QAnon and the Roots of American Conspiracy Theories
An ugly history of conspiracy rears its head under the guise of QAnon.
The group of adherents isn’t who “QAnon” originally was, a name which instead refers to the poster on fringe far-right forums who calls themselves “Q Clearance Patriot” or “Q”.
Eventually, the movement became known as QAnon.
Initially on 4chan and now on 8kun, the anonymous user (or users) who refers to themself as Q posts information under the guise that they are an insider in the Trump administration. Q denotes the level of government security clearance they claim to have, with “Q” being top-secret.
QAnon echoes other conspiracies, some more directly than others. Followers refer to themselves as “patriots,” showing their ties to the Patriot Movement, which began in the 1990s and focused on many anti-government conspiracies to justify their white nationalist mantras and “deep state” narratives.
Many of the roots lead to Milton William Cooper, also known as Bill Cooper. Cooper was one of the best-known American conspiracy theorists and his book, Behold a Pale Horse, still sells well on Amazon. The version available on Amazon, however, does not include a famous piece of Russian disinformation, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which falsely claimed to be the meeting minutes of a secret government of Jewish leaders. Cooper asked his readers to replace the word “Jews” with “Illuminati.”
What made Bill Cooper popular, though, was his ability to draw an audience into his version of the world.
“Cooper described a world where everything had its place and everything was significant.” — Joseph L. Flatley, Conspiracy Culture Journalist
This is exactly what QAnon has done. A narrative where everything has its purpose. Followers don’t have to believe all of it and may instead pick and choose what fits their worldview.
“Nothing is random. Everything has meaning.” — Q drop 123 and 4833
QAnon has incorporated the “deep state” narrative in its own conspiratorial thinking. Combining the deep state with white nationalism, pedophilic conspiracies, satanic panics, aliens, New World Order, and much more, you get QAnon.
It’s unsurprisingly overwhelming to most people.
But QAnon’s blatant plagiarism is similar to Cooper’s various copy-and-pastes, from his republishing the Protocols of Zion to FEMA death camp narratives written by other conspiracy theorists in Behold a Pale Horse.
QAnon is closely associated with the 8kun site, a forum where many like-minded far-right racists conglomerate. Many on that site promote other conspiracy theories such as white genocide.
Brad Galloway, a former white supremacist and now works at the Center on Hate, Bias and Extremism as a Researcher & Case Manager, said that “the whole [white supremacist] ideology is based on a false premise.”
“All of those different conspiracy theories…we know that most of, if not all of it is untrue. But [White Supremacists] take pieces of it, and they try to give it validity, and that attracts people into these different echo chambers and often online is a very good place to create these echo chambers,” he said.
Online spaces have been key in QAnon’s growth, much like it has been for other fringe groups like white supremacists. And despite recent bans on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and other sites and apps, QAnon supporters are still out there.
Robert Boatright, a Professor of Political Science at Clark University in Lowell, said that Tracy Lovvorn, a Massachusetts Republican running for Congress, and other candidates who have paid lip service to QAnon “see there’s a lot of energy to be found among people who [believe in QAnon].”
This “energy” manifests through different forms. Recent data by HopeNotHate, where in a survey of 10,000 people, 72% of the strong QAnon believers said they would trade some of their personal rights and freedoms for the preservation of America’s traditional values.
The study found that roughly one in ten Americans, based on the sample selected in this study, identify themselves to varying degrees as supporters of QAnon.
Some even push the QAnon ideology unknowingly, under different names like the #SaveTheChildren or #SaveOurChildren movement.
In this more recent wave of supporters, the conspiracy theory has shown its malleability and effectiveness, even spreading to places like the UK and Germany.
