The Dangers of Q

Conspiracy theories can be dangerous. Last week, an armed reservist was arrested on the grounds of Rideau Hall, the home of Canada's prime minister and governor general. The CBC has reported that: 

Roughly an hour before Hurren entered the Rideau Hall grounds, a Facebook page associated with his business posted a meme that directs people to look up "Event 201" — a worldwide pandemic preparedness exercise run last year that conspiracy theorists now use to suggest Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The big uber-conspiracy theory right now is known as QAnon or just Q.  Quite possibly, you've heard it mentioned on the news or come across references to it online. The Atlantic has published a long article about Q, tying it to earlier US conspiracy theories, which have a long and ugly history. 

The problem with conspiracy theories like this is that they denying reality replace it with a twisted alternate reality. But nature, the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology, doesn't care. And that's dangerous. Here's just one example, from the Atlantic article. 

Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has become an object of scorn among QAnon supporters who don’t like the bad news he delivers or the way he has contradicted Trump publicly. In one March press conference, Trump referred to the State Department as the “Deep State Department,” and Fauci could be seen over the president’s shoulder, suppressing a laugh and covering his face. By then, QAnon had already declared Fauci irredeemably compromised, because WikiLeaks had unearthed a pair of emails he sent praising Hillary Clinton in 2012 and 2013. Sentiment about Fauci among QAnon supporters on social-media platforms ranges from “Fauci is a Deep State puppet” to “FAUCI is a BLACKHAT!!!”—the term QAnon uses for people who support the evil cabal that Q warns about. One person, using the hashtags #DeepStateCabal and #Qanon, tweeted this: “Watch Fauci’s hand signals and body language at the press conferences. What is he communicating?” Another shared an image of Fauci standing in a lab with Barack Obama, with the caption “Obama and ‘Dr.’ Fauci in the lab creating coronovirus [sic]. #DeepstateDoctor.” The Justice Department recently approved heightened security measures for Fauci because of the mounting volume of threats against him.

Denying scientific evidence and medical advice in the midst of a global pandemic is only going to result in death and misery. 

It's a long article, but if you want to get a handle on why the US is so fucked up right now, read it.