Thoughts on QAnon
Some quotes:
All of them support QAnon, a vast conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is waging a war against the “deep state” made up of elite families, politicians, and celebrities
It’s a conspiracy that’s been able to reach new heights during the pandemic as people around the world desperately search for community and any way to make sense of the chaos. The QAnon community is welcoming to anyone as long as they believe in at least one of the many tendrils that branch out from the theory’s heart—that the world is extremely screwed because of bogeymen behind the scenes, and only those smart enough to see through the veil can fight them. While the actual details of the conspiracy are hyper-focused on the U.S., the broad strokes can be applied to almost anywhere, which helps to explain the rapid growth of QAnon across borders.
Does this movement satisfy the same kind of psychological need for its followers as anti-semitism? That is, the need for a belief in an all-powerful enemy, or the need for a justification for why things are going wrong in one’s own life.
Given the viral structure of this movement, and the fact that there are probably some true believers to keep it alive even if it falls out of popularity, it might last a very long time indeed.
This article gives an overview of the political candidates (some successful) linked to QAnon. Here’s an interesting fact:
The first third party in the United States, the Anti-Masonic Party, was dedicated to the proposition that freemasons were running a shadow government and were secretly plotting to control the world. Though the Anti-Masonic Party was short lived, at their peak in 1833 they controlled 10.5% of the House of Representatives.