At least 35 current or former congressional candidates have embraced Q, according to an online tally by the progressive nonprofit Media Matters for America. Those candidates have either directly praised QAnon in public or approvingly referenced QAnon slogans. (One Republican candidate for Congress, Matthew Lusk of Florida, includes QAnon under the “issues” section of his campaign website, posing the question: “Who is Q?”)
Well. That's...not even remotely comforting
. Seems like something else we'll need to start including in our background checks-if somebody believes in whackjob stuff like this, maybe they shouldn't be allowed to run for office.
In several of the big Facebook groups, people erupted in a frenzy of speculation, circulating a theory that Trump’s decision to wear a yellow tie to a White House briefing about the virus was a sign that the outbreak wasn’t real: “He is telling us there is no virus threat because it is the exact same color as the maritime flag that represents the vessel has no infected people on board,” someone wrote in a post that was widely shared and remixed across social media.
...what...?
I could see a Q made out of duct tape, which she’d pressed onto her red T-shirt. Her name was Lorrie Shock, and the first thing she wanted me to know was this: “We’re not a domestic-terror group.”
You know, I'm thinking if you have to immediately say that when talking about a group you belong to, that's probably a sign that, yeah, you're part of a domestic terrorist group.
I wouldn't call this a new religion. It's the very definition of a cult to me. This entire presidency is letting us see what happens when a cult leader takes office. And I too wonder what the hell these people will do if Trump does lose in November. I'd like to hope they'll just disappear quietly for the most part, but I won't be surprised if some of them do lash out in violent ways.
I'd also want to tell these people that the reason they have no faith in the institutions nowadays is in large part because Trump himself has done one hell of a job at trying to dismantle them (not to say he's alone in that, but he's certainly not helped matters), but logic doesn't seem to be much of a strong point with this group, so...
I guess the only thing we can really hope for at this point is that investigators and watchdog groups continue to keep an eye on these people and try and rein them in before they get too violent, and that they find less and less places to congregate, both online and off. Ye gods, this is terrifying.
