Why is this happening?
Who comes up with such evil stories??
Why do some people believe them???
The Smart People Weigh In
Ok. So why is this happening?
It doesn't take a genius to see that the same story gets told over and over, only the characters change. Any coherent person can see something isn't quite right. I mean, either we're stuck in a glitch, a loop, where no one can come up with a better horror story than this one - or there is something deeper going one here. I, for one, am going with "there is something deeper going on here".
René Girard, a literary sociologist, writes:
Men feel powerless when confronted with the eclipse of culture; they are disconnected by the immensity of the disaster but never look into the natural causes...Since cultural eclipse is above all a social crisis, there is a strong tendency to explain it by social and, especially, moral causes..But, rather than blame themselves, people inevitably blame either society as a whole, which costs them nothing, or other people who seem particularly harmful....These suspects are accused of a particular category of crimes (emphasis mine)...First there are violent crimes which choose as object those people whom it is most criminal to attack...a king, a father, the symbol of supreme authority, and in biblical and modern societies the weakest and most defenseless. The there are sexual crimes...The ones most frequently invoked transgress the taboos that are considered the strictest in the society in question. (pg. 15)
"The Scapegoat"
René Girard
"Online settings can create a kind of virtual proximity that allows members from distant locations and diverse backgrounds to come together. The digital world creates spaces where people can meet virtually; group members are always as close as the nearest web-enabled digital device...In some cases, online communication offers opportunities for groups to strengthen beliefs and find camaraderie in ways they couldn't before because they are separated by physical distance" (pg.39).
The Power of Social Media
Martha Sims and Martine Stephens
"Living Folklore, 2nd Edition: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their traditions"
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QAnon in Germany
"QAnon Is Thriving in Germany. The Extreme Right Is Delighted."
New York Times
Published Oct. 11, 2020 Updated Nov. 3, 2020
"When it was scaled back this spring because of the coronavirus, QAnon followers contended that Ms. Merkel had used a “fake pandemic” to scupper a secret liberation plan.
Then one far-right movement, known as the Reichsbürger, or citizens of the Reich, jumped onto the QAnon traffic online to give greater visibility to its own conspiracy theory.
The Reichsbürger, estimated by the government to have about 19,000 followers, believe that Germany’s postwar republic is not a sovereign country but a corporation set up by the allies after World War II. The QAnon conspiracies dovetailed with their own and offered the prospect of an army led by Mr. Trump restoring the German Reich."