Take a Tour Inside the Wild Contradictory World of the Oath Keepers and See How They Came To Worship The Thing They Feared Most - Federal Authoritarianism
“Of course, Ron Paul would lose. In the ensuing panic and dissolution of the nascent Liberty Movement, my father would seize the time and place to found Oath Keepers and redirect the considerable grassroots energy that was now aimless and directionless.”
***Key point: The energy associated with societal unrest (whether organic or engineered) must be accommodated is some manner and is ripe for redirection and/or exploitation.
“In the midst of this, the Q handle would emerge with its now distinctive style of vague allusions and almost Socratic style of rhetorical questions. Q would go on to become a mass cultural phenomenon.”
***Interesting that this approach has just enough of a veneer of intelligence and awareness to give it credibility to those who want their fears confirmed. Straight up “The world is going to end, look out for space lasers” works for some but doesn’t do a good job of training it’s followers to stand up to scrutiny. The Q movement, and it’s Socratic questioning format, not only gave adherents the feeling that it was well-considered, but it also allowed for some evolution rather than rigidity. In other words, if you don’t prescribe all the answers but your goal is to create high numbers of believers, you let them answer those questions in whatever way is the most popular to the target masses.
“This, the forever wait by the Lock Her Up contingent of Trump voters, would become what I mark as the prototype of the eternal 'two more weeks' familiar to anyone who has studied QAnon.”
***Just like religious texts, there should be enough flexibility in the prophecy to allow it to never be fully disproven but instead to promise <fill in the blank> in such a way that the followers fully believe the resolution will eventually come. HOWEVER, there are both dangers and advantages in the “wait for it” approach to problem resolution. From football games to Christmas presents and restaurant meals to orgasms there is a human affinity for delayed resolution as long as the resolution actually manifests. Imagine, as a child, looking at all your tightly wrapped Christmas presents for weeks and then on Christmas day being told to return them without ever opening the package. How would you feel if you sat down in a fine restaurant, ordered your meal and then 15 minutes later were told that you would not receive it and to go away and check back some other time. This frustration from unresolved outcomes is a powerful force that can either perpetuate your movement or destroy it. The outcome depends on the fundamental attractiveness of your narrative and the ability of that narrative to withstand and successfully compartmentalize external assault. One of the greatest weaknesses of political narratives is their reliance on a change in leadership as the solution and are thusly tied to finite election cycles. I can predict the end of the world in 200 years and none of my audience will be around to test my prediction but if my grievances are all attributed to a certain political party or structure and when that party or structure changes nothing resolves, there’s some ‘splaining to do.
Bonus: Here is a modification to biblical text to address political Christianity:
Matthew 7:15 (2022 Anti-MAGA Version): “Beware of false PATRIOTS (née “prophets”) which come to you in sheep's
“Of course, Ron Paul would lose. In the ensuing panic and dissolution of the nascent Liberty Movement, my father would seize the time and place to found Oath Keepers and redirect the considerable grassroots energy that was now aimless and directionless.”
***Key point: The energy associated with societal unrest (whether organic or engineered) must be accommodated is some manner and is ripe for redirection and/or exploitation.
“In the midst of this, the Q handle would emerge with its now distinctive style of vague allusions and almost Socratic style of rhetorical questions. Q would go on to become a mass cultural phenomenon.”
***Interesting that this approach has just enough of a veneer of intelligence and awareness to give it credibility to those who want their fears confirmed. Straight up “The world is going to end, look out for space lasers” works for some but doesn’t do a good job of training it’s followers to stand up to scrutiny. The Q movement, and it’s Socratic questioning format, not only gave adherents the feeling that it was well-considered, but it also allowed for some evolution rather than rigidity. In other words, if you don’t prescribe all the answers but your goal is to create high numbers of believers, you let them answer those questions in whatever way is the most popular to the target masses.
“This, the forever wait by the Lock Her Up contingent of Trump voters, would become what I mark as the prototype of the eternal 'two more weeks' familiar to anyone who has studied QAnon.”
***Just like religious texts, there should be enough flexibility in the prophecy to allow it to never be fully disproven but instead to promise <fill in the blank> in such a way that the followers fully believe the resolution will eventually come. HOWEVER, there are both dangers and advantages in the “wait for it” approach to problem resolution. From football games to Christmas presents and restaurant meals to orgasms there is a human affinity for delayed resolution as long as the resolution actually manifests. Imagine, as a child, looking at all your tightly wrapped Christmas presents for weeks and then on Christmas day being told to return them without ever opening the package. How would you feel if you sat down in a fine restaurant, ordered your meal and then 15 minutes later were told that you would not receive it and to go away and check back some other time. This frustration from unresolved outcomes is a powerful force that can either perpetuate your movement or destroy it. The outcome depends on the fundamental attractiveness of your narrative and the ability of that narrative to withstand and successfully compartmentalize external assault. One of the greatest weaknesses of political narratives is their reliance on a change in leadership as the solution and are thusly tied to finite election cycles. I can predict the end of the world in 200 years and none of my audience will be around to test my prediction but if my grievances are all attributed to a certain political party or structure and when that party or structure changes nothing resolves, there’s some ‘splaining to do.
Bonus: Here is a modification to biblical text to address political Christianity:
Matthew 7:15 (2022 Anti-MAGA Version): “Beware of false PATRIOTS (née “prophets”) which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”