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The QAnon cult and its place in American history
One of the books I finished reading recently is Mike Rothschild’s The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. It’s a pretty solid overview of the phenomenon, though Rothschild focuses a tad more on the evolution Q online persona than the whole movement. But I still learned a lot from the book. My main takeaways:
1) The QAnon conspiracy theory (which, remember, roughly 15% of Americans believe in) has thrived in part because of how physically isolated people have become in the digital age, and it took off even further when the COVID lockdowns made people even more isolated. And as “a participatory game played alongside a digital community against an easy scapegoat” it was “hugely compelling,” Rothschild writes. “One of the reasons baby boomers have fallen in with Q to such a surprising degree: many are empty nesters, on their own, or retired. One day they looked around, realized they didn’t get everything they were promised out of life, and wanted someone to blame…Q gave them enemies to hate and a way to get back at them.” It’s also no coincidence how much QAnon has gained purchase with older Americans; a 2019 study found that Facebook users over 65 were seven times more likely to share fake news stories than their younger peers. The early evangelizers for Q targeted that group.
