The following is an email I sent today to an anthropology student from [REDACTED] who made contact with us last year.
Initially, back in July 2020, the intention of the student’s research had been to focus on the [REDACTED] people’s experience of isolation in the context of Covid restrictions. After gaining the trust of one of the support groups we hosted the student shifted their focus to a belief in conspiracy theories in the context of the ongoing pandemic. The student left our country in November 2020, while their own nation was contemplating exterminating their entire population of [REDACTED], hundreds of thousands of them, in an attempt to keep their human population safe and virus free. We have had scant contact from the student since.
From[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
To[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
[REDACTED]
SubjectCrackers
DateTuesday, 9 February 2021 9:35 PM
Size4 KB
Hi [REDACTED],
Hope all is well with you.
Who knew that your focus on niche responses to current events would blow up into one of the biggest issues in the Western world right now??
How are you coping? With all of it?
I’m aware that email might not be the best way for us to communicate fluently or securely so if you’re inclined, do feel free to use [REDACTED] if you ever just want to virtually hang out or unload your brain.
One of the women from the [REDACTED] group came in today and very soon she went from talking about something completely [REDACTED], to the New World Order’s ultimate [REDACTED] aims… It’s still hard to know how to respond, knowing that her beliefs are not helping her in any way… not in terms of her relationship with her children or health professionals, or dealing with her own very real and ongoing [REDACTED] issues. At least not in anything more than a vaguely distracting sense. After all, what’s the point in talking to anyone if they don’t understand what the [REDACTED] is really going on? But what can you do? Seriously, what can you do? How do you make a meaningful connection when the normal rules of [REDACTED] have been suspended?
Speaking of faith, several [REDACTED] ladies of the local [REDACTED], in the throes of an epiphany after recently having encountered actual poor people in close quarters, have enacted upon a local initiative in order to use government money to run a [REDACTED] every Saturday for the next 8 weeks – free [REDACTED] for anyone in need. I invited the [REDACTED] woman to help herself from a room full of [REDACTED] and basic essentials. She reticently took a bag of [REDACTED] but left in exchange an unopened packet of organic crackers. Very appropriate, I thought.
Very little is likely to happen here for a while regarding the lifting of lockdown restrictions. The government has set a date of 8th of March for schools reopening. Nothing else will open before that and I’m assuming it will be some weeks after before anything else will follow. I could do with a haircut and shave but I’ll survive without them. If these are my major concerns, I’m doing alright. The Covid death rate here is currently around 1000 people a day, the same as when the most recent lockdown measures started, except now the numbers are going down instead of up so this figure of 1000 is currently being touted as ‘good’ news. It’s all relative isn’t it? And very much dependent on which way the numbers are heading.
I’ve seen quite a few accounts of ex-QAnon people recently, and have been struck by how similarly their experiences mirror those who have managed to extricate themselves from cults. The figureheads, the prophecies etc… It will be interesting how many other people will find themselves emerging perplexed, baffled and perhaps a little ashamed, from their internet induced trances over the next year or two. I suspect some will probably get worse before they get better. As long as quarantines last and the internet remains their main source of information, self-regulation and social connection, I fear the worst.
Nonetheless, on the flip side, I listened to another good Factually interview the other day, this one focussing on finding some of the more hopeful aspects that may come out of all this. One thing I learnt was that historically there has only ever been one occasion in real life when a Lord of the Flies type situation occurred and in that instance the children did not descend into savagery, quite the opposite; they survived together through co-operation. I think this is the real essence of homo sapiens, that historically as a species we can be more accurately characterised by our managing to achieve unprecedented levels of mass co-operation than our sporadic episodes of conflict. No matter how horrific those episodes may have been – and continue to be – they are always relatively short lived. Not to diminish, in the slightest, the suffering they cause but the peaceful motivations and ideals of the masses always prevail in the end. I’m feeling optimistic for humanity at the moment!
How are you coping with daily life in the confines of your small apartment with your [REDACTED] and current curfews? I hope you are allowed a modicum more freedom than you currently endure very soon.
Best wishes,
[REDACTED]
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