General identity politics and assigning value/ merit to people based on oppression points
I kind of have to go back to the original question then:
Can you name one conspiracy theorist on the left who is as popular, damaging and dangerous as Qanon.
1) No single conspiracy theory, 2) no single theorist/follower group
Identity politics and the Oppression Olympics are problematic in their own right. But they're not exactly taking hostages in the Capitol. They just "seem" or "feel" threatening. "Oooh, they called me a bad word." "Oooh, they circled the wagons and decided not to listen to my podcast or pressured their sponsors to drop them." They are idiotic, but we're not in the same league with insurrection.
Nice citation today of Cliodynamics again:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...own-a-data-scientists-take-on-trump-and-biden
Interesting suggestion that a lot of overeducated young people will lean left -- and into identity politics and oppression points -- because that appears as their lone recourse to being locked out of the power hierarchy and having limited career prospects.
Do you really think someone of relevance takes Qanon seriously?
They may not believe it, but they goad the followers into thinking that they've created the space for them to believe it. They encourage it. They've made a cynical choice to expand their political tent by courting dangerous deluded people.
I may take up a lot of left perspectives, but do not mistake me for some socialist (even if I do live in Portugal and like it here). I've been encouraged by a lot of the postings of late from moderate conservative publications like the
American Conservative and the
National Review who are actively calling out the cancerous courtship of cults and rioters. They've done a far better job than the left has in calling out "rioters of common cause", even if the left has hardly egged on and encouraged rioters the way that the right has done.
In this sense, I have some common thinking with the general public. You know why so many House seats turned red when Trump was simultaneously losing re-election? It wasn't because "The Steal" mixed up parties for House races. It's because voters tend to favor a balance of power. When one party or ideology has too much of a power and gets it in its head that it has a mandate, bad things usually follow. Maybe not right away, but soon after. Not only were so many anti-Trump votes legitimate, so were many simultaneous votes to throw out Blue legislators in state House elections.
My sister thinks Democrats rigged the elections, that Trump is the shit and Joe Biden is Nicolas Maduro.
She's almost Cuban.
(This also underscores why so many House seats turning red this election refutes the rigged election theory.)
I still say this was one of my favorite memes of the whole election:
This is what I thought at first, but it has gone on so long and spread so far that I almost feel as if it's sanctioned by some foreign government.
Not bad. There is political power in seeding that kind of hysteria. The Internet Reseach Center proved how divisive they could be with Facebook ads and misinformation. Why not take down a foreign enemy one better by planting conspiracy stories to keep large swaths of the public rabid and delusional. Now THAT is a conspiracy theory I can get behind.