A Cult Within A Cult: Qanon, Conspiracy Theories, and Growing Fascism

Last week in Canada, military reserve member Corey Hurren allegedly packed his black pickup truck with weapons and stormed the gates of Rideau Hall, the residence where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resides. Hurren was subdued without incident, but it still remains unclear exactly what he planned to do should he have succeeded in whatever plan he was carrying out. The only evidence so far comes from his social media accounts, where Hurren regularly posted memes related to the Qanon conspiracy theory, including one that tied his vehicle to the fastest growing and most dangerous internet phenomenon.

Hurren and other adherents to Qanon believe in an absolutely twisted reality wherein President Donald Trump and a select group of insiders are waging a tireless and secret war against the so-called “Cabal,” a shadowy consortium of politicians, wealthy individuals, and international criminals, all in order to traffic children, abuse them, and control the levers of power. According to the conspiracy theory, Trump (known as Q+) and Q (an anonymous “intelligence expert” who posts cryptic Nostradamus-like “clues” on the toxic website 8kun) are attempting to wrangle the Deep State while sending messages and signals to an enlightened few to prepare them for “The Storm,” or the moment in which a flurry of secret indictments will be revealed and all the evil-doers arrested or executed.

Included within this flotsam of nonsense is an assortment of associated beliefs, ranging from a nonsensical faith that John F. Kennedy, Jr. faked his death in 1999 to prepare for the Storm and a smattering of beliefs in reptilians and aliens and even Trump’s Barron being a time-traveling detective.

It would all be incredibly funny and sad if it weren’t so dangerous.

Though Qanon seems ridiculous, it has frustratingly found purchase in modern politics. It enjoys deep and widespread support in America, where Trump supporters are attempting to fashion anything approaching a reality wherein their cult leader is competent and capable, and has spread to other countries, including Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. It’s unclear if there is a connection between Qanon and countries of British colonial origin, or if it has become weaponized as misinformation meant to destroy reality, but what is becoming clearer by the day is that this is a dangerous, fascistic phenomenon.

In America, Qanon believers have been arrested attempting to assassinate public figures, have threatened violence, created one disturbance after another, and in my conversations with security experts it is clear that defense organizations have begun to view the phenomenon as a potential terror threat.

To fully grasp what Qanon is and what it could become, we have to break down the very essence of this cult. It is a rebranding of the New World Order conspiracy theory that has held sway over American politics for the past two decades and a side-effect of the Right’s war on science, education, and experts that has been waged on behalf of monied and powerful interests. It is a conspiracy theory that Trump and Republicans have flirted with and tacitly embraced as it scrubs clean flagrant corruption and miscarriages of justice. It has been made possible by repeated attacks on objective reality by a president, a party, and a movement that can only win elections when they are held inside a completely fabricated alternate reality wherein voters must choose between a satanic conspiracy and a party that continues to destroy democratic institutions.

In short, Qanon is a conspiracy theory that legitimizes fascism. Its narrative of a system that has been so corrupted by “traitors” and “conspirators” that elections and democratic institutions themselves are unreliable means that violence of any sort is not only logical but necessary. The indictments and arrests and executions and even assassinations are necessary if it is a life or death situation, particularly if our country and the lives of its people are in the balance. Qanon, like the New World Order conspiracy theory and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion before it, is a lie that gives its believers license to indulge in their worst and most fascistic impulses. It makes them heroes in a struggle. It makes them saviors of their own reality.

You can laugh at this as much as you want, but there’s already blood spilled. The bizarre and ridiculous parts of the Qanon conspiracy theory shield its true danger. Many, many people believe this nonsense, and in that they are no different from other radicalized people around the world. Cults birth terrorism. They give members a reason to kill, to slaughter, and within their frameworks it is a matter of faith and devotion.

It isn’t enough to shake your head and say it can’t happen here.

It’s already happening here.

Jared Yates Sexton is the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed its People, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. He currently serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.