One sure-fire way to see if something is a cult is what happens within their families and friends. If they are so devoted to a group that they cut themselves off from everyone who does not share their beliefs, then they very likely belong to a cult. The responses to a survey of people who used to have relationships with those they knew who became QAnon devotees shows all the signs that it is a cult. One of them said that the best way to sum up the situation is as a “surreal goddamn nightmare.”
QAnon has ruined lifelong friendships and alienated family members. Those who still speak to one another say their relationships have changed, often beyond repair.
Nobody said any of their loved ones had returned to reality.
“My mom has fallen into the conspiracy beliefs of QAnon,” Samantha, 30, who lives in Texas, told BuzzFeed News. “For months I’ve been trying to bring her back to reality, and I’ve really tried it all.”
Samantha wrote that after her level-headed and college-educated mother became a believer, she could not save her.
…The author said their friend’s partner is a QAnon believer who makes his own YouTube videos, which is how she was introduced to it. Now her friend has cut herself off from the outside world. “She doesn’t even know what day it is more than half the time.”
…Marriages and romantic relationships have been tested. QAnon has driven some couples apart, and those who have stuck around describe having to stay on their toes constantly.
“I lost my partner of eight years to Q,” one person wrote. Their partner stumbled onto QAnon through actor Roseanne Barr, who was following a prominent QAnon account.
“I looked up [the account] and began researching Q and became emotionally upset over what my partner was reading and believing,” the person said. Their relationship ended, but they recently discovered that their former partner was telling people the coronavirus is a hoax.
The stories are heart-breaking.
One has to wonder what kind of sick person enjoys spreading false stories and destroying people’s lives. And then you begin to also wonder how sick a society must be for it to have people who find such utterly absurd claims not only plausible but believe in them so strongly that they are willing to cut themselves off from those who have for so long loved and cared for them.
This is all very 1990’s and 2000’s.
Back then, there were a lot of cults that did a lot of damage to many people.
This was the era of the Moonies, Scientology, and fundie xians on witch hunts for imaginary satanic abuse.
The similarities to Qanon are very high.
There is a large sociological and psychological literature on abusive cults.
One of the key tests if a cult is abusive: How easy is it to leave the cult?
Quite often, if you leave an abusive cult, you leave all your friends and family behind.
That is a high price that many people can’t or won’t pay.
The Mormons, JW’s, Moonies, and most fundie xian churches fail that test.
There is a house near me that I have to pass whenever I go to town. They have an overabundance of Trump flags, signs, etc in their yard. On Friday, I got behind a white pickup truck that had a huge “Q” on his back window. Of course, they turned into that house. I always give a one-finger salute when I pass the house.
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I told my wife about the “Q” truck. She asked whether people “really believe” all that stuff or if they were just being contrary. She was incredulous that anybody with two brain cell could truly swallow the bullshit. I asked her if she remembered the pizza joint in Washington that got shot up because a Q-believer was looking for the pedophile ring in the non-existent basement.
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It is truly frightening that this cult has gained such momentum. I have wondered if it would be worthwhile to move to Canada to get away from the craziness of the US.
One has to wonder what kind of sick person enjoys spreading false stories and destroying people’s lives.
Saint Paul? Jim Jones? David Koresh? Joseph Smith and Brigham Young? Shoko Asahara?
Qanon is pretty stupid, at its core, and there is no way that the belief system will just go away without collapsing, first. I don’t see any way that Qanon will come to reality without having to confront their own stupidity, and that usually results in conflict or blowback. We’ll be fortunate if they just decide to drink cyanide.
At this point, the only things that distinguish QAnon from a more traditional cult are a) its political slant and b) the anonymity of its leader. I used to think the latter would be its Achilles heel — that, given the internet, somebody would surely sleuth out the true identity of Q and that would lead to its collapse.
Now, I’m not so sure. Even if somebody were to be exposed, went onto the internet and gave a detailed interview of “This is why I created the Q persona,” would there be any possible way that person would be accepted as the real Q by the true believers?
“I asked her if she remembered the pizza joint in Washington that got shot up because a Q-believer was looking for the pedophile ring in the non-existent basement.”
That was pre-Q Pizzagate. Whoever created Q though certainly did so on the back of Pizzagate.
One sure-fire way to see if something is a cult is what happens within their families and friends. If they are so devoted to a group that they cut themselves off from everyone who does not share their beliefs, then they very likely belong to a cult.
— Matthew 10:34-37
brucegee1962 @ # 4: …, given the internet, somebody would surely sleuth out the true identity of Q and that would lead to its collapse.
The one recent purported exposé I’ve seen has apparently sunk without any follow-up or ripple anywhere: Meet the Man Behind QAnon—America’s Fastest Growing Cult:
Tabby Lavalamp @5: You are right. It all got kind of squished up in my mind because the “believers” are exactly like that shooter.
QAnon combines the worst aspects of religious cults and extremist political movements.
Oh, it’s worse than that. QAnon is recycled Nazi propaganda jazzed up for our modern age.
https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/
I am not a Reddit user but this group: ‘QAnonCasualties’ is just what the name implies:
https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/
Fred Clark used to refer to things like this as the ‘World’s Worst LARP’, in large part because so many of the people claim to believe but don’t have the courage of their convictions. Then again, you get the folks who obviously do believe, and they cause problems that the people running the show try to pretend wasn’t their fault. Stochastic terrorism.
It’s kind of the ultimate drill-down conspiracy theory for people who have to believe they’re smart, possess secret knowledge, and believe that everything wrong with their lives is somebody else’s fault. Breaking away from that would require them admitting that not only had they made a mistake, but that they were suckered by something so fundamentally illogical that it makes them look stupid. It’s like the bit about spam emails containing so many obvious spelling mistakes and other tells that anybody who falls for them is likely to keep falling for them and also feel too embarrassed to tell anybody if they ever figure out they were suckered.
As for whether or not exposing who was behind it would cause it to collapse, no, probably not; that would just get branded as ‘fake news!’ and ignored.
joelgrant @#11,
Thanks for that link, even though it makes for depressing reading.
jenorafeuer @#12,
I agree. At some point, these movements take on a life of their own that is independent of what we learn about the founder. In that sense it is like a religion. Scientology and Mormonism are good recent examples. Those two and fundamentalist Islamist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups share the same cultish tendency to ostracize defectors.