The Rise of Conspiracy Theories and Their Effect on Our World
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
~ from “The Demon Haunted World” (1995)
This page will teach you about the effects of disinformation in the information age, with a focus on western democracies from the mid-2010s to the time of this writing (updated, fall 2022).
Brexit and Trump’s Presidential campaign victory will be a focal point on this page, along with the involvement of data firm Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. The rise of QAnon and the evolution of other conspiracy theories such as The Great Reset and White Replacement Theory brings us mostly up to date on the topic.
Pre-Reading/Understanding: The Power of the Web
Before reading this, you should have an understanding of what disinformation is, along with fake news and misinformation. Those terms, along with some explanation of how each of these items arguably holds more power over society, due to to our ever expanding internet infrastructure, is examined on the page “The Power of the Web”.
Summary, for those who are short on scrolling time:
Web 2.0 allowed information to be published digitally at a surreal rate. Hardware, such as the smartphone, along with the dominance of social media in our daily lives has given us access to both real-time information and the world’s library, so to speak, at our finger tips. However, not all information speaks the truth, and there are agents and parties using digital tools in order to persuade people to support notions that serve their cause.
Political agendas and campaigns have succeeded using tactics that created or exploited disinformation. While this behavior is thought to be commonplace in Eastern nations such as Russia, China, and North Korea, Western nations and democracies have been deeply impacted by disinformation campaigns, specifically carried out online. Both the Brexit campaign and the Trump Presidential campaign harvested individuals' private data, psychologically assessed them using A.I., and targeted those considered politically persuadable with advertisements and content containing disinformation, in order to get them to vote a certain way. They used a third-party firm, Cambridge Analytica, to carry out the operation. While this wasn't necessarily the primary tactic in these campaigns, it arguably played a large part in the overall strategy.
Shortly after Brexit and Trump achieved success with their agendas online, a sophisticated conspiracy theory known as QAnon moved from the fringes of the internet — from the notorious forums 4chan and 8chan — to mainstream social media. This conspiracy theory was pro-Trump, anti-liberal, and bizarre, claiming that some politicians were actually reptiles dressed in human skin and that prominent liberal politicians and elites ran a child sex trafficking ring and drank the blood of babies to gain a life-extending substance. These claims seem to come straight from B-grade science fiction films. However, they have been supported by those close to Trump, such as advisors Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone (all of whom were pardoned by Trump). Congressperson Marjorie Taylor-Greene is one elected politician who has openly supported QAnon theories, and Ron Watkins — thought to be the central figure behind QAnon — has been endorsed by Trump and is running for Congress in 2022.
Recently, Trump has taken steps to distance himself from the QAnon community despite his playing and arguably feeding the QAnon crowd during what’s now referred to as “The Big Lie” — the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. In fact, QAnon was the primary driver of disinformation that led to the January 6th insurrection attempt. Furthemore, QAnon often mingles with white nationalist groups, such as the Proud Boys. Trump has recently (as of June, 2022) banned the insignia from QAnon and the Proud Boys from his rallies.
While QAnon activity declined during 2021 and 2022, closely linked white nationalism theories have emerged during these years, specifically driven by another conspiracy theory known as “The Great Replacement” or white replacement theory, which has been pushed by right wing pundits such as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. This theory was a driving force behind the Trucker Convoy that occupied Ottawa, Canada’s capital, during the winter of 2022, notably by convoy leader Pat King and the group Diagolon. It’s important to note that this theory wasn’t openly discussed, promoted, and examined by traditional media outlets, and not all supporters of the convoy realized that much of the campaign was pushed by white nationalists. This parallels “The Big Lie” — those who believed the 2020 Presidential election was rigged did not automatically subscribe to the belief that Democrats were pedophiles. Nonetheless, it aids in the proliferation of theories such as white replacement, and these theories are often cited by terrorists such as the Buffalo grocery store shooter, who published their manifesto to the public before carrying out their vile act.
In the age of information, how do lies influence society to this degree? To understand this, we need to understand disinformation, misinformation, and the role all parties play in it — from those aware to those unaware, to social media platforms to its users.
Furthermore, this page will unpack the concepts and subjects noted above and provide further resources aimed to deepen your understanding of the topic and support the notions presented.
How the Internet Began to Alter Western Democracy (2015’ish to Present)
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Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups — and the electronic hardware exists by which to deliver these pseudo-worlds right into the heads of the reader, the viewer, the listener...
… Unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind…
… Fake realities will create fake humans. Or, fake humans will generate fake realities and then sell them to other humans, turning them, eventually, into forgeries of themselves. So we wind up with fake humans inventing fake realities and then peddling them to other fake humans.
