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Thread: QAnon groups hit by Facebook crackdown

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    Thumbs Up QAnon groups hit by Facebook crackdown

    Source: NBC News


    Facebook took down thousands of accounts, pages and groups as part an effort to limit violent rhetoric tied to QAnon, political militias and protest groups.




    By Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny


    Facebook on Wednesday banned about 900 pages and groups and 1,500 ads tied to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, part of a sweeping action that also restricted the reach of over 10,000 Instagram pages and almost 2,000 Facebook groups pushing the baseless conspiracy theory, which has spawned real-world violence.

    Facebook also took down thousands of accounts, pages and groups as part of what it called a "policy expansion," seeking to limit violent rhetoric tied to QAnon, political militias and protest groups like antifa.

    QAnon is an elaborate, unfounded conspiracy theory alleging that President Donald Trump is secretly saving the world from a group of prominent satanic cannibals who run the world. The group has been linked to several violent, criminal incidents, including a train hijacking, kidnappings, a police chase and a murder.

    The new policy says "Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with these movements and organizations will be removed when they discuss potential violence."

    QAnon, militia movements and violent movements tied to protests will no longer be allowed to buy ads on Facebook. QAnon ads, which often pushed merchandise, were allowed on the platform before Wednesday's announcement.

    Facebook will now downrank QAnon, militia and anarchist protest groups on users' News Feeds and in Facebook and Instagram's search engines. The groups and accounts will no longer be featured in the "recommendations" sidebar on similar pages. The ban will also prohibit fundraising based on hashtags related to the movements on Facebook and Instagram.

    Over the last month, since supporters of the group were largely banned from Twitter, QAnon believers co-opted the hashtag "#SaveTheChildren" to evade bans and recruit otherwise apolitical followers.

    A Facebook spokesperson said the enforcement actions will continue as the company works to evolve its strategy.

    "This doesn't mean we've captured all of the ones we want to restrict yet," the spokesperson said. "We 100 percent know that they're going to change their terminology. We don't think we're flipping a switch and this won't be a discussion in a week."


    Source: NBC News
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    Senior Member Aianawa's Avatar
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    Not surprising after this >


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    Quote Originally posted by Aianawa View Post
    Not surprising after this >



    I had to watch that on YouTube because for some reason, there's a problem when I try playing back the video here. But I have now watched it, and I don't see the relevance between this video and the take-down of the QAnon propaganda groups on social media.

    If anything, this video shows how very little Trump knows about QAnon, and how he quickly diverts every question about QAnon onto a diatribe against the political left, exactly because he doesn't have anything to do with QAnon and doesn't know anything about them, other than that they like him ─ which is of course important to him.

    If you now still believe, even after watching this video, that QAnon is a group of secret military insiders ─ which is of course the ultimate fascist wet dream, because fascism glorifies the military ─ fighting a secret cabal of baby-eating satanic pedophiles, then I'm afraid you have no grasp on reality at all, Vern.

    Let me ask you something... Why do you think Trump's political enemies are being portrayed as baby-eating satanic pedophiles? Is that because they really would be baby-eating satanic pedophiles? Or could it not be because pedophilia and cannibalism ─ especially against innocent little babies ─ are the two things most guaranteed to thoroughly disgust any decent human being, and that as such, the accusation of certain individuals being baby-eating satanic pedophiles is therefore also bound to elicit the greatest feelings of disgust, resentment and hatred against said individuals?

    If you had any notion ─ any notion at all ─ of the far-right's history in accusing people of sexually aberrant behavior ─ including plain old adultery and homosexuality ─ then you would be able to see where this conspiracy theory comes from. If you want to rally support in favor of one party and against another party ─ not necessarily in the political sense of the word "party" ─ then you have to polarize your audience.

    That's why people like watching movies about the battle between good and evil, whether it's The Lord of The Rings, whether it's a movie about something Biblical like the good angels against the bad angels in The Prophecy, whether it's the good Immortals against the evil Immortals in Highlander, whether it's about people fighting some evil monster as in It ─ note to self: that's the second time this story pops into my attention today ─ or whether it's about cops against robbers (or against a serial killer), or whatever.

