Grandmothers and QAnon on Facebook

One of the main organisers of the Trafalgar Square protests is a 54 year old woman, Kate Shemirani. I have no idea if she's a grandmother, but she fits the profile of the "Conversation" article, which I thought was a very interesting read.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Shemirani

Even the Daily Mail thinks she's nuts:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8751653/Shamed-anti-vaxxer-nurse-sparks-violent-clashes-mass-rally-virus-deniers.html

HopeNotHate and the BBC's Marianna Spring have also written about the threat of disinformation and how easily it becomes mainstream.

British Grannies
Ageist, sexist and grannyist. As well as anti-British.

If GN is anything to go by, this is mainly untrue and anyone trying to spread conspiracy theories on here gets called out.

GillT57 I'm glad you raised concerns and I sincerely hope your goddaughter comes to her senses. It must be very frightening. You can see first hand how some Germans came to believe in Nazism or, in this day and age, how some Muslims become radicalised.

There was a poster on GN a couple of weeks ago who was peddling QAnon nonsense. When I called her out, she turned on me and did the same as your goddaughter. She claimed that she had done her research and only she belonged to a group intelligent enough to understand it all, etc etc. The Nazis did exactly the same and hard core neo-Nazis still do.

I really think we owe it to ourselves to be very aware of the tactics used to manipulate us. I don't think anybody should be complacent and think they couldn't be sucked in because they don't use Twitter or Facebook, etc. It's going beyond that now.

Callistemon

^British Grannies^
Ageist, sexist and grannyist. As well as anti-British.

If GN is anything to go by, this is mainly untrue and anyone trying to spread conspiracy theories on here gets called out.

I tried calling one out, but I must say I didn't get much support .

GNHQ seemed to think it was fine for such rubbish to be posted on here, growstuff

Just because it's a stereotype, don't dismiss what's going on, because it quite plainly us.

Looking at the footage from the Trafalgar Square protests, most of them seemed to be male, including the usual "knuckle draggers", but I was quite surprised how diverse the protesters appeared to be.

Callistemon

GNHQ seemed to think it was fine for such rubbish to be posted on here, growstuff

I know.

Strangely enough, Gavin Williamson has just spoken at the virtual Tory conference about no-platforming and accused students of being "snowflakes". Presumably, he's happy for cranks to spread their conspiracies. On the other hand, he's just banned schools from using material which attacks British values ie capitalism and the status quo. That means that schools might be in breach of the law if they teach about the slave trade, Marx, the history of the struggle for universal suffrage, etc.

On another "light" note, I saw a post recently that stated the the Flat Earth Society has supporters from all over the globe"

phoenix
??

It's flat and round in my post, but someone I met said it was oblong.

Oh blimey the name I see what you mean callistemon ??

I ve never heard of Qanon and never seen anything about it on FB I ve no intention of wasting my time reading about it as I don’t believe any conspiracy theories
I suppose Trumps taxes were a conspiracy theory too ?

Odd, isn't it, Bluebelle.

Gill thank you for sharing that.
Bluebelle It’s easy to think that because you don’t believe the conspiracy theories yourself, and indeed no sane person would, you aren’t going to be affected by it, as Gill’s story illustrates.
To me the worrying thing is how many people apparently do believe it, because it demonstrates how easily people’s minds can be manipulated and their actions influenced.
Who knows where it could lead us?

BlueBelle

Oh blimey the name I see what you mean callistemon ??

I ve never heard of Qanon and never seen anything about it on FB I ve no intention of wasting my time reading about it as I don’t believe any conspiracy theories
I suppose Trumps taxes were a conspiracy theory too ?

No, you won't see them advertising who they are. What you might see are posts asking for your support against child abuse from organisations/individuals you've never heard of.

If you then like or share the posts, you'll have registered yourself as interested and your username will be on a list to be spammed when there's something else about which you might have views.

For example, you might be concerned about knife crime (who isn't?) and the next thing you know you're being sent news about knife crimes, but only if they're perpetuated by black people, which would give you a very skewed view of the whole picture.

The story about Trump's taxes highlights another danger ie even genuine stories become discredited.

Very odd callistomon brings back memories eh

Where does one begin with the offensiveness of this link? It is outrageous.

To start with 'British Grannies' used by so many researchers like this as a euphomism for 'stupid old women' Too scared to say it out right but this what he means. Note this is all coming from a 'he' who, I suspect knows very few older women, to find out what they actually believe.

So som older women are right wing conspiracy theorists. How do their numbers compare with men between 15 - 60 who are conspiracy theorists. I would lay money that conspiracy theorists are much more numerous in absolute and percentage terms in that group than it is among older women.

The big Anti-COVID demonstration this weekend was led by Piers Corbyn (Jeremy's brother) and David Icke (remember him?), not by any 'British Grannies'

Don't get me wrong I think those that subscribe to Q Anon are deluded to say the lease but....
To say that the ones that gets sucked into this is the ignoramuses and delusional are wrong.
Most are educated people with inquiring minds that question everything and unfortunately fail to take scientific evidence or just evidence into consideration.
This is why it has grown into this scary and bat sh*t crazy movement.

Monica the author of the article is Sue Greenwood.
I have left a comment, complaining about the ageism and sexism implicit in the article , and there are several comments supporting me and calling for an explanation and apology. The Conversation used to be a worthwhile publication (to which I have in the past made a financial contribution) but I fear, no longer.

If you read the links that Growstuff posted, you’ll see that a woman, Kate Shemirani, was one of the main protagonists in Trafalgar Square, alongside Icke and Piers Corbyn. Her Wikipedia entry says she’s got 4 children but doesn’t mention anything grandchildren.

Slightly OT, but related via facebook

www.channel4.com/news/revealed-trump-campaign-strategy-to-deter-millions-of-black-americans-from-voting-in-2016

It's the same techniques

We also know that similar targeting was used during the Referendum campaign

A researcher from York University believes that ‘British grannies’ are helping to spread QAnon conspiracy theories on Facebook

Stereotyping without any real facts or statistics to back up the theory.

It is yet another conspiracy theory.

I think that university researchers generally have to have some facts to back up their findings.

theconversation.com/qanon-conspiracy-theories-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-are-a-public-health-threat-135515

I was talking about the one in the OP.

Yes, I do know that is the norm.

I wonder if taking umbrage about the “British grannies”, understandable tho that is, diminishes the real concerns here. Several posters have first hand experience of QAnon. I have a younger Facebook friend who has posted several QAnon links. The suggestion that the Clintons are masterminding international child abuse, with only Trump fighting to protect children is terrifying yet it’s out there,
The anti vax, covid hoaxers are growing in number.
Thanks janeainsworth for starting this, also growstuff for your comments