First, a little palate stimulator from Jose A. Del Real on the "American tradition" of conspiracy theories:
QAnon followers believe that former president Donald Trump spent his time as president battling a cabal of Satan-worshiping “deep state” Democrats who traffic children for sex, a paranoia that has often led to valuable resources being diverted away from real missing children cases. Since the 2020 election, they have also come to believe that Trump’s loss was the result of massive fraud, a disproved conspiracy theory that has in turn created a real threat to our democracy and elections. Going further than the 7 in 10 Republican voters who believe the same election conspiracy, Q followers also assure with prophetic zeal that Trump will be reinstated imminently. Mass arrests of the country’s corrupt elite and a “Great Awakening” will follow, they say. [snip]
Across screens and servers, it has also become easier for opportunists to mobilize conspiratorial thinking for political strength and influence.
More questions unfold from there.
What eases the slide from harmless skepticism, to mainstream doubt, to militant conspiracism?
Where is the line?
Who is most susceptible to crossing it?
We have a case in point, hot off the police blotter!
News item: Armed man with "hit list" including Biden, Fauci arrested in Iowa on way to White House
Authorities in Iowa have arrested a man who was found during a traffic stop to be carrying a rifle and a "hit list" that included President Biden and Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Kuachua Brillion Xiong, from Merced, Calif., was taken into custody last week after allegedly telling police who pulled him over for driving aggressively that he was on his way to the White House "to kill persons in power," according to federal court records that were unsealed Tuesday.
Authorities said they found an AR-15-type rifle, ammunition, body armor, medical kits and a grappling hook in Xiong's vehicle, per court records.
Xiong's "hit list" of targets was compiled from TikTok videos, according to court records. In addition to Biden and Fauci, the Times reported that the list included former Presidents Clinton and Obama and Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, among others.
“Xiong believes that he is the only person remaining who can free the United States of evil and it is necessary for him to kill those in positions of power,” Secret Service agent Justin Larson said in an affidavit, according to the Times.
From the Probable Cause charging document (click to enlarge)
There's the low IQAnon link -- the sex abuse of children by top government officials that exists only in the fevered brains of those cultists. Del Real's article, which delves into the history, scope and conditions that foster conspiracy theories is a fascinating read.
But we have a fairly prosaic observation out of all of this: a clearly mentally ill person was able to purchase an AR-15. It's illegal in Xiong's home state of California to possess, make or sell an assault rifle. If he purchased it somewhere else and had no criminal record, it's likely he passed a background check. Our guess is authorities will look into how he got the AR-15, and doubtless will find he purchased it legally (though possessing it in California was illegal). That's because we have a patchwork of ineffective "gun laws" across the states that do little to keep killing machines out of the hands of mentally unstable people like Xiong -- and, for that matter the Denver shooter -- much less your ordinary apolitical psychopath. That's another "American tradition" that we can't seem to overcome.
(Photo: Xiong mugshot via Cass County, IA, sheriff's department)