    It's always about the good guys against either the bad guys or against some specified or unspecified monster. It's the epic battle that appeals to every normal human being ─ and perhaps to some abnormal ones even more. And if you then want to score an even bigger box office success, then you add a touch of horror and gore, because people like spectacle. That's why the ancient Romans tossed slaves before wild animals ─ commonly lions ─ and had gladiators fighting each other to the death in their circuses.

    And that, Vern, is why Trump's political enemies are painted as baby-eating satanic pedophiles by the QAnon idiots. Because in the end, Orange Man™ must come out of the whole thing as this untouchable and incorruptible Marvel Comics superhero. This isn't even about politics anymore, but about religious fervor. They've turned the political landscape into a religious crusade, and whoever their political adversary is, he or she must be depicted as the worst of the worst, the monster under the bed. Baby-eating satanic pedophiles fit that purpose very well, don't you think?

    Now this is a genuine understanding of the human psyche, Vern. Not the nonsense from YouTube talking heads that you allow your mind to be poisoned by. Considering the exclusively far-right/alt-right nature of the sources you get your information from, those sources all have an agenda, and that agenda is to make sure that their orange hero stays in the White House for another four years, just as it was their intent four years ago to get him in there in the first place. The alt-right bedtime stories about baby-eating satanic pedophiles ─ and traffickers, yes, we must definitely not forget the baby-eating satanic child traffickers at the local Pizza Hut ─ are only the means to that very same end.

    And it's not even a new thing, because the alt-right ─ and even the mainstream Republican Party itself ─ has already been doing this for decades, long before those snotty-nosed QAnon millennials came along. Remember the rumors about JFK's alleged affair with Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe? Remember Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, who conveniently left a semen-drenched dress hang in her wardrobe for two years? Remember the rumors of Hillary Clinton's alleged lesbian affair with Huma Abedin, and Hillary's alleged habit of letting the Secret Service pick up girls from the streets so she could have forced sex with them? (We must of course conveniently forget that Donald Trump had sex with a porn actress and then paid said porn actress big bucks to keep her mouth shut about it ─ which she didn't.)

    It's the oldest far-right trick in the book, Vern. But now it has a name ─ "Q" ─ and so now it has become a social media trademark. And you, my friend, have stepped right into it with both of your eyes open.

    HooQ, line and sinQer.
    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    This is not off topic, this trailer/movie represents the projection of the alt right, some employ these tactics and many more others are just victims of it.

    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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    The fact that the Qult formed so fast is a sign of sickness in my country. I don't know what the process for healing is but I have no doubt it's needed.

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    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    I used to advocate for a national therapy effort. Televised, scheduled, and regular. On MSM Prime time, on the highest rated channel. Even Oprah Winfrey could be a host with real bonafide highly regarded psychotherapists. Teal Swan could be a regular guest, call her a quack but in my estimation she is truly gifted. Ken Wilber could be a regular too for the more intellectual in the audience. Jordan Peterson and Dr. Phil could be there on off occasions also, as an example of religion gone bad, like the smarmy ubiquitous televangelist.

    It hasn't happened yet.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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    People have tried to include meditation in various places. The fundamentalists get very angry about that.

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    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    30 seconds of doing nothing ... yeah ...
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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    The following is an article posted in the members-only section at Project Avalon by PA member Kryztian. It's an article written by Caitlin Johnstone, an independent Australian journalist.





    "I write against QAnon periodically for the exact same reason I write against the plutocratic media: it's an obvious propaganda construct designed to manufacture support for the status quo among people who otherwise would not support it. It presents itself as an exciting movement where the little guy is finally rising up and throwing off the chains of the tyrannical forces which have been exploiting and oppressing us, yet in reality all it's doing is telling a discontented sector of the population to relax and "trust the plan" and put all their faith in the leader of the US government.

