, in that we agree with some of this stuff being completely fake.
I said from the get-go that I am not dismissing the actual Q postings, but I’m not buying into the many people who have made such an emotional investment in the theories and stories they have read, made up, added to, etc. It’s become like a religion to some, and they get very upset if you challenge them. It feels like they don’t want their beliefs challenged, as they fear they might ball apart. When that happens, it tells me that these people have believed a lot of wild stories that they should have questioned. That’s the part I don’t like. I know of a couple of people that get downright angry if you challenge Charlie Ward, or the lizard/reptile/alien Simon Parkes. You like to hear these “out there” stories because it keeps you on your toes.....but what about those who actually put their faith in what these people are saying. To me, they’re as bad as fake news. Perhaps worse, as they get good patriotic Americans to believe their musings.
I think my eyes were opened when I saw a post from Joe (The storm is upon us guy). This is the person who made the video The Plan To Save The World. Well, awhile back he tells everyone he has to go dark. He said that this is the time that we will know if Q is real, or a well-intentioned hoax. I can’t quote him exactly, as he has since deleted the post. So the person who puts out The Plan to Save the World has ZERO clue that any of this is real. Well intentioned hoax? There’s an oxymoron if ever there was one.
These people have joined something akin to a cult when they’re that absorbed in it. And they get lots of attention, lots of hope, lots of intrigue and mystery by joining in this charade, twisting things every which way to find the letter Q and the number 17. It’s like they became part of a movie, and were loving it.
I sincerely hope there is something going on behind the scenes. I have always felt that this whole fiasco was so wrong, and that something just had to correct it, and fast. Other than that, I have no information, no knowledge, and won’t spread any craziness just to keep the hopium alive. I prefer truth, even if it isn’t good news. Better to know exactly what I’m dealing with.
The experience I’ve had with two Qbots on the Trump Family Train is the same. If you question them, they call you names and ridicule you as if you’re some unevolved species who isn’t enlightened as of yet. If you point out something that one of these Q peddlers has said in the past that is not true, than there’s something lacking in your intellect because, don’t you know that there HAS to be misinformation put out there. So they’ve got all the bases covered as to why you’re a negative, whiner and complainer. They address their whacky, mysterious musings to the “good” people, who are in tune with what is really happening. At first I laughed, now I just ignore. Best not to feed them.
Having said that, I completely hope there is something to this Q stuff and that someone, behind the scenes, is going to surprise us one day. I understand that I’m being very hopeful, but I just can’t see your country allowing such atrocities to continue. There are a number of things that just don’t line up, IMHO, but I’m not going to try and persuade anyone to agree with me, and I’m not going to listen to a bunch of bizarre theories from people who have no proof.
Well I was and am an avid supporter of Trump but didn’t feel I had to join some kind of cult to do so.
I innocently walked into a ‘q” thread once because I had some problems with some of their assumptions and statements but was roundly cast out as a “heretic” of whatever and then the Mods came along and basically said, “Don’t bother them.” Kinda stupid really, IMO.
Lurker,
Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking for some time. As a former teacher, I used to pose the following hypothetical:
“What do you call a conspiracy theory?”
Answer:
“History for dumb people.”
Occam’s Razor should be a guiding principal, and as the founder of Gab says - and you have correctly taken great pains to point out on this thread - we should take back our institutions, one at a time locally, run for school board, etc., instead of engaging in the mental masterbation and utter waste of time the whole Q-Anon thing is. What a joke. You nailed it. Trust the plan, my ass.
My only disagreement is that they don’t/won’t/can’t give up the foolishness when it is clearly over.
No, it is not all they want. If they stuck to their special Q threads and kept all their preposterous claims and hare-brained theories on those threads and discussed them among themselves, fine. But they post them all over the place here and get quite testy if anyone points out the flaws. It has become quite tiresome. But worse than tiresome is .... hang on, I’ll get there....
I joined FR 21 years ago. A lot has changed. That’s fine, everything changes. I was saddened when we lost a lot of good members in the 2011 purge. Okay, it’s JimRob’s site and he sets the rules. No argument from me there. Maybe he was right. I don’t ask for the Q followers to be banned. Far from it. I remember when sharp-eyed Freeper Buckhead (who will always live in our Hall of Fame) took down Dan Rather and his fake “document”. I think it is great that we Freepers are allowed to question the MSM “ narrative” here.
I used to be a regular poster and Freepathon contributor here, mostly on foreign affairs threads because my education and professional experience are in that field and could best contribute there. After a prolonged family illness and death (during part of which I often checked for headlines here, but had no time to participate), plus a move and change of email address and computer damaged in the move, I lurked off and on, and then after finding out my computer could not be repaired, decided to join again under a new handle.
Wow! It seemed every other thread was full of “false flag” and “crisis actors” and so on. There were also way too many posts promoting Q or Q-type conspiracy theories. I thought, okay, it will calm down, people are understandably upset, give it time and wait and see (and decided not to contribute until I saw positive movement). But it has not. It has proliferated.
I thought this would be a a great time for FR to welcome lots of new members, good conservatives who are leaving other platforms and looking for a new home on the net, a wonderful opportunity to grow and expand our influence and accomplish good practical things hat advance our cause. It looks like we may be picking up a few, but not like I had hoped. Frankly, had I not been a Freeper from the golden olden days, I would have been leery of joining here because of the proliferation of crackpot Q conspiracy theory stuff here. I am still a bit leery, and decided that if I decide to stay and contribute, I will mail in cash so as not to have a record of donations to a whacky Q conspiracy theory website in my bank record. Nope, not a chicken here, but I am sole caregiver to my elderly vulnerable fragile father and cannot risk his well being. I have a grave responsibility, and my Dad comes first.