~Philip K Dick, 1978 — from the speech “How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later”
Social Media has a massive hold over the political and social discord in nearly every nation. However, information has been weaponized on several fronts. Foreign influence through social media appears much more efficient. Extremely targeted voter advertising has given opportunity for campaigns to pedal disinformation through third parties. And radicalization through online forums have led to a vocal rise in white nationalism in the public sphere, mass protests, and acts of violence.
The Algorithm
The biggest social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Intagram, Youtube, SnapChat, TikTok) use algorithms that create “filter bubbles” for their users — which feeds them content that engages them. This is done through an algorithm that better learns about what gets the users attention the more they use the platform.
The algorithm isn’t a secret. It’s meant to deliver content and advertisements that gets the users attention. It also makes the platform more addicting. But the biggest problem with the algorithm is our psychology — we engage more with content that upsets us. Therefore, over time, our filter bubble can become a place of rage and frustration. Have you, or have you known someone to take time away from social media? Likely, this was a choice in order to improve one’s mental health, and to leave a toxic environment.
This doesn’t mean the algorithm feeds users only upsetting material — it just leans more that way, or knows just how much you need in order to keep using the app.
This has resulted in an uptick of radicalization, and the phenomenon of online radicalization.
This has also impacted civil discourse. Political, social, and moral ideologies have been tribalized to an extent where dialogue between groups can become non-existent and politicians have went to further extremes of the political spectrum. Mass protests and political bombshells have rocked every member of the G7. Global tensions have also been at an all-time high. While this correlates with the rise in the use of social media, causation isn’t for certain. However, the information landscape has been used to control and spread messages in a way society has never witnessed.
Black Lives Matter was/is a grassroots movement in response to the disproportionate number of black people being killed by police in the United States. It created a social divide reminiscent of the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century.
It also provided an opportunity for foreign adversaries to stoke the flames of division in the United States, most notably Russia, who has a history of disinformation campaigns and meddling in U.S. social and political action.
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From: Playing Both Sides: Russia State-Backed Media Coverage of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement
“...Our research draws attention to what appears to be an overt echo of the “playing both sides” strategy previously observed in the covert activity of the Internet Research Agency. That strategy manifested in the dozens of Facebook Pages and thou- sands of accounts overall that were built up to push tailored messages to distinct and diver- gent audience segments: pro-BLM, pro-Blue Lives Matter.”
~ Bradshaw, S., DiResta, R., & Miller, C. (2022). Playing Both Sides: Russian State-Backed Media Coverage of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 0 (0). https://doi-org.uml.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/19401612221082052
To get a better idea of how seemingly easy it is for a foreign account to get social media influence, I encourage you to read the following from Rolling Stone Magazine:
Cambridge Analytica was a data firm specializing in the psychological targeting of voters. They fraudulently gained the personal data of social media users without the user, and to some extent the social media platform, being aware. They then heavily targeted users determined to be “persuadable” politically with false-advertising that often carried messages of hate. Cambridge Analytica notably used Facebook’s API to secure a wealth of data, which the tech giant would infamously go on to uncover only to cover it up before eventually being exposed by whistleblowers.
Company leaders include Steve Bannon — a former Trump advisor and far-right wing convict and celebrity. Undercover video tapes also recorded company leaders admitting to digging up dirt on politicians to use as black mail.
Cambridge Analytica worked on the Brexit and Trump campaigns.
Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist that broke the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, speaks on the threat the likes of Cambridge Analytica poses on democracy.
Additional viewing:
This gives you a sense of how much raw data Cambridge Analytica collects.
QAnon — The Cult Like Conspiracy Theory Movement
This section has been updated — October 31, 2022
After a quieter 12 month period (2021-22) QAnon ideology has again hit the mainstream. Trump has embraced QAnon, arguably more explicitly than ever, and a QAnon believer recently broke into the home of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Dem.) with the intention of killing her, but instead severely beat her husband with a hammer.
QAnon started on forums before groups and users of more popular social media platforms (such as Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, among others) began spreading the concept’s disinformation. Eventually, the platforms banned QAnon content, however, the ideology already spread to the masses. Given the challenges of removing misinformation from these platforms, QAnon content is still spread through these apps today.
What is QAnon?
Quick Notes:
QAnon has been referred to by the New York Times as a “big tent conspiracy” — a conspiracy theory evolves and encompasses a wide range of topics.
It was instigated from an anonymous 4Chan account from a user signing as “Q” and claiming to be deeply embedded in the United States military
The identity of Q, for much of the time it was high active, was never confirmed, and still only speculated to this day. The QAnon community and movement is vulnerable to actors pretending to be Q.
