We have heard a lot about some cult-like group called QAnon, but I for one know very little about it. I think it had some connection to Pizzagate, the incident when some guy rushed into a pizza place in D.C. with an assault weapon, in search of a basement where Hillary Clinton supposedly had imprisoned little children who were going to be sexually abused or someone was planning to drink their blood. As it turned out, there were no children, there was no basement. Fortunately, no one was killed.
QAnon is back in the news after Trump was asked about them,and he feigned ignorance (he has praised them in the past).
I know far less about QAnon than Trump (who gets briefed by the FBI). So when I saw that the Financial Times, a reputable publication, had released this video that is supposed to explain QAnon, I watched it.
I am now more confused than ever. I feel like I just slipped down a rabbit hole, but it’s not Wonderland.
Here is CNN’s summation of a very peculiar belief system.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/tech/qanon-believer-how-he-got-out/index.html
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I know very reasonable people who have partaken of the Kool Aid under the guise of #SavetheChildren. This was their 1st misstep before fully falling down the rabbit hole of QAnon ideology. It is sad to see the direction their life has taken. It becomes all consuming and ostracizes them from family and friends.
Trump is the mad hatter with a cult following of fringe characters that hang on to his every word. QAnon, fake militia members, right wing bigots and religious zealots all find a home with Trump’s swamp dwellers. No wonder so many middle of the road conservatives are turning their backs on the Republican Party. These misfits, tinfoil hat wearers and uninformed voters are his base. Trump accepts and encourages their paranoia and conspiracies. Those of us with a brain and conscience must go to the polls in large numbers and vote them out.
QAnon is promoting a misinformation campaign designed to smear Hunter Biden’s name and by association, Joe Biden. They are desperate to try to get their wacko fake laptop scandal out to the public. Despite the fact that a legitimate investigation conducted earlier by law enforcement found that there was no evidence that Hunter Biden was doing anything illegal in Ukraine, QAnon is trying to foment a scandal about a “mysterious laptop” allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden. The lurid details are in link. I hope mainstream media ignores this deliberate attempt to undermine the Bidens. it is shameful, nutty propaganda.https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9z4a/qanon-is-running-the-pizzagate-playbook-with-hunter-biden?utm_source=vicenewsfacebook
This has Steve Bannon, Roger Stone and Rudy Guilliani written all over it. It’s pretty sick and I hope someone finds out who is really behind this so that Hunter Biden can sue them for defamation of character…and whatever else he can throw in. This is the lowest of the low in politics and so incredibly filthy and dirty. I want to know where all the info taken from Jeffrey Epstein’s many residences is hiding….because THAT is the real deal with no conspiracy theories involved.
The 21st century way to create the lastest neofascist wave… It is truly scary how easily the human mind can be lead “down the rabbit hole.”
It strikes me that those who accept conspiracy theories are generally living in a world that attempts to see society as a fight between good and evil. The fascinating thing to me is that those I would generally expect to be the most susceptible to the appeal of conspiracy theory are not really the group that pays attention to QAnon. Maybe I have a bad idea as to who might believe in conspiracies.
BEST description of QAnon: “I feel like I just slipped down a rabbit hole, but it’s not Wonderland. “
Nope! it’s not Wonderland, because that would inspire nice thoughts, joy and happiness. These people have fallen into Underland , where the truly evil people go to play and cavort. The sad thing is that some of these people being sucked in have really good intentions from the beginning.
The so-called social media have enabled the rapid spread of conspiracy theories and it will exploit them for clicks and eyeballs and dwell times, aided by Donald Trump who is a long-time fan and pusher of conspiracy theories, along with FOX News and many others.
In the olden days, the willing believers in absurd explanatory theories were infected by radio programs and the hucksters who sold their ideas, services, and products. Example: “In 1917, after years of selling worthless patent remedies throughout the Southeast, John R. Brinkley–America’s most brazen young con man–arrived in the tiny town of Milford, Kansas. He set up a medical practice and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands to restore the fading virility of local farmers.” He had no legitimate medical training but people were taken in by his clever use of radio advertising. Read more about him here. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/john-brinkley/
In addition to being a rabbit hole for people who are trapped into believing fictions cast as conspiracies, QAnon has spawned a huge money making operation for Amazon. No conspiracy there, just consumer culture taking over.
https://www.amazon.com/qanon-Clothing-Shoes-Jewelry/s?k=qanon&rh=n%3A7141123011
Also, I think the Atlantic magazine has an excellent account of QAnon phenomenon, as does Wikipedia with specific and up-to-date accounts of QAnon activities, one of these involving a charter school scare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon
The irrationality of Trump and his impulses that produce “I can do anything I want” declarations are perfect for people who seek the certainty of having a savior, a role that QAnon gives to Trump, our domestic terrorist in chief.
Trump has been attacking the moderator of the next “debate.” Trump believes he is entitled to treat that format as invitation to filibuster, intimidate, lie, and trash the whole idea of reasoned discussion about anything. He is furious that Kristen Welker, moderator of the Oct. 22, 2020 presidential debate, who has so far selected the following topics for that event. Fighting COVID-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security, and Leadership.
That video is truly astonishing. Imagining, here, a future America in which half the population is living in an alternate-reality fantasy video game based on tracing Da Vinci Code-style “clues.”
I’ve followed QAnon through, sorry to say, a relative, and also a friend of a friend who’s sort of a guru to an array of QAnon crazies on Facebook. One important and alarming point is that they’re heavy on using longstanding ant-Semitic themes.
They have a bunch of wild notions that don’t seem related to politics. They believe that all our old buildings were actually built by an early civilization called Tartarians (no apparent relation to the white condiment we put on fish). And they’re obsessed with Nikola Tesla and some notion that we once had very advanced ways to generate electricity and due to some conspiracy aren’t using them now. I mention those things to help people spot QAnony types.
There seem to be two threads feeding into QAnon — antivax New Agey types who are passionate about alternative woo-woo cures, coming from the vague left, and Nazis, obviously coming from the hard right.
A lot of this stuff is just harmless crazy. The anti-Semitism, COVID denial and antivax are not harmless.
We used to call them crazy. Now we call them QAnon.
QAnon is the dark side of the internet.
There have always been people that are attracted to crazy-makers like this QAnaon cult, but before the internet the opportunity to join a group that thought the same way was limited. Most easy to manipulate individuals were just considered weird and ignored and often could not find other like-minded nut cases.
With the internet, these people have found a way to meet up and magnify their crazy thinking, becoming dangerous to the rest of us that do not live inside their fear-filled hallucinations of the mind.