January 14, 2021

Well, today I went to Castle Medical Center and recieved my first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. So far I'm fine. I do not think they inject some form of chip into my arm, and I don't believe Bill Gates and his minions are tracking me. However, I am interested in understanding and communicating to others about our human group tendency to perpetuate and give life to such conspiracy paranoid delusional shared pseudo-reality.   Qanon has a history of group endorsed conspiracy theories with very bizarre fantasy beliefs. Actors, politicians, people with wealth and influence all have aggrandized power and influence over the rest of us through very dark methods including using the blood of children, having sex with children and murder which then is taped to blackmail the perpetrator. Politicians are involved both on the side of these nefarious perpetrators and on the side to expose them. Trump has a leading role. Various predictions of disastrous events have been made without any evidence of any accuracy. People have believed so wholeheartedly they have committed crimes to attempt to redress these delusional beliefs. Expert scientific study and scientists who have researched various subjects are disdained as liars and misinformers while the conspiracy theorist troll the internet and other sources for alternative explanations that they echo to each other seemingly amplifying their message as an alternative reality to be better believed. Here is a link for Wikipedia that summarizes some of my points (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon) and another link to Washington Post (https://apple.news/Ah9BznpVxS_Cop8chpsWUjQ).

This morning I visited a Facebook member of our family who is an advocate for these and other conspiracy theory group delusions. I perused his posts and the replies. It's an echo chamber of righteous paranoid opinions and pseudo facts which reinforce the participants energy and convictions. Erich Fromm has written about narcissism and group narcissism. The narcissist charismatic leader and his group narcissist followers interact and keep the system closed. The followers can become more agitated into action when their opinions are challenged, The challenger become a target for hateful threats and actual threats. Threatened and emboldened the group can congregate, plan strategy, and then raise all sorts of hell as recently witnessed by our nation. Since the participants of the group narcissistic collective only recognize communication that enhances their status and beliefs this is a mostly closed system. Reason therefore has no place or influence. 

Twenty years ago I examined Bryan Uyesugi who murdered seven coworkers at Xerox building in Honolulu. (http://archives.starbulletin.com/2000/05/25/news/index.html)

He was paranoid believing that his coworkers were plotting against him, sabotaging his machine repairs, and even killing his pet fish at his home. He had no ability to entertain any other explanation for his difficulties. For example, he had complaints from various customers that he was at times sloppy and did poor repairs and sometimes was very angry. His coworkers attempted to have management counsel or remove him from his job but they accepted his brief psychiatric assessment that he was not so disturbed. His father did notice that he complained about strange things and had a spiritual exorcizar come to the home to rid the home of bad spirits. My interactions with him demonstrated that reasoning with him to present alternative explanations for the paranoid delusions he reported was rejected repeatedly by him. His horrific crimes were planned and carried out so he knew very well that he had weapons that could kill, that he was using these weapons methodology hunting down his victims after he concealed the weapons when coming to work to enter the room where he knew his seven victims were meeting. He escaped later and knew why the police had come for him and spoke about his crimes to the police officer aware of exactly what he had done. He had no remorse but continued to justify his crimes based on delusional beliefs. His mental condition is very similar to other people I have examined and attempted to treat through the years.

How is this different from the Qanon believers and other conspiracy believers who followed the charismatic leaders direction to march on the Capital, enter illegally, destroy property, assault police and guards, and threaten our legislators? From my reading of the Facebook participant I can find no difference! He believes the conspiracy. He is angry that those not in his orbit and groups are causing harm and aggrandizing power illegally. He wants to redress these wrongs through group efforts including traveling to the Capitol. 

Some writers on this subject have opined that insurgents and secessionists in the world can not be reasoned with but must be isolated if possible and suffer the consequences of their actions through judicial and police efforts. So if we take this tack I'm off the hook so I don't have to examine and attempt to treat them for our social malady. There is no mental health treatment or remedy for this.

In my previous posts I have written about how people marginalized and losing status, privilege, and means of employment can be attracted and influenced to endorse and follow conspiracy theory and then become part of the group narcissistic collective. Through social governmental efforts redress and changes to assist them find meaning in healthier interactions in the world through employment opportunities, fair wage reimbursement, labor laws and union assistance to counter corporation exploitation, better health care, better housing assistance, food availability, and other programs and laws to include these groups as part of us all may reverse the dystopian world we seem to be entering. 

Last evening Rebecca and I watched Knock Down The House    (https://www.netflix.com/watch/81080637?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Cc3e9597673050a506741cf53003bf47654789e1c%3Ad66a0e0a7c5404645a92069e0db758217b71965d%2Cc3e9597673050a506741cf53003bf47654789e1c%3Ad66a0e0a7c5404645a92069e0db758217b71965d%2Cunknown%2C) concerning U.S. state primary challenges recently to established elected officials with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the winner this time. This is a powerful documentary about grass roots attempts and one success to elect people with no allegiance to lobbyist, corporations, etc. I followed up by looking up the "squads" recent activities and Ocasio-Cortez's challenges. For me so far I'm a supporter as I was, for example, back in the day to Martin Luther King and other civil right movement heroes of the day. A healthy democracy needs to have passionate people who are communicating closely with their constituents and interacting in debates and proposals for the betterment of their constituents. They don't endorse The Big Lie (Trump won the election against Biden). They don't advocate mayhem and threats to further their narcissistic beliefs. 

Oh, well. Now that this is out of my system (for now) I'll see if Rebecca will give me my overdue haircut. 

Leonard