QAnon comes to Europe

[southernhybrid]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/tech/qanon-europe-covid-intl/index.html

Now a report by internet trust tool NewsGuard has found that the coronavirus pandemic is helping this distinctly US ideology gain a foothold in Europe.
In the report, NewsGuard notes an increase in QAnon social media groups and pages in April, as lockdowns sparked by the new virus left millions of people virtually confined to their homes.

But while QAnon has its roots in the US -- supporting and disseminating baseless theories around mass shootings and elections -- it has since turned into an amorphous ideology, appropriating conspiracies from other places that sit with its anti-elite message. ​

"It is such an easily translatable framework, because it is so meta," Labbe said. "It is about the world elites having a Machiavellian plan, and every country in the world has elites."
This ability to assimilate older hoaxes with newer conspiracies around the coronavirus outbreak has found QAnon "a wide group of followers" beyond the US among some New Agers and the conservative right, Gallagher told CNN.
"It is tangential to the far-right in the US, using anti-Semitic tropes and targeting the same people as the far-right, [but] as it spreads, we are also seeing it is appealing to [the] leftist anarchist side," she said.

European QAnon groups have gained a large footprint online, with the report identifying "448,760 followers or members" in the social media groups it analyzed.
Memberships began to surge in late 2019 and early 2020, particularly once the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold​, according to NewsGuard.
One French YouTube channel featuring videos about QAnon has amassed 21,500 subscribers since its creation in April this year, according to the report. A UK QAnon Facebook group, created in the same month, has garnered more than 18,000 followers, the report says.

German social media accounts portray Chancellor Angela Merkel "as a 'deep state puppet' who needs to be overthrown," the report says.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron has been dismissed as "a pawn" in French language QAnon posts.
And Italian QAnon supporters have lauded the far-right former interior minister Matteo Salvini, but treated the country's centrist Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte with scorn.
Meanwhile, debates are raging on British QAnon Facebook groups as to whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been "installed" by "Q" and is draining the "British swamp" alongside US President Donald Trump.
"On such discussion boards, Brexit and the British government's decision to ban Huawei from the UK's 5G networks are cited as evidence of Johnson's allegiance to Q," the report writes.
The report finds that QAnon is thriving in Germany. Local social media accounts linked to the ideology arrived on the scene as early as 2018, including what is now a 99,600-follower German language YouTube channel, and a Facebook group with 30,100 members.
German celebrities have also joined the conspiracy's nexus.
Berlin-based vegan chef Attila Hildmann, who has posted on social media about his support for theories in the QAnon constellation, implored the US to "free" Germany in June 2020, the report wrote. His post, on the messaging app Telegram, falsely claimed that Merkel was working "together with Gates, the Zionists, transhumanists and communists," to plan the "genocide of the Germans."

What the hell is going on? Is the pandemic making people stupid? Why are so many people in different parts of the world believing insane conspiracy theories? Will it get worse? What kind of damage will it inflict on the world? Will it simply go away after awhile?

In the. US, we already have some members of Congress who seem to support QAnon, and I'm not even thinking about the woman who won her primary in Georgia and will likely win in the general election in November. WTF! Never in my lifetime have I seen anything like this. Is it similar to the McCarthy era? Is social media to blame?

Does anyone have an opinion or an explanation as to why so many people believe this crazy shit?

 

[skepticalbip]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/tech/qanon-europe-covid-intl/index.html

European QAnon groups have gained a large footprint online, with the report identifying "448,760 followers or members" in the social media groups it analyzed.
Memberships began to surge in late 2019 and early 2020, particularly once the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold​, according to NewsGuard.
One French YouTube channel featuring videos about QAnon has amassed 21,500 subscribers since its creation in April this year, according to the report. A UK QAnon Facebook group, created in the same month, has garnered more than 18,000 followers, the report says.

