Twitter cracked down this week on the cracked conspiracy theory QAnon. But this thing is much bigger than twitter. There is even a handful of QAnon GOP congressional candidates.
The Daily Beasts Will Somer who follows the kooky right wing has this:
In the real world … QAnon isn’t concerned about being banned. Its promoters earn invites to the White House, as the president retweets QAnon followers and Trump social media chief Dan Scavino posts a cartoon from avowed QAnon supporter Ben Garrison. Presidential son Eric Trump recently posted a QAnon graphic with a giant “Q” on it—probably not a sign that Trump is a closet Q-head, but more proof of QAnon’s ubiquity within MAGA world.
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn recently filmed himself taking a QAnon oath with his family, thrilling QAnon followers desperate for proof that their dream of mass executions will come true. All of these Trumpworld nods to QAnon come even as the FBI considers QAnon a source of domestic terrorism.
QAnon’s rise to real-world power is especially baffling when you consider its origins: a handful of posts on the 4Chan message board in October 2017. The posts, from a still-anonymous figure calling themselves Q, claimed that Hillary Clinton would be arrested by the end of the month.
That prediction failed to come true, but those posts and the many Q “breadcrumbs” posted since then have spawned a thriving, and often lucrative, far-right subculture. QAnon encompasses a wide range of beliefs, from anti-vaccine activism to, for some, the theory that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death to team up with Trump. But just about all QAnon believers agree on the theory’s core tenets: that the world is controlled by a global pedophile cabal run by Democrats, and that Donald Trump is poised to arrest and execute them in a much-anticipated event called “The Storm.”
QAnon’s incipient takeover of the right isn’t just confined to social media. Boosted by a pandemic and a president who believes Barack Obama was born in Kenya, QAnon and the conspiratorial thinking that spawned it has never been more prominent. A QAnon believer who compared Q to Jesus won the Republican Senate nomination in Oregon. Another QAnon fan and congressional candidate is poised to win a runoff in Georgia in a heavily Republican district, meaning the conspiracy theory could soon be represented on the House floor next year.
Meanwhile, QAnon has started to seep into American life in other unexpected ways. QAnon billboards have appeared across the country. A boxing trainer appeared on a UFC broadcast decked out in QAnon slogans. The head of New York City’s police union appeared on television with a QAnon mug in the background—an ominous nod to a theory that’s predicated on vigilante justice.
It’s not just twitter and unless Facebook and Youtube follow suit, they’ll just gather elsewhere:
Hashtags aside, there are even more obvious downsides to QAnon’s growth—ruined families, split apart by one member’s conviction that Hillary Clinton eats children, or the swathes of Republican voters who are increasingly divorced from reality.
There’s also real-world violence. One QAnon believer allegedly drove a Samurai sword into his brother’s head, convinced of the stories told by a splinter QAnon faction that the world was controlled by lizard people. Another allegedly shot the head of a Mafia family in an attempt to bring him to Trump’s mythical QAnon tribunals, ruining his own life in the process.
A military veteran in Arizona who became enamored with QAnon now faces a lengthy prison sentence after using an armored vehicle to shut down a bridge near the Hoover Dam to protest QAnon clues that had failed to come true.
Another man tried to burn down Comet Ping Pong, the Washington pizzeria QAnon believers are convinced is the hub of a global pedophile cabal. The arson attempt could have killed countless patrons, including children, if employees hadn’t put out the fire. Two women have been charged with QAnon-related plots to kidnap their own children.
So far, Twitter’s purge hasn’t extended to some of QAnon’s leaders on the site. As of this writing, many of the most visible QAnon accounts—including Jordan Sather, a QAnon promoter who encourages his fans to consume a substance the FDA warns amounts to drinking bleach—are still active on the site.
Oy vey. I don’t know how many people are involved in this. But there re more than I might have expected, judging from some of the prominent people who seem to be believers.
I guess it’s unsurprising considering that Donald Trump is president. Obviously, this country is full of people who will believe anything. But this is really creepy.