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Here is the second episode of our column Night-night, America, the story of life in NYC of our member Alessandro Casiraghi.
Q
During quarantine, an Italian friend of mine sent me a WhatsApp message: an unspecified guru announced the arrival of a new world order, thanks to the help of aliens. In the rant, Trump was identified as the promoter of a new order and a champion of justice. The message was absurd and had no basis in reality. But both my friend and I found something intriguing in the narrative. It offered an escape from a world that had suddenly pulled the brake and was no longer able to accelerate. After the outbreak of the pandemic, we were both stunned by the rapidity with which spaces, times, and our lifestyles were changing. We were willing to accept even the most absurd theories in order to explain what was happening. And the explanation that guru offered was immediate and simple: there are good guys and bad guys, humanity's great awakening is upon us, and someone is fighting to bring it about, and that someone is Trump.
So I wasn't surprised when I read in the American newspapers that the QAnon phenomenon was exploding.
Q and his followers believe the world is ruled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who operate a global child sex trafficking ring. According to Q, this group includes prominent Democratic Party figures such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Hollywood celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks, and religious figures including Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. In Q's narrative, all of these figures are plotting against Trump.
Q's identity is unknown (hence “Anon” which stands for anonymous). But he himself claims that his credibility comes from having access to classified government documents. Category Q, including those related to the use of nuclear weapons. Some followers claim that Q is Trump himself.
Q posted his first coded message on October 30, 2016, on 4chan, a imageboard, an online platform where users (anonymously) post a photo to start a discussion and then comment. Q was forced to move his postings from 4chan to other platforms like 8chan and 8kun because they were gradually being shut down. The reason? Because some users use their anonymity to spread racist, neo-Nazi, and anti-Semitic messages, turning these spaces into veritable incubators of hate., recruitment tools for violent white nationalists And megaphones for mass murderers. The shooter in El Paso, Texas, had published his political manifesto on one of these discussion groups shortly before taking up arms and opening fire.
On these online platforms, Q is able to disintegrate rational interpretations of reality. The mechanism works like this: Q publishes a coded message filled with abbreviations, messianic prophecies, and sensational tones. Followers attempt to decipher it by commenting together, reaching a shared, but never certain, interpretation. In this way, a new, temporary, and mutable alternative reality is constructed online, together, anonymously and secretly, comment by comment.
On May 30, 2019, QAnon and other conspiracy theories were listed as a domestic terrorist threat by a report from FBI. The fear is that followers may use drastic and violent methods to defend themselves from an existential threat posed by their altered reality. For example, in 2016, a man armed with a rifle drove more than 500 kilometers to Washington with the aim of busting a child trafficking ring that some conspiracy theories located in the basement of a pizzeria. Once in the restaurant he opened fire to enter the cellar, but there wasn't even a cellar.
Other Q announcements failed to materialize, such as Hillary Clinton's arrest. Despite this, his followers continued to grow, and his message spread to popular social media platforms. scholar found that on Facebook alone, there are 179 Q-related groups with more than 1.4 million members, and Q-related content has increased by 651% since March.
Trump himself is used to retweet messages from Q followers, thus offering conspiracy theories to his 80 million followers. When asked if Trump was aware that he was supported by people who believed he was saving the world from a cult of Satanist pedophiles and cannibals, he replied, "“I hadn't heard of it, but...would that be a bad thing or a good thing? If I can save the world from problems, I'm more than willing to do it!”. Other Republican politicians openly support the validity of Q theories.
Q followers are closer than you might think. A librarian friend of mine told me that a colleague of hers spent an entire day talking to her about Q. “She was absolutely convinced, and she tried to convince me. I was shocked. How could someone who studied and works surrounded by books believe all this?”
Conspiracy theories have always been part of history. In the face of uncontrollable events, they offer an alternative interpretation of reality for those who aren't satisfied with banal scientific answers. But unlike in the past, the QAnon phenomenon transforms conspiracy theories into both a political manifesto and a religious prophecy, strategically using social media to achieve viral expansion. Q is the new frontier of civic engagement where politics, religion, and video games blend together in a lethal combination. It's a veritable weapon of mass distraction for those willing to believe anything for an answer, at a time when the hardest thing to do is imagine and plan for the future.
If the number of people who believe in Q and conspiracy theories continues to increase, in the not too distant future Q and his companions will be the next political party that the old parties will have to challenge, Q and his disciples will be the new religion that will give history the next Dark Ages.
If by chance Q is reading this, I also have a coded message for you: VafanQ.
Alessandro Casiraghi
For further information: International, Wikipedia, Atlantic
