On a cold, rainy morning in November 2021, hundreds of people gathered in Dallas where President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. They were anxiously awaiting the arrival of John Kennedy Jr., who allegedly faked his death in a 1999 plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The crowd was ready for JFK Jr. to enthusiastically announce that he will be Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election, with some noting the Kennedy clan is directly descended from Jesus Christ.

The Dallas gathering was comprised of QAnon devotees, a far-right conspiracy theory movement begun in 2017. In his book about QAnon (“The Storm Is Upon Us”) journalist Mike Rothschild states that Q is an unknown figure — claiming to be an intelligence officer — who posts (“drops” in QAnon parlance) “purposefully vague and cryptic messages … about an upcoming purge of the deep state.” Anonymous users called “anons” are encouraged to research and interpret those messages. The Center for Strategic International Studies reports the QAnon community takes its directions from Q, who has god-like status among the faithful, his wisdom absolute.

Rothschild writes that according to Q the evil “deep state” in this country is comprised of “Democrats, Hollywood elites, business tycoons, wealthy liberals, the medical establishment, celebrities and the mass media” … all controlled by Barack Obama (a Muslim sleeper agent) and Hillary Clinton, “a blood-drinking ghoul who murders everyone in her way …” The Dalai Lama and Pope Francis are also reputed to be members of this evil axis.

Q further states the deep state cabal is funded by George Soros and the international Jewish banking community that’s out to hoard their riches and destroy everyone who opposes them. (A pre-QAnaon version of this conspiracy theory appeared in the 2016 presidential election with Hillary Clinton and other Democrats operating a child-sex ring out of a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant. This theory was labeled “Pizzagate.”)

Game designer Adrian Hon writes that QAnon’s similarity to alternate-reality games provides “a fantasy world of secret wars and cabals … and it offers convenient explanations for things that feel inexplicable or wrong about the world.” University of Amsterdam psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen writes “the refusal to recognize the role of chance in human affairs” leads people to develop a worldview wherein “hostile and secret conspiracies permeate all layers of society.”

In a recent issue of The Conversation (a global journalism project), Australian social scientists Nicolo Mioto and Julian Droogan report that QAnon is becoming a pseudo-Christian extremist movement. The latest twist of this conspiracy theory builds on Christian dualism portraying the Satanic forces of evil battling the forces of Jesus Christ and his devotees. Some QAnon followers have recast the good versus evil narrative, elevating Donald Trump to a messiah who will spearhead the defeat of Satan and his wicked Democratic Party, socialist, communist, pagan pedophile followers.

Mioto and Droogan write that in this context support for Donald Trump “does not result from mere political conviction, but rather from an extremist theological interpretation of reality that sees Trump as a liberator,” an ally of Jesus Christ in the cosmic battle against evil. Adherents of this theory see themselves as “religiously and politically” legitimated to use force in their pursuit of victory over Satan and his legions. “QAnon’s alleged religious dimensions … strongly influenced the active violent participation of QAnon supporters in the storming of the US Capitol” in 2021.

The final showdown between the forces of good and evil will occur via “The Storm,” and determine the fate of humankind. Divinely inspired prophet Q and Donald Trump will lead the force of goodness to to a purified and righteous U.S. freed from the demonic forces of evil. In the aftermath of The Storm thousands of people will be arrested, many sent to prison (at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba) tried by military tribunals and some executed for their alleged crimes against humanity.

In September 2022 Trump jumped on the QAnaon bandwagon. Using the Truth Social platform, the former president reposted images of himself wearing a Q lapel pin with the words “The Storm is Coming.” Trump closed a political rally that September with a song entitled “WWG1WGA,” a QAnon acronym for “Where we go one, we go all.”

Political scientist Mia Bloom of Georgia State University reports that QAnon followers “have elevated Trump to messiah-like status,” wherein only he can stop the evil deep-state government. “That’s why you see so many images (in online QAnon postings) of Trump as Jesus.” Anthropologist Janet McIntosh of Brandies University notes that Trump saying the “storm is coming” is a way for him “to point to violence without explicitly calling for it.”

In April of this year, Will Sommers, author of “Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America,” stated that QAnon has “lost steam” as its conspiracy beliefs have been assimilated in some measure into the Republican Party. Since he launched his Truth Social site, as of May 2024, Trump has reposted or promoted QAnon-affiliated accounts more than 800 times.

Shortly after the failed assassination attempt, far-right radio host Alex Jones stated the plot to kill Trump was orchestrated by the “deep state.” On X (formerly Twitter), a favorite QAnon platform, reports were posted that high-profile Democrats and Republicans were “possibly colluding” with the CIA in the failed scheme to kill Trump. After President Biden said he would not seek a second term, far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec stated: “The assassination failed [of Donald Trump], so they took out Biden.”

Over the past few months some liberals have embraced baseless conspiracy theories. Online “BlueAnon” posts claimed the blood on Trump’s ear was from a theatrical gel packing and the shooting was a “false flag” possibly coordinated by Secret Service agents working with the former president’s campaign. Writer Mike Rothshild states: “The good-versus-evil paradigm of QAnon has really taken hold of the anti-Trump movement and you’re seeing two sides that feel like they are fighting a battle between good and evil.”

Can American democracy survive these mindless conspiracy theories?

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George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale and is retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego. A list of sources accompanies this commentary online.

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Sources

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