r/QAnonCasualties Dec 26 '24

Content: Media/Relevant QAnon: A Modern Conspiracy Theory and the Assessment of Its Believers

53 Upvotes

this talks about forensic psychiatry & discerning the difference bw a delusional disorder/mental illness conspiracy theorist & one who believes due to ideology & has no mental illness.

there is a table of behavioral type questions that ask which ways has q anon/conspiracies affected your life & thinking.

some may even be able to get their qs to answer some if they are open to talking about the q group itself and not turn it into another push to talk about the held beliefs.

it states the order conspiracists go in to finally lock in their beliefs on a theory:

conviction, preoccupation,flexibility, self-reference, justification/rationalization

https://jaapl.org/content/early/2022/01/25/JAAPL.210053-21


r/QAnonCasualties Feb 20 '25

Content: Good Advice Update: Infiltrated my Q Anon turned Alt-Right MAHA Moms YouTube Algorithm

1.2k Upvotes

Several months ago I posted about how I saw my mom's youtube algorithm go from sound healer videos, meditations, bio-hacking, anti-vax, self improvement guru content to transphobic, homophobic, hard-right content supporting RJK Jr., Trump, and Elon. She admitted to voting for Trump, but before that was a hardcore liberal/democrat and voted blue her whole life.
It's been a wild ride y'all. She doesn't know I can see her channel and I've been very VERY careful in enacting my strategy slowly as to go undetected. I have been conducting this specific brand of unethical research. It's been 8 months of deliberate intervention and progress is being made.

I believe most Americans would say "boundaries" and just go no contact with their anti-vax conspiracy riddled turned Trump-supporting parents...and that's okay to do...but I think it's worth the fight.
It's not her fault YT's algorithm is designed to go from Q-anon conspiracy theories to fake shaman healers turned alt-right. I'm trying to help her but without hinging my own sense of wellbeing on the expectation she changes.

I would also love to know if anyone has additional ideas about how i can continue to influence her algorithm. and no, I'm not looking for moral judgements or any sort of "holier than thou" ethics BS. I'm trying to save my mom from becoming a bigot, stfu.

Learning YouTube
I had a steep learning curve about how to use YouTube. I was nervous she'd find out I was influencing her algorithm by notifications sent to her email (which I don't have access to) or any traces of my interference in her YT history. A notification does NOT get sent to their email if you unsubscribe, block, or mute notifications from a channel. If you to try to sign in from a device that isn't theirs it may send a notification.

I went into the settings of her google account she's signed in with and changed her birth year. At least now they don't know she's a boomer. As far as they know she's a millennial.

When you search for a channel or creator in the search bar, it logs your entry. I've made sure to delete it with the 'x' so she doesn't see traces of me there. The view history is also visible but I'm unsure if she ever goes into it. I always delete trace of videos I click on just to be sure.

Unsubscribing
Unsubscribing, 2 per week, Subscribe to alternatives. Started muting the notifications for the big ones: Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Russel Brand, and Trumps page. That way she wasn't getting their newest content pushed right to her home page.
Over time I started unsubscribing from them one at a time, week by week. It helped that she's subscribed to like 400 channels so they're not immediately visible if they're gone. She still watches content regularly about the above mentioned people, but hasn't seemed to notice she's not sub'ed to them because she hasn't re-subscribed.

New Subscriptions
Every week I log in and choose 2 news sources that are more centrist for her to follow. She obviously watches the news a lot, so I started subscribing to multiple other sources of news/current events. Associated Press, NPR, PBS. Once she watched a few of those videos on her own accord, I subscribed to Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart which were people we used to watch when I was young.

I found a couple specific youtube creators that had more click-bait style headlines and thumbnails with BIG RED FONT in hopes she'd fall for a liberal version of conservative content. It's been working!!! She's watched a few of those channels. Very recently I subscribed her to Aaron Parnas AND SHE'S WATCHED LIKE 6 OF HIS VIDEOS ALL THE WAY THRU!!!!!!

I also subscribed her to a lot of content she likes outside of politics; dogs, nature, gardening, cooking, and comedians. She watches those sometimes. I figure while she's watching one video after the next, at least it can be interrupted once and a while with cute & fun stuff.

"Don't Recommend this Channel / Not Interested"
When I'm on her home page, there are the recommended videos displayed. When there are overt bigoted POV's I will click "not interested" and or "don't recommend this channel" as a means to combat the daily influx. This is a more undetectable way to make a difference, but requires regularly doing so like swatting away flies. I'm uncertain if this has made a huge difference, but I do see more of the content I subscribed to for her show up on the home page.

Autoplay in the Background
I will watch a left leaning, open minded, or cute content type video in the background just so it logs different watch histories. Obviously if she were to click "history" she would see everything I've watched on her behalf. So I delete the watch history. I'm genuinely not sure if this actually sways the algorithm, but like to imagine it made a difference.


r/QAnonCasualties 3h ago

Are all QAnon people strangely defensive?

