QAnon: Conspiracy as a Quasi-Religion - by Andrés Ortega

No one knows who the “Q” in QAnon is (the “Anon” stands for “anonymous”).

Whoever is behind QAnon, that person or entity has certainly engendered a conspiracy movement in the United States. Amidst the conspiracy theories surrounding COVID 19, it has taken root in Europe as well.

Is it an individual or a group of people? The product of the malicious use of artificial intelligence, trained with conspiratorial posts? Is there a foreign power in the background? There are various theories, none conclusive.

The FBI has indicated how seriously it views QAnon when it described it, in an internal memo from 2019, as “a potential national terrorist threat.”

QAnon is partly the offspring of social media, from which it has proved difficult to eradicate. While Reddit has deleted it from its service, Twitter has suspended thousands of related accounts and Facebook has taken steps in the same direction.

In just a few years, and much more intensively in the months of pandemic, this Internet and social media agitator has amassed a remarkable following that can be counted in the hundreds of thousands, although it is difficult to give an exact figure.

In particular, its sympathizers are often conflated with those who follow QAnon’s “drops” (as its posts, now numbering 5,000, are known).

Employing coded language open to many interpretations, it aims to highlight conspiracies supposedly against Donald Trump, who is the movement’s hero.

Trump is to be defended against the “deep state,” an elite of bureaucrats, intelligence agencies and high-ranking military who, according to Q, conspire against Trump.

With his own name, Q hints that he is a senior mandarin with a high level of clearance to access official secrets. Maintaining his anonymity is essential for his credibility among his followers.

What long seemed like a marginal phenomenon may have consequences for what happens on November 3rd and in its aftermath. In some recent “drops,” Q has called for a popular armed uprising should Trump — after a fraud perpetrated by the conspirators, as QAnon sees it — lose control of the presidency.

 Reasd more at:
QAnon: Conspiracy as a Quasi-Religion - The Globalist