At What Point Does An Ideology Become A Mental Illness?
From Q-Anon to inceldom, there’s got to be a line in the sand.
Let me tell you guys about a moment I had at a cafe. I was alone, trying to get an idea or two for a new restaurant review. It was then that I overheard the conversation of a couple of people at the table next to me.
Normally, I try to just ponder and mind my own business as I trawl for ideas. This time, though, the conversation was so bizarre, so absolutely shocking, I had to turn around and ask them if I was hearing things.
It’s rare to hear a conversation that makes my jaw drop. I mean, I remember smoking a cigarette dipped in PCP and thinking that animals used to be like people, then decided to devolve into animals again.
I’m used to weird, but this was just plain wild.
The couple next to me was an older woman — I’d say around 60. Next to her was her kid, a very exasperated and depressed-looking man around my age.
The woman kept saying that Trump was going to save the world from a pedophile cabal. Her son (or who I assumed was her son) looked defeated and was trying to change the topic.
He decided to try to talk about his return to school.
“I’m a math major, mom. I’m going back for my Master’s. Let’s talk about that. Please,” he groaned.
She then started spouting off more weird Q-Anon conspiracies, starting with, “Good. Then you’ll see that bankers invented the number zero. Zero doesn’t exist.”
I had to stop there. I turned around and decided to be a buttinsky, “Excuse me, did you say that zero didn’t exist?”
Her son grimaced. This was a man broken by his Qmom. She began to explain that zero didn’t exist because how can something nonexistent exist? And then she went on about how this was for banking and how this and that and…
Well, it all was total nonsense. She kept saying that “they” brainwashed me and her son. I stopped talking and just stared at her like some work of trainwreck art. Her son ordered the check and ushered her out.
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