#it's just... harrow is so vulnerable. and what he does to her is so insidious and fucked up

[vaguely-concerned]

sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

#the locked tomb #harrowhark nonagesimus #john gaius #harrow the ninth #this is why I don't buy john as misunderstood and initially well-meaning AT ALL #this is a pattern you see with him again and again and again -- right down to his interpersonal relationships #(and indeed it's in the more grounded interpersonal relationships you can most clearly see him as he is I think #the fantasy death empire of a thousand years doesn't register quite as viscerally because it's like. heightened; not quite real #but the emotional violence and manipulation that surrounds him? oh boy that is EXTREMELY real and scarily well-observed) #there's a premeditation to so much of what he does (contracts with planets that only end 'in the event of the emperor's death' anyone? #yeah john we get it you're hilarious and I wish you weren't) #the greatest trick john ever pulled was making anyone think he's just a lil guy. what does he know he's only god #when you first read the book the complete callousness of the other adults is so horrible that john seems like an oasis of care #(though you start to get this uneasy feeling when that care never seems to translate to like... relief or soothing or resolution) #and it makes it feel almost obscene when you find out what's actually going on #it's the mercy & augustine enabler hour but at least they're completely honest in their cruelty there #while john is -- well he sure is being john huh #this is just me being angry with him btw philosophically I don't think this is how the story will or should end #(with john slam dunked right into hell that is) #it's just... harrow is so vulnerable. and what he does to her is so insidious and fucked up #john is very deeply human. unfortunately the capacity to quite simply suck so much is deeply human too

[docgold13]

Doc. I’m a longtime mutual and I need a bit of advice. I’m on anon because I don’t want to out myself but I’m willing to DM if necessary.

I think my aunt is in QAnon. She called Mark Drakeford a ‘child eating satainist’ and Donald Trump ‘a wonderful president’. She also said that the virus doesn’t exist, but also it does exist and is caused by 5G. She’s said some nasty things about migrants and has spewed some horrible antisemitism. She keeps talking about a day of reckoning and something I don’t understand about a ‘deep state’. Her children seem to be sucked into it too and her youngest isn’t the most stable and has already been arrested and jailed for domestic violence.

Already the rest of my family don’t have much to do with her because she’s a horrible person. But my mother is in contact with her oldest son who is actually pretty nice. And another of my aunts travels to visit her across the country. However, she’s gullible and will definitely fall down to the QAnon cult if her older sister told her about it, especially since her husband passed as he kept her grounded. My fear is that she listens to her sister, believes the nonsense and brings it to the rest of us.

Right now, my Q aunt is locked down and we’re also going into lockdown until mid-November at least. So I have some time to prepare, if I even can. Q Aunt is on Facebook. Other aunt is not.

What can I do? Is there anything I can even do? I think I’m more scared of this than the virus right now, if I’m honest.

Howdy

Wow, that’s a frightening predicament you’re facing with your mom and her sister. Dealing with such craziness is a lot easier when it can be compartmentalized into sixty minute segments... but the prospect of it infesting your family is just harrowing.

Your aunt sounds like something of a lost cause. These Q types seem to very much enjoy spreading the conspiracies and they’re unlikely to actually know any of the people spreading these notions harm. As such, they’re super unmotivated to change their ways or even question the destructive nature of this hobby.

But that doesn’t mean that you’re helpless in terms of protecting your mom.

It’s ironic that you contrasted this QAnon business with Covid, because the two are similar. These deleterious conspiracy theories spread in a similar fashion to a virus. Exposure combined with susceptibility leads to infection.

And just like a virus the best defense may be inoculation.

I feel that preemptive inoculation to crackpot conspiracy theories is the best way to protect vulnerable individuals from getting caught up in it. With innoculation, a less potent strain of the virus is introduced to create antibodies that are able to fight off stronger strains. The same process can be effective when it comes to dangerous ideas.

Applying this to QAnon, one could first introduce the subject (your mom) to a less potent, more rediculous idea from the group’s various notions. For instance, the idea that the DNC used a special quartz space-ray to assassinate Representative Jim Jordan’s nephew... or that the so-called ‘deep state’ is actual a cabal of Jewish lizard people who feed on sexually abusing children... You would present these madness ideas to your mom ahead of time, before your aunt can start the insidious process of gradually peppering her with the notions. These conspiracy theories usually start with smaller, more plausible notions before gradually elevating to the more outlandish stuff. So if you expose your mom to the super crazy stuff first, she’ll be less likely to get caught up with it all.

So what I would do is reach out to your mom and say you’re worried about your aunt and the crazy, dangerous notions she has been spreading. You tell your mom about the crazier concepts your aunt has deceminated; preemptively couching the ideas as bizarre, nonsensical, damaging and false before your aunt can make her own pitch.

This sort of inoculation isn’t a guarantee... some people are just willfully gullible. But I do think it’s the best defense you have.

I wish you luck and do please feel free to hit me up on DM if you’d like to strategize in more fulsome detail.