QAnon

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• 3/7/2021
  

  Does Ridiculing Q Followers Fuel the Fire? Historical Lessons in Applied Social Science

  by Jayson Dibble

  The January 6 Capitol riot brought the QAnon conspiracy into public view, including the toll on families when a member adopts the worldview. Looking historically at social science research on cults suggests that while aggressive ridicule might be tempting, it's counterproductive. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  2/25/2021
  

  QAnon and the Satanic Panics of Yesteryear

  by Daniel N. Gullotta

  "The perception of a Christian nation in religious freefall fits almost seamlessly with QAnon’s conviction that the United States is under spiritual assault."

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  1/16/2021
  

  QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within

  by Ben Sasse

  The Republican Senator from Nebraska, who holds a doctorate in American history, warns that his party cannot continue to "preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon," and suggests ways to repair the frayed social fabric in which conspiracy theories thrive.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/8/2021
  

  A Scholar of American Anti-Semitism Explains the Hate Symbols Present During the US Capitol Riot

  by Jonathan D. Sarna

  The presence of conspiracy theorists and overt and coded anti-Semitic messages at the Capitol riot shows that far right ideology continues to target Jews in a conspiratorial, eliminationist worldview.

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  10/29/2020
  

  How America Escapes Its Conspiracy-Theory Crisis

  by David Rhode

  Trump's indulgence of conspiracy theorists risks casting the government as the enemy of the people. A new social contract is needed to ensure that this breach doesn't widen. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  10/29/2020
  

  When Democracy Ails, Magic Thrives

  by Samuel Clowes-Huneke

  A new book by historian Monica Black suggests that the irrational was never absent from the postwar order—and, moreover, that florid eruptions of mystical thinking often accompany periods of extreme political upheaval. 

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• SOURCE: Vanity Fair
  10/14/2020
  

  How QAnon Crept Into the Mind of Donald Trump

  by Jeff Sharlet

  Jeff Sharlet has long examined the role of true believers in politics. As the influence of the QAnon conspiracy theory among Trump's base comes in for scrutiny, he asks what if "he isn’t selling a dream, he’s dreaming it?"

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/18/2020
  

  Conspiracy Theories Make Sense of a Topsy-Turvy World — But Undermine Democracy

  by Zachary R. Goldsmith

  While the “paranoid style” in the various conspiracy theories of QAnon are nothing new, they certainly bode ill for democracy.

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• SOURCE: The Washington Post
  12-23-2018
  

  Max Boot the victim of a fake headline apparently concocted by QAnon, the rightwing conspiracy pro-Trump troll

  by Max Boot

  A photoshopped headline made it seem that Boot had changed his opinion about troops in Syria.

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• SOURCE: The Washington Post
  8-4-18
  

  Fact-checking QAnon conspiracy theories: Did J.P. Morgan sink the Titanic?

  106 years later, the pro-Trump online conspiracy-theory group QAnon has made Morgan the villain of a wildly implausible story.