> Gelinas raised thousands of dollars on Patreon each month, posting updates using his pseudonym, QAppAnon.
> A few months into the Trump administration, Gelinas changed his party affiliation to Republican, and this spring he contributed $200 to Trump’s reelection efforts—his first-ever political contribution, according to federal disclosures.
Why am I not surprised at all, raking in thousands of dollars all in self-service and then gives a tiny amount to the candidate he claims to adore...
On a separate note I had no idea that this FEC website [0] existed or that this info was so easily accessible. Like it doesn't completely shock me, I figured you could find out who I've donated to if you wanted to look but I never thought it would be this easy and they also have datasets you can download... If I didn't already have too many side-projects that I'm working on then I'd love to heatmap out this data by zip code for donations to party/candidate or play with the data in some other way. It's quite fun to throw in your company name and see who gave how much and to where.
It's a good example of the Nostradamus effect. Just make more and more vague predictions until one of them ends up true. Confirmation bias leads people to only remember the ones that came true, even if the rate of successful predictions is low.
Never followed it on a daily basis but come across them once in a while. Most are pretty in line with mainstream right wing commentary just more vague and hyperbolic. Then you've got some crazy claims. But these too seem to be sourced from what's already out there, rather than strictly original. In fact many of these posts just link to stuff on Twitter.
As far as I'm concerned it's just somebody very into politics with a peculiar writing style and a penchant for fantasy.
I've never read any, mainly because everything I've read about them leads me to rate their likely veracity as somewhere considerably below the writings of Erich von Däniken, Graham Hancock, and Jim Marrs.
I really despise articles that claim that since someone posted on a website that has other questionable content, they must therefore be complicit. 4chan/8chan/8kun by nature are for "fringe" content, whether that be harmless conspiracy theories or actual bad actors.
We will never break free of the social media conglomerates with the current pattern that fringe content migrates to new websites first, but then these sites are slandered before regular people migrate there.
Because I read the article, I know that the guy who got fired did not merely post on 4chan, but actually created his own Q-related website devoted to pushing the violent, treasonous, slanderous conspiracy theory into the mainstream. I enjoyed reading and understanding this article, and highly recommend that anyone who wishes to express an opinion about it do the same.
QAnon scares me. But the persecution is scary too. That Gelinas was hunted down and made to lose his job. That Facebook is dismantling a movement with millions of followers, a small country, with the push of a button. At that scale, being given a deadline to move off platform seems fairer.
"Within days, Citi had put him on administrative leave and his name was removed from the company’s internal directory. He was later terminated. “Mr. Gelinas is no longer employed by Citi,” the company says in a statement. “Our code of conduct includes specific policies that employees are required to adhere to, and when breaches are identified, the firm takes action.”
To me this is the most shocking part of the article. If there was no issue with his performance at work, his personal politics and beliefs should not be weighed in the continuation of his current and continued employment. To me this becoming the norm is chilling and echo's in my mind as 1984 becoming a work of non-fiction.
Banks are hyper-conservative. General knowledge that a bank continues to employ a conspiracy theorist can have negative consequences for their bottom-line because the actual business sector a bank operates in is "trust," and being perceived as employing the easily-duped raises trust questions.
> To me this becoming the norm is chilling and echo's in my mind as 1984 becoming a work of non-fiction.
I think the real chilling thing here is your attack against freedom of association while ironically complaining that the world is becoming more like 1984. Sure, like all rights freedom of association has its limits, especially around protected classes and unions in the business world. But should the government really step in and force me to continue to employ a holocaust denier just because he makes me a lot of money? Should the government really stop me from kicking out a dude dressed in a KKK outfit from my store?
If you take an active position to promote lies and conspiracy in your personal life, why would your employer not reasonably believe you would do so at work?
There is a difference between legitimate political opinion and promoting false conspiracy. Note that most of these conspiracies are defamatory in nature. Also, QAnon borders on calling for the violent overthrow if the government. It's narrative literally calls for it.
So no, not out of bounds for an employer to terminate. Nothing 1984 here.
[+] [-] joshstrange|5 years ago|reply
> A few months into the Trump administration, Gelinas changed his party affiliation to Republican, and this spring he contributed $200 to Trump’s reelection efforts—his first-ever political contribution, according to federal disclosures.
Why am I not surprised at all, raking in thousands of dollars all in self-service and then gives a tiny amount to the candidate he claims to adore...
On a separate note I had no idea that this FEC website [0] existed or that this info was so easily accessible. Like it doesn't completely shock me, I figured you could find out who I've donated to if you wanted to look but I never thought it would be this easy and they also have datasets you can download... If I didn't already have too many side-projects that I'm working on then I'd love to heatmap out this data by zip code for donations to party/candidate or play with the data in some other way. It's quite fun to throw in your company name and see who gave how much and to where.
[0] https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/
[+] [-] vnchr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klondike_|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] auganov|5 years ago|reply
As far as I'm concerned it's just somebody very into politics with a peculiar writing style and a penchant for fantasy.
[+] [-] mindcrime|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] catsdanxe|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Fjolsvith|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] COVardsStayHome|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] TheJoeMan|5 years ago|reply
We will never break free of the social media conglomerates with the current pattern that fringe content migrates to new websites first, but then these sites are slandered before regular people migrate there.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] iron0013|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] im3w1l|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonuser123456|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] COVardsStayHome|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] vb6sp6|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kls|5 years ago|reply
To me this is the most shocking part of the article. If there was no issue with his performance at work, his personal politics and beliefs should not be weighed in the continuation of his current and continued employment. To me this becoming the norm is chilling and echo's in my mind as 1984 becoming a work of non-fiction.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] shadowgovt|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lowiqengineer|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wdb|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cookingmyserver|5 years ago|reply
I think the real chilling thing here is your attack against freedom of association while ironically complaining that the world is becoming more like 1984. Sure, like all rights freedom of association has its limits, especially around protected classes and unions in the business world. But should the government really step in and force me to continue to employ a holocaust denier just because he makes me a lot of money? Should the government really stop me from kicking out a dude dressed in a KKK outfit from my store?
[+] [-] anonuser123456|5 years ago|reply
There is a difference between legitimate political opinion and promoting false conspiracy. Note that most of these conspiracies are defamatory in nature. Also, QAnon borders on calling for the violent overthrow if the government. It's narrative literally calls for it.
So no, not out of bounds for an employer to terminate. Nothing 1984 here.
[+] [-] iron0013|5 years ago|reply