I don't think you can put an age range on this. As an example: Look at all the QAnon believers. They're pretty much all ages. Look how many of those people went to Dallas for Kennedy's return.
You're right, you can't. And QAnon is a great, great example.
But here's the thing with QAnon. If you ask your average QAnon follower if they have ever read a Q post on the chans, 99% will say NO. You will actually get a response along the lines of, "What's that?" or "I heard that you'll get a virus if you go there." They don't know what they don't know.
If QAnon followers actually went to 8chan to read the Q posts in their original format they would have a "Wait, what the !@#$ is this?" moment. If they understood the context for how QAnon came to be they wouldn't buy into it. They would see the message board and all the loli porn and probably be disgusted. QAnon was a joke that got out of hand because so many people on the internet don't understand the internet. Many of those who are older didn't really get on the internet until Facebook. For them that is the internet in many ways. Those who are under 30 also tend to use the internet from an isolated walled garden, like IG or TikTok.
When you look at the b-tards and goons that started the Q stuff, they do fall into an age bracket. They are all 30+ now. "Real recognizes real" so to speak, but those who lack the context for where a piece of content came from do not understand fully how to interpret it.
I think the murky part is how much was followed seriously by people that didn’t know better, how much was liberals trolling or themselves not knowing how much was a joke to rile them up, how much was straight larping, etc.
You know that quote about when to get out of the stock market, when your shoe shine boy is giving you tips? When I had a VERY liberal friend start ranting about QAnon very seriously I knew she fell into the same exact type of person that believed it just on the opposite spectrum.
The rest of us knew it was trolling and jokes and bs, but man she flipped out on me when I tried to tell her that. I was effectively signing up to be a Nazi in her eyes, I had no idea at the time.
Anyhow… this isn’t a new problem and I don’t think it can be solved. I grant that the reach is larger than previous thought.
I take that back. Open mockery of the ideas is how it’s solved. NOT mockery of the people that believe it, and certainly not grouping them into boomers or conservatives or Nazis or TERFs or etc etc.
themagician|2 years ago
But here's the thing with QAnon. If you ask your average QAnon follower if they have ever read a Q post on the chans, 99% will say NO. You will actually get a response along the lines of, "What's that?" or "I heard that you'll get a virus if you go there." They don't know what they don't know.
If QAnon followers actually went to 8chan to read the Q posts in their original format they would have a "Wait, what the !@#$ is this?" moment. If they understood the context for how QAnon came to be they wouldn't buy into it. They would see the message board and all the loli porn and probably be disgusted. QAnon was a joke that got out of hand because so many people on the internet don't understand the internet. Many of those who are older didn't really get on the internet until Facebook. For them that is the internet in many ways. Those who are under 30 also tend to use the internet from an isolated walled garden, like IG or TikTok.
When you look at the b-tards and goons that started the Q stuff, they do fall into an age bracket. They are all 30+ now. "Real recognizes real" so to speak, but those who lack the context for where a piece of content came from do not understand fully how to interpret it.
SV_BubbleTime|2 years ago
I think the murky part is how much was followed seriously by people that didn’t know better, how much was liberals trolling or themselves not knowing how much was a joke to rile them up, how much was straight larping, etc.
You know that quote about when to get out of the stock market, when your shoe shine boy is giving you tips? When I had a VERY liberal friend start ranting about QAnon very seriously I knew she fell into the same exact type of person that believed it just on the opposite spectrum.
The rest of us knew it was trolling and jokes and bs, but man she flipped out on me when I tried to tell her that. I was effectively signing up to be a Nazi in her eyes, I had no idea at the time.
Anyhow… this isn’t a new problem and I don’t think it can be solved. I grant that the reach is larger than previous thought.
I take that back. Open mockery of the ideas is how it’s solved. NOT mockery of the people that believe it, and certainly not grouping them into boomers or conservatives or Nazis or TERFs or etc etc.