What a relief. It turns out Anthony Quinn Warner, the Christmas Day Nashville bomber, was mentally deranged, a loner, and not part of an organized movement of radicals who might inflict further mayhem on our currently fragile nation.
Well, yes, Warner—who died in the blast of his own making—was barkin’ mad, but perhaps we shouldn’t let our guard down just yet.
Warner seriously believed we earthlings are being manipulated by a race of alien reptilians who have implanted microchips in our brains to control us.
As recently reported, Warner seriously believed we earthlings are being manipulated by a race of alien reptilians who have implanted microchips in our brains to control us. Utterly bonkers. But is he alone in his delusions? While relatively few Americans believe reptile beings from outer space walk among us as our puppet masters, millions of our countrymen and women cling tenaciously to the following bizarre conspiracy theories:
· COVID is a “deep-state” plot aimed at population control and getting Trump out of office. From an interview on the Trumpist One America News (OAN): “The U.S. and its Five Eyes intel partners point out COVID-19 broke out shortly after President Trump forced China into a phase-one trade deal to reduce Chinese control of the U.S. economy. Now that China may be striking back, there is concern that the deep state, Democrat cabal, and the Big Pharma are working to derail President Trump's reelection and force the American people into total submission and control.”
· National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci is a leader of the “deep state,” and, along with the Clintons, is part of a plot to undermine Trump’s efforts to “drain the D.C. swamp.”
· “One-third of Americans believe that voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election, despite the fact that courts, election officials and the Justice Department have found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome.”
· Martial law: Ironically, during the Obama years, it was far-right groups that were sounding the alarms over their fear of presidential-implemented martial law. Back then, right-wing survivalist Don Harkin alleged, “This unconstitutional form of government [martial law] is being implemented all over the country—particularly in the nation's more densely populated areas such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle."
· “Deep-state” government will confiscate citizens’ guns: “Their real agenda is to disarm law-abiding GENTILES, whom Zionist Jews fear will soon discover Jewry’s anti-American, freedom-hating mission.”
The list could go on and on, but I’ll end it with this one from the always-entertaining-but-absolutely- outrageous Alex Jones, who sounds a lot like the late Anthony Quinn Warner. Click on the link to Jones's InfoWars for a few laughs amid the madness: “Alien Injection Takes Over Every Cell In Your Body.”
Our nation is in peril, and my people, white evangelicals, are largely responsible. Far too many of my people have fallen prey to hucksters who peddle tall tales and foolish fables like those listed above, either for profit or for laughs. My people are too easily duped. And they’re too easily duped because they’re too intellectually lazy. Believing bogus fables is much easier than investigating such claims. My attempts at reasoning with them have failed.
Be prepared for the mayhem that can be wrought by just a small percentage of the tens of millions—many of them white evangelicals—who believe wacko conspiracy theories not that far removed from the alien reptile ruler nonsense Anthony Quinn Warner feared.
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