Who is @Q? (Part Four: Trusted Voices, Authoritative Sources)
Fake and corrupt Experts are not the only pollution in the mainstream information environment. Pop-culture-politics addicts get their intellectual confidence from the constant reassurance of being shown that the opinions of celebrities (and other important people) mirror their own views. There may be nothing that the sleepwalkers now “standing with” Ukrainian neo-Nazis enjoy more than feeling like they’re close to famous and powerful people.
People display their celebrity worship on social media. They attempt to interact with celebrity accounts, hoping to get the celebrity’s attention. They’re unaware many, if not most, prominent social media celebrities pay more per month than the average American monthly income to have professionals interact with their fans so they don’t have to do it themselves. Professional photographers are hired to capture their content. Captions are written for them in their voice. The platforms tell them what sort of posts they will be boosting, encouraging participation and incentivizing conformity.
I spent almost 20 years in Hollywood. I know these people well. There are essentially only two kinds of political celebrities - closeted Trump supporters and people who don’t know a single true thing about politics, world events, history, philosophy, math, logic, statistics, or any of the other subjects they would have to understand to substantiate any of the things they say. They think being smart is reading Yuval Noah Harari books. I know a handful of closeted celebrity Trump supporters, to be sure. I know hundreds in the second category. In the past two years they shed family and friends who disagreed with them, because their public image couldn’t stand the association. They are surrounded with people who will agree with everything they say. Are they happy? No, but they look happy on Instagram, and no matter what, at least (for now) they’re rich.
The filthy QAnons must get their opinions from those scant few celebrities who don’t repeat the slogans, right? Or do those few smart celebrities get their slogans downstream from the QAnons? It’s hard to tell.
Jennifer Aniston is a “cool”, “smart”, “funny” actress whose career consisted of being pretty while reading sitcom dialogue and marrying famous men. She gets paid taxpayer money to repeat the Slogans as a political influencer online.
Rob Schneider is an actual funny and smart person who is open-minded enough to read and moral enough to discern truth. He states his own opinions on social media at great personal cost to himself.
Which one is considered an authoritative™ source of proper political opinions? Neither of them should be, nor should anyone else! With the help of massive PR campaigns, one of them is. How would her fans feel if they knew she was paid money from the covid relief package to amplify the message of those strongly in favor of never-ending covid? Perhaps I’m wrong. People who are still Jennifer Aniston fans clearly would not care and the ones who would will never find out.
Anons are the opposite of celebrities. Anonymity will do that. They’re doing historical investigative journalism on the most interesting and important stories in world history and analyzing current events as a community. They care solely for improving cultural understanding about all those things our culture hides from our view. It may be impossible to understand for people who still find self-worth in likes and comments from strangers, but Anons do what they do because they find value and fulfillment in the work, selflessly and without material reward.
People display their celebrity worship on social media. They attempt to interact with celebrity accounts, hoping to get the celebrity’s attention. They’re unaware many, if not most, prominent social media celebrities pay more per month than the average American monthly income to have professionals interact with their fans so they don’t have to do it themselves. Professional photographers are hired to capture their content. Captions are written for them in their voice. The platforms tell them what sort of posts they will be boosting, encouraging participation and incentivizing conformity.
I spent almost 20 years in Hollywood. I know these people well. There are essentially only two kinds of political celebrities - closeted Trump supporters and people who don’t know a single true thing about politics, world events, history, philosophy, math, logic, statistics, or any of the other subjects they would have to understand to substantiate any of the things they say. They think being smart is reading Yuval Noah Harari books. I know a handful of closeted celebrity Trump supporters, to be sure. I know hundreds in the second category. In the past two years they shed family and friends who disagreed with them, because their public image couldn’t stand the association. They are surrounded with people who will agree with everything they say. Are they happy? No, but they look happy on Instagram, and no matter what, at least (for now) they’re rich.
The filthy QAnons must get their opinions from those scant few celebrities who don’t repeat the slogans, right? Or do those few smart celebrities get their slogans downstream from the QAnons? It’s hard to tell.
Jennifer Aniston is a “cool”, “smart”, “funny” actress whose career consisted of being pretty while reading sitcom dialogue and marrying famous men. She gets paid taxpayer money to repeat the Slogans as a political influencer online.
Rob Schneider is an actual funny and smart person who is open-minded enough to read and moral enough to discern truth. He states his own opinions on social media at great personal cost to himself.
Which one is considered an authoritative™ source of proper political opinions? Neither of them should be, nor should anyone else! With the help of massive PR campaigns, one of them is. How would her fans feel if they knew she was paid money from the covid relief package to amplify the message of those strongly in favor of never-ending covid? Perhaps I’m wrong. People who are still Jennifer Aniston fans clearly would not care and the ones who would will never find out.
Anons are the opposite of celebrities. Anonymity will do that. They’re doing historical investigative journalism on the most interesting and important stories in world history and analyzing current events as a community. They care solely for improving cultural understanding about all those things our culture hides from our view. It may be impossible to understand for people who still find self-worth in likes and comments from strangers, but Anons do what they do because they find value and fulfillment in the work, selflessly and without material reward.
Jennifer Aniston is a “cool”, “smart”, “funny” actress whose career consisted of being pretty while reading sitcom dialogue and marrying famous men. She gets paid taxpayer money to repeat the Slogans as a political influencer online.
Rob Schneider is an actual funny and smart person who is open-minded enough to read and moral enough to discern truth. He states his own opinions on social media at great personal cost to himself.
Which one is considered an authoritative™ source of proper political opinions? Neither of them should be, nor should anyone else! With the help of massive PR campaigns, one of them is. How would her fans feel if they knew she was paid money from the covid relief package to amplify the message of those strongly in favor of never-ending covid? Perhaps I’m wrong. People who are still Jennifer Aniston fans clearly would not care and the ones who would will never find out.
Anons are the opposite of celebrities. Anonymity will do that. They’re doing historical investigative journalism on the most interesting and important stories in world history and analyzing current events as a community. They care solely for improving cultural understanding about all those things our culture hides from our view. It may be impossible to understand for people who still find self-worth in likes and comments from strangers, but Anons do what they do because they find value and fulfillment in the work, selflessly and without material reward.