Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.
What is sad - the number of people who believe it to be real.
It is sad. The people I know posting this are good hard working people. They would do anything to help someone. They are just fed up with the Democrats socialist agenda and the media attacking Trump for the last 4 years. My wife just sent me a text saying her aunt (75 yo) called her and said we need to be prepared. She said her voice was trembling as she told her. The posts I have seen on Facebook are an entirely different group of people than her aunt.
I'll bite.
I've been thinking about this lately. I truly wonder how many really believe it. I'm skeptical of anybody who posts on social media and whether they are either a bot, bad actor or just trolling. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the number of believers is much greater than any of us would feel comfortable with but I don't see most of even the hardcore MAGA guys around here believing this nonsense. I truly think we are overstating how many people really believe it. I mean, if they really believe they Trump could do that and remain in power then what's the point in protesting and storming the Capitol?Sinn Fein said:
Man, I don't know. A good friend of mine told me all of this the other day and warned me to be prepared. Someone who I would have thought never would have fallen down this rabbit hole.
It's also very much bled over into interpersonal relationships. Over the weekend, after seeing a bunch of friends on my facebook feed clearly mischaracterizing the 1st Amendment and censorship, I posted what I believed to be a very gentle/neutral/non-partisan post basically saying, "hey everybody, Trump's consitutional rights aren't being violated per the 1st amendment because Twitter isn't a government actor." I now have two individuals private messaging me essentially telling me I'm a sheep in the dark and directing me to some YouTube videos. One of those was a good friend of mine from grade school. The other is a jail commander that previously I had a wonderful relationship with and we worked together a bunch to establish and promote a very successful Veterans Treatment Court. I'd consider both of these guys as otherwise intelligent and normal people.
I think its a mistake to assume people do not hold these sincere beliefs.
Yep. And the people that believe in it are no dummies, frankly. But it's incredibly difficult to even try to have a rational and respectful conversation. I know the other person knows that I have significant legal training and experience yet they fully believe that my eyes can be opened from some guy's post on youtube who isn't even a legal professional. I mean one of the friends of mine referenced above told me that I need to follow some guy named Styxhexenhammer666 on #####ute so that I can realize where I'm wrong legally.
Same. I know an old friend of the family I thought was pretty normal. I thought he was an intelligent, level-headed dude. This guy believes it all. Crazy, but they’re everywhere!
This. I have no clue how these people have been disenfranchised. While they were storming the Capital, my thought was "over what?". They haven't lost anything tangible and their biggest beef is their objection to BLM, which concerns other people's rights. They aren't being asked to give up anything. They haven't been attacked. They haven't been killed by police - Heck, in many instances they were the police! Maybe I'm oversimplifying their noble and patriotic cause, but to me it just seems like their guy lost, and they are being manipulated by Trump's lying - that's it.Sinn Fein said:
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying some don't believe it. I'm just questioning how many. As an example, how many people believed the moon landing was fake or JFK was killed by the government. I definitely think these numbers are higher and we may all have people in our life that believe it and we never would have thought they would fall for it. But how many is it really? It seems like we are taking for granted that people online believe X when we really have no idea who these people are.
An i friend in a home theater group dropped a coming civil war rant video over the weekend. By all appearances a normal family guy .
My 86-YO mother believes all of it now. Most every day is some sort of fight over this. She fully believes the government is tracking her money. She watches Newsmax and OANN all day. It’s really sad when we get some sort of a spam call, she’s convinced it’s the government checking in on her.
I've witnessed the rapid decline of a friend who I was able to have reasonable debates about Trump/Obama as recently as last year. COVID hit and he's spiraled downwards ever since to the point I'm legitimately concerned about him.
It's a lot like the failed Doomsday prophets. Continue to be wrong, just push the date forward and change the story line slightly.
I have a friend like that as well... REALLY intelligent guy who I would have Berniecrat vs Trumper debates with all the time. He's gone completely off the damn deep end, especially this past week with the "it was really ANTIFA in disguise" stuff.
As is education, common sense, empathy, unity, and a whole host of other things.Sinn Fein said:
I want to respectfully disagree.
This is a big part, and a good point. It blows my mind that there are elected officials that openly follow this Qanon junk.