The documentary “Q: Into the Storm” has attempted to identify Q, or at least, who Q was at the time of the production, given the title of Q may have changed hands, so to speak. <Spoiler Alert> Ron Watkins was the person identified as being Q in the documentary.
NEARLY 1 out of 5 Americans Believe in QAnon Theories
QAnon is a decentralized, far-right political movement rooted in a baseless conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against the “Deep State,” a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who control the world and run a global child sex trafficking ring, murdering children in ritual Satanic sacrifices in order to harvest a supposedly life-extending chemical from their blood known as adrenochrome. QAnon theories, which are popular among far-right extremists and some Trump supporters, are an amalgam of novel and well-established conspiracy theories, with marked undertones of antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate, and anti-immigrant bias.
QAnon and Nazism
QAnon ideology has unsettling comparisons to Nazism.
A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power…
Today, a troubling trend has recently emerge from Trump rallies in the fall of 2022. Attendees are saluting with an “American First” salute that’s been condemned as being similar to the “Sieg Heil” Nazi Salute. It may also be a reference to WWG1WGA (Where We Go One We Go All), the QAnon theme song which Trump has fully embraced, playing the song to end his rallies.
On a forum, a user named “Q”, claiming an intelligence/military insider for the United States, began posting what have been known as “Q Drops”. These drops are more than often highly ambiguous claims and cryptic in nature — they need to be deciphered. QAnon followers take time to examine the clues in Q Drops. As you’ll discover, there are an unsettling number of people involved with QAnon. Some may not even realize they’re referencing a claim that originated from the QAnon community, while others dabble in reinforcing the ideas from their community for their own gain.
Notoriety
While the movement was covered by the traditional media somewhat prior to the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, it became much more of a household name after the January 6th insurrection attempt during Congress’ certification of the election — an election Donald Trump declared to be invalid. Images of the QAnon Shaman leading the charge through the capitol building were featured on nearly every news outlet that covered the coup attempt.
In the aftermath of the insurrection, further investigations looking into the movement took place and were published. Links between the QAnon movement and extremist groups — notably white supremacists, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the proliferation of white supremacist and extremist views posted to 8Chan and 8Kun (the forums QDrops were eventually published on). Researcher Michael Jensen tracked the links between defendants and extremist groups and QAnon in the aftermath of the coup attempt:
While January 6th appears to be (at the time of this writing) the climax of the QAnon narrative, QAnon was spreading through the web years before the infamous day in American history.
History of QAnon
Many attribute PizzaGate to the QAnon movement — the conspiracy theory that Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington D.C. ran a child-sex trafficking ring in the basement of their premise, which was led by the likes of Hillary Clinton (and other democrats). This led to a radicalized conspiracy theorist to bring a gun and fire upon employees and patrons in 2016 in an attempt to free the children. In the end, no evidence of a sex-trafficking ring (or a basement) was found.
However, the story fit the exposition of the core narrative found in the QAnon conspiracy theory — that a groupd of satan worshipping liberal politicians and business people were not only controlling world order, but also running a child-sex slave operation, going as far as drinking the blood of children for its life extending properties.
In 2017, QAnon officially took hold through forums that allowed for extreme forms of absolute free speech. Over the Trump Presidency, viewpoints were amplified by Trump along with Trump insiders such as Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Donald Jr., and others, so much so that these insiders eventually spoke at QAnon rallies, and Q branded t-shirts were regular fixtures at Trump rallies.
During 2020, as conspiracy theories about Covid-19, 5G, and China dominated the conspiracy theorist sphere, there was a merging of sorts between the QAnon theorists and those who claimed that Covid was a hoax, a social experiment, an attack by China, and other disinformation and misinformation that circulated during this time:
It’s important to note that QAnon wasn’t necessarily the source of Covid-19 conspiracy theories. However, given the rise in the sharing of misinformation, the online landscape during 2020, which was also fuelled by Trump’s incoherent rhetoric on the subject, provided space for QAnon theories to take hold amongst those persuaded by Covid-19 misinformation. <footnote — most Covid-19 misinformation came from the left, particularly in reference to vaccines>
Trump was ultimately asked about QAnon, which was fair given that he was the so-called “saviour” in the narrative who was tasked with rounding up, arresting, and executing the liberal and democratic leaders responsible for the child-sex trafficking ring, along with dropping references to Q drops during speeches. He denied knowledge of the movement while at the same time refused to disavow the theories during the closing month of the 2020 Presidential campaign.
After the election, voter-fraud became a focal point of Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him — a narrative he started well before the results. This narrative was also shared and spread through the QAnon community.
