The Washington Post describes QAnon...

SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

..and The Crazy disappears:
We'd planned to discuss a few moments from this past week's convention.

As it turns out, we really can't have nice things! But we'll leave two moments in.

First, regarding Joe Biden's convention speech:

We don't think we've ever seen a political speech where it seemed so clear that the speaker actually meant and believed what he was saying.

You can, of course, give a lousy speech in which you mean and believe every word. That wasn't our view of Biden's speech. More on that below.

Second, regarding the Night 4 appearance by Stephen and Alyesha Curry and their daughters, Riley Curry, just turned 8, and Ryan Curry, just turned 5:

Found poetry should be recorded. That's how we'd describe this exchange:
STEPHEN CURRY (8/20/20): Do you know where the president lives?

RYAN CURRY, age 5: In the White House?

RILEY CURRY, age 8: Washington, D.C.

STEPHEN CURRY: Do you know what the president’s job is?

RYAN CURRY: To tell what happened to the world?

STEPHEN CURRY: That’s good. That’s a good one.
To tell what happened to the world! Below, we'll speculate about the reason why the Currys were there.

Biden seemed to believe every word he said; the Currys produced found poetry. This morning, though, the Washington Post began to play a bit of catch-up concerning the QAnon movement.

The New York Times published front-page reports about QAon in its Thursday and Friday print editions. Today, the Post countered with a full-length report. It appeared atop page A8, beneath this banner headline:
Trump welcomes fringe views into political mainstream
A sub-headline referred to the "baseless QAnon theory." That's where the problem comes in.

The banner headline reported that Trump has opened the door to fringe views. But what exactly are those fringe views? Incredibly, this was all the Washington Post was wiling to tell its readers:
OLORUNNIPA AND STANLEY-BECKER (8/22/20): Just as investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia were heating up in the fall of 2017, QAnon took root on Internet message boards with posts from a self-proclaimed government insider identified as “Q.” The pseudonymous figure posted cryptic clues about Trump’s impending conquest over the “deep state,” spawning an elaborate far-right worldview that came to absorb many other debunked ideas.

Experts said Trump’s embrace of QAnon supporters, whose core principle is their fealty to him, is the logical conclusion of a political movement powered from the beginning by conspiracy theories.
That was it! According to this morning's report, QAnon adherents believe in "Trump’s impending conquest over the 'deep state,' " pretty much full stop.

Readers were told that this movement's "baseless" and "unfounded" beliefs have developed into "an elaborate far-right worldview that came to absorb many other debunked ideas." But at no point are readers told what those "debunked ideas" actually are.

The Satanic pedophiles didn't appear. Neither did the cannibalism, or the drinking of blood by people like Tom Hanks—and of course, by people like Hillary Clinton.

In today's report, we're told that the movement's "baseless" ideas have been "debunked." We aren't told that the movement's beliefs are stone-cold crazy, or that, by normal reckoning, QAnon adherents seem to be out of their minds.

In opinion and analysis formats, the Post does seem willing to let readers know what QAnon involves. But this is the Post's second attempt to describe the movement in a full-scale news report, and the Post has sanitized the movement's beliefs in this same way each time.

It's as we told you earlier this week. The fact that so many voters drink from the well of The Crazy is powerfully counterintuitive. For various reasons, our journalists will be inclined to shy away from this startling fact.

The very foundations of democratic theory are called into question by the crazy beliefs of the many QAnon adherents. In our view, journalists badly need to explore this matter—but, for various reasons, journalists will be inclined to duck this task.

Back to Candidate Biden's speech—but first, let's return to the Currys.

Why were the Currys featured on Thursday night's program? Why was a charming discussion between parents and daughters part of the final-night program?

For viewers of the Thursday program, that was largely left as a mystery. Indeed, the Curry weren't even introduced in any way. We spoke with a woman friend who had no idea who the Currys are, let alone why they were included late in Thursday's program.

