Open thread: is it more embarrassing to believe in Scientology, or QAnon?
I'm serious.
Before we get stuck into this very important question: I’d like to say another giant thanks to those of you subscribing and choosing to support Webworm and the wonky work I do here.
It means a lot. Until July 15th there’s still the special rate of $5 per month (USD) to support my work. Thanks also for the feedback on Influencer culture should be burnt to the ground and the followup, Freedom of speech vs spewing out misinformation.
Now: buckle in.
Over the weekend, the president of the United States retweeted multiple QAnon accounts, amplifying them to his 82.7 million followers, while a Floridian congressional candidate and QAnon adherent (pictured below) said Beyonce is faking being African American as part of a master plan by George Soros’ Deep State.
The QAnon cult believes a cabal of global elites and pedophiles are running the world, that Donald Trump knows this, and will one day reveal the truth — thus beginning a global showdown between Satan and God.
Okay.
Rewinding back to 1953, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (pictured below) started a cult called Scientology, which says that 75 million years ago the head of a Galactic Confederacy brought billions of aliens (Teegeeacks) to earth, put them in volcanoes, and then blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Today, the souls of the Teegeeacks attach themselves to newborn human babies, causing internal spiritual conflict that can only be fixed by ascending The Bridge To Total Freedom.
My question to you is this — and I’d love you to sound off in the comments below this post so we can all read each other’s comments —
In 2020, is it more embarrassing to believe in Scientology, or QAnon?
Think of it this way.
Is it more mortally, indefensibly lame and fucking pathetic to spend thousands of dollars on Scientology literature, or thousands of dollars on QAnon merchandise and books?
At your wedding, would you rather be marrying someone who references Xenu and the Galactic Confederacy in their vows, or would you rather they give a short speech about a cabal of global liberal elites and pedophiles?
When you die, would you rather your tombstone be shaped like Xenu’s massive intergalactic cock, or in the shape of the letter Q with the words “BEWARE THE CABAL OF PEDOPHILES AND THE GREAT AWAKENING” engraved on the stone?
Before you answer in the comments below, please reflect on Figure 1 and Figure 2 below.
Figure 1: QAnon (source: twitter)
Figure 2: Scientology (source: wikipedia)
So again: is it more embarrassing to believe in Scientology, or QAnon?
Thankyou, and I look forward to your thoughts.
David.
oof okay this one is difficult bear with me
i'm gonna have to say Q because i feel like scientology is more calculated + intentional and they have so much money and power that it honestly doesn't entirely surprise me that they're able to recruit so many people if that makes sense? they have organized systemic efforts to draw people in and keep them there + not to mention being "technically" a religion. so while i think scientology is evil and exploitive i feel bad for people who get sucked in because they are often the most vulnerable and impressionable. and scientology makes calculated moves in order to prevent their members from leaving (denounce ur family, become financially dependent upon the church etc) hopefully that made sense
Q on the other hand... it's not an organized effort (as far as i know), it's just people being gullible and believing things like that! they have no tiered system, no gated communities for their members, no ways to control a persons entire life and mind. they just prey upon gullible people using false information alone. i articulated this to my friends by saying "it's so concerning to see older people sharing qanon shit considering they probably believe there is a hacker known as 4chan." to believe in Q you have to consciously not fact check things. it's not like scientology because technically if you believe in Q you CAN leave at any time! the only thing preventing them from leaving is their own ignorance and unwillingness to learn.
i'm super passionate about this subject because like i've told you i'm a teenager who frequents tiktok so i've seen a lot of these theories (mostly pizzagate) be spread with no regard for actual information. it's so disheartening to see people my age sharing those "secret codes" without taking the 2 minutes to google it and see that it originated from actual neo-nazis. that's why i think it's so embarrassing especially to see people buy into qanon. because they CHOOSE not to research and rely entirely on warped information!
anyways hopefully that was coherent at all !!!
What a great question for a Monday morning. I see this as "is it more embarrassing to piss or shit yourself in public", while both are incredibly embarrassing one defiantly effects more people with the smell it creates i.e. Scientology. The power structure behind Scientology is rather well organised to the point where they have a lot of "lobby" groups against various social structures and health services i.e. mental health services, which I tend to see as being very harmful. It would seem from how the power shifted inside the Scientology system after L. Ron died it was a group of folks "hyper normalising" their beliefs even though the truth had been shown to them about the whole being made up by a power hungry sci-fi author who had ripped off various eastern spiritualities and tried to pass them off as his own ideas.
QAnon on the other hand (after watch and reading it's rise on 4chan) seems to be a group that uses small bits of real world evidence (Jeffery Epstein's power base and his eventual death for example) and then extrapolate from there creating a world view based on that small evidence that anyone associated with the situation had to know what was going on and is defiantly involved, therefore going legitimacy to the larger "world control" hypothesis. The reason QAnon is like pissing yourself is it generally spreads faster and more people notice it quicker.
Just a quick thing after you mentioned in another comment wether there is any cross over amongst the conspiracies. After clicking possibly too many links on internet pages I discovered a link between Scientology, The Nation of Islam and various far right ethno-state groups. I found this link very interesting because of the foundation story one of the Nation of Islam's leaders put forward about Yakub the big head scientist, now that was a deep hole to delve into.