QAnon’s madness has no place in the state Senate
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of one of the greatest television series to grace our screens. The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on Saturday, Sept. 19, 1970, beginning a seven-season run that in its time was the most honored comedy in the storied history of Emmy awards.
The magnificent writing and sustained character development rendered the show’s 168 episodes universal rather than contemporary to the 1970s. The show centered around the life of associate television news producer Mary Richards and the sparkling ensemble of co-workers and neighbors.
Most of life’s dilemmas can be resolved by referring to the appropriate MTM episode. It stayed away from direct social lessons except once, when Mary discovers that a new friend, Joanne, is trying to exclude Mary’s best friend, Rhoda, a Jew, from a tennis match because Joanne is anti-Semitic and belongs to a club that excludes Jews. Mary is appalled that poisonous hate has slithered into her life.
I was reminded of that singular episode early this month when a photograph revealed state Sen. Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, supports the persistent conspiracy madness of the internet communion called QAnon. Berthel showcases a rear window sticker on his car that says “#WWG1WGA,” QAnon for “Where We Go One, We Go All.” The group, which has festered in the corners of the internet until recently edging into the light, incubates and promotes hate, fear and suspicion.
QAnon’s central conspiracy is that an international group of Satan-worshipping Democratic pedophiles is in control of politicians, Hollywood and the media, but President Donald Trump is fighting them. QAnon believes its targets will one day be arrested, tried at Guantanamo, and executed in public. Its targets have included Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Pope Francis, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey and even Chrissy Teigen. Of course, Jews figure into the madness, because anti-Semitism is as virulent in QAnon as it was at the fictional Joanne’s tennis club, but it’s bolder today.
The volume of QAnon’s madness hinders the work of legitimate groups that do fight human trafficking by overwhelming their helplines with calls from people incited by QAnon myths. Somewhere in this miasma of madness figures John F. Kennedy Jr., who they believe did not die in a 1999 plane crash but lives in Pennsylvania.
Berthel admits he knows of QAnon’s poisonous tenets. He scrambled to explain his support for the group and issued an incoherent statement to The Courant’s Chris Keating. “I
believe in many of the wild eyed theories reportedly associated with the QAnon movement about pedophile conspiracies or satanic cults. However, stopping corruption in politics, holding government accountable and protecting individual freedoms are values I do believe in which the movement has come to represent. Like many movements occurring across our nation today, I think it has allowed for people who have previously felt disconnected from public policy and government to be part of the conversation.”
You would not believe a Ku Klux Klansman who declared, “I don’t like the sheets and burning crosses, but I enjoy seeing friends a few nights a week.” QAnon joins the disconnected to relentless paranoia. It traffics in fear and creates an impermeable wall between its lies and the truth. If he’s a QAnon devotee, Berthel dwells on the side of lies.
That sticker and the ludicrous statement it forced from Berthel served one important purpose: We see who he is. A man promoting a growing list of false, corrosive conspiracy theories is unworthy of public office in Connecticut. Berthel chose to advertise his affinity for galloping paranoia. That sticker did not appear by happenstance. Berthel unfurled his flag. A member of the state Senate embraces an organization that law enforcement agencies have expressed concerns is a spur to violence for some of its adherents.
When Mary Richards discovered anti-Semitism in her midst, she ushered the offender out the door, not to be seen again. Voters ought to follow that example in November and banish Berthel from public office. If they reelect Berthel to one of the most Republican seats in the state Senate, our standards and values will be tested. Legislative leaders should isolate Berthel in the next session of the legislature.
If they decline to meet this moment, they will have engaged in a real conspiracy — theirs to degrade our state.