We assume the answer to that question is related to something Candidate Biden said in the speech he very much seemed to believe. At one point, the candidate said this:
BIDEN (8/20/20): Here and now, I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It’s time for us, for we the people, to come together. And make no mistake:

United, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America. We’ll choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.

I’m a proud Democrat and I’ll be proud to carry the banner of our party into the general election. So with great honor and humility, I accept this nomination for President of the United States of America.

But while I’ll be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I’ll work hard for those who didn’t support me, as hard for them as I did for those who did vote for me. That’s the job of a president, to represent all of us, not just our base or our party.

This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment.
Someone with the calls for hope and light and love, hope for our future, light to see our way forward and love for one another.
Biden said he will be an American president. In a time of massive tribal loathing, we think that's a very important statement. You simply can't run a continental nation—you can't continue to have a nation—if citizens divide into identity groups determined to loathe each other.

It's our best guess that this is why the Currys were featured on Thursday's program—and quite late in the program at that. (They appeared right after the Biden granddaughters.) To wit:

Stephen Curry is an extremely popular NBA superstar, but he and wife and are also Christians. (She's a celebrity chef.) They met in a church group when they were high school students in Charlotte.

(Stephen Curry was attending the Charlotte Christian School. Before that, he had attended the Christian Montessori School of Lake Norman, which his mother founded and runs.)

The wonderful segment with the Currys was chyroned thusly: "Keeping the Faith w/ The Currys." We'll guess that this was originally envisioned as an example of the Democratic Party's big cultural tent, but that somebody lost their nerve or their focus at some point along the way.

We say that because, as the segment was presented, there was little attempt to explain the reason for its inclusion. The Currys weren't introduced, nor was the purpose of the segment explained.

For ourselves, we don't have any religious or cosmological views, but we're perfectly glad that others do. We've made our peace with the fact that no one else will ever be quite as perfect as we are.

We're especially glad when we see religious belief issue in the kinds of behavior put on display during Thursday night's segment with the Currys. During that segment, the world saw children interacting with their parents in a very constructive way. This produced a bit of poetry from a young, developing mind.

Our own progressive world is increasingly intolerant of the others. In a sprawling continental nation, that can be an excellent way to lose elections, as we've proven in the past.

By normal reckoning, QAnon's many adherents seem to be out of their minds. That said, our own team isn't always much to write home about. In our view, it's generally a good idea to keep that fact in mind.

We had one other point to make, a point about something you didn't see during the convention. You didn't see or hear a lot about the problems confronting kids from less advantaged backgrounds.

As we've told you in the past, no one cares about any such kids, and no one wants to discuss them. Before we start to loathe the others, we should try to keep our own tribe's massive indifference in mind.

46 comments:

  1. "To tell what happened to the world!"

    Good answer, dear Bob. In a sense.

    Indeed, your cult's figurehead president's job is to sign everything the Deep State tells them to sign, and to clown on TV, telling your cult's followers how their cult Cares About The Children ™.

    But it doesn't have to be that way, dear Bob.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "United, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America. We’ll choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege."

      This sounds nice, bear Bob, but of course facts are a form of WHITE SUPREMACY, so Rapist Joe is on a thin ice here.

      Anyhow, here are some facts as reported by humyns. For your reading pleasure, dear Bob:

      "BLM protesters in Portland took to the streets once again Saturday night, dragging a mock guillotine through a suburban neighborhood, where they burned American flags and 'executed' a stuffed bear."

      "Protesters cheer as they burn American flags at the guillotine outside the police bureau"

      "Then, protesters took to the streets with a bullhorn, with one woman shouting to residents "What are you doing to protect your neighbors, people in their houses?," while a man shouted "Get in the fucking streets!""

      "According to the Portland PD, the rioters moved on to the Penumbra Kelly Building, where they assaulted police with rocks, bottles, paintballs and lasers, according to the Daily Wire."

      "Antifa also threw feces and urine at people at the downtown pro-police rally this afternoon."

