Introduction
QAnon is a conspiracy theory that has transformed into a political movement. Among QAnon’s core beliefs is the idea that a corrupt cabal of global elites controls the world and that Donald Trump is leading the charge to bring them down. It is believed that this evil group practices cannibalism and pedophilia like a satanic cult. All it takes is a group of interesting people and a few good tales. It is well known that conspiracy theories make better reading than the hard facts. As a result, some people will wish to believe these notions because they add a layer of intrigue to their daily lives (Roose, 2021).
In addition, a feeling of community is an influential concern. An individual’s sense of self-worth and significance increases when they receive encouragement from those who share their views. Previous studies have shown that only a small percentage of Americans know much about the QAnon conspiracy, with the majority of them lacking an understanding of it. The influence of QAnon extends beyond the online community. Many QAnon followers have been arrested and accused of kidnappings, assassination plans, and even the murder of a New York mafia leader in 2019 (Roose, 2021).
This is in addition to their involvement in the tragic Capital riot in January. DHS released a terrorism advisory at the end of January, warning of rising violence from domestic extremist groups like QAnon and other communities based on conspiracy theories. This paper aims at discussing and exposing how various themes and ideas from different conspiracy theories in the United States are related to the QAnon conspiracy claims.
Discussion
The ideas behind the “Save the Children” conspiracy have been regarded as the driving force behind the spread of the QAnon conspiracy. This pro-Trump conspiracy theory is using themes from the movement against human trafficking to feed the wrath of its adherents. The so-called “Save the Children” movement may have been the most critical success factor of QAnon (Roose, 2020). The initiative was originally intended to raise money for a real anti-trafficking charity, but QAnon followers took over and started spreading false and exaggerated claims of a global child-trafficking plot run by leading Democrats and Hollywood elites (Roose, 2020).
Nonetheless, platform moderators have a more difficult time in “Save the Children” threads since it is not always clear who is genuinely concerned about child exploitation and who is just trying to sow misinformation by playing on those worries (Roose, 2020).
This ambiguity has protected QAnon believers from a complete crackdown and provided them with safe spaces to debate their ideas. By making “Save the Children” its mantra, QAnon was promoted in a number of other ways, as well. It provided QAnon followers with a “QAnon Lite” on-ramp, a topic they could discuss freely without frightening off potential recruits with absurd accusations like Clinton devouring newborns (Roose, 2020). Political figures could then appeal to QAnon supporters without having to bring up the theory directly, according to the group’s rebranding as an anti-trafficking movement.
Additionally, the themes behind the ‘psychedelic drug called Adrenochrome harvested from the fear of children’ conspiracy appear to be correlated to the claims in the QAnon. Based on this fringe and baseless conspiracy theory from a well-sourced government agent, it is suggested that a global cabal of Hollywood and Democratic pedophiles via grandiose and cryptic comments is called “Q-drops (Hitt, 2020).”
The influence of this quasi-cult has increased dramatically over the past several years, in no little part due to Donald Trump’s implicit support. QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene won the Republican primary in Georgia’s 14th congressional district, which almost guaranteed her election come November (Hitt, 2020). Later, Greene once remarked in a video from 2017 that “there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this worldwide conspiracy of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to accomplish it. (Hitt, 2020)”
Trump was then captured praising Greene’s success in the primary. Adrenochrome, in the minds of conspiracy theorists, is a mystical hallucinogenic used by the cabal elites for drug-crazed satanic ceremonies. It is created by torturing children in order to harvest their oxidized hormonal dread, in a way that echoes the plot of the Pixar film Monsters, Inc. According to QAnon researcher Mike Rains, “the plot of frightening youngsters to obtain energy is what they really do,” hence the film Monsters, Inc. is a “Hollywood telling on itself (Hitt, 2020)”. From the above argument it is obvious that the concepts behind the Adrenochrome conspiracy theory are related to the QAnon claims.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory also appears to have a strong relationship with the QAnon claims based on the ideas of child sex trafficking. According to the “Pizzagate ” conspiracy theory, senior Democratic officials in the United States government were running a child sex trafficking network out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria (Holoyda, 2022). Exactly one month before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, WikiLeaks published emails that had been hacked from the account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. The word “cheese pizza” in emails regarding dinner arrangements was taken as code for child pornography by right-wing, alt-right, and Russian trolls on forum sites like 4chan and Reddit (Holoyda, 2022).
Since many forum members linked pizza to child sexual abuse, they decided to harass Mr. Podesta’s pizza delivery service, Comet Ping Pong, located in Washington, D.C. People who bought into the Pizzagate hoax promoted it further by sharing false tales on conservative message boards and websites (Bleakley, 2021). The conspiracy idea got weirder, finally conjuring the presence of an elite, Satanic, cannibalistic, child sex trafficking organization operating out of Comet Ping Pong’s basement. As Pizzagate was coming to a close on October 28, 2017, the birth of the QAnon conspiracy theory was taking off (Bleakley, 2021). Since then, QAnon has gained a devoted internet following who have contributed to the ideology’s development in reaction to current events or to tweets from the former president.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the paper has revealed that the Save the Children, Adrenochrome and Pizzagate conspiracy theories were all related to the claims made in the QAnon conspiracy. It has been evidenced that the above conspiracies were all affiliated to Trump political movement and were aimed at boosting his popularity while demeaning the Democrats. The connection between prior conspiracy theories and QAnon is significant as it can help evaluate QAnon and conspiracy theories in general. This is because, through this connection, one is able to identify and discover the basis of other conspiracy theories before spreading them and inciting the public. This approach can also be used to discover the legitimacy of a conspiracy before it is made viral to spur mixed reactions from the public.
References
Bleakley, P. (2021). Panic, pizza and mainstreaming the alt-right: A social media analysis of Pizzagate and the rise of the QAnon conspiracy. Current Sociology. Web.
Hitt, T. (2020). How QAnon Became Obsessed with ‘Adrenochrome,’ an Imaginary Drug Hollywood Is ‘Harvesting’ from Kids. Daily Beast. Web.
Holoyda, B. J. (2022). QAnon: A Modern Conspiracy Theory and the Assessment of Its Believers. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Web.
Roose, K. (2020). How ‘Save the Children’ Is Keeping QAnon Alive. The New York Times. Web.
Roose, K. (2021). What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory? The New York Times. Web.