Tag: QAnon

QAnon: What is it and where did it come from?

President Trump has spoken of how supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which has grown online in the US, appear to like him very much.

Mr Trump told journalists that he didn’t know much about the movement, but added that he’d heard that “these were people who love our country.”

The movement is facing a crackdown from Facebook as well as Twitter, who have taken action against thousands of accounts and web addresses linking to videos and websites spreading QAnon’s bizarre ideas.

So what is QAnon and who believes in it? Continue reading.

Trump praises QAnon supporters: “I understand they like me very much”

Axios logo

President Trump claimed at a press conference Wednesday that he doesn’t know much about the fringe conspiracy theory QAnon, but that he understands its supporters “like me very much” and that they “love America.”

Why it matters: QAnon is a sprawling internet conspiracy theorythat baselessly alleges that a powerful cabal of sex traffickers within the “deep state” is engaged in a global fight to take down Trump. The FBI identified fringe conspiracy theories, like QAnon, as domestic terrorist threats in 2019.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vocal supporter of QAnon, won the Republican nomination in Georgia’s deep-red 14th Congressional District runoff last week. Trump tweeted his congratulations and called her a “future Republican Star.” Continue reading.

Why Are Republicans Going Quazy For QAnon?

“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration … to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.” — Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, Dr. Strangelove

In the 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove, the above words are spoken by a general who is about to start World War III. His theory about the contamination of “precious bodily fluids” is the tipoff for poor Group Captain Lionel Mandrake that the general has gone certifiably cuckoo.

This week, Republican voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District nominated Marjorie Taylor Greene for the seat being vacated by Rep. Tom Graves. Greene is (or claims to be) a QAnon believer.

You might think that once voters were alerted to this, they’d shrink from Greene as Mandrake did from Ripper, asking her to go nicely with the men in white coats who are here to help her. Her opponent told Politico, “She is not conservative — she’s crazy.” The voters were not convinced. Greene trounced Cowan by 14 points (as of this writing). Continue reading.

Rep. Kinzinger: ‘It’s time’ for leaders to disavow QAnon

The Illinois Republican called on leaders of both parties to stand up against far-right wing conspiracy theories that have circulated in recent days.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Sunday emphasized the importance of President Donald Trump and other leaders calling out QAnon — a set of far-right conspiracy theories that allege the existence of a “deep state” against Trump. 

The Illinois Republican, who posted a video on YouTube explaining QAnon on Sunday morning, said it’s time for other lawmakers to definitively and emphatically denounce the theories.

While QAnon theories have circulated in recent years, they have received more attention since Marjorie Taylor Greene’s primary runoff win in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District on Tuesday. Continue reading.

Fox News host is quickly back-peddling after spreading dangerous QAnon nonsense on air

AlterNet logoFox News host Jesse Watters has walked back comments he made praising the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory during a Saturday interview with Eric Trump.

Watters called QAnon a “fringe group” — which he does not “support or believe in” — in a statement to Mediaite one day after he praised it for uncovering “a lot of great stuff.”

QAnon is a conspiracy theory that started on the imageboard 4chan in which a would-be secret operative with classified information posts clues to followers about the “deep state” and a baseless plot by President Donald Trump to destroy a global sex trafficking ring allegedly involving high-profile Democrats and their celebrity supporters. Continue reading.

Twitter Takedown Targets QAnon Accounts

New York Times logoThe company permanently suspended thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy theory movement. Facebook was said to be preparing to take similar action.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Twitter said Tuesday evening that it had removed thousands of accounts that spread messages about the conspiracy theories known as QAnon, saying their messages could lead to harm and violated Twitter policy.

Twitter said it would also block trends related to the loose network of QAnon conspiracy theories from appearing in its trending topics and search, and would not allow users to post links affiliated with the theories on its platform.

It was the first time that a social media service took sweeping action to remove content affiliated with QAnon, which has become increasingly popular on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Continue reading.

Trump Campaign Video Features Conspiracy Theorist Who Backs QAnon, Doubts Coronavirus

On July 5, the Trump campaign’s Real News Insights featured Lara Trump interviewing Fox Nation host Isaiah Washington.

As Media Matters has documented, Washington is a QAnon supporter who has pushed conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, 5G networks, Black Lives Matter, and many other topics.

During the episode, which Trump celebrated as the campaign show’s 250th, she and Washington discussed his support for President Donald Trump, and how he was “blown away” when he visited the White House last year and saw the president deviate from the prepared remarks on his teleprompter. Washington also criticized the media for not wanting “to support” solutions that Trump is trying to implement. Continue reading.

OAN correspondent goes ‘full Q in the briefing room’ — tells Trump the media has ‘teamed up’ with foreign state propaganda

AlterNet logoThe White House press briefing room this week implemented a temporary seating chart to accommodate the Center for Disease Control and Preventions’s social distancing guidelines, but Donald Trump’s staff still managed to carve out space for One America News Network, the far-right network known for it’s pro-Trump content. And on Thursday, that network’s correspondent, Chanel Rion used her hard-hitting journalistic chops to ask the president whether he considers the term “Chinese food”  racist, and rant against the “left-wing media” that “consistently [sides] with foreign state propaganda” just to oppose Trump.

No summary can do Rion’s question justice, so here she is in her own words: Continue reading “OAN correspondent goes ‘full Q in the briefing room’ — tells Trump the media has ‘teamed up’ with foreign state propaganda”

The coronavirus is conspiracy theory gold for Trump-supporting QAnon

AlterNet logoBy now, most of us have heard about QAnon, the group of conspiracy theorists that formed soon after Donald Trump was elected. For a refresher course, here’s how they were described by Travis View, the host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast, who has written about the group extensively for the Washington Post.

“QAnon is based upon the idea that there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world, essentially, and they control everything,” View told Salon. “They control politicians, and they control the media. They control Hollywood, and they cover up their existence, essentially. And they would have continued ruling the world, were it not for the election of President Donald Trump.”

“Now, Donald Trump in this conspiracy theory knows all about this evil cabal’s wrongdoing. But one of the reasons that Donald Trump was elected was to put an end to them, basically. And now we would be ignorant of this behind-the-scenes battle of Donald Trump and the U.S. military — that everyone backs him and the evil cabal — were it not for ‘Q.’ And what ‘Q’ is — is basically a poster on 4chan, who later moved to 8chan, who reveals details about this secret behind-the-scenes battle, and also secrets about what the cabal is doing and also the mass sort of upcoming arrest events through these posts.”

Continue reading.

Trump tweets message of support for deranged QAnon conspiracy theorists after FBI labels group a terrorism threat

AlterNet logoTo supporters of the wacky QAnon conspiracy theory, President Donald Trump is much more than a politician/real estate mogul — he is also the person who has been chosen to fight an international ring of pedophiles and child sex traffickers, and “Q” is the anonymous figure who is secretly sending messages on the battle. Journalist Will Sommer, in a January 2 article for the Daily Beast, reports that Trump has retweeted some posts from QAnon supporters — and they see that as validation of their cause.

In late December, Sommer reports, “Trump or someone with access to his account retweeted a message of support containing the ‘WWG1WGA’ hashtag, a reference to a QAnon motto. In total, Trump retweeted QAnon fans more than 20 times on the same day.”

Those retweets, according to Sommer, have “provided new fuel for QAnon fans, who are convinced, among other things, that Trump is on the verge of arresting and executing top Democrats at Guantanamo Bay. QAnon Twitter accounts and messages boards seized on Trump’s retweets as a tacit acknowledgment of their conspiracy theory’s validity.” Continue reading