Hit Piece on Qanon from The New American
“Q Anonymous,” better known as QAnon, is one or more bloggers who claim to have secret info from inside the Trump White House. The inside insights regularly fail to pan out, yet “Q” is still popular.
One or more web pundits called “Q” have claimed to have inside knowledge about the Trump administration and those working against it. But Q’s insights aren’t astute.
On Sunday, October 30, 1938, CBS Radio broadcast an Orson Welles dramatization of H.G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds. The broadcast — framed as a series of news broadcasts — included a disclaimer at the beginning stating that it was fictional. Unfortunately, many people across the country tuned in late and missed that disclaimer. Some listeners thought what they were hearing were actual news reports interrupting an evening of musical programming. The fictional news reports were of a series of attacks by Martians. Those who were fooled by the production panicked as a result. Some reports indicate the panic was widespread; others indicate that it was rare. At any rate, those who panicked did so because they fully believed that Earth was being attacked by an advanced alien race.
It is an easy thing for those of us living in 2020 to view — with some amusement — those 1938 listeners as simpletons. After all, they actually thought Earth was under inter-planetary attack. How simple-minded can you get? But it is important to take into account the concept of confirmation bias.
People had been been writing about and discussing the possibility of advanced alien life-forms since at least the 1500s, and the term “flying saucer” dates to a January 25, 1878 newspaper article detailing the account of a farmer claiming he had seen one. With additional claims of sightings and news reports of “flying saucers” from the early 1900s to the late 1920s, the idea was well inculcated in the public mind. It is no surprise then that those who were predisposed to entertain (if not outright believe) such accounts would panic upon hearing what they believed were news reports of a Martian military invasion. It confirmed their bias. On October 28, 2017 — almost 79 years after War of the Worlds — an anonymous 4chan user employing the moniker “Q” claimed to have access to classified information involving the battle between the Trump administration and its opponents in the Deep State.
Again, the power of confirmation bias showed itself. Since it was obvious to any honest observer that President Trump was the victim of a tar-and-feather campaign, as well as a well-orchestrated witch hunt, Q seemed to “fill in the blanks” and explain what was really going on “behind the scenes.” As a result, many suspended critical thinking and took — as unquestionable truth — whatever Q proposed, including Q’s predictions of what would happen. This, even though no one knew who he (or much more likely they) was, and even when the conspiracy theories got wilder and wilder. That suspension of critical thinking — fueled at least in part by confirmation bias — continued even as prediction after prediction has failed to come to pass, and some theories even directly contradicted previous theories. There is a story (likely apocryphal) about Winston Churchill that illustrates this particular Q dynamic. It is said that Churchill attended a dinner party and was standing at the bottom of a staircase with his host. As two women began to descend, Churchill motioned to the women and remarked to his host, “There is the most unhandsome woman I have ever seen.” The host, shocked, replied, “That, sir, is my wife.” Without missing a beat, Churchill said, “I was referring to the other.” When the man informed him that the other was his daughter, Churchill downed the remainder of his drink, looked the man in the eye, and said, “Sir, I never said it.”
That story — though not likely to be true — is funny. What Q does is not. Another difference is that the mythical host did not likely believe that Churchill never said it, while Q followers are so bombarded with one fanciful theory after another that they likely can’t keep up with what was said and see where one claim contradicts something else that was said. However, it is not merely the contradictions that should give one pause where Q is concerned. Those contradictions are part of a larger picture of failed predictions — referred to as prophecies by some followers. Many of the failed “prophecies” also fit neatly into the category of contradictions, since they are merely the resetting of dates after the promised dates came and went without the “prophecies” being fulfilled.
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