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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCosmopolitan: Thousands of People Are Trying to Leave QAnon, but Getting Out Is Almost Impossible
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a37696261/leaving-recovering-from-q-anon/?fbclid=IwAR3mgxihUf8QFJO6SdT6kIDZTEfO1CD3QDJpc-cZncyQX2DNzLmXtOOpjqIIn a Cosmo exclusive, women on both sidesthe former believers and the doctors theyre turning toshow us what it takes to escape.
For Anna*, a 23-year-old pharmacy student in Pennsylvania, it felt like being trapped in a vortex of fear. I had feelings of hope, but at the same time, I was incredibly scared, distressed, and anxious and even had panic attacks, she says. She spent as many as eight hours a day poring over feeds on Telegram and Gab, listening to fringe podcasts. Doing just about anything else, she admits, was really hard.
Another person compared it to a monster gnawing away at me. On a message board this summer, they wrote, My mind keeps circling back to it, no matter what I do. I dont want this to happen, Ive seen what it does to people, but I just cant shake it off, Im losing my goddamn mind, I cant focus on anything and my anxiety keeps shooting up, this isnt who I am.
It, for all three, was QAnon, the infamous and violent pro-Trump conspiracy theory whose followers mushroomed during the pandemic to include suburban moms, yoga teachers, grandmas, and seemingly half of your Facebook feed. The movement was so easy to get intoa provocative post by an acquaintance, a few clicks, a video that rang true, which then surfaced other videosbut would prove to be much harder to get out of.
After the 2020 presidential election, followers disillusioned by Qs false predictions of an overwhelming Trump victory flocked to Reddit message boards like QAnonCasualties and ReQovery, their posts tinged with vulnerability and desperation. They swapped articles, books, podcasts (commonly the New York Times Rabbit Hole series), and tips on how to let go of conspiratorial beliefs. They numbered more than 200,000.
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Alot more from this insightful article & affirms what we've known all along - Q is a cult that social media has helped create.
multigraincracker
(32,688 posts)Deprogramming refers to an intervention process that reverses alleged brainwashing. The term deprogramming has been used since the 1970s to refer to a range of behaviors, all of which are aimed at convincing members of so-called new religious movements (NRMs) to leave such groups and return to more mainstream social and religious lifestyles.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,002 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,664 posts)TheBlackAdder
(28,208 posts).
The problem is, it's everywhere in the news, on all various social media sites, their friends, family, clergy are possible cultists too.
In the 70s family would kidnap and isolate them, with a paid deprogrammer. The problem is-- what if the family is in on it too?
Then, if a 'religious' like conversion can take place, they will be subject to those same influences when they are set free.
.
multigraincracker
(32,688 posts)of what I came to find was a cult. This was around 1972. I went to a meeting and asked lots of question. At the end of the meeting I was not asked back. They said I ask too many questions. Oh well.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,181 posts)canetoad
(17,167 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,002 posts)They are victims of their own success. They have a tiger by the ears and the shareholders won't let them get off.
They did not know their "algorithms" would be so wildly successful. AM "hot talk radio", from the 30s on into the 90s and beyond, was a known quantity where call-in shows and outrage sell. But I don't think anyone made the connection that social media on the internet would find its profit point in outrage and fear. AM talk radio was run on gut instinct.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)in my lifetime I have seen cults, but I've never seen people fixated on such a vile, pathetic man as Donald Fucking Trump - the man is just disgusting beyond belief, he has absolutely NO redeeming qualities - NONE. WTF IS GOING ON?
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,002 posts)BlueTsunami2018
(3,492 posts)How can people be so weak minded that they can buy into such absurdities?
Then again, religion has been around forever.
This is just pathetic.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)it references "children secretly being sold on a furniture website" - whoever makes this shit up must laugh at the dopes who fall for such nonsense
muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)that they claim are in trouble. They just want to be seen as a person who cares, so they believe any old shit they think will make them look like that.
