The Envy List #26: Who is Q?

QAnon and Other Irrelevancies

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1.The internet’s favorite conspiracy theory is QAnon, and it’s more dangerous than you think. Read more...

QAnon is emblematic of modern America’s susceptibility to conspiracy theories, and its enthusiasm for them. But it is also already much more than a loose collection of conspiracy-minded chat-room inhabitants. It is a movement united in mass rejection of reason, objectivity, and other Enlightenment values. And we are likely closer to the beginning of its story than the end. The group harnesses paranoia to fervent hope and a deep sense of belonging. The way it breathes life into an ancient preoccupation with end-times is also radically new. To look at QAnon is to see not just a conspiracy theory but the birth of a new religion.

—"The Prophecies of Q: American Conspiracy Theories Are Entering A Dangerous New Phase” by Adrienne LaFrance from The Atlantic

2. Doctors appointments sans weight-shaming? Count me in. Read more…

The waiting room at the Mosaic Comprehensive Care Clinic in Chapel Hill, N.C., is as generic as any doctor's office except for a framed sign by the door. “No Wrong Way to Have a Body,” it says, above an illustration of different cacti species. The second anomaly of this primary care practice is what is missing from the exam rooms: there are no scales. Louise Metz, the clinic's owner and founder, keeps just one on the premises, tucked in a back hallway. Most patients never even know it is there.

—”What if Doctors Stopped Prescribing Weight Loss?” by Virginia Sole-Smith from Scientific American

3. Getting serious about racism means rejecting symbols of hate. Read more…

A nation that still honors Confederate signs in public places signals its belief that Black people are less important than white people, that Black people’s trauma can be disregarded. Confederate flags signal to the public that it’s okay to keep ignoring the worst and ugliest sins of our past, while trying to create an impenetrable barrier to a different and better future.

—”Rejecting Symbols of Hate” by Jim Wallis from Sojourners

4. Just for fun, a throw-back to Thanksgiving with Laura Ingalls Wilder. (The only thing I remember from the Little House books were the FOODS—turns out, it’s not just me.) Read more…

Everyone who grew up on the Little House books has their own particular treasured food memory from the books. How Pa butchered the pig, smoked the meat, and used every bit of it, down to inflating the empty bladder for the girls to play with as a balloon. The spring on Plum Creek when they ran out of food and ate only fried fish and “crisp, juicy” turnips. Ma frying “vanity cake” doughnuts, so named because they’re “all puffed up, like vanity, with nothing solid inside.” Almanzo stuffing himself from the following spread at the county fair: pumpkin pie, custard pie, vinegar pie, mince pie, berry pies, cream pies, raisin pies…

—"Thanksgiving with Laura Ingalls Wilder” by Valerie Stivers’ column where she cooks up recipes drawn from the works of writers, from The Paris Review

5. Wondering what the cops are good for? These cops took out drug gangs across the globe by hacking into a “secure” app. Read more…

Unbeknownst to …the tens of thousands of other alleged Encrochat users, their messages weren't really secure. French authorities had penetrated the Encrochat network, leveraged that access to install a technical tool in what appears to be a mass hacking operation, and had been quietly reading the users' communications for months. Investigators then shared those messages with agencies around Europe.…As dealers planned trades, money launderers washed their proceeds, and even criminals discussed their next murder, officers read their messages and started taking suspects off the street.

—”How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime” by Joseph Cox from Vice

PLUS, my latest publication…

A story about a short term mission trip I took to El Salvador in the eleventh grade and the worst youth group leader in the world. :-/ Read more…

“On the Mountaintop” by Liz Charlotte Grant from Rock and Sling’s “How to Pack for Church Camp” Project

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