"Their goal, according to Diaz, was to build a following for Qanon - which would mean bigger followings for them as well," NBC News' Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins reported.Ī person wears a t-shirt with the anagram WWG1WGA, the QAnon slogan, while participating in a "save the children" march and rally in New York City, New York, U.S. November 2017: QAnon influencers spread the theory onlineĪn August 2018 NBC News investigation found that three individuals - Tracy Diaz, Paul Furber, and Coleman Rogers - had been responsible for plucking "Q drops" out of obscurity and spreading them throughout the internet.įurber and Coleman were moderators of the 4chan board that contained "Q drops," and Diaz was a far-right conspiracy-theory YouTuber. "Q's" main topics in those early days were related to Clinton's impending arrest (Clinton was never arrested), and were an offshoot of "Pizzagate." "Q drops" in the fall of 2017 also focused on George Soros, a Jewish Democratic donor who's frequently the subject of conspiracy theories, and Clinton aide Huma Abedin, as a Bellingcat investigation found. With "Q drops," the name given to messages from the anonymous "Q" figure, the idea of this upcoming "storm" solidified into the theory of imminent public executions and arrests for child-traffickers and pedophiles. Weeks earlier, on October 5, President Trump told reporters, "Maybe it's the calm before the storm." A reporter asked Trump "what storm" he was talking about, and the president replied, "You'll find out." The vague comment didn't seem to reference anything at all, but on 4chan, messages from "Q" sent Trump supporters into a frenzy of theorizing. In an interview with The New York Times, Welch, a father of two, said he had "felt his heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering.'" October 2017: The first 'Q drops' Welch fired an assault rifle into the restaurant and was later sentenced to four years in prison on weapons charges. His belief was disproven after he entered the restaurant. Less than two months later, Edgar Maddison Welch, who was 28 at the time, drove from North Carolina to the DC restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, where he said he believed children were being held as sex slaves. As Silverman noted, that entire series of events took place in three days. Soon, several other right-wing websites began posting similar fake news articles. Then, a right-wing fake news article on cited a post on 4chan, an anonymous message board that has frequently been the home of violent and racist rhetoric, claiming that emails from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, published by WikiLeaks, used code words to discuss child trafficking. At the same time, conspiracy theorists on far-right message boards were discussing baseless claims that Clinton was allegedly involved in a child-trafficking scheme. Murmurs of "Pizzagate," which circulated online during the 2016 election, started that October when a Twitter troll shared a screenshot of a Facebook post that falsely claimed the New York Police Department found evidence on disgraced politician Anthony Weiner's laptop that Clinton was involved in an "international child enslavement ring," as Craig Silverman of BuzzFeed News reported at the time. The first known QAnon-linked crime took place in the summer of 2018, and the movement also helped fuel the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol. The conspiracy-theory movement has been linked to several alleged and convicted violent crimes, including killings and attempted kidnappings. QAnon believers, along with white supremacists, diehard Trump fans, and militant gangs, stormed the Capitol to protest the election results on January 6. Though Greene's ties to QAnon were well-documented by journalists and media watchdogs alike in the months before her election to Congress, the convoluted "big tent" conspiracy theory, which is constantly spinning off new baseless allegations, has drawn recent interest in the wake of the Capitol riot. Greene, who claimed last Thursday that she no longer believed in QAnon, was stripped of her congressional committee assignments on February 5. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has repeatedly endorsed the movement and its associated theories. Members questioned past comments by Georgia Rep. QAnon, the fictional right-wing conspiracy theory that alleges Trump is fighting a "deep state" cabal of human traffickers, has had a big couple weeks in Congress. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |