Grandmothers and QAnon on Facebook

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.

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?

Odd, isn't it, 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 ?

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

phoenix
??

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

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.

Callistemon

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

I know.

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.

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

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 .

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.

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.

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.

I was wondering about raising my concerns about QAnon on here, and wasn't sure that people would believe me. My darling goddaughter has got sucked into it, she now believes all this stuff about the paedophile ring, the child sacrifices to drink their blood ( yes, honestly), there is a list of people who visited Epstein's island and they are now all condemned as being part of his ghastly abuses. She believes that Covid19 is fake and invented to keep us locked up in our homes, and is a strong anti-vaxxer. I tried, politely, and gently, to discuss it with her on FB, warning her that some of the accusations she was making about people were slanderous, she just said that she had 'done her research' and that it was there if you knew where to look, and that we were all being fooled. I asked her, as politely as I could, why she was so special that she knew these things, but as always when you question anyone who has fallen down this particular rabbit hole, she just said that I was being fooled. She has unfriended many people on FB who dared to question her. For all of you who think this is none of your concern, it is believe me. This is a terrifying, anti-semitic movement which has potential to do great damage, cause social unrest and be very damaging to people's mental health. On a lighter note, the main reason why this is all a load of nonsense is that these people believe that Trump (!) has been sent to tackle this and is the saviour.

How life passes me by. You will be telling me next that the earth is not flat.

Humans are by their very nature gullible.

Throughout history stories
(folklore) have passed between families and friends.

Werewolf, Witches, Evil spirits etc .

Ceasers and Kings have gone to war on the back a carefully placed whisper here or there.

Chinese whispers or just made up fake news has been around since time immemorial

In our recent history,
Hitler via his speeches and writings convinced thousands that there was a master race and racial purity.

Sadily social media perpetuates questionable ideology with a click of a button.

It is. Of course it could be a coincidence but.....
Thanks for sharing that.

Yes, it's quite unusual isn't it.

That name certainly is familiar, isn’t it Callistemon ?!!

Slightly different spelling though.

Interesting ?

One of the conspiracies peddled by QAnon is that there's a global child abuse racket and that Trump is fighting it. If you look at some of the footage from the Trafalgar Square protests, you'll see people holding placards about child abuse. Sometimes, there's a Q on the placard, but I think it's got to the point now where people don't realise the origin of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy is absolute nonsense, but child abuse and concern about it isn't. So QAnon hooks people in with memes about child abuse. Other groups, including Britain First, have done the same thing with animal welfare.

Most people are appalled at child abuse and cruelty to animals, so these groups create spam of pictures showing cruelty and people "like" the posts. Before they know it, they've been put on the list to receive further communications from conspiracy and far right groups.

I have no idea what the demographic of conspiracy theories is, but there have certainly been a couple on GN. I don't think anywhere is immune.

“When I looked at what other content these women were sharing, I found memes about ........ anti-Black Lives Matter protests, anti-BBC proms and content in favour of Brexit”

Quote from OP article! Sound familiar?

Yes, it's our duty to try our best to stop the spread of this dangerous and evil idea. We should engage in internet discussions whenever possible e.g. on Facebook, and try to persuade misguided persons that they could be better than to support bad ideas.

I feel really sorry for people who believe all the untruth posts that go around. I don't know why anyone would want to stir up so much upset and bad feelingin the first place.

Some people get very angry if you point out fake things though because they want to believe it so, that doesn't help.

You can report fake posts to Facebook, they will take it down if it isn't true. Seems the best way to go.