German social media accounts portray Chancellor Angela Merkel "as a 'deep state puppet' who needs to be overthrown," the report says.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron has been dismissed as "a pawn" in French language QAnon posts.
And Italian QAnon supporters have lauded the far-right former interior minister Matteo Salvini, but treated the country's centrist Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte with scorn.
Meanwhile, debates are raging on British QAnon Facebook groups as to whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been "installed" by "Q" and is draining the "British swamp" alongside US President Donald Trump.
"On such discussion boards, Brexit and the British government's decision to ban Huawei from the UK's 5G networks are cited as evidence of Johnson's allegiance to Q," the report writes.
The report finds that QAnon is thriving in Germany. Local social media accounts linked to the ideology arrived on the scene as early as 2018, including what is now a 99,600-follower German language YouTube channel, and a Facebook group with 30,100 members.
German celebrities have also joined the conspiracy's nexus.
Berlin-based vegan chef Attila Hildmann, who has posted on social media about his support for theories in the QAnon constellation, implored the US to "free" Germany in June 2020, the report wrote. His post, on the messaging app Telegram, falsely claimed that Merkel was working "together with Gates, the Zionists, transhumanists and communists," to plan the "genocide of the Germans."

What the hell is going on? Is the pandemic making people stupid? Why are so many people in different parts of the world believing insane conspiracy theories? Will it get worse? What kind of damage will it inflict on the world? Will it simply go away after awhile?

In the. US, we already have some members of Congress who seem to support QAnon, and I'm not even thinking about the woman who won her primary in Georgia and will likely win in the general election in November. WTF! Never in my lifetime have I seen anything like this. Is it similar to the McCarthy era? Is social media to blame?

Does anyone have an opinion or an explanation as to why so many people believe this crazy shit?

Political divisiveness. The same reason that so many swallowed the conspiracy theory that Trump was an agent of Putin's for the last four years.

 

[Rhea]

Political divisiveness. The same reason that so many swallowed the conspiracy theory that Trump was an agent of Putin's for the last four years.

Was there a conspiracy theory that he was “an agent of Putin’s”?
I thought everyone believed he was a “useful idiot”

 

[Trausti]

Political divisiveness. The same reason that so many swallowed the conspiracy theory that Trump was an agent of Putin's for the last four years.

Was there a conspiracy theory that he was “an agent of Putin’s”?
I thought everyone believed he was a “useful idiot”

There was a conspiracy theory of collusion; which the media breathlessly repeated without a moment of critique. Some on this forum still believe it.

Anyone, can some give a one or two sentence explanation of what Qanon is?

 

[TV and credit cards]

Does anyone have an opinion or an explanation as to why so many people believe this crazy shit?

For politicians, it may be politically advantageous to to so.

For the average Dick or Jane, a degree of paranoia, an inability to think critically, desire for an exciting story, to be "in the know" and separate from the brainwashed herd, filling in the blanks when evidence is lacking or confusing, living in a binary good versus evil world. I think with the internet, being "in the know" as one finds more outlandish information is particularly enticing to the "believers".

 

[prideandfall]

What the hell is going on? Is the pandemic making people stupid?

no, they were already stupid.

Why are so many people in different parts of the world believing insane conspiracy theories?

some sort of impetus is not required for people to buy into conspiracy theories - there simply needs to be the existence of a conspiracy theory for them to buy into.
there hasn't been a vast delusion about the nature of government that was vague enough to be both applicable to everyone but lacking sufficient detail to be proved in quite some time, so the fact this Qanon shit just ticks the boxes is all the explanation needed for its popularity.

Will it get worse? What kind of damage will it inflict on the world? Will it simply go away after awhile?

probably. a mild amount. i kind of doubt it.

Is it similar to the McCarthy era? Is social media to blame?

no, because mccarthy was more specific and government backed, that wasn't conspiracy so much as paranoia.
and social media isn't to blame for this... social media isn't to blame for anything.

Does anyone have an opinion or an explanation as to why so many people believe this crazy shit?

by and large the overwhelmingly vast majority of humans are literally, physically, retarded.

 

[Jayjay]

Finally someone takes note of the transhumanists. Far too long have we been in the shadow of zionists and communists in the, well, shadows.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What the hell is going on? Is the pandemic making people stupid? Why are so many people in different parts of the world believing insane conspiracy theories? Will it get worse? What kind of damage will it inflict on the world? Will it simply go away after awhile?

