On 12 August, Donald Trump endorsed a congressional candidate from Georgia, the victor in a Republican primary runoff held the previous day. Like an alarmingly increasing number of congressional hopefuls and current politicians, Marjorie Taylor Greene embraces the QAnon conspiracy theory, and her primaries victory signals an evolution of QAnon from fringe conspiracy to political platform.
Some argue, in fact, that it is no longer a conspiracy theory but a full-blown cult, and with its growing membership and increasing acts of violence, it would be hard to dismiss this claim as being overblown. Attempts to stop QAnon groups, hashtags, and accounts have been unsuccessful in controlling the spread of the conspiracy theory, and recently the group has evolved its tactics by not only trying to evade censorship, but also attempting to co-opt other movements like Save The Children in response to these bans as well as to widen their recruitment net. Conspiracy theories have long been the far right’s (racist, misogynistic, anti-semitic, and Islamophobic) bread and butter, but QAnon has succeeded where others may have not: it’s become mainstream.
The evolution of QAnon has been nothing short of remarkable. Originating on the infamous image board 4chan, it spread to online communities like reddit and its /r/PizzaGate community, which was banned in 2016 for violating reddit’s rules on doxing and harassment. The conspiracy has even caused people to try and “liberate” the children by going to the pizza restaurant (hence “PizzaGate”) at the center of the conspiracy, Comet Ping Pong, armed with weapons.