    And that's exactly what makes QAnon so uniquely toxic. It's not just that it gets people believing false things which confuse and alienate them, it's that it's a fake, decoy imitation of what a healthy revolutionary impulse would look like. It sells people on important truths that they already intuitively know on some level, like the untrustworthiness of the mass media, that the official elected US government aren't really the ones calling the shots, and that we need a great awakening. It takes those vital, truthful, healthy revolutionary impulses, then twists them around into support for the United States president and the agendas of the Republican Party.

    And now literally any time I speak out against Trump doing something self-evidently horrible like orchestrating the extradition of Julian Assange or assassinating Iran's top military official, I get QAnon adherents in the comments section telling me to "relax" and "trust the plan" because this is actually a brilliant strategic maneuver against the deep state. Any argument against any longstanding evil Fox News Republican agenda that Trump advances has a widely promulgated explanation for why it's actually good and beneficial among the QAnon crowd.

    A healthy impulse to fight the power is twisted into support for the most unconscionable aspects of the ruling power establishment. You see healthy impulses twisted and corrupted like this all the time, all across the political spectrum. The healthy impulse to fight racism and bigotry is twisted into support for the warmongering, oppressive and exploitative Democratic Party which is nothing but destructive toward the populations it pretends to protect. The healthy impulse to defend the helpless and fight tyranny is railroaded into support for acts of regime change
    [disguised as] "humanitarian" interventionism."
    = DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =

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    Senior Member Aianawa's Avatar
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    Sniggle chuckle, if the election was between Q and DEMented one, Q would win atm lol.

    Anyways this thread has a Q in title, is it in the appropriate cattygory ?

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    Administrator Aragorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Aianawa View Post
    Sniggle chuckle, if the election was between Q and DEMented one, Q would win atm lol.
    That's because in certain parts of the world, humans have begun mating with vegetables.

    Quote Originally posted by Aianawa View Post
    Anyways this thread has a Q in title, is it in the appropriate cattygory ?
    Yes, it is, because this thread is about the Qult™ as a phenomenon. It is not intended to sing the praises of either Donald J. Trump or his Qult™, nor is it a propaganda thread.
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    Senior Member Aianawa's Avatar
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    Not a propperganda thread you say ducky, swing niether neither way, in the middle Aragorn, bless you for the tight rope walk.

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    Those who support Trump and/or feel the Dems are a healthy alternative aren't looking at the big picture. In the case of supporting Democrats, this is particularly true when it comes to foreign policy. But as regards environmental issues and other domestic policy issues, there are some fundamental differences that matter. Those who support repuglicans are usually white supremacist hicks. Those who support dems are generally better educated, smarter and less bigoted. And I mean smarter in the sense that they have a slightly more global world view.

    We have repug types in Canada, as well. Not as many ,percentage wise, as in the U.S. And even though its all about Jesus, they are very bigoted and generally kind of a waste of time. I won't communicate with them. They particularly love to rave about the indigenous population and how they "get everything" from the government because they were given reserve land. It's so profoundly ridiculous and mean spirited a point of view, I can't help but hope at times, that they have the same kind of life foisted on them. Thank God for reincarnation. It just might happen.

    Those who support Q though, seem uniformly limited, cognitively speaking. I don't know how else to explain it. They're stupid and their paranoia is completely displaced due to their rampant stupidity and child like overly emotional state of being.
    Last edited by Octopus Garden, 21st August 2020 at 22:00.

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    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    Hi OG,

    where you be ... we need some input ... I've noticed lately that somehow, somewhere a silent flip has taken place. It is now Dems that are the warmongering party. The perennial war party swooshed that one right by me.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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    Hi NAP,

    Health issues. Won't bore you with details! War profiteering is the one ring that links them all. Traditional dems and traditional repuglicans. 'Progressives' repuglicans were duped into voting for Trump. That's how he garnered some of the Bernie bros from the traditional dems.

    The libertarian right, or the progressive right within the repuglican party are mentally challenged enough to think that Trump represents peace. Wait till he wins his second term. And he will win it. Just watch. Then the gloves come off. Populists always get in with this massive appeal to the revolutionary spirit and then go full on dictator after a spell. In Trump's case it will be post election, after manipulating his base into voting for him again.

    What a sh** show. That's all I can say.

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