      These thugs are your liberal cult's paramilitary wing, dear Bob. Quite active these days.

      Making nice speeches promising tranquility while terrorizing petite bourgeois is, of course a well-known tactic, and of course you know whose tactic it was.

      We'll see how it's gonna end this time...

      Delete
    2. "According to the Portland PD, the rioters moved on to the Penumbra Kelly Building, where they assaulted police with rocks, bottles, paintballs and lasers, according to the Daily Wire."

      They were in turn assaulted by Proud Bois with guns, as well as by police with tear gas, tazers, rubber bullets, batons.

      Does that sound like a fair fight to you? Feces and urine pale beside actual guns with actual bullets, dontcha think? The alt-right is the government's unofficial paramilitary terrorist wing, while the actual federalized officers and cops do the clean-up and arrest those who have been attacked by the alt-right militias.

      And the problem with the concept of antifa, is that anyone on the street is automatically designated as antifa, including peaceful protesters and unaffiliated looters and rioters. Because antifa simply refers to anyone who is anti-fascist, which should be everyone in our country, but sadly is not.

      Somerby Trump will be gone, but not soon enough.

      Delete
    3. Shouldn't you be out there, burning American flags and police stations, and terrorizing residential neighborhoods, dear dembot?

      Delete
    4. Protests work, that is the basic complaint here.

      Delete

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  2. Иди на хуй, тролль

    ReplyDelete
  3. Somerby did his best to avoid looking like he was pissing on the Democratic Convention. If he truly doesn't know why the Currys were there, he is exactly the senile asshole I've been saying he is.

    Somerby: "Gee and golly gosh, I wonder why politicians kiss them there babies all the time?"

    Somerby: "Why do all those politicians eat pastrami sandwiches if they don't really like them?"

    Somerby: "What do you mean 'a picture is worth a thousand words'?

    Lord, is there anyone stupider than Somerby on this good Earth?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Biden spoke openly about his faith and what it meant to him in a prominent segment. He also spoke about what belief in God means to him. This quite clearly and directly refutes Somerby’s charge that the DNC “lost its nerve” in this regard.

    Somerby complains about progressives being intolerant, but at the same time notes how Biden is deliberately being inclusive. You will see nothing remotely resembling this at the Republican convention.

    The convention featured a number of Republicans, some prominent, some not, expressing their support for Biden. This is clearly part of Biden’s strategy, in conjunction with the DNC, to reach out to the “white working class” and the “other.” (If only Fox News had covered it.)

    And I saw no better example of people carping about the convention than two progressive (read pro-Bernie) guests on Chris Hayes. They grumbled for five minutes about the DNC failing to have Julian Castro speak. At the end of their gripe session, Hayes informed them that he had asked the DNC, who told him they had invited Castro, but he declined.

    You just can’t please everyone. Especially ignoramuses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whaddayamean the Republicans aren't inclusive? They include every right-wing conspiracy theorist, anti-democratic nut case, science-denying boob, and political grifter in the country.

      Don't believe me? Watch the Republican convention next week, if you can stomach it.

      Delete
    2. Yup. Known as the 'big-tent.'

      Leroy

      Delete
  5. Let's see. "Baseless" and "unfounded" beliefs. Cannibalism and the drinking of blood. Pedophiles.

    TDH is talking about Qanon here, but he could just as well have been talking about Christianity. This movement posits without an iota of evidence an unseen and unevidenced monster that is all-powerful and all knowing and loves us so much that it plans posthumous eternal torment for those who didn't believe in it while they were alive.

    Christianity has elevated an alleged Roman-era crucifixion to a cult of human sacrifice. Its adherents ritually drink the blood of and eat the flesh of their deity. Some think their ritual is symbolic; some like Joe Biden think it's (miraculously) literal.

    By the way, Biden's branch has run and protected a ring of pedophiles across the years and international borders with an audacity that the deep state could only aspire to if it existed.

