QAnon: A Guide

In the past week, QAnon has become a huge topic of debate because of the right-wing mob that rioted at the US Capitol. What I have noticed, however, is most people do not have a strong understanding about what QAnon even is, or how to combat it. It’s imperative that we have a grasp on how QAnon operates and draws people in, so that we can hopefully try to work against it. Here is a guide to all things QAnon.

What is QAnon?

QAnon is a political cult (yes, cult) in which supporters believe that liberal politicians and Hollywood elite are part of a satanic cabal through which they take part in child sex trafficking, poisoning of the American people, money laundering, election fixing, and cannibalism. They believe that most politicians in Washington, and now around the whole world, are criminals. A core belief of QAnon, however, is that Donald Trump and people in his administration are working from the inside to topple the scheme.

What is “Q”?

Q is the name of the online poster who created QAnon. Q references the Q-level security clearance that the anonymous poster claimed to have in the United States department of energy. He claims to have top-secret knowledge about the inner workings of the US government, as well as the deep state.

When did QAnon start?

QAnon started in 2017 when “Q” began posting on the 4chan /pol/ board, arguing that the Clintons specifically were taking part in an illicit and Satanic plot.

Is Q a real person?

Q is a real person, but obviously not a person with Q-level security clearance. Q has actually been found to have been two distinct people over time, with one person starting as Q, and a new person taking over the role of Q a few months after the identity was created. Q is also known to regularly contradict himself, or post things that never end up materializing.

Do we know who Q is?

Ah, I’m so glad you asked! Technically, we don’t have confirmation as to Q’s identities. However, I have a pretty good idea of who the two Q posters have been. The first Q is arguably a man named Paul Furber. Furber is a South African man who was a moderator on /pol/ and was the first person to acknowledge Q’s postings. He then would go on to claim that he “knows” Q or that he’s in direct communication with him, even going on shows like InfoWars to talk about Q. Any rational person can gather that Furber was obviously Q, but to take credit for the posts would mean exposing Q as a fraud. So Paul stayed quiet, and allowed the role of Q to be stolen by Ron Watkins, son of 8chan founder Jim Watkins. After some time on 4chan, QAnon was forced to migrate to 8chan. It was reported that Jim Watkins sent Ron a message on slack saying “Ron, you need to make sure these people stay,” which a source close to them claimed was about QAnon supporters migrating to 8chan. It can be a reasonable assumption, therefore, that Ron would assume the identity of Q in order to please his father. Not only that, but Q stopped posting on November 13th, 2020 (except for one post which was merely a link to the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It”). Ron Watkins quit 8chan on November 13th. It’s a completely logical conclusion that the first Q was Paul Furber, and the second Q was Ron Watkins.

What do QAnon supporters believe?

This is kind of a loaded question. At its core, QAnon has two central beliefs: that the political and liberal elite are participating in a Satanic cabal, and that Donald Trump and Co. are working from the inside to stop them. From there though, it gets a little bit cloudy.

A lot of different types of people believe in QAnon, and thus have a lot of different beliefs. “QAnon” technically only refers to the specific political conspiracy, however there’s a much broader conspiracy theory called “The Great Awakening,” which includes essentially every other conspiracy theory that has ever existed (except flat earth, which was a liberal psyop created to try to undermine “valid” conspiracy theories, or so they say). The Great Awakening includes the QAnon and sex trafficking conspiracy theories, but also includes things like Starseeds, ancient aliens, astral travel, GMOs and vaccines used as brainwashing tools, crisis actors, and basically any other conspiracy theory you can imagine. Everyone who believes in The Great Awakening also believes in QAnon, however not every QAnon supporter believes in UFOs and lizard people. For our purposes, we will only focus on QAnon and the political conspiracy theories.

What is “#SaveTheChildren”?

There are many other beliefs that accompany the belief that the liberal and Hollywood elite are in a Satanic cabal and that Trump is working to topple the cabal. One of the most prominent beliefs that you have probably heard of is that hundreds of thousands of children go missing in America every year, which then led to the campaign to “#SaveTheChildren.” Many people believe in solely this conspiracy theory, but not the rest of QAnon. While not everyone supports Trump, everyone is arguably opposed to human trafficking, so “Saving The Children” seems like an admirable cause. However not only do hundreds of thousands of children not go missing in America every year, but most celebrities are not involved in this fictional scheme. The frustrating thing about this claim is that yes, Jeffrey Epstein and Co. did some incredibly horrific things that absolutely should be investigated. And yes, human trafficking is an immense problem. But the “#SaveTheChildren” campaign actively undermines both of these issues by crowding the conversations around both issues with complete and utter lies.

Didn’t Trump have ties to Epstein?

Yes.

Why don’t they care about that?

Anything bad that Trump has ever done, they claim was an example of him working from the inside to get intel about the cabal so that he could destroy it.

What is “#WWG1WGA”?

