What Happens When QAnon Seeps From the Web to the Offline World

[dajoki]

What Happens When QAnon Seeps From the Web to the Offline World
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/politics/qanon-trump-conspiracy-theory.html

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What began online more than two years ago as an intricate, if baseless, conspiracy theory that quickly attracted thousands of followers has since found footholds in the offline world. QAnon has surfaced in political campaigns, criminal cases, merchandising and at least one college class. Last month, hundreds of QAnon enthusiasts gathered in a Tampa, Fla., park to listen to speakers and pick up literature, and in England, a supporter of President Trump and the Brexit leader Nigel Farage raised a “Q” flag over a Cornish castle.

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About a dozen candidates for public office in the United States have promoted or dabbled in QAnon, and its adherents have been arrested in at least seven episodes, including a murder in New York and an armed standoff with the police near the Hoover Dam. The F.B.I. cited QAnon in an intelligence bulletin last May about the potential for violence motivated by “fringe political conspiracy theories.”

Matthew Lusk, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary for a Florida congressional seat and openly embraces QAnon, said in an email that its anonymous creator was a patriot who “brings what the fake news will not touch without slanting.” As for the theory’s more extreme elements, Mr. Lusk said he was uncertain whether there really was a pedophile ring associated with the deep state.

“That being said,” he added, “I do believe there is a group in Brussels, Belgium, that do eat aborted babies.”

The seepage of conspiracy theorizing from the digital fever swamps into life offline is one of the more unsettling developments of the Trump era, in which the president has relentlessly pushed groundless conspiracies to reshape political narratives to his liking. In promoting fringe ideas about deep state schemes, Mr. Trump has at times elevated and encouraged QAnon followers — recirculating their posts on Twitter, posing with one for a photograph in the Oval Office, inviting some to a White House “social media summit.” Recently, during a daylong Twitter binge, Mr. Trump retweeted more than 20 posts from accounts that had trafficked in QAnon material.

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[hlthe2b]

1. "Offline world," NYT? Really? I guess there is no REAL world, now

only cyber and non-cyber? :eyeroll: x ten million

[2naSalit]

3. +1

[Javaman]

2. it won't seep to the "offline world" because even these halfwits don't talk to anyone in real life.

it will always be an online ball of stupidity.

they know that in the real world there is no cohesion of their ideas. and if they got together there would be just a room full of stupid trying to out stupid each other.

[Midnight Writer]

4. They are thick in my rural community and they will not stop talking, even to strangers.

I see them nearly everyday, identifiable by their hats and t-shirts and bumper stickers. They can't wait for someone to notice their gear, and when they get a hold of someones ear, they will wear it out.

[GaYellowDawg]

5. I think "halfwit" is giving them 50% too much credit.

They've got no wits at all. They should all have to register their skulls as lethal blunt weapons.