Republicans Are Playing a Risky Game in Elevating QAnon

The same people who want to cancel Liz Cheney are willing to defend Marjorie Taylor Greene

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Warning: Disturbing stuff ahead.

There’s a conspiracy theory called Frazzledrip. Even for QAnon types, it’s pretty fringe, which is saying something. Recall that the central belief in Q-world is that there’s a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping, sex-trafficking pedophiles running the government.

Frazzledrip is worse. It’s the name of an imagined video of a young girl on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s laptop in a folder labeled “life insurance.” According to Vice, the nonexistent video shows Hillary Clinton filleting off the young girl’s face. Clinton and former aide Huma Abedin, Weiner’s ex-wife, take turns wearing the girl’s face as a mask to terrify the child so her blood is suffused with adrenochrome. They drink her blood as part of a satanic ritual.

Oh, Frazzledrip also believes Clinton murdered New York City police officers who saw the video and covered up their deaths as suicides.

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  1. Howard C Swanson

    Social Security and Medicare will run out of money in a few years. We have a shift in the labor market that give much less opportunities for workers that are only capable of manual labor. Much of the developed world isn’t having enough children to meet the replacement rate. These and other important concerns are not being discussed. The biggest QANON conspiracy is that it is a distraction from important conversations.

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      Narwhal

      Social Security and Medicare will not run out of money in a few years.

      “This year, the Social Security trustees report that the combined trust funds for retirement and disability will be depleted in 2034, unchanged from last year’s forecast. That is a problem that needs to be addressed, because if nothing is done, Social Security would be able to pay out only 77 percent of promised benefits from current tax revenue.”

      “Medicare is not spinning out of control, either. The trustees report that one component - the Hospital Insurance trust fund (Part A of Medicare) - will be depleted in 2026, three years earlier than predicted last year. Part A is the only component of Medicare that is prepaid - it is funded mainly through the 2.9 percent payroll tax split by workers and employers.

      The dates of projected depletion tend to bounce around, and trustees note that even if exhaustion occurred in 2026, Medicare would still be able to pay 91 percent of promised benefits.”
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller-socialsecurity/repeat-after-me-social-security-and-medicare-are-not-insolvent-idUSKCN1J22OR

      Social Security and Medicare can both be addressed by making modest changes now or in the near future. However, there are politicians on both sides of the aisle who see an opportunity and advantage in leaving those changes unaddressed. They are fools because they fail to consider how leaving it unaddressed further erodes and undermines trust and confidence in critical institutions.

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    2. Tim Johnson

      I guess that's part of the point: Instead of tackling the difficult reality, battle the fantasy where it's clear who is right (Q) vs. who is wrong (liberals!).

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  2. Tim Hollingsworth

    I am sorry to say this... it's a shame, but the GOP appears to circling the drain like water flushing a repugnant Trump turd into the cesspool of America's body politic.

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    rlritt

    Jonah, a great news letter as usual. We have to face reality. We can no longer support a party where Taylor Green is defended and Liz Cheney is ostracized. I know Fox News makes money egging on the crazy train, but I have to believe there are still plenty of intelligent conservatives who think the way you do.

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    Mkapnick

    JVL over at The Bulwark asks this question all the time and that is (paraphrasing) : Is this iteration of the Republican Party a threat to democracy?

    Sadly, I believe it is but curious what others here think.

    Where have you gone Mitch Daniels, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you..woo woo woo....

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      Scarlette Tarte

      Yes, it is a danger and has been for a while. This party has been antidemocratic for years now. From the push for voter ID to now sponsoring bills that seek to overturn the will of the voters in the states, they are a party of authoritarianism.

      I said years ago, (at least 25 years ago) that if the country ever went to a dictatorship, it would be thru the right. So far, I am proving myself right.

      So c'mon Repubs...prove me wrong.

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      Pat Riot

      45 out of 50 Republican Senators--90% of the party--are going to vote to exonerate Trump for his 1/6 terrorism and essentially beg him to do it again in the next election he loses.

      Those Senators are responding to the overwhelming majorities of their primary voting bases, who have absolutely no interest in a constitutional republic.

      So yeah, the time would be right now...

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        Mkapnick

        which I guess makes us DINOS for now.....sorry site to see how the R's have fallen

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      2. Awesome

        To listen to Mark Levin, they have a very great interest in a constitutional republic. I just don't think they have a very good idea of what that is. It's like a nonsense word that can take on any meaning they like.

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          Pat Riot

          Yep, it's exactly how they use words like "socialism"--the same way little kids use the word, "gay".

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  5. Bob Simrak

    The GOP has had several "defining moments" in the past 5 years. They have chosen to live in "La La Land" at each opportunity.

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      Pat Riot

      Because they could, and because it won. If "la la land" is where they win elections, then they are fine there.

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  6. Scott N.

    Here's another acid test. In 1991, President George H. W. resoundingly condemned David Duke and all but begged Louisiana voters to vote for the Democrat. Ronna McDaniel hemmed and hawed and said MTG wasn't a David Duke situation, but I beg to differ.