WWG1WGA is a popular hashtag and slogan for QAnon, which stands for “where we go one, we go all.” It essentially means that all QAnon supporters are in it together and support Q, Trump, and their fellow “patriots”

What do you mean by “patriots”?

QAnon supporters refer to themselves as patriots because they believe they are the only people who are standing up for the country anymore. QAnon is a dualist religion. They believe that anyone who is not with them is against them, and that they are the good guys and everyone else is evil. If you are not a QAnon supporter, you are supporting a Satanic, cannibalistic, pedophilic cabal.

Wait hold on, QAnon is a religion?

Yes, 100%. QAnon is a religion and a cult. You could argue that QAnon is a leaderless cult, or that Q or Trump is the leader. “The Great Awakening” is usually used to refer to a Biblical rapture-like event, which is either going to be political or will be much more scifi-like, depending on personal beliefs. Regardless though, QAnon supporters believe that Q and Trump are messiahs sent by God to usher in a rapture wherein the political and Hollywood “criminals” will be executed and peace will be restored to the world. I cannot overemphasize that QAnon is a political-religious cult and not merely a fringe belief system.

Why do people believe in QAnon?

There are many different types of QAnon supporters who all join QAnon for different surface-level reasons, however everyone joins QAnon for the same deeper reason: they feel a loss of agency and believe they are somehow being oppressed or harmed. Many people believe that the mainstream media is part of the plot and is working to brainwash the public. Many people believe that the Democratic Party has taken things from them and worked to oppress their voices. But all of them believe that, for legitimate reasons or otherwise, they have been harmed and suppressed in some way, and that QAnon is the only way to save the country — and the world.

This all seems really dramatic…

It seems dramatic because it is dramatic. QAnon, like any other cult, brainwashes its supporters and weakens their grip on reality. While QAnon supporters may seem like malicious white supremacists who want to sow the seeds of chaos, they firmly believe that they are right. They believe that if they don’t fight for what they believe in, that hundreds of thousands of children will die, they will have their way of life stolen from them, and that the political criminals will destroy the world. I cannot stress enough that QAnon supporters genuinely believe in this conspiracy theory and genuinely believe that they are heroes fighting in the most important and dire war the world has ever seen. They believe humanity has been enslaved by the elite, and that QAnon is the only hope to free us.

What are the different types of QAnon supporters?

There are lots of different types of QAnon supporters, who join QAnon with different surface-level beliefs. Many QAnon supporters are classic conservatives and Trump supporters who didn’t believe in any conspiracy theories prior to QAnon, but now believe that Trump is the messiah. There are a lot of anti-vaxxers who already had a distrust of the government and big pharma, and got into QAnon because of that distrust. Many people who believe in QAnon, even, only believe in the “#SaveTheChildren” aspect of the conspiracy theory, and may not even realize they’re part of something much more dangerous. Many people who believe in QAnon are overt racists, whether they’re Tea Party birther-believers, online groypers, or violent antisemites that believe George Soros and other Jews are controlling the world. Many QAnon supporters were even mostly apolitical before QAnon, but believed in new millennial conspiracies such as UFOs, because we know that it’s really easy for classic conspiracy theorists to take up right wing beliefs.

What are the demographics of QAnon supporters?

Most QAnon supporters are white, and most are working or middle class. Most are Christian, and almost all are right-wing (although some #SaveTheChildren supporters may be left-wing and ignorant to what #SaveTheChildren actually is). There’s a reason for this, too. Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons coined the term “producerism” which is a form of right-wing populism in which people believe everyone can be sorted into two groups: producers and parasites. The producers are you classic white, middle American patriots who are the backbone of the country and do most of the work for the country (this is sarcasm, in case it’s not obvious). The parasites are the liberal political elite and “undeserving” bottom, such as religious minorities, people of color, the LGBT community, and immigrants. The basic concept of producerism is that the parasites at the top are stealing from the producers, and giving all of their gains to the parasites on the bottom. Some examples of this would be things like welfare, affirmative action, DACA, and political correctness. The producers believe that they do most of the work for the country, however are the most oppressed because everything that is theirs gets stolen and given undeservingly to the parasites. People latch onto producerism because of the previously mentioned lack of agency. Most QAnon supporters are not rich, and so instead of blaming capitalism or the obscenely rich for their poverty, they blame the liberal politicians and minorities. They believe that any gain for a group other than them is given off of the backs of producers. Because of things like political correctness, black lives matter, trans rights, etc; the patriots believe that they are being oppressed and suppressed by the left.

That seems delusional though.

I know. But when you believe in things like a meritocracy or already believe in right-wing ideals, it’s really easy to scapegoat minorities instead of the people who are actually deserving of the blame. This isn’t to excuse the scapegoating, just to explain it. Most patriots are not opposed to black lives matter because they believe black lives don’t matter, but because they believe black people and white people are already equal, and therefore something like “black lives matter” means that black lives matter over white lives. They believe that things like political correctness are just ploys invented by the liberals to silence and demonize the right. They genuinely believe they are under attack.

