Reformed Neo-Nazi Explains How People Fall Prey to QAnon Online MSNBC

[yuiyoshida]

[Upthevibe]

1. Kick.....

Thank you for posting...

[Ahpook]

2. These QAnon weirdos are something

I used to read Robert Wilson books, but he seems more tongue and cheek as well as factual mixed with fictional stories. The reader was hip!

These clowns are mixed up in shit that is worrisome! Whatever they think is going on in random pizza places and wherever else is weird. I used to live in DC. That place is cool!

[Illumination]

3. Good for her realizing about QAnon. It's also commendable that she helps other QAnon

members to disassociate with the group.

[John1956PA]

4. I watched and agreed with her comments.

She is correct in stating that those caught up in the QAnon propaganda, especially those find it on Facebook, think that they are savvy in uncovering truth via the Internet, but they are woefully misguided.

[ck4829]

5. K&R

[markpkessinger]

6. I'm afraid I'm fresh out of patience with grand theorizing . . .

. . . as to why people fall for QAnon, nor do I accept the idea that people "fall prey" to it. Bullshit. People believe it because they want to believe it -- it reinforces their bigotries and hatreds.

Here's how I would explain it:

The belief that there is some secret body of knowledge out there that is hidden from the masses, but that you and your in-group are somehow privy to, can be a very seductive one for some people, and has probably been around for as long as human civilization has existed. Indeed, there have been entire philosophies and religious systems built around the notion (see Gnosticism).

I think this tendency to believe in grand, over-arching conspiracies amounts to much the same thing. And for a lot of people, the belief that the "truth" has suddenly been revealed to them in a way that sets them apart from their neighbors -- no matter how outlandish it may, in fact, be -- is almost irresistible.