The Quiet Damage of QAnon feat. Jesselyn Cook (E288)

I’m a latecomer to the pod and have only just caught up here as of today. But I think it needs to be said - Jake is very sweet and encouraging, possibly excessively so. People SHOULD feel shame for what wrong they have done. It should not be downplayed. Shame for his actions drove the man featured in the story out of his deception. It set him on a path of recovery. It seems to me that a lack of shame, a lust for affirmation to the exclusion of all else, drives so many of these conspiracists.

I should have been interviewed for her book. I just ended a relationship because I couldn’t handle any more of his heavy-handed attempts to convert me to a belief system I found outrageous. And that was, seriously, the only problem with our relationship. In every other respect he’s a really great guy. And you don’t have to be American or live in the US to be affected by this shit. My ex-partner is Swiss and French!

Jake was so eloquent in this one. ❤️

I tried to listen to the first couple chapters of this and the email the mom sent the attorney guy telling him to shed her DNA because he voted for China Joe is so hard to listen to... YIKES

I got the book on Audible immediately after this podcast. First I want to say Jesselyn does a great job with the narration. I'm about halfway through it and it's sad and harrowing what some of these families and people went through. An amazing book.

This was one of my favorite episode

Cautionary tale: Don't assume that because you are not in the anglosphere you're safe from QA and QA style mania. It took some time, but continental europe already have spin offs and conspiracies with outrageous and more outrageous claims. The playbook is page per page what you talk about in this episode. On a personal level it was really sad to see your aunts or uncles who warned you "dont believe everything on the internet" on the 2000s fall into these rabbit holes through X or conservative media.

I still think they are stupid moron idiots sorry. I think you guys kinda ignored and maybe white washed corporate medias role in shaping politics and the American consciousness. Saying stuff about how it used to be “one left one right and one moderator” is just silly.

Jake its me your cousin rake, family bbq is aug 19th i know youre super famous now but hope to see you there

Im convince jake gets half his personality from jake peralta from brooklyn 99 with all the movie references, is that how you chose your alias?

I refuse to care about these fascist imbeciles on any human level

Love the pep talk, Jake. Who doesn't need to hear that every once in a while?

Suuuuuuch a good episode 👏🏻

Lovely sign off Jake 👌

QA followers, like Cybertruck owners. are complex individuals with intricate personalities who deserve our respect

I love this episode! Thank you guys really excellent.

my grandmother, long time Art Bell listener, got completely pilled by QAnon and cut US off when we told her we had been vaccinated against COVID a few years ago. i’m really looking forward to this episode.

Really compassionate episode that reminds me of a lot of the reasons I fell in love with the podcast. Love a good Jake and Travis tag team, too. Nice job, guys! Matt, thanks for being so open about your story, man - looking forward to checking out Jesselyn's book!

Aw man I love Jake

Matt shouldn't feel ashamed. His is a story of great inspiration, and I hope the people who need to hear it do. Thanks for ending on it.

I love how you had empathy towards the people who got sucked into the qult. What a fascinating episode. I love it when QAA hits us with a well researched ep that makes me feel something 😵

The compassionate words in this podcast is why I love the work of QAA. I appreciate your work so deeply and my local independent bookstore loves that you keep making recommendations!

crap episode, as usual. what a waste of five bucks every month. but im a pain piggie so ill keep consuming it cuz it makes my stomach hurt and i like that kinda stuff

What really saved that guy Matt was seeing Jake’s feet on HBO.

QAA keeps me adding to by TBR pile. Another book I’ll have to order and read! Great episode, tragic and very sad topic.

What an eye opening story that really shows both sides of the coin!

I hope I'm not breaking a rule, but I'd like to recommend a book to complement Quiet Damage. The book is The Longest Con;, How Grifters, Swindlers,and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism, by Joe Conason.

The Bernie people turning to Qanon is yet more proof that people are being driven this insane by the complete lack of class consciousness in this country. If you can't recognize the machinations of the capital class everything is going to look like a conspiracy bc you have no mechanism to explain the wide scale coordination of the ruling elite except thru insane theories.

Anyone read this book? This sounds like one I need to get ASAP

This one's a sharer. Ppl be needing it.

Excellent episode as always! I do think that the idea of a previous era where everyone was in the same reality is maybe a little of rose tinting though - in the 1980s during the satanic panic I'm sure many people thought it was insane even though it was pretty widely reported (to pick just one example).

Well done QAA.