While the identity of Q remained relatively anonymous from 2017-2020, a likely candidate behind the Q handle was Ron Watkins, who eventually ran the forum Q was posting on (Steve Bannon was also rumoured by others and Watkins as a possible Q candidate). Both Watkins and Trump both took to Twitter to share their views on the “fraudulent” election, with Watkins claiming to hold evidence on Dominion Voting Systems role in the election tampering (which was also amplified by Fox News). Watkins eventually posted what he claimed to be evidence of tampering to the web, but the file was a virus — perhaps cementing Watkins as the most successful internet troll of all time:
Eventually, both Trump and Watkins were banned from the most popular social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook, shortly after the January 6th insurrection attempt.
And while that might be the climax in the QAnon narrative, it should be noted that Watkins is running for Congress in Arizona in 2022, and QAnon believers Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene — who spread QAnon stories on their social media accounts — were actually elected to Congress in 2020. Furthermore, as of February 2022, 22% of Americans were polled to believe in some form of the QAnon conspiracy, and as of January 2022, more than 40% of Americans still don’t believe that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election — evidence in the strength and spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Furthermore, other bizarre events took place after the insurrection attempt, including rallies, and a parade that was supposed to feature JFK Jr. (who died in 1999) who was thought to become Vice President for Trump after he reclaimed the White House through an event that has yet to be realized that the QAnon community refers to as “The Storm”:
It’s important to note that phenomenons like QAnon and other conspiracy theories aren’t necessarily tied to far-right extremism. Political ideology isn’t necessarily a factor — there’s a host of psychology issues at play. Having an anti-establishment mindset is a key factor. The following article reports on recent papers published in the pyschological factors at play, which are sourced at the bottom of the article:
Key quotes from article:
“I was interested in this project because it increasingly seemed to me that polarization and political identities were increasingly bearing the brunt of the blame –– perhaps erroneously –– for socially undesirable beliefs and actions that were probably the product of other orientations, like conspiracy thinking and a tendency to view politics as a struggle between good and evil,” said co-author Adam M. Enders, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Louisville.
“Not all opinions are left-right, but rather ‘us, the good people’ versus ‘them, the corrupt elites,'” Uscinski said.
Anti-establishment orientations were also associated with heightened levels of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and support for the use of violence. “We emphasize thatthese personality traits are but a few of many potential ingredients of anti-establishment sentiments,” the researchers said. “Regardless, it is noteworthy that individuals exhibiting strong anti-establishment attitudes are more likely than others to display the antisocial personality traits oftentimes attributed to left-right extremists.”
Social Motives
According to The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories [Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017)] people turn to conspiracy theories when their psychological needs aren't being met. They…
Feeling uncertain, anxious
They feel threatened
They feel they have no control over a situation
They want to protect their self or in-group image
This is an act to shift blame of negative outcomes to others
Bannon’s efforts spread his ideology is intense. He nearly started a “Gladiator School” in an Italian monastery, which was, “to generate the next Tom Cottons, Mike Pompeos, Nikki Haleys: that next generation that follows Trump.” (New Yorker) note: the school may still move forward.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congressperson representing the 14th Congressional District in Georgia, has publicly supported QAnon, along with Lauren Boebert, who doesn’t describe herself as a true follower, but has said, “I hope that this is real. It only means America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values, and that’s what I am for.” (source)
Eric Trump, the son of Donald Trump, is also a speaker at the ReAwakening events, along with Roger Stone (who went to prison for lying to Congress, and was later pardoned by Trump), and Mike Lindell.
QAnon In The News Since (Updated, October 1, 2022)
September 2022, Trump embraces QAnon before mid-terms:
The Storm refers to a day where Democrats, Liberals, and Elites are rounded up and are arrested (and/or executed) and Donald Trump is reinstated as President. January 6th was thought to be as the date to the possible storm, and other dates have been floated.
The term “The Storm” was referenced by Trump during a seemingly off the cuff moment during a press conference:
Here’s a great article with lots of links/references, published Dec. 19, 2017 (in the early days of QAnon):
Often described as a LARP (a game), it’s incredibly easy for individuals to get caught up in its claims. For your safety, it’s important to recognize claims that originated from these groups, and to use critical thinking tactics (lateral reading, bias checkers) to investigate outlandish claims.
In fact, it’s thought that whoever is controlling QAnon is inspired by Cicada 3301 game theory, which has been referred to as “a weaponised game” by the Financial Times:
The movement holds events. Prominent Republicans, including former National United States National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, have been featured speakers at the event.
January 6th, 2021 — The Storming of the Capitol had heavy QAnon and White Nationalist support and ties.
Diving Deeper
QANon theories resemble plot lines from mid-twentieth century films, along with other influences:
