Trump voters are more likely to believe in QAnon conspiracy theories

Surprisingly large number of Trump followers subscribe to QAnon conspiracy theories.

Supporters of Trump hold up their phones with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory, at a campaign rally at Las Vegas.
AFP

Supporters of Trump hold up their phones with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory, at a campaign rally at Las Vegas.

With less than two weeks left until the US presidential elections, a new poll has found that nearly half of Donald Trump’s supporters believe in the QAnon conspiracy theories that the president is in a battle with the deep state and paedophilic groups.

QAnon, is a group that believes that there is a widespread conspiracy in the US which is part of a cabal that involves the Democratic Party, satan worshipers and paedophile groups that want to bring down Trump.

Trump supporters were more likely to believe that the US president was in a titanic battle against these groups according to Yahoo News/YouGov study.

The conspiracy has gained traction in recent years with Trump at crucial moments fanning central ideas of the movement.

During an NBC town hall meeting, Trump was asked to distance himself from QAnon to which he replied "I know nothing about QAnon" adding that the only thing he knows is that "they are very strongly against paedophilia and I agree with that."

The statement was interpreted as support for the group and its central unifying theme. Trump is also acutely aware that in a tight election campaign he can not alienate a key voter demographic which includes conspiracy theorists.

QAnon has been labelled by the FBI a “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists” organisation.

In an internal assessment, the FBI noted that “these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts."

QAnon conspiracy has also been linked with white supremacist organisation which according to the FBI drive the “majority of the domestic terrorism cases” in the US.

One of the reasons is why QAnon has been labelled as an emerging terrorist threat is because people associated with the group’s core ideas could commit acts of terrorism towards groups of people and organisations they deem to be part of the secretive cabal.

QAnon, however, is not simply confined to the US.

The ideas of the group have found fertile ground across the Atlantic ocean and in the UK.

A recent study in the UK has found that 25 percent of adults agreed that “secret satanic cults exist and include influential elites” and a similar portion believed that “elites in Hollywood, politics, the media and other powerful positions” are engaged in industrial-scale abuse.

One of the main reasons QAnon has found itself gaining traction is because of the discovery of high profile sexual predators like Jeffrey Epstein who was found to be procuring underage age girls for friends who were celebrities, politicians, business moguls and royalty.

The US-based Epstein had over decades cultivated friendships with well-known politicians like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and even the famous model Naomi Campbell. There are no suggestions that those individuals knew what Epstein was doing, however, Epstein was able to use his power and privilege to silence his victims from coming forward.

In the UK over the years there have been revelations of high profile personalities engaged in paedophilia which has shocked people.

A famous celebrity in the UK by the name of Jimmy Saville, who was working for the BBC, abused more than 1,000 children over the span of several decades which only came to light after his death.

There were also reports in the UK media the members of parliament had strangled and killed a 12 year-year-old boy during a sex orgy in the 1980s.

As a result of the revelations, there was widespread outrage from people who felt that institutions had covered up instead of investigating historic reports of abuse.

The resulting loss of trust in institutions to fully grasp the scale of these scandals has resulted in a slow drift of people willing to believe in conspiracy groups like QAnon.

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