qanon

At Launch Rally in Waco, Former President Sets the Stakes for Trump '24 Campaign with Apocalyptic, Violent, Genocidal Rhetoric

Annika Brockschmidt, Thomas Lecaque — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 05:05:09 EDT

Donald Trump ’s Waco rally this past weekend was, in the end, filled with echoes of the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound —just not the kind we like to talk about. And, despite the New York Times profile…

GOP Candidate Allegedly Orchestrating Shooting of Democrats' Homes is no Accident

Annika Brockschmidt — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 05:32:56 EST

On December 4th 2022, eight bullets struck the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa. On December 11th, 12 bullets followed. On January 3rd this year, three bullets hit the house of Linda Lopez, New Mexico senator representing District 11…

Pelosi Attacker's New Age Spirituality and Belief in QAnon is no Contradiction

Susannah Crockford — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 04:13:30 EDT

Around 3 a.m. on October 28, David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband, with a hammer. During the attack, DePape yelled “Where’s Nancy?” raising concerns that his true intent was political assassination of the second-in-line…

Putin's Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There's Reason to Believe it'll Go Mainstream

Thomas Lecaque — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 05:30:57 EDT

It starts with a tweet: https://twitter.com/realRickWiles/status/1585375961033605120?s=20&t=DZQ… And it is, of course, not simply that. Shortly before, in support of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin appointing a “chief exorcist” against Satanism, he said : “Can you think of anybody, in the…

La Carmina, Author of 'The Little Book of Satanism,' Talks 'Satanic Panic,' QAnon, Japanese Satanism, and More

Joseph Laycock — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:18:21 EDT

For most of its existence, religious Satanism has been regarded as either unfit for polite conversation or fodder for sensationalist tabloid media. In the 1990s, Anton LaVey complained, “Whenever I got on TV or the radio, I was given a…

The Far-Right Embrace of the Knights Templar isn't Just About Faith, Tradition or History — It's About Hate

Thomas Lecaque — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 03:36:35 EDT

In 1302, the island of Arwad, off the coast of Syria, fell to Mamluk forces. The Templar garrison died in the assault. The Templar had lost their last stronghold in the Holy Land, and while the other major military orders…

The Failure to Focus on — And Yes, to 'Cancel' — Right Wing Antisemitism is a Problem

Elad Nehorai — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 03:56:34 EDT

Earlier this month, amid increasing death threats, the synagogue of the judge who signed the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search warrant was forced to cancel its Shabbat service . And this is hardly an isolated incident. Antisemitism is becoming more and more…

Conservative Judge Suing 'Daily Beast' for ‘QAnon-linked’ Headline Thought QAnon Pod Was ‘Aimed at Christian Audience’ — Spoiler: It Was

Chrissy Stroop — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 03:32:10 EDT

Paula Patrick, a conservative judge in Philadelphia perhaps best known for being on the wrong side of a Christopher Columbus statue controversy , objects to being called “ QAnon-linked .” In fact, she’s filed a false light suit (similar to…

The Right's ‘Grooming’ Rhetoric Didn't Begin with QAnon — You Have to Go Back a Bit Further to Get to the Source

Sophie Bjork-James — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 06:00:19 EDT

It seems that all the Right wants to talk about these days is “grooming.” These accusations became popular recently in Florida with Republicans pushing for a law equating books about LGBT families with pedophiles grooming children. Governor Ron DeSantis’s press…

With Demons Held Responsible These Days for Everything from Covid to LGBTQ Rights, Take a Visual Tour of the History of Demonization

Ed Simon — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 06:41:18 EDT

During our season of political madness , it took a lot to trigger a double-take, and yet a pro-Trump, Covid-denialist pediatrician named Stella Immanuel declaring that illness was caused by the semen of demons was an exemplary case. Dr. Immanuel…

Turn On The News: The Times Has to Make a Choice: It Can't Laugh at Satanic Claims and Take the Christian Right at Face Value

Daniel Schultz — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 04:09:56 EST

Allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment, so to speak. Have you ever considered the idea that Swedish musician and composer Anna von Hausswolff might actually be, as you say, “ a high priestess of satanic harmonies ?”…

Vainglory Days: A Foremost Expert on Religious Violence Offers Clues to How QAnon Might End

Mark Juergensmeyer — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 04:50:59 EST

QAnon won’t last forever. Sooner or later, even if the failure of their prophecies doesn’t necessarily do them in , conspiracy theories unravel and violent movements associated with them eventually end. I make this prediction based on a study of…