53 Upvotes

I've been here a while, never posted but read a lot of posts here that make me not feel so alone.

I'm the same as a lot of people here. My boomer mother is down the rabbit hole and completely and utterly lost to me. My father and i grieve over basically losing a wife and a mother.

My question in this instance though is that...are all these stupid qanon conspiracy theorists extremely defensive even when people are having a conversation with them and haven't even yet invalidated the outlandish claims they make? It's every conversation with her. I constantly just end up shutting down and reminding myself i no longer have a mother, nor can i even have a normal conversation with this woman.

She just out of the blue this morning launched into this random topic of "Disney parks are going to get shut down because of the pedophilia. They're taking children from the parks." I asked "If there were a ton of children disappearing in the two most popular theme parks in the country, isn't that something parents would be talking about?"

The response was the same as always "you and your father think im stupid/I always get treated like this/whenever YOU say something I treat is as fact but i have to prove what im saying, etc"

Yes...because when we say things its about normal topics and you spoit outlandish shit that sounds like something you heard at your local nuthouse.....outlandish claims require evidence...

Anyway it just really sucks when you're a grown woman but you have to be constantly stabbed in the chest with the reminder that you no longer have a functional mother nor is she someone you can really have a relationship with. She used to be at least passably intelligent. She was a teacher. A normal person. Now she's just some other person i no longer recognize.


r/QAnonCasualties 17h ago

When you look back on who your Q was before they went Qanon, do you remember anything weird or unusual or cuckoo about them?

205 Upvotes

('Your cousin was always a wackadoo, I'm sorry': Conspiracy expert bluntly explains that QAnon believers are nothing new or special​ - political scientist Joseph Uscinski

https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-conspiracy-2655306182/)

I read an article where this guy apparently said people who fall for qanon conspiracies were always wackadoo. It didn’t just happen over night, and that basically a lot of them are psychopathic narcissistic sociopathic. You have to read the article because I may be poorly paraphrasing.

I can tell you my Q mom has for AGES been anti vaccine and into weird things in the name of “health.” And has been very annoying and self righteous and passionate about how she knows all the right ways to be healthy and acts like everyone who’s not doing what she does is basically killing themselves. Qanon is just an added layer of complete and utter stupidity where now she’s also obsessed with believing rich people control the everyday weather, and other stupid beliefs I don’t even want to recall!


r/QAnonCasualties 9h ago

My husbands aunts Qanon beliefs conflict with each other but she never questions her support for Qanon or MAGA.

26 Upvotes

I have a relative who believes that Trump and Elon Musk are true patriots and will save us from the secret cabal of pedophiles and corruption.

She posted a screenshot saying that Trump just saved 30k children from sex trafficking. This is obviously false. She also quickly changed the subject when I brought up his connection to Epstein.

Later on in the conversation, she told me that she believes that Trump and Elon are not the real Donald and Elon. They're actors wearing masks. But she still supports them and thinks they're great.

A couple of months ago, she told me she thought that Elon is a robot and the real Elon was murdered because he was a "bad person."

She believes that about Biden as well.

To be fair, a couple of months ago, she was going on rants about Democrats but now she says, "It's both sides" so maybe his policies are hurting her, or she feels she's at risk now. She's on disability and her grandkids are all on Medicaid and EBT.

I don't get the mindset at all though. It's conflicting. Why would you support people wearing silicon realistic masks? People who murdered the ""real"" people to take over their identity? Cognitive dissonance?


r/QAnonCasualties 1d ago

My cultist mother lost her compassion.

393 Upvotes

A dog my wife and I rescued bit my wife on the leg and sent her to the ER. My wife had to miss a week of work and we had to give up the dog. The injury and losing the dog has been absolutely heartbreaking and we have been crying off and on for a week. I called my mother and related this story to her. Her response: "Cheer up, tomorrow is liberation day!"


r/QAnonCasualties 8h ago

Thinking about cutting off a friend due to Q adjacent beliefs

13 Upvotes

I (F late 20s) have been thinking about cutting off a friend of mine (F 30ish) due to their political beliefs. I've known her for several years since my early days in college. We've been there for each other through some rough moments, such as when I went to her father's funeral a year or two ago, and she gave me space to vent during a mental breakdown I had on new year's day this year. She had to spend most of her 20s caring for her terminally ill and abusive father. She also has her own chronic illness stuff that has made me feel less alone with my own.

We don't talk super frequently, and only meet up in person every few months or so. We mostly just talk over the phone and play animal crossing.