See, from when this came up, "No, Wayfair's Industrial Storage Units Do Not Come With Bonus Mole Children":
...
Several of the believers even went so far as to look up whether or not girls with the same names as these cabinets lined up with girls who were missing. And because there really are so many children who go missing every year, they had some luck. Except one of the girls they believed was in one of these storage cabinets was no longer "missing." The very surprised girl did a video (not from a Wayfair storage unit) expressing her displeasure at a bunch of strangers on the internet claiming she was a part of a sex trafficking ring.
Link to tweet
Said strangers were very mad at her for being so rude. After all, they were just concerned for her welfare and that maybe she was trapped in a very expensive storage cabinet being sold on Wayfair.com.
One even suggested that maybe she is a clone, because that's where we're at now with this crap. It is actually more plausible to someone that this girl is a clone than that they are wrong.
https://www.wonkette.com/no-wayfairs-industrial-storage-units-do-not-come-with-bonus-mole-children
Fred Clark at the Slacktivist blog is very good on this. He's compared it to the Satanic Panic of the 90s, which he's looked into in detail. People want an easy way of looking virtuous, and often do that by imagining (or agreeing with someone else' fantasy) a really, really evil thing that's going on, so they can say "I'm against this". They don't have to actually do anything to stop it, because it's not happening, but they do get to say to everyone else "why don't you care about children" (or whatever) "as much as I do? I must be a better person than you."
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2021/05/19/and-the-shame-the-shame-was-on-the-other-side/
onetexan
(13,042 posts)& are easily misled by what other ppl tell them. Most are uneducated. Some are highly educated yet fall for the same nonsense. Its insane.
secondwind
(16,903 posts)This is some scary shit, makes me wonder how many Congress critters may be affected
Walleye
(31,028 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,300 posts)meet the same end.
Walleye
(31,028 posts)Champp
(2,114 posts)RepubliQans really need to repudiate this evil shit. They have been SUCKERED so wickedly.
Woodwizard
(844 posts)I even joined one the level of insanity is over the top. I have made comments I thought would out me as a troll, but no I was cheered on. Like one guy complaining hospitals and doctors would not give Ivermectin, so I posted how about we go to veterinarians for treatment?
They thought it was a good idea, one private messaged on the forum I can order it from India. So it is OK to get it from India but not trust what is in the magnetic 5g chipped DNA changing vaccine made by the doctor evil of choice.
The articles they link to are completely made up, most of the "News sites" have been made in the last 18 months doing a WOIS lookup mostly generic wordpress and go daddy sites. Dig in further and most have a disclaimer of entertainment purposes.
My cousin has fallen down the hole not sure if he is full Q or just getting the more sanitized version from OANN, Newsmax and Fox.
rownesheck
(2,343 posts)The qanon shit is so fucking ridiculously stupid and obviously fake as fuck. If anyone believes this shit, they are too stupid to be allowed to operate within normal society. Sterilize them and lock them all away in padded rooms. Their stupidity has ruined lives.
Johnny2X2X
(19,066 posts)This cult is massive, it has millions of members and is destructive to the very fabric of our society.
Dems would never do this, but they should hire a troll army to infiltrate QAnon with the sole purpose of discouraging them from voting in 2022 and beyond.
malletgirl02
(1,523 posts)Also, the Q content on social media just don't pop up in a vacuum. For the Q content to pop up on this people's Facebook feeds they had to be searching for similar content first. These aren't innocents.
Mr.Bill
(24,300 posts)FakeNoose
(32,645 posts)So now they need to be brainwashed - or deprogrammed - to get out of it.
GoodRaisin
(8,924 posts)then they could just shut off their computer.
I guess addiction to nonsense is like any other addiction.
malletgirl02
(1,523 posts)Another option is for them to delete ball of their social media accounts.
Roisin Ni Fiachra
(2,574 posts)If the God‐given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God‐given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well. And from this derives all those crimes of religion which have overrun the world." - Voltaire