David Icke’s followers were always the gold standard of utterly fringe, extreme right bat shittery. Specifically the theory that all the important people that run the world (including the whole British royal family) are in fact lizard people.
I think Icke himself is just mental ill. He was a British sports commentator who had a mental breakdown and went on TV and claimed to be the son of god (and further state that thats why he wears only turquoise). But the extreme right latched onto his theories with the idea that when he says “lizard people” he actually means “jewish people” (which if anything makes even less sense, I mean since when did anyone claim either Royal family or the Clintons were jewish?)
Though in these days of Q-Anon supporting congresswomen that kind super super extreme fringe bonkers-ness is pretty mainstream (I wouldn’t be surprised Icke’s theories were an inspiration for Q-Anon’s bat-shittery)
So I stand corrected, this theory is pretty beleivable compared to the follow up:
The Moon Matrix is introduced in Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More (2010), in which Icke suggests that the Earth and the collective human mind are manipulated from the Moon, a spacecraft and inter-dimensional portal the reptilians control. The Moon Matrix is a broadcast from that spacecraft to the human body–computer, specifically to the left hemisphere of the brain, which gives us our sense of reality.
where he introduces the concept of the “Saturn–Moon Matrix”. In this more recent conceptualization, the rings of Saturn (which Icke believes were artificially created by reptilian spacecraft) are the ultimate source of the signal, while the Moon functions as an amplifier.[120][ page needed ][154] He claims that frequencies broadcast from the hexagonal storm on Saturn are amplified through the hollow structure of our artificial moon keeping humanity trapped in a holographic projection.[15]
The “loopiest”, to me, is what I consider their fundamental belief. Liberals are destroying our society because they are promoting equal rights for minorities that are inferior, and Trump and those of his ilk will “Make America Great Again” by returning this country to a time when the white race reigned supreme. Southern states will again have the power to once again institutionalize racial oppression, and women will once again be subservient to the men they are supposed to serve.
This is all of course completely batshit, but the idea at its core is revealing: that political adversaries must not only be willing to kill each other, but that the “loser” if he/she survives must also switch parties and embrace a 180-degree difference in political views.
Never mind that this idea contradicts literally every intra-party squabble of the last century or so.
Basic mental illness. The odd thing is, why do folks who seem outwardly sane end up following a mentally ill person? I mean, in the past, the dude ranting at the park with his underwear on his head did not exactly attract a following of the local townsfolk, who decided that his idea of mind rays from the post office actually sounded rational.
Nitpick: 8 elections. (ETA: damn you Waldo and my slow fingers)
As to the craziest conspiracy theories, I think at the top is the whole adrenochrome conspiracy where Evil Democrats harvest adreochrome from the pituitary gland of scared children far various nefarious purposes. (satanic rituals, getting high, or stop aging).
As a close second I would posit the Obama Tunnels under Walmart to facilitate the takeover of Texas.
Incidentally in searching for a reference for the adrenochrome I can across the following link
It turns out to be a real thing. Clinton Industries (which to my knowledge has no relation to Bill and Hillary) is a real medical furniture company that manufactures phlebotomy stations. They apparently stopped selling the infant stations. I wonder if this was in reaction to QAnon.
… the cabinets were “all listed with girls’ names,” prompting followers to allege that the pieces of furniture actually had children hidden in them as part of a supposed child trafficking ring.
You can find antivaxers across the political spectrum.
On the other hand, politicians catering to them and sharing their asinine beliefs are heavily right-wing. Pro-vaccine conservatives like Mitch McConnell, who should be calling out colleagues who foster opposition to vaccination, are loath to do so.
Because now the mentally ill person’s rantings happen to align with their own selfish end-goals. That, and how right wing propaganda channels have been dumbing down the populace’s IQ for the past 30 years.
As someone who lives in Central Texas, the JadeHelm epicenter, the most shocking thing about this one is that the current Texas governor, Greg Abbott, was involved in spreading this rumor. I cannot understand why anyone would vote for these people. I don’t for a second believe that Abbott actually thought that the US was about to invade Texas. For one thing, THEY’RE ALREADY HERE! The largest military installation of any kind in the ENTIRE WORLD is located between Austin and Waco. I am quite confident that Abbott has heard of Fort Hood. I know I have been on that post several times.
I weep for our country. We’ve always had the loons, but we didn’t elect them to high office. Or, more accurately, our politicians didn’t depend on the loony vote to get elected.
But but but… the rantings are so obviously batshit insane. Sure they basically align with right wing goals… but they are (not to belabour the point) batshit insane.
So I actually used to think Icke was doing us all a service. He was so bonkers, and so fringe that any far right scumbag that followed him would be doomed to forever stay in the political fringes, as no mainstream party, regardless of politics, would ever associate with that kind of lunacy. Regardless of politics surely no mainstream political organization would accept anyone into their ranks who stood for something so completely unhinged and disassociated from reality.
Of course, the subsequent years have completely proved me right in this
When it comes to Icke, I think the problem is, saying “lizards = Jews” is the kind of thing that passes for clever amongst the racists and Nazis. They really believed Icke was writing anti-Jewish screeds disguised as rantings about space lizards, in a clever attempt to bypass accusations of racism, and so used this as an opportunity to expand their ranks “covertly”.
As crazy as Icke is, it’s to his credit that he apparently got really annoyed at the Nazis trying to promote this interpretation, because when he said Space Lizards, he meant actual Goddamned Space Lizards, damnit!
A man drove by an asylum and got a flat tire. As he begins to change the tire, he sees a man in a window watching him from the insane asylum.
Nervous as he changes his tire, he drops the lugnuts down the sewer drain.
Now he’s stuck on what to do
The patient in the window yells down at the man. “Hey! …hey! Up here! Take one lug nut off of each tire, then each tire will have 3 and you can get into town and replace them.”
The man says, " omg that’s brilliant! What are you doing in a place like this??"
The patient says, " I’m crazy, not stupid!"
Icke started off as a popular soccer player, and would have had at least some experience in marketing and how to appeal to the fan base. Just because he went insane doesn’t mean he’d just forget all that.
