[ad_1]
Xavier Naidoo cries in shock, Sido believes “this may be something”: The QAnon conspiracy theory of secret societies of child torture is without basis, but is becoming increasingly popular in the Crown era. As absurd as the story may seem, the movement behind it is dangerous.
The good news reached members of the chat group “QAnons Channel Germany” on Monday night: “One more. Every day we get more,” cheers for the group’s moderator and links to a ntv.de message about Sido. In an interview, the rapper confesses that he believes there is something in the reports about celebrity treatments with blood of kidnapped children.
Sido makes it clear in the course of the conversation that he does not take conspiracy theories circulating on the Internet to the letter. However, for the nearly 20,000 members of the Telegram channel “QAnons Channel Germany”, the Berliner is now another supporter of a growing community of citizens who are following the trail of an incomprehensible crime known as QAnon.
Clinton is the bad guy, Trump is the hero
The abbreviated story, which circulates in a wide variety of variants, goes something like this: A secret society linked to the highest circles has thousands of kidnapped children trapped in warehouses and tunnel systems. There they undergo satanic torture rituals in which blood is drawn from them. There are variations: therefore, children are treated as sex slaves or their blood is used for a super medication reserved for the elite.
Conspirators include the United States Democratic Party, Jewish circles, and other secret societies. Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton played an important role. His opponent, the man who has already released thousands of children through secret operations, is none other than the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Like QAnon believers, he often speaks of a “deep state” that he has to fight against. He has also released dozens of tweets from QAnon activists. Many Republicans, common Trump supporters, and MPs alike, are committed to QAnon.
The name dates back to an entry on the 4Chan internet forum, in which a user of this name laid the foundation for the scandalous story in 2017. Whoever the author was claimed to be a high-ranking government official who was able to view documents. super secrets and has been providing cryptic information to the internet ever since. “There are many groups that claim to be QAnon, basically anyone can be,” says Andre Wolf, a spokesman for the mimikama association, which provides information about false information online.
QAnon arrived in Germany with Corona
With the raw videos of singer Xavier Naidoo at the latest, the phenomenon was unveiled to a wider audience in Germany. The timing has a lot to do with a completely different event: “During the yellow vest protests in Germany, the safety vests of a manufacturer with a big Q were very popular, but we’ve only seen this explosion of QAnon fans from Corona, approximately from the middle of March, “says Miro Dittrich, who observes extremism on the Internet for the Amadeu Antonio Foundation.
Wolf notes the same connection on social media: “Since the beginning of April, in other words, with the Corona crisis, it has spread to Europe.” QAnon’s popularity is growing almost parallel to the spread of the Telegram messaging service. It is also widely spread on Whatsapp, Facebook and YouTube. However, operators of established large platforms are taking increasingly stringent measures in the fight against fake news under pressure from lawmakers. German videos on the subject have hundreds of thousands of views. Pathetic, rampant, but surprisingly professional, they announce a final battle of knowledge against the conspirators.
Telegram channels with tens of thousands of members, including Cook Attila Hildmann’s channel, only serve as a starting point. Members work as multipliers by distributing articles, videos, and memes to their own accounts on various platforms. The actions are also coordinated by chat groups like “Qanons Channel Deutschland”. The moderator, who remains anonymous, successfully asks to hijack a live video chat with Greens President Robert Habeck. Numerous QAnon related questions and comments flooded the chat comment column.
Known horror ingredients
The QAnon legend is unusual in many ways, says Dittrich: “Conspiracy theories generally count from the perspective of the loser and not the powerful. But this serves to justify everything that goes wrong with the ruling Donald Trump, because the forces would work against him, the so-called deep state, or everything is part of a larger and still secret plan. ” In Germany this leads to particularly unexpected volts: “It seems strange that the same people who claim that Germany is an Allied-oppressed GmbH now expect Trump to liberate Germany in a secret operation with 200,000 American soldiers.”
What kind of people are they who spread such crude theories? “The grouping is anything but homogeneous. There are trolls who exaggerate the ridiculous, and for others it takes on dangerous pathological characteristics,” says mimikama spokesman Wolf. “People are in a collective illusion,” observes Dittrich. Both see parallels to sects, so the elements of QAnon’s story are old acquaintances: “In principle, all the stories contained there are nothing new,” says Dittrich. “The ritual murder of children consumed by blood by the elite: we already know this from the anti-Semitic stories of the 15th century.”
Mistrust is great
The fact that ordinary people are increasingly falling victim to evil fairy tales or at least believing that “there must be something there” is probably due to the exceptional situation of the past few weeks. “The attraction lies in the simple answers to complex questions,” explains Wolf. “People are looking for a stop and even an evil fairy tale at least gives people direction.”
Dittrich also sees it this way: For many people, it is easier to believe such stories than to imagine an invisible enemy, like a virus pandemic, which is based on a series of complex and unfortunate coincidences. “They are the last followers of an ordered world,” says Dittrich of QAnon’s followers, who are overwhelmed by reality.
Especially since the distrust of the elites in politics and economy was great even before Corona. Around every second person in Germany believes that secret organizations would influence politics. One in four assumes that politics and the media were under one roof. At least this is the conclusion of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation “Mitte Study” associated with SPD. To this is added the distrust in “the” media, fueled by the numerous conspiracy theories and the lies of the press.
Low threshold of violence
The Halle and Hanau assassins also referred to elements of popular conspiracy theories in their pamphlets. The man, who shot nine people in Hanau due to his allegedly migrant appearance, also whispered in a YouTube video that a secret society that controls American politics is abusing children. In the United States, two murders, one attempted murder, and two kidnappings are related to followers of QAnon, according to Dittrich. “It calls for civil disobedience and causes riots,” says Wolf of the content of the chats and videos.
The threshold for violence may be particularly low among QAnon supporters. A woman who wanted to kill US presidential candidate Joe Bide had only started posting QAnon topics a month before the assassination attempt, Dittrich says. “If you live in an apocalyptic world, it creates a lot of pressure to act.” Dittrich points out that anyone who knows of thousands of abused children cannot be without action. “When celebrities spread these stories, it is very dangerous.
Sectarian thinking patterns do not facilitate members of QAnon’s followers. “It is very difficult to catch someone who has been immersed there,” says Wolf. Dittrich advises: “According to studies, you can influence someone if there is a personal relationship. Then you can try to ask critical questions without saying ‘You are a fool.'”
