The first claim ever made in the QAnon saga was irrefutably false.
On October 28th, 2017, a cocksure, anonymous message board user claimed that Hillary Clinton would be arrested in two days.
Roughly 1,000 days have passed…and still nothing.
That hasn’t stopped “Q” from gaining a religious following.
Despite Twitter’s best attempts, the web of believers sprawls somewhere in the millions. At least that’s what Chrissy Teigen will tell you.
She was recently attacked on Twitter by QAnon supporters, who accused her of eating children.
No, that’s not a typo.
According to Teigen, she blocked over one million accounts in an attempt to slow the attacks.
Who are these people? What do they want? What is the message of the person, or people, known as “Q”?
Here are five tentpole beliefs that prop up this wild conspiracy theory.
QAnon isn’t the first conspiracy theory, but it might be the largest. Most of the other conspiracy theories you know (faked moon landing, 9/11, JFK) are all encapsulated by QAnon.
That’s because ‘Q’ claims that everyone is in on the game. The government, the media, Hollywood, the education industry, the health care industry, and probably your grandma are working in cahoots to exploit you—the average citizen.
Here are five of its central beliefs.
This claim isn’t exactly new to QAnon. Conspiracies about a ruling-class of evil elites, aka the Illuminati, have been around for decades.
The infamous Rothschilds are often included in these theories. Q is no exception.
Theories about the Rothschilds are likely how celebrities like Nick Cannon have justified their recent streak of unbounded antisemitism.
Q claims that Epstein’s island was not only a sex trafficking ring but also housed a satanic cult where humans were sacrificed. It argues that this cult engages in the blood-letting of children. And it claims that many of our leaders and celebrities are involved — sometimes even models who like to share recipes for rice pudding.
QAnon claimed “symbolism will be their downfall,” in a post allegedly depicting the Clintons wearing satanic crosses.
Hillary Clinton is not a good person? Believable. Satanic cults? Possibly. But here’s where the conspiracy becomes too much to stomach.
According to QAnon, when Donald Trump claimed he would “drain the swamp,” he was referring to the evil pedophiles who run the world.
As Q puts it,
This was a hostile takeover from an evil corrupt network of players.
That’s right. The man we all heard say that you should just grab women by their private parts is here to save us from the demented sex offenders.
What’s not clear is how Q reconciles the relationship between its greatest hero (Trump) and one of its biggest villains (Jeffrey Epstein).
According to QAnon, the Democrats are significant players in the conspiracy against America. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, they’re all secretly working to hold down the black population.
Q claims that Black Lives Matter is a front to fund Joe Biden. It claims that Democrats formed the KKK and the confederate states.
Q makes many claims about Barack Obama, including the idea that he armed North Korea with nuclear weapons, and that he is, no joke, Satan.
Oh, and the entire party is controlled by foreign, anti-American powers.
A major rallying point of this conspiracy is that Q’s followers are “united” and “growing.” They are all part of the “Great Awakening,” which is inevitable.
Q is so confident and so “well-informed” because it’s a “military entity,” allegedly comprised of high-ranking officers.
Massive amounts of irrefutable evidence await the criminals who try to evade their reckoning in court.
The site also claims that the “patriots” are in control, adding,
And no legal tricks can help the criminals escape the ultimate judgment of public disgust.
If Q’s claims have any validity, we will be repulsed indeed. But until then, the Trump-loving, Teigen-bashing group of message board fanatics are the ones causing most of the disgust.