A New Mormon Religion Has Taken QAnon Conspiracies and Canonized Them as Doctrine

Cristina Rosetti — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 04:13:59 EDT

Over the last year, I’ve scrolled past social media posts by members of diverse religious backgrounds and political opinions. However, because my ethnographic research is based in Mormon fundamentalist communities, a good amount of the commentary I see leans libertarian…

'Cult' Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

Catherine Wessinger — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 02:22:53 EDT

In the twentieth century the word “ cult ” (originally meaning “worship”) became a pejorative word that people apply to a group or movement that they do not like and perhaps fear. The word “cult” implies a stereotype that involves…

What Connects Racism, Misogyny and Faith? Community. And That's a Bad Thing

Daniel Schultz — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 02:53:34 EDT

Since the murder of eight people at Atlanta-area spas on March 16, there’s been a fierce debate over the causes of the shooting rampage. Some, such as Ruth Graham of the New York Times, have pointed to the gunman’s exposure…

How Postwar Germany's Witchcraft Trials Can Help Us Understand QAnon And Other Conspiracy Theories

Monica Black — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 01:34:25 EDT

Doing research in a branch of the state library in Berlin a few years ago, I stumbled across a reference to a 1951 book called Are There Witches among Us? It had been published in West Germany by a former…

Blinken and 'Blinkered': Two Oath-of-Office Stories Embody a Divided America

Andrew L. Seidel — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 03:06:14 EST

America continues to divide and migrate toward opposing poles, one in which democratic government is a value and the other in which it’s a barrier to power. Christian nationalism, contributes to this division. The dichotomy floated across my digital timeline…

Q Shaman's New Age-Radical Right Blend Hints at the Blurring of Seemingly Disparate Categories

Susannah Crockford — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 03:53:41 EST

By now we’ve all seen the pictures, saturating our social media landscapes with their grotesque glee. The becostumed horde, thronging through the windows, up the stairways, politely abiding by the velvet red ropes, as they stormed the Capitol building in…

As We Survey the Damage of Yesterday's Violence, What Will Christian Nationalist Politics Look Like in 2021? New Report Offers Clues

Chrissy Stroop — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 02:06:12 EST

This week, amid Democratic victories in Georgia’s Senate runoffs and a Christian nationalist attempt to overturn former Vice President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election, the advocacy organization American Atheists released its State of the Secular States report…

How 'Positivity' Can Lead to Conspiratorial Thinking

Susannah Crockford — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 03:48:58 EST

Positivity and positive thinking are very often held as inherently good qualities to embody. If you think positively, so the reasoning goes, you will live a better life. Self-help gurus and guides implore you to have gratitude and appreciation for…

Christian Terrorist in TX Was Paid 'Investigator' for Prominent GOP Activists and Donors

Chrissy Stroop — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 01:00:42 EST

On Tuesday, December 15, disgraced former Houston Police captain Mark Anthony Aguirre was charged with aggravated assault for running an air conditioner repairman off the road and holding him at gunpoint, actions he took as part of a broader conspiratorial…

QAnon’s Predictions Haven’t Come True; So How Does the Movement Survive the Failure of Prophecy?

Amarnath Amarasingam, Marc-André Argentino — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 12:51:20 EDT

John F. Kennedy Jr. is dead and has been dead for some time. In July 1999, the small plane he was traveling in crashed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, killing him and two others. The bodies of Kennedy and…

What Does Satanism Have to do With QAnon?

David Frankfurter — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 03:35:44 EDT

Outsiders to the QAnon conspiracy system evolving over the past few years may be confused by its references to Satanic rites in which children are supposedly abused. Of course, there’s never been the slightest evidence of murderous, child-abusing Satanic cults…

QAnon Didn't Just Spring Forth From the Void — It's the Latest From a Familiar Movement

Adam Willems — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 12:48:22 EDT

If you’ve been online at any point in the past year—if not, welcome!—your aimless clicks and doomscrolling may have brought you glimpses of the “world” of QAnon : the conspiracy theory that argues that US President Donald Trump is in…

The Dangerous Fact About QAnon Believers That Reporters Fail to Grasp

John Stoehr — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 02:39:55 EDT

Most of us are familiar with the genre of political reporting in which a journalist from the Times parachutes into Ohio or Arizona (or wherever) to talk to Donald Trump’s supporters while they’re eating. Most don’t know, or have forgotten…