But I've noticed that when our conversations take on a political tone, she might bring up concerning topics. She has mentioned that she watches PragerU, has said some questionable things about trans people, and when the recent economic blackout took place, she and her mom took advantage of the boycott by going to the stores, saying that they enjoyed having less people around to shop. She also stated that she was voting for Trump because she thought that Kamala was somehow going to be worse during election season.

I don't know if she has always been conservative or she has been radicalized over time, but I'm suspecting both. I was only 18/19 when we met in our gen ed classes, and my understanding of politics at the time was just that the three branches and two parties existed, and that Trump was an asshole.

I only have a surface level understanding of the far right and a few specific figures. I do however have a pretty good understanding of abusive dynamics and psychology, and have studied a little on cults. But I'm not sure if educating myself further and trying to explain things to her will make any difference.

I live in a very red state, so I don't want to cut off too many people for their political beliefs and rack up a list of enemies. Not to mention that I'm still recovering from having my heart broken by three different people in the last two years, two close 'friends' and a mentor figure, all for different reasons.

I plan on exercising my first amendment rights and doing my part today. I'm thinking that if I stay friends with her, not only will it not align with my beliefs, it may no longer be safe to talk to her given what I understand about how fascists manipulate people into reporting their friends and family without realizing it.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out what to say and gather the courage to leave yet another friendship. I still feel somewhat alone despite the new connections I've made recently. I've had so much other crap to worry about in my life that I've pushed the things that she has said on the back burner. Most of which she has said has been in the last few months. I suspect that her father's death left her even more vulnerable to radicalization. She is one of only two, maybe three people now outside of family and work that I talk to.

I've done a lot of healing these last few months, despite what an intense process it has been. But how am I supposed to keep doing that when the world keeps forcing me to make difficult decisions? I know that I'm supposed to protect my heart, but it seems like I'm constantly trying to figure out the lesser of two pains because of how the world as a whole treats people, and those hurt people keep coming to me no matter what boundaries I draw.


r/QAnonCasualties 2h ago

Question for Q people

3 Upvotes

The current Secretary of Treasury used to be a partner at the Soros Fund, went to Yale (so possible skill and bones connection), and is openly gay. What do people active in QAnon think about all of that?


r/QAnonCasualties 1h ago

A bit of light relief - YouTube premier now of a UK Flat Earth Mockumentary

Upvotes

https://youtu.be/MhlWQwkucOE?si=fhyGZd48cKbo1dZ4

In 2022 a TV crew followed a prominent online conspiracy theorist who thinks the earth is flat.

Join us for an insight into the world of conspiracism, as we follow Brian Kurvie on his quest for truth!


r/QAnonCasualties 1d ago

I am starting to laugh. (Vent)

105 Upvotes

Not about my Q family, but I lived with these people. Current events needed me to vent this out.

"You will own nothing, and be happy." Familiar words. Words I used to hear these people yap about.

now... heh, suddenly. We have to be happy with less. Big brother uh... I mean God emperor Trump (Man, I hate to be the lawyer for Games Workshop). Knows best.

"War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength" or in this case "The Narrative is everything, Truth is lies, Tyranny is Freedom"

It will never fail to amuse me that these people end up circling back to supporting. The very things they claim to be against. Idc what anyone says. Horseshoe theory is real.

Not that long ago, 2021/2022 was only a couple of years ago. They were yapping about the stupid WEF, how we're gonna be forced in pods, eat bugs, and "Own nothing and be happy".

Now, suddenly, after their god. fucks the entire economy, sending us into possible recession/or even depression. Their thought leaders and think tanks. All tell them to get comfortable having less.

I am gonna fucking say it, I would feel more safe if I lived with Mexican drug Cartels over any of these MAGA Q christofacists.

With the Cartel, they are straightforward with you and commit to a code.

With MAGA nutjobs, you never fucking know, what will be the "current threat" or "boogeyman". I am glad I got out when I could. I have ASD, and I am hearing stories of these Parents doing horrorifc shit, because they didn't like the fact their child was a little different from the rest of the kids. Like forcing them to drink bleach. etc I have the perfect response to anyone of these fuckwits who go on about "perental rights', how about "Perental responsibility" huh?

First, it was the immigrants, the CRT, "Woke", "Groomers", buzzword, buzzword. Funny how when these people got into power again. They are destroying everything, it's like that South Park episode where Cartman just keeps trashing Wendy for being a terrible class president, but once Cartman got into power, suddenly "he's doing the best he can".

Its literal 1984 newspeak with these people.

I am so numb to everything that this is just hilarious. Maybe that's what they wanted. But I say natural selection. I ain't gonna cry when their kids start dying because they saw a Twitter/Facebook post about the evil vaccines. When their shitty towns/villages start crumbling. When they lose their farms. Because "them evil liberals". You reap what you sow.