I mostly ignored the nonsense, but then realized that it is important to show there is a reasoned opposition to the Q madness here, if only for the sake of prospective new members. If we don’t question the “Q narrative” can we blame prospective new members for not joining up, contributing, and working for our cause?
No, I am not demanding the Zot, but we need more Viking Kitties when the Q followers go outside the bounds.
Courtesy ping to my #189, as I mentioned you by name. My sincere apologies for goofing up and not including you in the original ping.
I’m far from the smartest Freeper; however, these ‘Q-ball’ folks take the cake on the Nutsville Train...
Signed - Proud 9th Grade Graduate...
“High School?” What is that..?
My question to you is first why are you so upset at the thought that President Trump might return to the Whitehouse? Its pretty common knowledge that he won in a landslide. Why would you aggressively attack people for espousing something that theoretically you would be happy to see come about?
How do you look at the pathetically weak administration and unhinged commu-socialist nut jobs in Congress and believe that they cannot be stopped?
Are you completely ignorant of the fact that the whole world is getting ready to go on a revolutionary new financial system? Because its pretty well known. If it was a secret I wouldn’t know about it. Our old petrol dollar system is dead. Its bankrupt. The central banks all over the world are bankrupt.
How do you maintain your level of ignorance about what is happening in the world? Easy answer you are plugged into the MSM. Every word you hear and every word you read is a lie. What are you going to do when the curtain is pulled back and you have to face what’s really happening with no advance preparation? My guess is you are going to freak the eff out. I kind of know what’s going to happen and I’m A little freaked out.
That is why the military is holding off. They are trying to let people wake up organically before they step in. You and 80% of the people on FR are an example that it isn’t happening as quickly as they had hoped. You are not questioning anything that you see or hear. You just accept what Fox news reports. It must be true right? Because they said it on TV. 🙄
My mom really got into Art Bell. Similar to these guys. you know UFO, time travel, ghosts and what not. When questioning her on how much she believed she was more of a "want to believe." It's entertaining. My father in law laughed about it he didn't believe any of it. No harm no foul.
What I find the most interesting is how the left attacks and creates false flags against what they claim is a new Art Bell format. Why would they care? The reason in my opinion is Q helped normies view the world in a critical mind set. Q doesn't tell you how to think as they claim. It helped create questions about what we think we know.
Trump was not a cult—but for those of us who were very early to the Trump train, any questions about Cruz, or support of Trump we posted were met with varying amounts of ridicule and hostility. Many thought he was a Dem in sheep’s clothing, a pro-choicer, etc. And did some of us get sensitive? Sure. Even after JR came out supporting Trump, some Freepers had to be banned because they just could not stop themselves from attacking Trump and supporters... Frankly, one of the ways I was sure I had picked the best candidate was the fact that the media (including Fox) were not supporting him...
Seems to me that now the media and some in govt have made Q out to be public enemy #1. Historically for me, the most reliable position is the one not being supported by the media...
So it is interesting that so many here are on the side of Washington DC and media in ridiculing/attacking Q.
I remember - and, lived through - all of that. Those early days of being a Trump supporter.
Great post. In its entirety.
👍🏻👍🏻
First you start of by calling me a Qball. Why would you do that? Then you make an acquisition as if it where fact. When it's not. Q is a Guerrilla form of reporting news from an anonymous source. ANYONE that takes anonymous source at face value without looking in to it is an idiot. Besides what Q posts are mostly questions for you to look into. It's not a source.
Far as I'm concerned they've been right to have us look into an issue more often then any news sources.
Good observation. Thank you
You JUST finished witnessing the greatest fake election in world history. They announced it before the election and after the election they admitted to it. Which is by definition racketeering.
That had to have affected you in some way? False flags are being used against you and I.
I realize this will have zero impact on you, but for the edification of those of us outside the cult, how about this, from a former Q cult member:
"Worth noting, conspiracy thinking hooks the brain because it feels like critical thinking. Even though it isn't."
That piece right there really is key.
As another user explained, the "do your own research" concept works to reinforce conspiracy theories while making people think they're coming to conclusions on their own, thanks to the way search engines and social media algorithms work:
"The idea behind the 'research' is that you are more likely to believe a source if YOU stumble upon it yourself vs if I tell you -go watch this video.
So if I tell you Hillary is a lizard person, watch this video ... It's easy to watch and dismiss me as a crazy that saw a dumb video. BUT ... if I tell you Hillary is a lizard person, but don't take my word for it - google it yourself.... and you come across hundreds of videos and articles about Hillary being a lizard person - that makes it all the more believable. Especially since there's so many articles saying Hillary is NOT a lizard person. If it wasn't true, why would people be making videos and articles 'debunking' it?
And the debunk articles are appearing higher in searches than the articles saying she is. Why is that? Is big tech in on it to ....and you see where this is going.
So their 'research' is just a way of manipulating people."
DB shared that it was hard to admit that they'd been played by a baseless conspiracy theory. "It's NOT easy realizing you've been conned, been a rube, been taken in," they wrote. "It was massively humbling to realize I'd been a sucker."
However, they are also surprised to see how much "crazier" QAnon has gotten, as when they left a couple of years ago they were "certain it would all be over soon." They weren't a "storm the Capitol" kind of believer, but rather a "snicker quietly to myself in my bedroom because those sheeple don't know the truth" type.
Link: https://www.upworthy.com/former-qanon-believer-q-and-a
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.