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Jack the Insider

Bizarre, yes. Crazy, maybe. But the media ignores QAnon at our peril

Jack the Insider
QAnon demonstrators protest during a rally to re-open California from lockdown. Picture: AFP.
QAnon demonstrators protest during a rally to re-open California from lockdown. Picture: AFP.

Dan Andrews has been arrested. He is currently cooling his heels in Guantanamo Bay. The Victorian Premier has been replaced by a clone. The COVID-19 pandemic is bogus, political camouflage for the battle that rages between the deep state and Donald Trump.

The State of Victoria is in lockdown, not to reduce the infectious spread of the pandemic but because armed forces are secretly battling for control of the tunnels; an underground network used by the deep state to transport abducted children. Scott Morrison is with the deep state. Andrews was, too, before his arrest.

It is not yet safe to go to the tunnels. But be patient. The Great Awakening is upon us.

Welcome to the latest news from QAnon, the conspiracy theory that has millions of followers in the US and thousands in Australia.

QAnon followers believe Daniel Andrews is in Guantanamo Bay. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty
QAnon followers believe Daniel Andrews is in Guantanamo Bay. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

It is a mistake to view QAnon through an ideological prism. Anyone who thinks QAnon has an ideological basis or sits somewhere on the political spectrum is missing the point. Donald Trump is their hero now, locked in a battle with the deep state, sometimes referred to as ‘The Cabal’ or with a nod to nostalgia, ‘The Illuminati.’ But Anons are shape and logic shifters who cherry pick facts as they unfold to suit their predictions.

It is not a political movement. It is a cult, an ersatz religious group and a dangerous one. The FBI has described QAnon as a “potential domestic terror group.”

Anons believe Trump is their saviour but here in Australia they regard our Prime Minister as the enemy. There are no heroes among our own political leadership. Australia’s political leaders are complicit, according to Anons, perhaps even engaged in the business of child trafficking themselves either as active paedophiles or profiting from the supply of adrenochrome, obtained by draining endocrinal fluids from tortured children and used as a party drug by political and celebrity elites.

The Anons believe up to 800,000 children a year are trafficked through tunnels around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic is merely cover for the intervention of the US military to take control of the tunnels. The local Anons say Melbourne’s Level 4 lockdown is one of the fiercer battlegrounds. They point to seismic activity they believe has been misreported as earthquakes when really, they say, it is the rumble of gun and artillery fire.

By the way, there has been no seismic activity, no lurch of the needle on the Richter scale in or around Melbourne in the last month. But when it comes to Anons, forget facts and evidence. They don’t need any. They lie easily and do so when it suits them.

Donald Trump supporters hold up their phones with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory at a campaign rally at Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas. Picture: Getty Images.
Donald Trump supporters hold up their phones with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory at a campaign rally at Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas. Picture: Getty Images.

If you think this is all harmless buffoonery, consider how some members within a group of people who believe their political institutions are controlled by Satan-worshipping child sex traffickers might react. It stands as a virtual call to arms. QAnon conspiracies have led to violent conflict with police by armed Anons who thought they were saving children only to find the truth the limit to their conspiracies.

Don’t expect to find the mainstream media paying much attention to Anons. The media is confused about QAnon and is not quite sure how to report on its phenomenal rise. The Anons regard the media as the enemy, trafficking in lies to enable the status quo.

Where once they scuttled about in the dark corners of the web on anonymous bulletin board sites like 4 and 8 Chan, Anons have emerged into mainstream social media – on Facebook, Instagram, and You Tube, all under the proprietorship of Mark Zuckerberg who goes through the motions of examining some of the more outrageous posts and sites and de-platforming one group every now and then.

But it is a game of social media whack-a-mole. By its own analysis published earlier this week, Facebook puts QAnon at one million members and three million followers active on its own site. The real numbers are almost certainly higher.

In our own backyard, the overlap between the sovereign citizen movement and Anons is almost total. The amorphous collective of conspiracy theories encourages people to ignore the advice of health professionals and governments alike. There has been and will continue to be conflict with law enforcement. Wearing a mask in a public place won’t save you from infection because you can’t catch a virus, or so they say. You certainly can’t catch a virus that doesn’t exist.

Anons are not just linked to the anti-vaccination movement. They embrace it and attach their own dismal conspiracies to it. 5G is state sponsored surveillance in the making. Vaccinations are a form of control. More than a quarter of Americans believe Bill Gates is using vaccines as a form of mind control.

A QAnon follower person holds the group’s banner during an alt-right rally in Portland, Oregon. Picture; AFP.
A QAnon follower person holds the group’s banner during an alt-right rally in Portland, Oregon. Picture; AFP.

When a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is developed there is a strong likelihood that enough people will be discouraged from taking it, putting a vaccine sponsored herd immunity at risk around the world. Let’s just let that soak in for a little while.

Prior to the pandemic we could see the perils these people posed to our communities. It has come in the form of return of measles; an airborne, pernicious infectious disease that kills children had all but been wiped out. Now it’s back, here and in the US with terrible results.

So, what is to be done? Well, not very much can be done. Australia has a pretty poor history in dealing with cults. Our politicians could make it an offence to advocate against mandatory vaccination, but one gets the feeling that is what the Anons want – more conflict with the state, more dubious grounds for conspiracy theories.

The media needs to drop its aversion and play a role. It can’t bring those back who babble about tunnel incursions, adrenochrome and the torture of fictitious stolen children. The Anons are too far gone. But what the media can do is limit the pull of QAnon by not ignoring it and wherever possible shining a light on it.

The gravest mistake we can make is to see QAnon as embarrassingly bad views expressed by a tiny lunatic fringe. Their numbers are growing. As bizarre as their beliefs are, they continue to find support among people searching for easy answers to complex problems.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/bizarre-yes-crazy-maybe-but-the-media-ignores-qanon-at-our-peril/news-story/06608e77e53683fe8eff4543402f4302