Three Components of the QAnon Conspiracy Movement
The far-right conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon emerged on the internet in late 2017 and gained traction throughout former president Donald Trump’s time in office. QAnon’s core theory revolves around Satan-worshipping pedophiles plotting against Trump and a coming “storm” that would clear out those evil forces, but the movement has also been described as a “big tent conspiracy theory” that involves a constantly evolving web of schemes about politicians, celebrities, bankers, and the media, as well as echoes of older movements within Christianity, such as Gnosticism.
To understand how this loosely connected belief system is influencing American politics, religion, and media, we fielded three questions, each containing a tenet of the QAnon conspiracy movement.
QAnon Beliefs and Partisanship
A nontrivial 15% of Americans agree with the sweeping QAnon allegation that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation,” while the vast majority of Americans (82%) disagree with this statement. Republicans (23%) are significantly more likely than independents (14%) and Democrats (8%) to agree that the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are […]
I’m not underestimating what these people stand for and are doing and as much as I believe the press and the radical is empowering helping the opposition. Helping us. Daily, I hear more and more stories about people shifting their opinions away from the conservatives, the GOP. I listen on Zoom to the youth activists like the Sunrise Movement. They are fearless! They are doing the Climate work! They remind me of the extraordinary people I’ve met over a lifetime. The mostly unknown heroes who acted out of fierce love on what they believed in… under crushing odds! When I’ve asked how, why.. weren’t you afraid, they shrugged their shoulders and said ‘it was the right thing to do.’ They knew they might die, but they remained focused and stead fast to what affirms life. Some lost their spouses, partners and others they cared about. One woman began her work because she was forced to watch her father drawn and quartered because opposed Hitler. She’s been a hero thru four major conflicts and war. These people still going.. one step at a time, they did what was right, what they believed in.