Thank you guys, for yet another great book recommendation! I woke up, saw the new episode in my alarms, listened and then immediately bought the audio book ;) Listening to chapter 5 as I write. Great episode and another great book. I already enjoyed Black Pill from Episode 285. Your podcast is one of the few things that make my highlights of every week.

What a wonderful episode, full of empathy, understanding, and light! This is what drew me to this podcast and keeps me coming back.

I wanted to +1 what Travis said about volunteering. Or really having any in-person groups/clubs people can join. I remember this great essay by this film historian who showed that it wasn’t TV in the 1950s that diminished moviegoing, but rather a combination of white flight AND participation in local groups/clubs and having hobbies that cut into Hollywood’s profits.

One of the reasons I listen to this podcast is because I went down the rabbit hole about 911 - I remember watching the YouTube videos of pizza gate - watched every video about 911 and the conspiracies and I remember saying to my daughter about one of the theories and she was freaked out about what I was saying and couldn’t believe what I was saying until this day, I feel shame about it of what I was saying to her. The probably took a month of her intervening with me and then she saved me from ever being in QAnon but maybe I could’ve I don’t know. It’s still kind of embarrassing to this day of who I thought I was of how I thought about who I was wouldn’t be that person, but I was for a while, and if my daughter didn’t intervene with me, who knows where I would be today with all this shit. Then I found your podcast and I listen every week and thank you to my daughter and I hope people can know what the truth is eventually or get back into reality.

Great interview! It’s refreshing to hear a compassionate, real and empowering perspective. This gives me some ray of hope. More of this please.

@13-17 min. The story about Alice… so many people were disillusioned by what happened to Bernie… and it seems a number of them went on a journey similar to Alice. I’ve certainly met at least a half dozen, and I have many friends who have said the same.

Thank you so much for this episode and the additional messages of positivity. I just went to an amazing festival in Louisville focused on mental health where I finally saw Dubtribe, who was the textbook example of love, positivity, and a righteous call to action so I'm here for the slightly hopeful tone to a somber subject.

@10 minutes - I tend to think the incessant research and sharing QAnons do is more of a trauma response than it is about spreading anger. It’s symptomatic of an amygdala hijack - fear reactions.

There's a real generational irony here in that I'm sure a lot of other people remember these older generations telling us as kids, "Don't believe everything you read on the internet, now! Anybody can just write anything on there!" I heard this over and over again growing up, at home and even as safety lessons in class right alongside "Just Say No" and "Stop, Drop, & Roll." What happened? Was it really just the introduction of slickly-produced video short-circuiting the older human brain's Edward R. Murrow lobe? Was it an example of something understood intellectually but *not* internalized from childhood to fall back on when they were the ones being targeted this time? Is it just me growing up in an ooh-la-la PMC liberal bubble and most people weren't actually saying this at all but it protected all of the older people *I personally know* from swallowing this shit? Is the whole age trend really just an example of all-or-nothing human cognitive bias and older people are really just *kinda* more vulnerable to being taken in, they're just an extremely visible tip of an iceberg of more isolated younger believers because older people's participation isn't as taken for granted online or in marches and they tend to have more time & money available to travel & get more visibly hog wild with it? Could we face a totally new & by definition unimaginable techno-media paradigm when we're their age that WE'LL be just as vulnerable to and any idea of pre/post-digital savvily ironic flexibility and metacognitive plasticity is just an illusion? Will I tear myself away from posting and just fucking get back to work on the shit I promised to have done tomorrow? Patriots should look into this.

Great episode, and book. I read the book, and this pod made it even better. BTW your pod has helped me deal with Qs in my life. Thanks!

I'm definitely gonna get this book next payday. Also, Travis's comments starting at about 22 min make me think y'all need to do a movie night on LOOKER, one of Michael Crichton's more unhinged techno-thrillers (like his original version of WESTWORLD, this isn't a book adaptation)

Good episode. Moving stuff, intelligently handled. Nonetheless, looking forward to Movie Night! Although with Trump's recent comments on Kamala, maybe the lads are already busy on that!

Thank you for this. I love your guys' banter and humor but the heavier episodes are what made me trust y'all.

I have not listened yet, and I am not looking forward to it.. I lost my friend of 20 years to QAnon. That is how I found this podcast, I needed help discussing with him. I never won, he lost all his friends and family, but never lost a discussion.

Ah man this is gonna be a tough one to listen to, huh? We need a movie night stat