To the Editor:
Increasingly in this country, there are people who have reached the emotional or mental state that they have resorted to believing and promulgating profoundly fantastical conspiracy theories. Here are just a couple of examples to illustrate what, for instance QAnon, holds as truth.
Child traffickers are usually Democrats, run sex slave operations in pizza parlors, drink blood. No evidence required.
JFK, Jr., is hiding out somewhere to join Trump as his VP candidate in 2024.
“The Jews are trying to replace us.” Charlottesville
The man we all heard say that you should just grab women by their private parts is here to save us from the demented sex offenders.
The 2020 election will be reversed any day now.
The Democrats were for once so organized and crafty that ordinary elections workers were trained to cheat and stole the election for Biden, though fake Republican “electors” tried to save it for Trump. The Big Lie, and not one single court in the land bought the argument.
Someday, we will rely on psychologists and recovered extremists to tell us how people feel hopeless enough to nurture and believe in national and global conspiracy theories. Why people look at a changing world and see only Doomsday, failing to understand that history is full of pivotal changes. How people get whipped up into accepting and believing ridiculous things and feel more powerful because of it. How social networks insinuate themselves and encourage victimhood and fear of the unknown. How independent thought or considering other opinions are anathema. Why people become addicted to resentment and vengeance against those who disagree with them.
History itself should be sufficient to demonstrate how the embrace of conspiracy theories and isolation and rejection of The Other have resulted in the most vicious and bloody genocides the world has known, even in the last centuries. Some here, some in Europe and elsewhere. For some people, the only relevant memories are those that extend as far back as the gauzy recollections of their own childhoods.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore

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To the Editor:
Mr. Farrell, I commend you for your excellent September 1, 2022 "Realities" column in which you responded to Kelly Scoles' letter. I agree completely with you that we have a God of "Divine Mercy," (He in love sent His only Son).
There aren't two gods but one God, as you infer; "the God of everything." Kelly Scoles wrote about the "vengeful god of the Old Testament." I wonder if she realizes what kind of injustices in the Old Testament the just Father of Jesus addressed? A common practice of the people in those days was to sacrifice their children by burning them alive to appease their "gods." A few examples are in Deuteronomy 12:31, 2 Kings 17:31, and 2 Chronicles 28:3. To punish people for these and other atrocities is not being vengeful but perfectly just - as you stated.
Thank you for your column,
Mary Bennett,
Fillmore

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To the Editor:
A lot has happened in the USA since the election of 2020. During the months leading up to that day I didn’t hear Congresswoman Brownley, Assemblymember Bennet or even that Biden wanted to open our borders to millions, as well as the drug cartels or sex trafficking. Nor did they say they were going to vote for massive debt on top of inflation. While in support of electric vehicles at no time did they indicate they were going to tell us we could kiss our energy independence goodbye and that they planned on telling us what kind of car we can drive.
Back in 2020 they never mentioned they wanted to destroy women’s sports and now they can no longer define what a woman is.
We’re told what words we can use and as a result our speech is being limited. The ability to assemble has been curtailed as is evidenced by the arrests of those who didn’t even enter the Capital but were outside on the Capital Mall. If you are a Republican, you are a white supremacist, racist, and now a fascist.
Did you vote for any of this?
Our president, vice president, the attorney general, and others have declared war on their opposing party. In a two-party country, they are working to form an authoritarian government.
Currently the Department of Justice is targeting dozens of individuals, requesting, by way of subpoena, all information that sets forth “Any claim that the Vice President and/or the President of the Senate had the authority to reject or choose not to count presidential electors.”
So, you can’t question an election? Tell that to Stacy Abrams who for years said she was the true governor of Georgia. Or Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton who both refused to acknowledge the outcome of the 2016 election.
On September 1 Biden said, “Equality and democracy are under assault, and we do ourselves no favor by saying otherwise,” and Trump, as well as his supporters, are “a clear and present danger,” who “placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy ...”.
The very next day, a woman who flies a Trump flag on her doorstep and posted support for Trump on Facebook had the FBI knocking on her door in the wee hours of the morning saying they’d received an anonymous tip she’d been at the Capital on January 6. They intended to take her into custody unless she could prove she’d not been there. Anonymous tip? Has it come down to this? These are the tactics Hitler and Stalin used to harass and intimidate their countrymen into submission.
Again, did you vote for any of this? I sure as hell didn’t.
Patti Walker,
Fillmore