The Coming Storm podcast episode 3 BBC Radio 4

[mammajustkilledagnat]

Anyone else listening to this podcast? It's about the creation of circumstances that led to the storming of the US Capitol January last year. Episode three covers creation of internet sites like 4Chan and the subcultures coming out of these. It's fascinating. Describes an online environment male dominated and misogynic with no boundaries to behaviour.

No I'm not. Thanks for the recommendation it sounds interesting.

Sounds interesting - all the episodes seem to be on BBC sounds, even where I am which is great.

Just started listening yesterday. Its a fascinating but quite frightening story about influence gained over the internet by some very dodgy people, some of whom believed that Hilary Clinton was leading a paedophilic cult movement which was responsible for murdering babies and that Donald Trump was trying to stop her. I remember watching the TV programme on the storming of the capital when a man made this claim - it was the first time I`d heard it.

Give it a listen, it's started really well. For example, the first episode discusses how in Arkansas the Clintons exercised considerable political, financial, and other power, with some alleging abuse of this power, and how the progressive media turned a blind eye. This meant that the discussion that did occur happened largely below the radar and then went mental and ultimately fed into things like the Hillary pizza restaurant conspiracy theory.

I'm interested in the Clinton's activities, as I think some of the more bonkers Democrat stuff led to the election of Donald Trump. Republicans were always going to vote for him, but I think the cynicism around some of the wealth/influence of high-up Democrats was worrying enough for voters to give Trump a protest vote (which backfired allowing him to win).

I do worry now about the Democrats - some of the Republican hard-core voters seem to be complete nutters and believe any conspiracy going. But the Democrat policies are worryingly unrealistic in some cases - women's rights being only one.

It's a bit like the Tory/Labour divide in the UK, and in both countries voting for a middle-ground isn't an option as it's a wasted vote.

Of course the non-independent media in the US doesn't help. We think the Telegraph/Guardian are biased but they are nothing to the likes of Fox News

Sounds like this'll be right up your street then TurquoiseBaubles although if you're steeped in it already, you might find it very much the kindergarten version of what's happened.

Are you in the US Turquoise? I think we sometimes get a strange impression of whats going on from "over the pond" - perhaps because many of us dont understand the culture and think because we share a language that things may be the same. I remember a lot of publicity around Hillary Clinton being about her being over-priviledged, out of touch etc, and therefore unpopular, but this more extreme stuff hadnt reached me. Recently watched "Impeachment" about the Monica Lewinsky case which seems to feed into this narrative as well.

@prudencepuffin

Just started listening yesterday. Its a fascinating but quite frightening story about influence gained over the internet by some very dodgy people, some of whom believed that Hilary Clinton was leading a paedophilic cult movement which was responsible for murdering babies and that Donald Trump was trying to stop her. I remember watching the TV programme on the storming of the capital when a man made this claim - it was the first time I`d heard it.

I will give it a listen. The first time I came across all the nonsense was at my hairdressers, all the young women were discussing the above as if it was true. This is in North West England. It is scary how this stuff is accepted as fact.

My boyfriend recommended this - I'll have a listen.

Wow! This is amazing. Ridiculous and scary all at once.

It’s fascinating - completely mad and terrifying.

I have an acquaintance who totally bought into the Q-Anon conspiracy theories. He was very vocal in the lead up to the election results talking about day of reckoning etc... and then the same in the lead up to the inauguration. He's gone very quiet on social media now. I wonder how easy it is to come out of the other side when you get so wrapped up in a conspiracy theory. I don't think lockdown has helped in this regard, as people have had more spare time on their hands and have been stuck at home surfing the internet.

It sounds similar to the HBO six part documentary Q- Into the Storm which was utterly fascinating.

www.hbo.com/q-into-the-storm

@nauticant

Give it a listen, it's started really well. For example, the first episode discusses how in Arkansas the Clintons exercised considerable political, financial, and other power, with some alleging abuse of this power, and how the progressive media turned a blind eye. This meant that the discussion that did occur happened largely below the radar and then went mental and ultimately fed into things like the Hillary pizza restaurant conspiracy theory.

This is an important point. When you have such polarization that the MSM, be it on the left or right, simply won't talk about or buries problems and controversies involving their preferred candidates, it suddenly becomes plausible that they are suppressing other things too.

What did I say wrong?

Episode 2 just about to start on Radio 4. It goes more deeply into the history of the Clintons. A warning though, there's a very distressing account of an assault in this episode.

Now listened to all 8 episodes. Gripping stuff. I'm not sure if the phrase 'social contagion' featured but it should have done. It starts and ends with the witch panic which spread across Europe through the emergence of printing in the 1400s. Modern parallel is the internet.

His conclusion seems to be that QAnon is a cynical commercially driven movement to monetise various nebulous concerns in the US electorate and even though 'Q' has stopped putting out Nostradamus-like prophecies a worryingly large section of the Republican Party still believes that there is a deep state conspiracy running the US and featuring paedophiles, people who drink children's blood, etc etc.

In episode 8, he mentions that one of the crazy conspiracy theories (akin to the freeman of the land rubbish some people believe over here) is that if 51% of the US electorate wrote to the head of the US military requesting this he would be obliged to embark on a military coup to depose Biden and install Trump as President. Where do you even start?

A very interesting feature of ep 8 for me was the involvement of a long-standing US Republican party member who didn't want her name used because she was willing to say on the record how concerned she was about all of this but not with her name attached, because it would have been used against her. Sound familiar? True believers identify themselves by their willingness to accept obviously nonsensical extreme statements. Anybody finding this difficult is turned on. End result, they either capitulate and suppress their doubts and concerns, or they are cast out into the utter darkness.