    Here we have the ultimate divider of humanity. There are the saved and the damned. And how many wars have Christians fought, many times among themselves, over who was which? TDH thinks the progressive world intolerant of others, but progressives are pikers compared to the religious.

    Once you've swallowed the trinity, original sin, vicarious redemption, the reanimation of corpses, and salvation by grace, Qanon seems nothing more than a short hop.

    TDH says he has no religious belief but he "perfectly glad that others do." Why? TDH complains that faith didn't receive enough positive emphasis at the Democratic convention, but faith is the last resort of those who have no good evidence.

    What cannot be taken on faith?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well-timed deadrat, last night Trump complained that he wants some more God. Truly too much and never enough.

      Delete
    2. I am liking the new deadrat.

      Delete
    3. Tsk. How nice.

      Could you share some details of your undoubtedly superior Satanic rituals, please?

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. My HP printer prints blank pages, I am going back to Epson.

      Delete
    2. 7:05,
      Your HP Printer works fine. That's a printout list of Republican voters who aren't bigots.

      Delete
  7. When Somerby asks why the Currys were included, was he perhaps hinting that it was for the pedophiles in the Democratic party, a shout-out to Q-Anon?

    Why else would someone like Somerby have to ask why they were there?

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Trump tried to scare people into not voting by claiming that mail-in ballot dropboxes aren’t sanitized and can give you COVID."

    He really said this, in his tweets last night.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are a lot of older Republican voters (think Florida) who may not want to expose themselves to the virus by going to the polls. How could he not know this? Why aren't his advisers telling him to STFU on this?

      Delete
    2. Huh. So, under no circumstances you dembots would take "mail-in ballot dropboxes aren’t sanitized" at face value: mail-in ballot dropboxes aren’t sanitized.

      Okay.

      But do you apply the same logic to mountains of bullshit spewed by your own liberal clowns?

      Delete
    3. Here's hoping all Trump voters are as stupid as you, and they reject vote by mail. Many older Trump voters will give up when they discover that the lines are longer ever because of the social distancing and lack of poll workers. Then it's Adios Commander Carnage.

      Delete
    4. Hope, dear dembot, by all means. Great plan, extremely intelligent and wonderfully liberal.

      Delete
  9. From the "You might be a narcissist if..." files:

    "The New York Times confirms that President Trump plans to speak on all four nights of the Republican convention."

    ReplyDelete
  10. "A California court ordered President Trump to pay $44,100 to Stormy Daniels to cover her legal fees regarding her nondisclosure agreement, The Hill reports."

    Somerby will be so disappointed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Finally some sanctions are enforced.

      Delete
  11. Police apparently just stand aside when far-right militias bring their guns to a protest.

    From Democratic Underground:

    "Source: Washington Post

    Portland police stand by as Proud Boys and far-right militias flash guns and brawl with antifa counterprotesters

    August 22, 2020 at 6:24 p.m.

    PORTLAND, Ore. — On Saturday afternoon, a large crowd of more than 100 far-right activists, including Proud Boys and armed militia members, descended on Portland, Ore., staging a “Back the Blue” rally in front of the Justice Center that houses the downtown police precinct. Hundreds of antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters gathered to oppose the far-right crowd.

    People in the far-right crowd came armed with paintball guns, metal rods, aluminum bats, fireworks, pepper spray, rifles and handguns. Some people in the opposing left-leaning crowd brought rocks, fireworks and bottles filled with chemical solutions. Both crowds sported shields and helmets.

    The two groups sparred for more than two hours, as people exchanged blows, fired paintballs at each other and blasted chemicals indiscriminately into the crowd. People lobbed fireworks back and forth. At least one person was hit in the abdomen with a device that flashed and exploded, causing bleeding.

    The rally followed a much smaller right-wing event last week that ended with gunfire. On Wednesday, Portland police arrested and seized a gun from 27-year-old Skylor Noel Jernigan, a far-right activist who has frequently rallied against antifascists in the city in recent years. Many of the same people came out again Saturday, including Alan Swinney, who brandished a gun and pointed it at the opposing crowd."

