QAnon conspiracy theory has taken a 'religious tone' says sociologist

QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory, has been spreading north and south of the U.S border, and as it grows, some researchers are saying it's starting to evolve into something like a religion. 

Followers piece together cryptic messages from an anonymous figure named Q, who claims to be able to predict future events. Members of the movement say that these "Q-drops" point to a secret child-trafficking ring run by political rivals to Donald Trump and is hidden by the media.

For those deep in the movement, these drops can become a fixation.

NBC journalist Brandy Zadrozny said that she realized the movement had become a kind of religion in 2018, after a QAnon follower fashioned a "bible" out of Q-drops. 

Amarnath Amarsingham noted in an interview with the Toronto Star that the conspiracy theory has a "religious tone." In a story in The Atlantic, journalist Adrienne LaFrance called QAnon "the birth of a new religion." 

QAnon has begun to make its way into Canada, often focusing on anti-mask sentiment. QAnon followers have been a part of anti-mask rallies in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Some churches in Calgary have a Qanon following among their congregations.

Tapestry talked to Edwin Hodge, a sociologist at the University of Victoria, about why QAnon gives followers a religious zeal. 

You're saying QAnon has begun to take on a quasi-religious tone. Tell me what you're seeing.

QAnon develops like a lot of conspiratorial movements to do: it develops this kind of internal logic, that governs the behavior of people, that governs how people view the world, how they interact with authorities, with social elites, that sort of thing. But it's also beginning to construct a moral framework. It's also beginning to construct a kind of almost a cosmology, that draws in government agents, celebrities, economic systems, and has been drawing in scripture. We're starting to see QAnon begin to sort of become infused with religious iconography, particularly of the sort of evangelical Christian variety. We see pastors, folks of religious persuasions, beginning to use biblical scripture to justify or support the predictions that are made by the conspiracy.

So when you say scripture, is it largely the Bible QAnon adherents are drawing from? Are there other religious texts or other religions being woven into this?

I'm sure there are people out there who are drawing from other religious texts, but QAnon is a uniquely American phenomenon. It's beginning to grow across borders, but it started in America. And America is a deeply Christian nation. So it makes a lot of sense that the majority of the cross-pollination I'm seeing is coming from Christian scripture.

When we talk about religious belief, we are often talking about the ways people find meaning in the world, or ways people construct meaning. What do you think QAnon has to offer on that front?

QAnon is something of a grand unified theory. It doesn't just provide a narrow explanation for why there is resistance to Trump within the American bureaucracy or within the American sort of body-politic. It also attempts to sort of construct these wider networks that draw in everything from the anti-vaccine movement, to discussions about the Illuminati, the Rothschilds, old-school antisemitic beliefs, to more modern conspiracy theories about everything from from aliens and government tyranny.

What would it offer in terms of identity, in terms of who I am or what I belong to?

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the draws of religious movements in general, is that they have the capacity to create community. There's an anthropologist by the name of Scott Atran, who describes religions as a process by which communities of genetic strangers come together and form fictive-kin networks. That is, they become like a family. QAnon, in the movement itself, you see that kind of sentiment emerging from discussions or interviews with people who follow it who say, "These are my people. This is my calling. This is who I am now. I am a crusader. I am an investigator. I'm a researcher. I'm a fighter for truth."

Are there specific human qualities that would set people up to be particularly vulnerable to this sort of movement? 

Well, it turns out that just about anybody can be brought into these movements. What you need are certain triggers in a person's circumstances. And in the case of right now, some of those triggers involve social isolation, uncertainty, and fear. Those things can make people seek to find a structure, a system, or a movement — something that gives them a sense of order. But it turns out that a lot of people who, by all accounts are thoughtful, intelligent, well-meaning, well-educated can fall down these rabbit holes rather quickly. I've watched it in my own Facebook feeds. I've watched it in real time, among people that are in my social media networks, who, a year ago, I never would have thought that they would be spreading QAnon hashtags.

Living in this age of pandemic, social isolation, fear, are we looking at a kind of perfect storm for this sort of movement to become stronger and stronger?

At this point I don't know that would be a controversial claim to make. We see that conspiratorial movements emerge in the aftermath of significant disruptions. 9/11 truthers, that conspiratorial movement that believe that [the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks] was an inside job or that  the planes didn't really exist. They were holograms to cover missiles, or something like that. [The conspiracy theory] emerged in not just the political or economic aftermath, but the psychic trauma of 9/11 in America. Now about 50 per cent of the American population think that there's something a little suspicious about 9/11.

I would imagine that's very tempting to a lot of people — the need for order when so much feels so unsettled.

Absolutely. One of the things that we notice is that there's a real tension in society between the need or desire of people to exert their independence while at the same time seeking to conform to sort of acceptable social standards. We want to express ourselves in terms of our fashion, but not too much. Much of our mainstream cultural attitudes are sort of caught between this tension. And QAnon, by imposing these grand narratives onto society, they allow people to say, 
"Look, you don't have to listen to Anthony Fauci or Dr. Bonnie Henry. And you don't have to listen to these elite bureaucrats in Washington." You can be your own person, by being your own person in this way with QAnon. You're part of a group. You have an identity. There is a purpose and a structure and an order. 

Written and produced by Arman Aghbali.