Why are they ignoring the facts about real oppression in America?

Why did the members of Heaven’s Gate ignore the facts about comet Hale-Bopp? Why do the followers of Scientology ignore the facts about eternal life? QAnon, like any other cult, brainwashes vulnerable people and leads them to completely lose a grip on reality, to the extent that people might genuinely believe that storming the Capitol is the only way to save American democracy. While many QAnon supporters have overtly malicious intents and beliefs, many of them were fairly normal people who have been tragically indoctrinated to believe that fluoride in drinking water is used for mind control, or that celebrities are drinking the blood of children to harvest their adrenochrome, or that JFK Jr. is coming back to life any day now. Once you open the doors to conspiracy theories, it’s incredibly easy to fall down the rabbit hole and believe in more and more outlandish beliefs until you fall completely out of touch with reality.

It sounds like you’re defending QAnon supporters.

I’m not. I will never defend or excuse QAnon supporters, however it must be known that QAnon supporters, to an extent, are victimized by cultish conspiracy theories. My reasoning for presenting this argument is because we must drastically change the way we talk about QAnon supporters and treat them. QAnon is not merely a political belief. It is a cult. Shaming QAnon supporters for their beliefs and actions is never going to be effective because it will cause them to believe they are being further persecuted and suppressed. Presenting QAnon supporters with facts about social justice or oppression in America is never going to work, because they genuinely believe the facts have been doctored by the elite to drive division. We cannot approach QAnon like it’s a political belief, and must approach it like it’s a cult. Treating QAnon like a political belief is only going to make matters worse, and will be completely unproductive. Once again, I am arguing this — not to defend QAnon supporters — but to try to help people understand how QAnon works so that they can then productively work against it. You don’t have to baby QAnon supporters, or treat them like victims, or act like they are not responsible for their actions, or act like their beliefs aren’t horrific and offensive. But misunderstanding and mischaracterizing QAnon is dangerous — and I don’t mean that theoretically anymore. People will continue to kill and be killed so long as QAnon exists, and things are only going to get worse. I would argue that QAnon is the most dangerous cult to ever exist because it is so broad, delusional, and appealing. Shaming, scolding, and mocking QAnon supporters will only push them further down the rabbit hole.

What can we do?

If you know someone who is susceptible to believing in QAnon, or perhaps already does, all hope is not lost. Cult deprogramming is famously difficult since cults actively skew your sense of reality. There are some wonderful cult deprogramming resources around the internet. Know that the people most at risk for believing in QAnon are the older people in your families, mostly because of things like Facebook or lack of awareness about the Internet. It’s imperative to calmly help them navigate social media, google, and the news they consume so that they are not being bombarded with conspiracy theories left and right, at least as much as possible.

An important step is also recognizing that some conspiracies are in fact true, in order to establish a common ground and help them differentiate information from disinformation. If you level with your loved one and acknowledge that Jeffrey Epstein was in fact involved in sex trafficking, or that the Catholic Church was involved in a sex abuse scandal, they will be more trusting of what you have to say, and will also begin to understand what separates those theories from theories about mass shootings being fake, or GMOs being poison. This won’t outright fix the problem, but it’s an important step.

It’s also important that you ask them what exactly they believe so that you can work from that to debunk these views and help them understand how these beliefs were concocted. You have to empathize with them and understand that QAnon provides something positive to them. It gives them a community, it allows them to feel like they’re regaining some agency, it makes them feel like heroes. Know that they aren’t necessarily a bad person for falling prey to these beliefs.

All of this being said, know when to put your foot down or walk away. Never attack your loved ones, but try to maintain a supportive dialogue for as long as you emotionally can. It is going to be really, really difficult to pull them back to reality. If you are witnessing a loved one become indoctrinated with QAnon, or have lost a loved one to these beliefs, I am truly, truly sorry. It’s genuinely tragic to watch someone you love become paranoid and irrational. The best thing you can do is have patience and compassion for them.

What do we do about the thousands of QAnon supporters that are already enacting violence and chaos?

Truthfully, I have no idea. To say QAnon is unprecedented is an understatement. We have had dangerous fringe political beliefs before, but never to this extent or scale. It’s absolutely horrifying. One thing that must be done is for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google to monitor and restrict QAnon much more heavily than they currently are. Thankfully, most QAnon sites are only available on the dark web, which makes it more difficult, though not impossible, to access. QAnon is the sign of a truly sick and hurting society. The fact that so many people are turning to conspiracy theories is proof that something is deeply, deeply wrong. I’m not going to ask people to coddle right-wing beliefs, or betray their beliefs, or accept bigotry. We shouldn’t tolerate violent, bigoted views. But we must approach QAnon strategically or else things will never get better. I understand the urge to mock QAnon supporters or lash out at them, but we have to understand that humiliation and attacks will not convince QAnon supporters that they’re wrong, and will just push them further into QAnon.