The Great Disappointments

Mike Rothschild11 Comments

“TREASON?”

In any other time, a president openly wondering if someone in his administration was committing the most heinous crime a person can commit against their own country would be earth-shattering news, leading to hearings and controversy for months.

But in the time when Donald Trump is president, such a statement is no more or less worrisome than anything else the president has said in the last weeks or months.

Welcome to life in These United States. Treason? It must be Wednesday.

But to the conspiracy theorists blindly marching under the banner of #QAnon, the president’s “TREASON?” tweet was something else: a sign that “the storm,” the massive purge of deep state Democrats and Hollywood pedophiles that Q has been forecasting for a year, was about to begin.

And Q-believers were having every part of it.

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Is #QAnon a Cult?

Mike Rothschild1 Comment

Earlier this week, I tweeted a few screen caps of #QAnon believers announcing that they had foregone sleep, housework, and family responsibilities in order to research the fusillade of “breadcrumbs” that Q had left in the past few days.

I added a sarcastic comment that the movement isn’t a cult – because not feeding yourself or sleeping in order to read internet posts seems pretty culty to me.

I was deluged with responses by Q believers mocking me for calling it a cult, when Q apparently encourages members to think for themselves, asks for no money or adulation, and has no coercive mechanism by which to make members stay.

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John McCain Did Not (Wet) Start the Fire

Mike Rothschild2 Comments

The news of August 24th that Senator John McCain would be ceasing his treatment for brain cancer has brought a slew of tributes to the long-serving Arizona politician, presidential candidate, and naval aviator.

But in the conspiracy theory world, it’s brought an outpouring of what could only be described as joy at the imminent death of the Senator who QAnon has described as “we don’t say his name.”

q mccain

The far right’s beef with McCain is complicated, and based on a mix of fraudulent news stories, personal animosity, conspiracy theories, and misplaced patriotism.

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149 Coincidences? No, Just One Debunked Conspiracy Theory

Mike Rothschild4 Comments

During my usual check of fetid fever swamp QAnon subreddit r/thegreatawakening (I read it so you don’t have to), I stumbled upon this meme related to John Podesta’s hacked emails and pedophilia:

149 Coincidences …. [New World Record] from greatawakening

It seems like a waste of time to debunk a dumb meme, but it’s the hottest post on r/greatawakening right now, and likely will get more traction in the QAnon movement.

It’s also a good example of how to manipulate words and numbers to make them tell whatever story you need them to tell, as well as of the logical fallacy known as “proof by verbosity” – hoping that dozens or hundreds of dubious examples will outweigh their individual dubiousness.

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The CIA Didn’t Invent Conspiracy Theories – But It Does Understand Them

Mike Rothschild

The CIA has been the subject of innumerable speculated conspiracies since its founding in 1947.

Some, such as covert shenanigans in Iran, Guatemala, Syria, Indonesia, and Cuba; are absolutely real. Others, such as their purported involvement in assassinating President Kennedy, or shooting a missile at Air Force One from a stolen submarine in Puget Sound; are not.

But did you know that the very term “conspiracy theory” was invented by the CIA, in the late 1960’s.

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