In the. US, we already have some members of Congress who seem to support QAnon, and I'm not even thinking about the woman who won her primary in Georgia and will likely win in the general election in November. WTF! Never in my lifetime have I seen anything like this. Is it similar to the McCarthy era? Is social media to blame?

Does anyone have an opinion or an explanation as to why so many people believe this crazy shit?

My guess is Putin has found how useful it is and is expanding the effort.

 

[scombrid]

What the hell is going on?

Same thing that happened with Brexit and outside interference in France supporting Le Pen etc... It is part of a concerted effort by large multinational corporations and oligarchs from certain places to weaken central governments and alliances so that they can exert more control over local populations and politicians. Right wing populism is their currency.

 

[Patooka]

Anyone, can some give a one or two sentence explanation of what Qanon is?

Nope, as QAnon supporters can't even agree what it is. The parts that they do agree upon is Donald Trump became president solely to undermine a secret globalistic criminal conspiracy involving world leaders in cahoots to support an underground pedophile ring.

And JFK jnr is still alive. It makes perfect sense.

 

[prideandfall]

Anyone, can some give a one or two sentence explanation of what Qanon is?

rubes on the internet buying into random fabrications posted on 4chan by someone claiming to be in the US government.

a deep dive on it:
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJgX20S0Zdg&t=20s[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

QAnon seems like ISIL or maybe worse... the Nazis, where they weren't taken very seriously and then well... a bunch of well controlling but otherwise blithering idiots were in charge.

QAnon is odd in the sense that it is clearly wrong. A lot stems around "the storm" which is a misquoted reference to US military force, presumably against Iran back when he was dick wagging at Iran and North Korea. Supporters believe it to be a liberal purge... literally purge. As in, QAnon supporters want us to die. They use terms like arrest and whatnot, but really, they want us gone. Kind of creepy.

Then we get into quite possibly the oddest part of how it is anonymous (even human?). These same people whine about anonymous DC sources. But are faithful believers in a cryptic message poster.

To me, QAnon isn't as big a problem as right-wing zealots seem desperate to believe it is true. They have been force fed a lot of bs by right-wing media for decades and we now have true believers... kind of the Nazi youth issue that went almost entirely unexplored in The Man In High Castle.

 

[southernhybrid]

I appreciate your replies, although I'm not sure any of us really understands why this is happening. QAnon is unlike any other crazy conspiracy theory I've ever known, considering how many people seem to believe it. Plus, when did we have so many members of Congress buying into such an absurd idea? It's not just Margorie Greene, who will most likely win the seat in her district, there are several members of the current Congress who seem to believe or at least pretend to believe much of this bullshit.

My point about social media was that without social media, these crazy ideas wouldn't be so easy to spread. It's not unusual to have a few mentally impaired people believe nutty things. Good grief. I've had patients who suffered from severe mental illnesses who literally believed all kinds of crazy things. But, they were in an assisted living facility, medicated and harmless as long as we knew how to interact with them. The believers in today's extreme conspiracy theories aren't suffering from a mental disorder. Some may be, but not most. This is perhaps the craziest thing I've heard of in my lifetime, considering how many people are buying into it.

 

[ZiprHead]

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/XmDIAAGrU9c[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ZiprHead]

QAnon site shutters after reports identifying developer

One of the largest websites peddling conspiracies related to the rising QAnon movement was shut down after a fact-checking group discovered a New Jersey man behind the site.

The now-removed website titled Qmap.pub garnered more than 10 million visitors in July, according to analytics firm SimilarWeb, Bloomberg News reported.

The website operated as an archive and aggregator for posts from Q, the anonymous figure who is widely speculated to be behind the QAnon theory. The creator of the website is known by the screen name "QAppAnon."

On Thursday, fact-checking site Logically.ai published a report alleging it discovered Jason Gelinas of Berkeley Heights as the "sole developer and mouthpiece" of Qmap.pub.

The QAnon theory has grown vastly popular this year, stretching to other countries as global unrest and distrust of authority have circulated among communities. Researchers say they have discovered prominent QAnon communities in 70 countries.

The theory is broad, but it primarily purports that President Trump is fighting against a secret "deep state" group of pedophiles — including celebrities and Democratic politicians — who worship Satan and run an international child sex trafficking ring.