Not my president people are everybit as unhinged as qanon people. They unironically said Trump was a kgb asset who Putin was controlling.
Again, if we found out that some Democrat staffer had stuffed a ballot for their guy it wouldn't mean that the vicotry for Biden was fraudulent. It would mean that one single operative committed fraud and probably had no wider impact.
I'd even go as far as saying that it would be far more dangerous than the fsb posting memes.
Do you know the QAnon stuff? It's on a different scale, more in-line with scientology:
> QAnon's adherents, while seeing Trump as a flawed Christian, also view him as a messiah sent by God.
> there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world, essentially, and they control everything
> Followers of QAnon also believe that there is an imminent event known as "The Storm", when thousands of members of the cabal will be arrested and possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay prison or to face military tribunals, and the U.S. military will brutally take over the country.[3] The result will be salvation and utopia on earth.
In comparison to believing that a business man with multiple accusations of corruptions and financial crime, might be collaborating with Russia for his personal gain?
There is, of course, actual smoke on the Russia issue.
- It's unambiguously true that Russia helped Trump get elected in 2016. Even the Republican Senate acknowledges this.
- Trump's campaign had various (documented) unsavoury links with Russia.
- Mueller didn't clear Trump of collusion with Russia, and indeed stated that the (clear) obstruction prevented a full investigation of the topic.
- Trump himself has been extraordinarily soft on Russia, while burning relationships with traditional allies.
- Trump is also pretty effusive in his praise of Putin - dictator of a geopolitical enemy and all-round bad dude.
None of this is speculative - it's all backed up by the facts. This is not to say that Trump is a KGB asset, but it's not hard to see why people might see indications in that direction and take it a step too far. Honestly my personal view is it's highly unlikely - if he was a Russian asset it's likely our intelligence agencies would have known in advance and done something about it. Personally my view is simply that Trump wishes to be an autocrat, and admires other autocrats.
The Q stuff, the Bill Gates microchip stuff, on the other hand, is just completely out of left field.
I'm sure you can point to individual wackos but what is there that has the same scale and impact as Qanon? It's a very unique thing, and it's almost exclusively affecting conservatives.
Russia gate, if anything its even more unhinged because it was on national news instead of blogs. It is one of those things that even a year later everyone involved is keeping really quiet about given how embarrassing it is to have believed it.
I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about. It's now well established that Russia did interfere in the elections with the goal to promote a Trump victory. The only thing not conclusive was active and intentful collaboration with Russia from Trump. But it's very normal to want to open an investigation into Russia's meddling.
> Mueller concluded that Russian interference was "sweeping and systematic" and "violated U.S. criminal law", and he indicted twenty-six Russian citizens and three Russian organizations. The investigation also led to indictments and convictions of Trump campaign officials and associated Americans
> The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee submitted the first in their five-volume 1,313-page report in July 2019 in which they concluded that the January 2017 intelligence community assessment alleging Russian interference was "coherent and well-constructed".
> The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, the operation was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin
> Several individuals connected to Russia contacted various Trump campaign associates, offering business opportunities to the Trump Organization and proferring damaging information on Clinton.
Here's the thing, I don't even know what to make of it. Sure, Trump didn't seek.out Russian help actively or ask them to do any of this, but Russia still interfered in a way to promote his election. Now hard to say how much that helped him win, but it's hard to standby and think... Ya I guess this is fine? Shouldn't we do something to stop this from happening again? And why didn't Trump do anything about it? Shouldn't he say something like ... Well I believe I would have won even without their help, but this is unacceptable and we need to put in place measures to make sure Russia and other foreign powers can no longer meddle in US elections?
Again, if we found out that some Democrat staffer had stuffed a ballot for their guy it wouldn't mean that the vicotry for Biden was fraudulent. It would mean that one single operative committed fraud and probably had no wider impact.
I'd even go as far as saying that it would be far more dangerous than the fsb posting memes.