The Washington Post this morning reminded us that Donald Trump, in the last several years, has said a number of things on his Truth Social website in support of the Q movement. It said, for example, that Q’s motto “The storm is coming” was used by Trump. And it reminded us that Q believes that many or all high level democrats are pederasts who kidnap and eat small children. Apparently, a surprising number of people either believe this, or wonder if it might be true. And for most of these people, belief will be hard to shake.

Take another example. All those people who believe that the world, or at least civilization as we know it, is about to come to an end because God has deemed it so. That there will be major battles, that Jesus will return to the earth, and the good folks will be raptured up into heaven. For these people, too, belief is hard to shake.

Or look at those fierce antisemites who believe that Jews control the world and are the cause of all evil. They believe that Hitler was correct, and that today’s Jews, like the Jews of the early 20th century, should not only be isolated, but should be murdered. Their belief, too, is hard to shake.

To cite a much less important case, remember years ago when the DC area was afraid of the Beltway sniper? During those days, the first reports stated that it appeared that the sniper was driving around in an unmarked white panel truck. We were warned to be very wary when he saw any such vehicle. It turned out that the snipers were using a dark red Chrysler station wagon, or something like that. White panel truck owners were exonerated. Today, 20 years later, I am still suspicious of unmarked white panel trucks. Even this belief is hard to shake.

No great moral here. Just that we need to learn how to sort through our beliefs, identify the ridiculous ones, fight against our continuing impulses to stick to such beliefs, no matter how ridiculous or how dangerous.