Overview of American madness metastasizing with crazed conspiracy theories; see disturbing video here
Logo of QAnon, the crazed far-right conspiracy theory, which has many followers and has become part of the Republican Party coalition.
Engraving of the eighth print of A Rake's Progress, depicting inmates at Bedlam Asylum, by William Hogarth
This piece includes two fervent Rhode Island Trumpists, Anne Armstrong (whose AKAs include Anna Winograd Vrankar) and Alan Gordon, who were in Washington on Jan. 6 to demand the overturning of the free and fair 2020 election so that their leader could stay in office. She asserted to me (Robert Whitcomb) that they were not in the riot at the Capitol itself.
Ms. Armstrong was ordained a minister by a mail-order and Internet operation called World Christianship Ministries. She and Mr. Gordon operate “The Healing Church of Rhode Island’’ in rural gun-and-Trump-besotted West Greenwich, R.I. (at 99 Hudson Pond Road, to be exact). They are both QAnon fans. Given the incendiary nature of QAnon lies, it’s easy to see how some adherents could become violent. We hope that federal and state officials can keep track of the more crazed QAnon believers.
QAnon is an easily disproven far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and has been plotting against Donald Trump, who has been fighting the cabal.
All Americans should look at this video to see what fellow cultists of Armstrong and Gordon did at the Capitol that day. They won’t forget it. And this.
Below can be found some entertaining but also disturbing stuff in the links provided. It gives some local sense of the madness that has overtaken so much of America.
First, for some context, use these links:
https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/
and:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/opinion/facebook-far-right.html
and:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html
and:
https://theconversation.com/how-to-spot-a-conspiracy-theory-expert-guide-to-conspiracy-theories-part-one-133802
And:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/16/video-timeline-capitol-siege/?arc404=true
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20161026-how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/?fbclid=IwAR1THagB-MzvOpEBPc4zdMItlxeo
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/tech/qanon-believers-inauguration-reaction/index.html?
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/conservatism-reaches-dead-end/617629/?surface=meter_limit_reached&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fideas%2Farchive%2F2021%2F01%2Fconservatism-reaches-dead-end%2F617629%2F&fbclid=IwAR03wWVJSXHbzhmROsW6ZgH0_AbsIJdcSKXQ79vOHxIkKKlCm1uBV4B8_Yk
Contrary to a couple of news reports, such as The Daily Mail report here, Alan Gordon and Anne Armstrong are not married to each other but live on the same spread as their church business in West Greenwich, R.I. Ms. Armstrong says she has a husband and seven children.
Also, extremists (including Ms. Armstrong) make references to the alleged (and bogus) conspiracy of the “Illuminati”.
Hit this link for background on that conspiracy trope, often used by anti-Semites.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/european-institute/news/2019/sep/jacob-rees-moggs-alarming-cry-illuminati
And these links, some of which have entertaining pictures:
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/cult-of-cannabis/Content?oid=31505241https://turtleboysports.com/totally-sane-wizards-accuse-rhode-island-pd-of-sex-trafficking-special-needs-kids-are-begging-to-be-infecte
https://www.academia.edu/38062539/Clergyman_to_jail_self_CIA_plot_alleged
https://www.facebook.com/AnneArmstrongRI/posts/2672468839689031
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8vvE0g-dxg
http://thehealingchurchri.com/
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/02/10/pro-pot-christian-sect-boards-trump-train/
https://www.tmz.com/2018/10/24/rhode-island-candidate-alan-gordon-n-word-marijuana/
https://ecf.rid.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2015cv0215-23
https://ballotpedia.org/Anne_Armstrong
https://www.facebook.com/AnneArmstrongRI/
https://twitter.com/AvengingAnnieRI/status/1350288973181181952
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/01/08/and-here-you-thought-you-knew-what-i-n-r-i-meant/
https://patch.com/rhode-island/coventry/boy-could-one-thing-have-gone-right-alan-gordon
https://merryjane.com/news/marijuana-church-our-lady-guadalupe
https://www.facebook.com/AnneArmstrongRI/posts/hey-qanon-obama-got-fakenewsd-too-the-video-that-got-qd-out-today-was-edited-to-/2125350864400834/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-warning-inauguration-qanon/2021/01/18/293284b6-59c8-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html
https://www.facebook.com/AnneArmstrongRI/posts/hey-qanon-obama-got-fakenewsd-too-the-video-that-got-qd-out-today-was-edited-to-/2125350864400834/https://independent.academia.edu/AlanGordon3
https://www.facebook.com/AnneArmstrongRI/
Bridgewater (Mass.) State Hospital for the Criminally Insane