    Report in the Wasnington Post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I live in Portland. It's the same 100-300 professional cop hating protesters every night. The rest of the 650,000 Portlanders don't care about this stuff.

      Delete
    2. Open carry of firearms is legal statewide without a permit. However, Oregon law allows a city or county to regulate open carry of loaded firearms in public places, but holders of concealed carry permits are exempt.

      Delete
    3. "The rest of the 650,000 Portlanders don't care about this stuff."

      You can care about something without being in the streets over it. I doubt they don't care. When you finish talking to the 649,999th person, you can claim you know what they do and do not care about.

      Delete
    4. If these people were doing something productive I think we'd see more than the same 100-300 people dressed in black wearing gas masks who only come out at night to attack cops and public buildings.

      Delete
    5. I live in Portland and last week I saw a Trump supporter drive his truck into a crowd of protestors.

      Delete
    6. In my small town, it is mostly high schoolers and college kids among the protesters. I watch the Trump supporters shout obscenities at the peaceful marchers and wonder what gets into people. These are our kids running the gauntlet of Trumpies in lawn chairs drinking beer in public with their rifles across their knees.

      Delete
    7. AnonymouseorisitanonymiceAugust 23, 2020 at 7:35 PM

      @4:47 & 5:22 - the black-and-white, cut-and-dried troll strikes. From Trump's anus to the Howler combox, while ignoring the Proud Boys-etc. side of the equation.

      Delete
    8. I don't ignore the Proud Boys-etc, I hate them too. Everyone I know hopes both groups of misanthropes and aronists will kill each other to the last soul. We think the city should sell ticket to theses human cock fights and use the money to repair the 87 days of destruction

      Delete
  12. Compare Somerby's take on the convention with the Rude Pundit's reaction (8/22):

    "Everyone is talking about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's speeches at the Democratic National Convention this past week as being a return of empathy or decency, but I'd go one further with another overarching theme: "Remember sanity?" It was truly like watching a funhouse mirror version of our reality, except it took the warped world around us and made it look natural again. It was honestly like you could exhale and not just wonder what insane shit might follow after the last round of insane shit.

    That was what Biden and Harris imparted: a sense that we could possibly exist in a normal nation, one that wasn't constantly on the brink of exploding in violence or just collapsing into itself, unable to bear the weight of one man's insatiable ego. Harris vividly described our national anxiety: "We're at an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It's a lot." Then she went full inspirational speaker: "And here's the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more."

    For his part, Biden told us the things that we deserve in a newly-sane America, like a national plan to deal with the coronavirus (although it's likely at least another 100,000 of us will die before we even get to January 20, 2021). And he laid out the choice in terms that Joseph Campbell's ghost would approve of: "We can choose the path of becoming angrier, less hopeful and more divided. A path of shadow and suspicion. Or we can choose a different path, and together, take this chance to heal, to be reborn, to unite. A path of hope and light."

    Both the speeches were solid and inspirational enough. They called on our better angels that have been repressed for four years to make an appearance. They vaguely promised on much of their agenda, but the main point, made again and again, was that shit's gone crazy and that's no way for people to live. "

    ReplyDelete
  13. "We had one other point to make, a point about something you didn't see during the convention. You didn't see or hear a lot about the problems confronting kids from less advantaged backgrounds."

    I wouldn't trust Somerby's judgment about this. He didn't understand why the Curry's segment was there. It may be that there was plenty to address the problems of poor familys, but Somerby needed to have a more heavy-handed message before he could understand what was being said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If there was no mention of black NAEP scores, it was evidently a shitty message.

      Delete
    2. Why wouldn't the Currys be an aspirational message in support of black families? We all know what the struggle looks like -- many of us are living it. The convention was about hope.

      Delete
  14. "Trump's news conference consisted of him taking just three questions. Two came from Fox News and one from One America News."

    Fat chance reporters are going to pin Trump down on anything.

    ReplyDelete
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