Where to now for QAnon?
CONSPIRACIES
MEMBER EXPERTS
The viral spread of the American based QAnon conspiracy to Australia was one of the more unexpected aspects of the 2020 global pandemic. Started in 2017 by an unknown person claiming high level military or ‘Q’ clearance, the conspiracy began by predicting the imminent arrest of Trump’s enemies such as Hillary Clinton. Over the next three years, the sporadic release of cryptic ‘intel’ or ‘Q drops’ drip-fed a large community of ‘anons’ who took it upon themselves to pore over obscure hints and create increasingly fanciful interpretations. Gradually, the QAnon conspiracy took shape: President Trump was said to be battling a satanic global cabal of pedophiles in government and business who use corrupt government structures known as the deep state to amass power and cover up heinous sexual and physical abuse of children held in tunnels under the world’s cities. Needless to say, no children have been rescued and Clinton is yet to be arrested. Despite none of Q’s predictions coming true, the Q community expanded by many hundreds of thousands of followers during 2020. The pandemic supercharged the QAnon conspiracy. In lockdown conditions, wild rumours about SARS-COVID’s origin, faked death rates, the unreliability of tests and even the belief continued overpage...
Dr Kaz Ross Independent researcher
Image: Sergiy Tryapitsyn /123rf
vol. 1 no. 7
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nteu.org.au/sentry
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