    She has spouted off political assassination and recycled blood libel depravity, with absolutely no signs of letting up or apologizing for it. Kevin McCarthy shouldn't have welcomed her into the GOP fold, he should have announced back after she won the primary that he and Pelosi, along with the vast majority of their caucuses, would refuse to seat her if she won. Ditto for Boebert (Ms. "Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values.”) Even if she'd been seated, this should be a 400+ slam dunk expulsion vote.

    MTG could be a true believer few fries short of a happy meal, or she could be a craven opportunist willing to embrace something despicable for the sake of power. Either way, she has a right to believe what she wants and even a right to say what she wants, but those beliefs and actions DO NOT MERIT a seat in Congress.

    If a younger David Duke were running for Governor or House/Senate now, I don't think there'd be overwhelming GOP support to publicly condemn him, especially if he's great at "owning the libs." That's the really disturbing part.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      There's a difference--David Duke was a racist grifter. MTG appears to be crazy for cocoa puffs. I'm no fan of hers, but I suspect she is, to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams "mostly harmless". I wouldn't give her any power and I wouldn't endorse her, I'd mostly ignore her until she crosses a line from cocoa puffs into some offensive "ism".

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        Mudskipper

        As a Democrat, I find her desire to hang Democratic politicians on the basis of treason to be pretty damn offensive.

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        rlritt

        True, giving her attention is counterproductive. However, the party has to prove to me that they do not agree with her. That they know she's out there. Because right now they all look like they're following her to crazy town.

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      3. Awesome

        Both racism and this extreme belief in the evilness of the other are forms of hatred. Qanon's beliefs demand "justice" if you take it seriously. Given a place respectability in society, I can't see how it doesn't lead to lynching. Currently MTG is an aberration in Congress, but less so at the state level. There is a nonzero danger that in four years you could the Congress and the Presidency in the hands of a GOP that is deeply wedded to these beliefs.

        I understand this unlikely, but the consequences are really bad. Why play with the fire by saying "ignore her"? In normal times, the consequences of the GOP publicly condemning her beliefs (an it's important to say her beliefs, not her as a person) would be miniscule. The fact that that can't be said now, is an indication that it should have been done much earlier and that we are already on a dangerous path.

        Ignoring it, is easy and requires no effort. It might not be so easy later.

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          Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

          I think Dennis Kucinich is a good example of how to handle MTG. He was pretty nutty too. Dems mostly ignored him, since he voted with them 80-90% of the time.

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          1. Awesome

            Kucinich was nutty in the same way Ron Paul was nutty. I don't think either is a good analogy to Greene.

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        Man-Eating Cow

        I like my very young nephews. They are mostly harmless.

        I would not let them play with the control rods of a nuclear pile.

        Putting even a "harmless" nut in Congress is letting a five-year-old play with the control rods on a nuclear pile.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    There's a better term for what people call it when the Government tries to control what you think--propaganda. And like all propaganda, if you support it you think it's alright for the government to do so, but if not, it grates on your nerves.

    And if we assume that governments are self-interested actors who might be tempted to act in their own best self-interest, propaganda can be dangerous in curtailing opposition. I haven't surveyed any Uighurs recently, but I suspect their response to a 5 point Likert question of "Han demonstrated tolerance of others" is probably below a 2. BTW, I spent time in Ukraine, and actually got to know some Tatar Muslims (no, not potato Muslims). They very much want to be left alone, and are perfectly happy leaving others alone. Their opposition to propaganda probably stems from the fact they are painted as potential terrorists who need watching.

    As a pacifist, in WW II the propaganda against pacifism shifted from disagreement into bullying and cancel culture. I had a good friend who was a WW II era smokejumper, who was routinely called a coward by fools because he would not shoot others. He parachuted 38 times into forest fires to trench them against spreading. Propaganda blinded them to his courage.

    PSAs are propaganda, and most of us are fine with them (some do grate on my nerves). But left unchecked, and it can turn ugly.

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    Gennimarietw

    Frazzledrip??? Good lord. Do I want to know where the name comes from? Blech.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      Sounds like a Thomas Harris fanfic club. If the writing is good, it might be fun to read.
      Although the writing in most fanfic is worse than the script for most Disneynfied movies.

      Stated differently, I really can't take something like frazzledrip serious as anything but a bad movie plot. Which isn't to say it can't be entertaining in its own way.

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  9. Brett

    Sigh. Still I remain politically homeless. I am not a Democrat. I like a lot of Libertarian ideas but their foreign policy is a complete deal breaker. The GOP isn’t even a party anymore. It’s a personality cult.

    Until the Remnant Party gets off the ground I shall remain a registered independent.

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      Gennimarietw

      Hear, hear.

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    BrettH

    I’ll take the point that the GOP doesn’t need to be torched to the ground wholesale but man, do they need to take a beating over the next few election cycles to realize the extreme elements of the party will condemn it to a frustrated (and childish) minority coalition.

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