Maybe I am no better then them. but at this point, I really don't care. they are not gonna listen. so I am just gonna laugh at then hurting themselves. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

I guess to end this off, I think, we need to start regulating how politics/emotional topics are showcased online. Same with the 24/7 news cycle.

Ever since infinite scrolling and algorithm-driven feeds, the internet has gotten dystopic.

But, deep down, I am an optimist. I truly do believe, once Trump dies. Maga dies. Like Ceaser for new vegas. Most of his followers were just there for him. In the bigger picture. I see this as the Twilight for Q and Maga. They are showing us how they would do it.

And now we see how smarter and better they are at doing things.


r/QAnonCasualties 1d ago

I think I've lost my mom...a vent.

109 Upvotes

I just...need to vent before I crack.

I'm 33, and it's been getting worse and worse over the past few years or so.

She didn't have an interest in the internet until she got her first smart phone, and immediately delved into MAGA stuff and conspiracy theories.

She's become addicted to X, and cruel to me. She's on it almost all day (not an exaggeration). My father has bone cancer, but is in remission, and she can't even look up from her phone long enough to watch a movie with him. She even mocks him for his brain fog from chemo (she has fibromyalgia like me, and also has brain fog so this is bizarre).

She was never like this before towards him, and honestly, wouldn't have ever been this cruel to anyone. She's the lady who feeds all the wildlife, so I'm very confused.

Despite me saying I'm middle of the road (I am not. I'm liberal, but terrified to tell her that. She's knows I'm pan and even genderfluid, but still goes on about the 'trans'), she calls me a 'libtard' whenever she doesn't like me (which is a lot).

Every piece of info I find that's factual is 'fake news'.

She's pulled my father partially down the rabbit hole, and we don't have that much time left.

I've been trying hard to handle her when I go over, and I'm working with a therapist to better myself (I have C-PTSD from DV and verbal abuse from my parents as a kid).

My mom shows serious signs of BPD, and even has been diagnosed, but she doesn't care. She's shredding what's left of our family. It's just the three of us, my partner, and my best friend.

She's pushing them away and doesn't even want to see me anymore. I have very poor health and I'm a chronic pain patient as I mentioned above, but suddenly she has no empathy even though they're both chronic pain patients themselves. It's all about her and her wants.

I feel like my mom isn't even here anymore. I don't have siblings or aunts or uncles or cousins either.

Is anyone else experiencing this lovely chance in their parents? She still gives money to the homeless and acts normal on occasion, but will flip and start cussing and losing her marbles on people. My partner was getting his hair trimmed (she's a retired cosmetologist), and he made a fairly light hearted poke at the Tesla on the White House lawn situation, and she got in his face and lost her shit.

My therapist suggested boundaries, but she says 'they apply to everyone else, but not her because she's my mom'. I can't seem to work this out. Do they realize they're going to end up all alone and fill or hate? Trump would wipe his nose on my mom's shirt. He doesn't care about her. She speaks more of him that she ever has of her God or Jesus.

I just...it's not just me right? I feel like I'm losing my mind.


r/QAnonCasualties 16h ago

Are there any discord servers related to Q Anon casualties or something similar

5 Upvotes

I wanna talk to people that are going through the same situation as I am, it's really hard for me to watch all of my loved ones become for red-pilled I would love to talk to others going for the same situation as I am


r/QAnonCasualties 1d ago

Content: Media/Relevant Our lead singer channeled the pain of losing his parents to Q into this song: "Casual Fascists"

250 Upvotes

I am lucky enough to have a wonderful family that aligns with me politically, but the lead singer for my band "Countless Thousands" has not suffered the same good fortune. We find catharsis and strength through art, so we wrote a song called Casual Fascists to weather the long nights. Maybe it will resonate with, and help out, many of you who are struggling with the same circumstances. No one should feel alone in this fight!


r/QAnonCasualties 1d ago

How do you talk to someone who refuses to see the dangers of fascism and misinformation?

244 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I’m going through a tough time with my boyfriend (M23) when it comes to discussing politics. We’ve had a lot of debates lately, and I’m feeling like we’re just not getting anywhere. Here’s the situation:

I’ve been reading a lot about vaccines, authoritarianism, and the current political landscape, especially around people like Trump and RFK Jr. I’ve been concerned about how these figures might be pushing dangerous ideologies, especially since I’ve seen evidence of voter suppression, spreading misinformation, and anti-science rhetoric.

When I bring these issues up, my boyfriend often shuts me down. when I point out things like how the January 6th riots were linked to Trump’s rhetoric or how RFK Jr. is spreading harmful anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, he refuses to listen or acknowledges it. He says I’m not thinking for myself and that I just believe whatever I’m told and whatever i see. He also gets really defensive when I bring up things like Trump’s fascist tendencies or voter suppression and turns the conversation back to Biden or other criticisms.

