originally published on facebook 8/26/2020
QAnon is toxic to Trump, he just doesn’t know it yet.
QAnon posits that there is a global cabal of satan worshipping pedophile cannibals running the world. Somehow, they’ve infiltrated the government and many parts of our society. Trump and the republicans have now openly embraced this idea, thinking that it will lead to political power. However, evangelical leaders are starting to denounce QAnon as a Gnostic heresy. A schism has opened up, and it will only get wider.
There is an inherent tension in any conspiracy theory because ultimately it is a lie. The purveyor of the theory can use many different techniques to convince people of its truth, but ultimately what they are selling is rubbish. The believers of the theory eventually will see this. At some point, the brainwashing wears off, reality crashes in, and they suffer cognitive dissonance.
I’ve often made the joke- what’s the difference between a cult and a religion? About 150 years. QAnon is only around 3 years old. There’s another 147 years to go before they have the institutional strength of being a religion behind them. Ultimately, it is a belief system that is flimsy at best, because it has not had time to develop. Evangelical Christianity is much older and has much more sway because of its age, it is an institution, it is trusted, it has power, and it does not like competition, especially competition that it can’t absorb. QAnon is a threat to their own power, but it is too weak to succeed. QAnon will, however, do a lot of damage.
Many Christian rituals were absorbed from other cults, it has a long tradition of doing so. However, it can’t absorb a tradition that is antithetical to its own beliefs. While QAnon can co opt the Republican party, I’ve suspected that Christianity can’t co opt QAnon, and my suspicions are proving correct, as the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is now confirming. The rejection of QAnon by the elite of the Evangelical Christianity will split and weaken both movements.
The evangelical embrace of Trump was always a deal with the devil, Trump is not Reagan, he can’t project a wholesome image of himself, and he just doesn’t care about morality. As we’ve seen in the Jerry Falwell jr saga, we are also now seeing it in the QAnon saga, he corrupts everyone he comes into contact with.
Everything Trump Touches Dies.