Do We Need to Understand the Q-Anon Phenomenon?

A quick note: This is from a comment I added to a friend’s Facebook post about an article in The New Republic called “The Democrat Party Has a Fatal Misunderstanding of the Q-Anon Phenomenon” by Osita Nwanevu, published online on February 5, 2021.

I don’t put a lot of stock in the college education metric anymore.  I am not impressed with a number breaking down “business owners or white-collar workers” in a group either.  That doesn’t tell me much.  What is considered a white-collar worker, for example, and what makes a business owner more special than, say, a teacher or a dentist?  (We put business owners right up there with cowboys in America’s mythology, in my opinion.)  And I have never bought the argument that because people feel that they are being dismissed by elites and losing opportunity motivates things like the Tea Party or Q-Anon.  These demographics straddle the political divide.  That is the underlying premise of this article’s thesis, but I think it misses the point.  These demographics *can* be found on either side of the politics, but…

There are opinions and there are facts.  Opinions based on facts are one thing, but arguing with right-wingers is like arguing with someone about what kind of cheese the moon is made of.  It is pointless.  Their arguments are based in a false reality.  Worse than that, I really don’t think they – yeah, I’ll toss them into a camp at this point – I don’t think they can think critically and reason responsibly with facts.  I mean this literally.  There is a safety switch that shuts off critical reasoning if facts get too close to exposing the lie.  

Of course, my own take on this is pretty subjective.  I let myself get drawn into pointless arguments on Facebook with people who understand the world through memes and in this I see significant differences.  I have friends who are both “left” and “right”, but the world-as-meme crowd – especially regarding serious issues vs grumpy cats – is overwhelmingly found on the right.  Challenge those memes with reasons and facts and the conversation devolves into whataboutism and name calling. 

I think there is an overwhelming level of fear of loss on the right, but there also exists a real sense of resentment.  Paul [Paul posted the article about which I am commenting] is right IMHO, keeping these people in line politically is all about speaking to these concerns and that is especially easy to do when you don’t have to worry about facts and reason.  You just make up shit to keep them angry.  I work in sales.  I could be a rich man tomorrow if all I had to do was tell people what they want to hear and collect fees for doing so.  This works as long as the buyer gets nothing, but believes he got everything.  This is what’s happening on the right.

So I am rambling toward a conclusion…really, I am!  I believe more important to identifying and understanding who is likely to align with Q-Anon and other movements isn’t so much about college degrees or who says they know what Q-Anon is, but about who embraces the lie.  And those people are not hard to spot.  They wear it on their sleeve. They brag it.  They live it.  And we see more of it because the lie and the lying has gone mainstream and is legitimate in today’s political discourse. That’s the problem.

Come find my feed on Facebook!  Come soon, though…my right-wing friends are abandoning me.  It is glimpse into the madness…