QAnon, Women, and the American Culture Wars

Abstract

QAnon, Women, and the American Culture Wars Mia Bloom (bio) and Sophia Moskalenko (bio) qanon, a baseless conspiracy theory, originated in the darkest recesses of the internet, including online message boards such as 4chan and 8chan. The QAnon conspiracy theory posits that former president Donald Trump is fighting a battle against a cabal of "deep state" Democratic saboteurs (that includes Hollywood elites) who worship Satan and traffic children for pedophilic torture with the goal of harvesting their blood, allegedly rich in adrenochrome, a substance with magical properties. QAnon's ideas are, on their face, absurd. It is easy for a reasonable person to dismiss those who believe in lizard people and a cabal of pedophiles that feed on children's blood, or that Joe Biden will be executed at Guantanamo Bay. However, these conspiracy theories tap into people's psychological need to be part of an in-group. QAnon allows people, particularly women (the self-identified "Pastel QAnon"), to feel they are saving children from powerful abusers, giving themselves a sense of empowerment. QAnon creates a shadowy, nefarious other from which "traditional Americans" need to be protected, and a rallying cry for women who subscribe to the QAnon conspiracy. Our ongoing research on conspiracy theories examines the narratives and images used by groups like QAnon and assesses the psychology of believers. As a social psychologist and a scholar of international relations who have spent decades studying radical political movements, we have used open-source data, representative national polls, peer-reviewed academic publications, and journalistic accounts [End Page 525] related to the QAnon phenomenon. We have approached the subject from a variety of angles and spent over two and a half years on semi-encrypted platforms, like Telegram, following dozens of QAnon influencers to understand the myths and motivations undergirding the conspiracy. In this essay we present some of our findings: first, that women played a significant role in amplifying, disseminating, and funding QAnon as a mass movement; and second, that the mass psychology that made QAnon popular among many Americans comprised a process of mass "unfreezing"—shattering of normative ideas about legal and moral authorities of government and religion, loss of trust in science, and rapidly shifting gender roles. In addition to collecting a treasure trove of data and other published materials, we surveyed the family members of QAnon believers, sometimes called QAnon casualties, as well as various populations in which there are differing degrees of conspiratorial belief. In this article we present the significance of the QAnon and its causes and correlates in the context of cultural values and democratic governance. While there were no messages left on the 8chan/8kun for almost two years, suddenly in the summer of 2022 QAnon made a brief return to comment on Cassidy Hutchison's testimony before the January 6 committee. Someone with access to Q's login credentials appeared to have posted on 8kun, the anarchic internet message board where Q had not posted since December 2020. The post asked: "Shall we play a game once more?" It was signed "Q." The [June 2022] message was written in the same clue-like format as thousands of earlier Q posts, dubbed "Q Drops" by their fans, that led to the creation of QAnon in late 2017. Q's followers believe the cryptic messages explain the world at it really is, controlled by Satan-worshipping, child-eating pedophiles in the Democratic Party, finance, and other institutions. (Sommer 2022) [End Page 526] Supporters of the conspiracy theory helped promote, fund, and organize the planning of the events of January 6, 2021. Since then, it has become clear that social media facilitated the failed attempt to overthrow the US government (Frenkel 2021). As it played out on live TV, we witnessed a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol Hill overwhelming Capitol police officers, injuring dozens. Brian Sicknick, a Washington, DC, police officer who bravely defended the Capitol, died of his wounds. In the storming crowd, a woman, Ashli Babbitt, "was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol, and three other people died of medical emergencies" (Harwell et al. 2021). The conspiracy theory has metastasized, evolving at lightning speed as it moved through social media platforms...