QAnon: When reality is just too much
For example, QAnon's twisted web of suspicions is related to Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory that led a 28-year-old man to fire a rifle inside of a District of Columbia pizza restaurant last year. Last week a man appeared outside lawyer Michael Avenatti's office, saying that Q had sent him there. An armed Nevada man was arrested after blocking a bridge near the Hoover Dam with an armored truck and demanding the release of a report that Q had claimed the government was trying to hide.
QAnon also calls itself "The Storm" after an offhand statement by Trump, with a wink and a smile, during a photo op with military commanders and their wives, "You guys know what this represents? Maybe it's the calm before the storm."
Say, what? Trump repeated the statement but refused to elaborate. QAnon picked up on it, along with other would-be clues to the supposed grandmother of all conspiracy theories.
What are the rest of us to make of this?
Just as the birther movement called upon all of us who purport to have more rational minds to act as one-person truth squads, so must we all be aware of the inevitability and resiliency of goofy conspiracy theories -- and do all we can to refute them with facts and healthy skepticism.
The QAnon theory, whatever its origins, sounds tailor-made for core Trump supporters who need supporting arguments for the alternative scenarios spun by the White House, conservative media and other Trump allies.
QAnon is scary partly because its promoters want it to be. "Triggering the libs" or "owning the libs" -- i.e., doing things specifically to upset liberals -- is its own reward to many on the right. But paranoid politics can pop up on all political sides -- and often does. So much for those of us who still find some value in facts. They're not always available, but they're worth pursuing.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
