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Credit, Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene was elected by the State of Georgia
The United States Congress is expected to receive a representative from the QAnon conspiracy group for the first time; According to the US press, Republican candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene has been elected to the House of Representatives by the state of Georgia with approximately 75% of the votes cast so far.
A newcomer to politics, she won in Georgia’s conservative 14th District, defeating Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal.
The QAnons have sprung up in recent years around the idea that there would be a network of pedophiles and Satanists infiltrating the government, the market, and the media with the goal of overthrowing Republican President Donald Trump.
In a video on YouTube, Greene already hailed the “Q”, the secret figure behind the conspiracy, as a “patriot”. Throughout the campaign, however, he tried to distance himself from the image linked to the group.
Other Republican candidates had previously voiced support for QAnon, but the businesswoman was singled out as one of the strongest since the start of the campaign. Before applying, she ran a construction company with her husband.
In addition to the QAnon, Greene has spoken out against abortion and in favor of gun ownership, a wall on the border with Mexico and, of course, Trump.
The president and reelection candidate, for his part, already greeted Greene when he won the primaries, calling her “a future Republican star.”
“Marjorie is strong in everything and never gives up, a real WINNER,” Trump wrote on social media.
Regarding QAnon, the president has already told reporters that he does not know the group very much, but that he has heard that they are “people who love our country.”
However, among Republicans themselves, Greene’s candidacy sparked controversy, with many of them opposing the businesswoman’s campaign after old videos were revealed in which she made offensive comments about blacks, Muslims and Jews.
Social media bans
The conspiracy group began when, in October 2017, an anonymous internet user posted a series of messages on the 4chan platform. Identifying himself only as “Q”, he claimed to have what would be a license approved by US security agencies called “Q authorization”.
His posts became known as “Q pills,” often presented in encrypted form and aligned with pro-Trump slogans and themes.
With branches in several countries, including Latin America, QAnon has already had groups, pages, and profiles banned on Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.
Credit, Marjorie Taylor Greene
In addition to the QAnon, Greene has been against abortion and in favor of the possession of weapons and a wall on the border with Mexico.
The FBI (the US federal police) has pointed out that people who follow theories like this pose a growing threat of violence in the country.
In a document released in late May, the FBI warned that conspiracy theories “will eventually lead extremist groups and individuals to carry out criminal or violent acts.”
Several QAnon supporters have already been arrested for threatening or committing other crimes offline.
In one notable case in 2018, a heavily armed man blocked a bridge over Hoover Dam in Arizona. Matthew Wright later pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism.
Distrust ‘incredibly dangerous’
For Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times, the current president of the United States is stoking conspiracy theories because it would interest him.
“Trump (…) cannot design policies that respond to the real needs of the nation, nor is he willing to listen to whoever he can. He will not even try,” says the columnist in the article. QAnon is Trump’s last and best option, published in August.
In this context, he concludes, the only thing the current president of the United States can do “is conjure up imaginary threats that play on the prejudices of his followers, along with conspiracy theories that resonate with his fear and envy of these know-it-all elites.” .
“QAnon is the most ridiculous example of his class, portraying Trump as a hero defending us from invisible evil,” Krugman summarized.
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Civic Center for Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says QAnon represents an especially dangerous conspiracy theory because it leads people to assume that almost all authority figures “are part of a secret group. that works against freedom “.
“The corrosion that comes from this is the danger of not trusting any institution,” Zuckerman said in a recent issue of the BBC’s The Inquiry, devoted to QAnon.
“And this mistrust, if exploited by an authoritarian leader, is incredibly dangerous,” he concluded.
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