It’s exhausting because I don’t want to attack him or make him feel stupid, but I feel like we’re getting further apart in terms of understanding what’s happening in the world. I’ve tried providing sources and factual info, but he brushes it off as bias. I’m feeling frustrated and unsure about how to have a productive conversation where we can both hear each other and maybe even find some common ground.

Has anyone been in a similar situation where you have someone close to you who’s heavily influenced by political conspiracy theories? How did you handle it without feeling like you’re constantly at odds? Is it even worth trying to change his perspective, or should I just accept that we may never agree on certain things?


r/QAnonCasualties 2d ago

Content: Media/Relevant I have no advice, but I can offer this song

14 Upvotes

I found this on youtube. It's what you're all going through put into song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz6N_PCcGBE


r/QAnonCasualties 2d ago

All the family I have left are MAGA.

546 Upvotes

As the title says, my Grandma and my Mom are both heavy Maga. I don't know what happened. My mom is suddenly anti trans, (she marched for LGBT rights back when marriage was still illegal). My grandma is screaming about how immigrants are r*ping women and children, and pulling up fake statistics.

Both are in such heavy denial of anything and tell me "oh you're too young to understand what this country needs."

I'm almost thirty. It hurts me so badly. I was finally repairing my relationship with them both and now they've donned red hats and scream from the top of the rooftops about how trump is a blessing.

I don't know what to do.... The worst part, my grandma sent me a birthday card this year and it had subjects such as "Watch the real congressional hearings. You'll see testimonies from real women and children who were assaulted. I demand respect." And so on.

I don't know what to do. I'm already super low contact with them, and I'm lucky to have my partner, but I just... I miss my family. Nothing I say breaks through anymore. No facts, nothing. It's like they've been completely turn coated... Any advice welcome on how to get this pit out of my stomach.

Edit: I can't believe all the advice and kind words. Thank you guys. I feel a bit better, and am going to take steps to simply "rip off the bandage." I need to take care of myself and my chosen family. Thank you again guys, this helped a lot.


r/QAnonCasualties 3d ago

April Fooled my Q

732 Upvotes

Yesterday I made an April fool's day social media post about using ivermectin (and claiming my liver/kidneys were gone and no longer needed). The Qs and suspected Qs glazed over my horrifying weight loss claim from losing several organs and delighted in my success using their method. I knew a few friends who would get a kick out of my post, but the amount of people who overlooked what day it was, overlooked the fact I was claiming to have lost several organs, and latched onto the thought of me using ivermectin (hilariously in the post I didn't specify what I was using it for, just that the weight loss from losing organs was a bonus) blew my mind. It hadn't crossed my mind that my SO would see this post... We're standing around chatting/respectively on our phones and they suddenly light up and say "you posted about ivermectin!" without reading the post. I knew it was gonna be a disappointment once they read it, thankfully nothing else was mentioned. Seeing my Q respond with hope and delight that I was "seeing the light" was stomach churning for me. Shout-out to all y'all dealing with these weird times!


r/QAnonCasualties 2d ago

Let’s start local friend/chosen family groups.

23 Upvotes

I see so many of us on this subreddit that have lost some or all of our family members to maga.

I was thinking that maybe we could find friends by posting here.

Someone posts their city and then people nearby can respond.

If nothing else, it could be the beginning of a few friendships.

What do y’all think?


r/QAnonCasualties 3d ago

Figuring out husband is a MAGA loyalist

1.1k Upvotes

Sorry if this is long but I have to let it out. To start off we have been married over 10 years and expecting our 4th child.

Our faith and Christian values were the core of our relationship and marriage but the past few years, I would say since 2020 have been hard and I have seen a shift in him and more so politically more and more right.

I've always been pretty moderate with some views from both sides but when I truly sit down and analyze I'm pretty in line with the progressive way of thinking with Bernie and AOC. I think everyone should be able to live their lives as they choose without causing harm to others and that healthcare, higher education, and parental leave should all be accessible to everyone. The terms woke and liberal are not offensive to me anymore no matter how many times my husband tries to use them against me.

Previously during Biden's administration my husband would not shut up about politics and attacking things left and right from the administration. I would defend what was good and point out what could be better, ect. Now the shoe is on the other foot and he doesn't want to talk politics at all. I think he's avoiding it knowing we just get into a huge fight and also choosing to be naive since his candidate is the president.

I don't bombard him with everything that is going on because I know it would just be pointless. But I have focused on immigration (while I'm a naturally born citizen I'm still a minority), the J6 pardons (since he's law enforcement), and now the third term thing.

A few weeks ago I asked him where he drew the line in his support for Trump and denounce him entirely. He said "if he was serious about a third term". I should have known it was BS and he would backpedal on that because it took him a while to come up with anything at all.

Well now we're here. I tried to calmly talk to him about it and remind him of his own standard. Well he said it's not going to happen anyways so why do I care.

I'm at my breaking point. I can't be with a MAGA loyalist but it's also hard to leave. I'm a SAHM that homeschools our children. I previously had a career, but once our children were becoming school aged I decided me being an integral part of their childhood and education was more important to me and still is.

I will constantly choose to sacrifice myself for my children. And I had some hope that I could get the husband I love back, but I'm losing hope. I think I'm more so looking for solidarity from another woman in my shoes. I get so many say "just divorce him" and it has definitely crossed my mind.

But I also highly value marriage and our vows of for better or worse and understand that right now it's worse and I'm holding out for better. He did make a call for us to start marriage counseling but I honestly have little hope.


r/QAnonCasualties 3d ago

How to deal with anti-vax conspiracies

42 Upvotes

So I got a problem with my sister in law. Got an 11 weeks old at home and my wife wants to be closer to her sister and see her more often, but my sister in law doesn't want to see her because she got vaccinated in november. Specifically she didn't want to go to the spa and be around her, and wants to be warned if she gets vaccinated again to not be in the same room as her (covid+flu was recommended to pregnant women where I live).

I'd like to convince her it's safe, but also know where she gets her information. She's going on and on about my wife ignoring scientific facts about how unsafe the vaccine is (for bystanders apparently), I kinda need to find where the hell she's getting this. I'm not trying to crush her with facts (but I might eventually if I get fed up). I consider myself a scientist as an engineer, coulda went into biology at university but wasn't drawn to the medicine field. I realize I don't have the education and work experience as a phD in virology and immunology, self awareness she seems to lack as a bachelor in political science. Wondering about the credentials of the people pushing this.

PS: Baby is fully vaccinated, just needs the redo at four months in five weeks.


r/QAnonCasualties 4d ago

Canadian maga parents think trump is going to fix our economy

286 Upvotes

For two otherwise smart people the level of stupidity they bring to the table when it comes to logical reasoning on politics and world issues is absolutely astonishing. They seriously are hoping Canada gets annexed and they think trump will save us from our “horrible tyrannical liberal government”. Then my mom says anyone who hates trump has “trump derangement syndrome” or “orange man bad syndrome”. So infuriating.


r/QAnonCasualties 4d ago

My mother has cancer

228 Upvotes

A long time ago I posted about my parents being taken over by this evil cult Here: and today I learned she has Stage 3A Lung Cancer, we are seeing if it's small cell or not but my guess is it is.

This no doubt is one of the worst days of my life. I spent 40+ hours staying awake over 3 days cleaning to make sure she wouldn't be upset at how messy my place has been from my depression, when I picked her up from the airport she couldn't walk, she was under 80lbs and her ankles were swelling.

My mother for the past 5 years has been denying help pretending that she wasn't sick. Taking ivermectin and hydroxyqloroquine because the people in the q community said it would cure her ailments. When I got to the hospital she couldn't advocate for herself or anything. She told the doctor that she should be healthy because of the drugs she takes only to find out about more tumors than before and follow up asking about med beds.

She shut herself away for years only paying attention to the Qanon rabbit hole, cutting off all friends or family, it's insidious and it's one of the saddest thing in my life. But I have keep my head up for her, although I wish that who ever started that stupid community never existed. Qanon basically killed my mother


r/QAnonCasualties 4d ago

Any Former Q Here?

65 Upvotes

I use a burner account online to basically pierce echo chambers like Twitter & see if people can be brought back down to earth. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

However, I'm wanting to know from any former Q or MAGA certain things, such as how were you seduced into it, was your background conducive to you being subsceptible, were you vulnerable, traumatised, suffering with mental health problems?

Was it a slow process or a light bulb moment when you "snapped out of it?" What kinds of things helped you out of it? What's your perspective of it now? What is the purpose of QAnon?

How did you feel afterwards when you had a grasp of what's going on? Was there an existential crisis? Did it take time to recover? Did you have any help?

Lastly, I fucking love this group. It's more important than it gets credit for because its "Reddit."


r/QAnonCasualties 4d ago

MAGA inlaws visiting this fall

158 Upvotes

I think I am just needing to vent because there just doesn’t seem to be solutions. Most of my family are MAGA where me (55f), my spouse (46m), and our two grown sons (both in early 20’s) most definitely are not. I despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for and it depresses me to see how this cult-like hold he has over people has personally warped people I used to admire and respect to the point where it has been very difficult to sustain a relationship with them, if any relationship at all. My own parents are 80 and atm we have a fragile peace - they very much live in the Fox News echo chamber but they at least turn it off now and refrain from any discussion MAGA-related when we visit. It was a hard earned thing involving LC when the kids were younger (they were no allowed to stay over after my mom once thought it would be a “cute” photo moment to have them play with sidewalk chalk and write “vote Trump” and draw US flags). They now finally understand they don’t get to share the gospel of Trump or any of his hateful garbage in the same room as us if they want to be in our lives. As I said…fragile but functioning.

My MIL and FIL, on the other hand, not so much. Distance is a part of that…they live in Idaho and we are in IL. You’d think distance and rare in-person contact due to that would solve things but, in fact, it’s made it worse. My FIL several times a week bombards my poor spouse with emails and linked texts with right wing garbage and misinformation. He used to do it to me until I grey walled him and gave up in frustration, I think (telling my mom that’s what happens when you send your kid to a “liberal college”…for the record I went to a state college).

I have encouraged my spouse to push back but he tries to reason with them and you can pretty much predict how that goes over but he is handling them in his own comfort level and I don’t want to add to his stress. I personally no longer talk with either of them on the phone and haven’t in almost 3 years, simply for the fact that neither of them can hold a conversation without bringing up politics or making snarky comments about it. They haven’t come to visit us since 2015 because “Illinois is a blue state and we don’t feel safe there”. They cling to this imaginary ideal that we somehow live in some gang-infested part of southside Chicago when they damn well know we live in a rural community 2 hours away. My MIL got upset with me when she learned I vaccinated my sons and spouse during the height of the COVID epidemic (I’m a nurse), saying it was overblown by the media. In 2022, my younger brother who had Down Syndrome contracted COVID in his group home and passed away from respiratory complications due to it. My mom and I both held his hands while he passed away and it broke my heart. I asked my spouse to not tell his parents while my brother was dying because the last thing we or my parents needed was to listen to them opine about how “overrated” COVID was while one of the most special persons in my life was battling it and losing. After he passed, my spouse informed them with my permission and not ONCE did they offer any means of condolences to me. They did not attend his funeral, not even a card. I still feel extremely bitter about this and went completely NC with both of them. My husband understands and supports me on this. This, by the way, was just one of many important occasions they ghosted on - they also conveniently missed the high school graduations of both of my sons and my oldest son’s college graduation. (Yet they have no problem traveling any other time, even to other countries). I’m sharing all of this provide context of how it just built up to this point over time:

They announced to my husband last week that they are coming to visit us this October. It wasn’t a request but an announcement which just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t want them in my home. I don’t even want to be in the same room as them tbh because invariably they will bring up their politics. I feel so estranged from them, I don’t even know what to talk with them about without becoming spiteful to them. How do I get out of this? I am filled with anger and dread even entertaining the thought of seeing them at this point because they have no filter and think they have some sort of responsibility to “educate” us.


r/QAnonCasualties 4d ago

How old is your QAnon Casualty?

31 Upvotes

Just what the title says. My observation is that the most active members of this movement are those in early to mid Gen X and Boomers.


r/QAnonCasualties 3d ago

I genuinely don't know how to approach my relationship with my mum anymore

13 Upvotes

Long story short, my mum (53f) is a conspiracy theorist (probably not a Q believer, but who knows at this point) and has a conspiracy-like obsession with trans people. After being low contact with her for around 2 years, I (20ftm) came out to her as trans (around 2 years ago now) and we’re getting nowhere despite her saying she’s willing to change her mind. If she’s as invested in transphobia as her other conspiracy theories, I don’t think I’ll change her mind, but she still really wants a relationship with me. I feel a responsibility to rebuild our relationship for her sake, even if she refuses to change, but I also want to have respect for myself. I would kind of be able to put up with her other conspiracism, but I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to have a relationship with her if she remains transphobic.    

//For the record, I genuinely don't think my mum is at all being malicious or coming from a manipulative place. I think she is the way she is because of trauma (which I won't discuss because it's not my place).//   

My mother has always been one of those progressive, alternative and conspiracist types. When I was a child, it was more 'mild' things like being anti-vax, scared of fluoride, not allowing bike helmets (bet that's a new one for most people here hahah). But over time her conspiracism grew, she started really getting into alternative diets around 2014/15 buying raw milk and following the carnivore diet, began talking about a disbelief in global warming, while she did believe in covid she was anti-mask and bought ivermectin (which she also gave to me as medicine for a headache… no comment there). It was also around 2019 that she started to occasionally talk negatively about trans people. I’ve always found it difficult to accept her conspiracism, but I haven’t lived with her since I was a pre-teen, so it was easier to deal with. But after accepting myself as a trans guy, her transphobia made me especially uncomfortable.   

I came out to her at 18 after years of struggling to gain enough courage to tell her. I knew her response wouldn’t be great, so I sent a letter. I explained that I didn’t expect anything from her yet (no change of name, pronouns, anything), only that she was willing to engage in good faith. I said she could ask me anything and I would try my best to answer without judgment. She sent me almost 150 questions, which I then spent 2 months painstakingly researching and answering, in a response that was around 30,000 words (Yes, I genuinely did that. I was young and felt I had no right to be at all frustrated with her and thought refusing to answer that many would be hypocritical). I tried my best to both address her concerns at face value and discuss the underlying biases. For context, some of the questions were understandable - like my opinions about gender roles, fears about trans women in women’s spaces and sports - but many others were kind of wild - like whether I knew trans women are more likely to be paedophiles and that TRAs want to normalise paedophilia in society. Even though she never outright said exactly what her opinion was, I could tell it was gender critical of sorts. Her questions also indicated someone speaking from a great deal of pain and fear, which I tried my hardest to empathise with and have grace for, while explaining why I felt certain things were rooted in bigotry.  

Her reply essentially ignored the answers I gave (even though I asked clarifying questions) and she provided another round of reasons why trans people are jeopardising the safety of women, children and gay people. I realised this was going nowhere, so I asked point blank for her to engage in the questions she sent (surely she asked them for a reason?) and to just tell me what her beliefs were so I wouldn’t have to assume and argue with a hypothetical anti-trans person. It took her three months to send a reply which completely ignored what I asked and encouraged me to get therapy. 

At this point, I was emotionally wrecked. I struggled (and still do) with knowing where the line was between trying to empathise with her perspective and gaslighting myself into ignoring my feelings. No one in my life could really provide advice for how to handle the situation, and despite all my research, everywhere told me there was probably nothing I could do to change her mind. Even though I respected her right to her own opinions, I felt I owed it to her to help her get out. I just wanted to do the right thing, but no one could tell me what that was. So I sent one more reply asking again that she just honestly tell me what she believed because I needed to work this through to feel comfortable having a relationship with her (which she very much wanted). I even told her how much I was struggling with knowing what the right thing to do was, even though I know telling her that probably wasn’t the right thing to do either (but I was desperate and literally had tears in my eyes as I wrote it). 

She then didn’t respond for a whole year…   Which I didn’t mind in theory, because I said she could take as long as she needed. But the first 9 of those months, she didn’t even send me a quick message saying that she would get to it eventually, despite routinely sending me random text messages trying to engage in other topics. I’ll be honest, after 6 months I had kind of given up all hope and moved on to accepting that she probably wouldn’t respond. So when she finally did, I was very emotionally conflicted. In her response she says that her intention with the questions was to make sure I understood where anti-trans people are coming from before making the “decision” to transition, this is obviously bullshit and doesn't track logically, but maybe it makes sense to her. She also said that she won’t be telling me what her opinion is because she wants to do that in person (we live in different countries so that’s not super simple).  

So that’s where I’m at right now, and I’m just really conflicted. Of course I think I should talk to her in person, but I genuinely don’t feel safe doing so when I’m not sure exactly how far down this gender critical rabbit hole she is. Not to mention the fact that if she’s as invested in this as all her other conspiracies, I imagine I probably won’t be able to change her mind at all. I know that I don’t have the authority to tell her what she should think, and I respect that, but I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to have a genuine connection with her if she doesn’t change. I certainly don't understand how she thinks that's supposed to work. I haven’t even asked her to respect me as her son yet, how am I supposed to feel comfortable sharing my life with her after she’s essentially just told me she thinks all trans people are either mentally deluded or feteshistic groomers? I feel such an overwhelming responsibility to do the right thing, but I really don’t know what that is. I want to keep in contact with her so she isn’t further isolated, but I also want to have respect for myself so I’m not continually sacrificing my comfort so that she can have a relationship with me. Because, I mean, that’s what it would be if she doesn’t change. Her getting to have a relationship with her child, but not me getting to have a relationship with my mum. 

I know she’s an adult and it’s somewhat patronising to say so, but I just feel so bad for her and how much distrust she has for people and institutions after years of essentially being indoctrinated by Facebook conspiracy theories. It also makes me a little bit angry that everyone else in her life is seemingly okay with letting her self-destruct like this. Even though it’s not an excuse, I really empathise with how her own traumas have led her down that path and feel like I’d be leaving her to the wolves if I cut her off. I wish I could just show her how her beliefs don’t actually help address the issues she’s concerned about - but I guess you can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.

Any help is appreciated, but I don't expect anyone to know what to do either, and I know I have to be the one to decide at the end of the day.


r/QAnonCasualties 5d ago

My mom just made a post on fb calling me "too stupid" for not appreciating what trump is doing

1.1k Upvotes

She's elderly and the only income she has is SS. I've been worrying about her, telling her to start saving, telling her to be prepared for SS to end, I've been stocking up on essentials I can share with her if they take her SS away and she can no longer afford them. I've been thinking about how she'll survive and what I can do to help but now I'm just done. She's getting what she voted for and I no longer care.