It seems that Vice.com has decided to take a swipe at QAnons, in a new article: Terrorism Experts Say QAnon Conspiracy Theory a Threat to National Security
It is based on this paper, from two eggheads at the Combatting Terrorisim Center at West Point: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making?
The West Point Paper
Take out “conspiracy theory” and they are basically describing the newspaper business in the 1800s and early 1900s. Today, we call them citizen journalists. Comparing citizen journalists to jihadis is an Olympic-grade leap in logic. The assumption that news-gathering requires a “centralization of intrerpretive duties” tells us that this piece came from a corporate hack, who has likely never done an independent thing in his/her life.
God forbid anybody should do their own research and then want to share it on social media, without the blessing of corporate-owned media.
“In February 2020, Omega Kingdom Ministries, in effect a QAnon church, was established” – Never heard of it. Are all QAnons secret members? (sarcasm)
So far, QAnons do their own research, share it, and some of them go to church. This is what they are calling a threat to national security.
In the West Point paper, the links between the “criminals” named and QAnon are mostly weak, and I love how there is no comparison of the corporate-owned media’s statements to BLM and Antifa violence.
Here we have, “Some people did something, so anybody who talks about QAnon must be bad.” Uh-huh, and Jesus was a sinner because he was surrounded by sinners. Faulty logic.
The authors of the West Point paper:
- Amarnath Amarasingam is an Assistant Professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, and an Associate Fellow at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology.
- Marc-André Argentino is a PhD candidate in the Individualized Program at Concordia University, Montreal (in Theological Studies, the Centre for Engineering in Society and the Institute of Information System Engineering). Marc-André is an associate fellow at the Global Network on Extremism & Technology and an associate researcher at the Centre d’Expertise et de Formation sur les Intégrismes Religieux, les Idéologies Politiques et la Radicalisation.
Sorry, Vice, but you used a paper written by eggheads that fails to establish that its authors have any concept of what life is like outside of the university walls. This is junk journalism.
BOTTOM LINE: QAnons & followers are exercising their right to free speech, and it seems that some folks don’t like it.
