Rolling Stone
QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Are Emboldened by the Coup in Myanmar
Proponents of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory see the arrest of democratically elected officials as a sign that the same could happen to Democrats in the U.S.
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Peerapon Boonyakiat/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP Images
On Monday, the recently elected government in Myanmar was overthrown by the military. According to the Associated Press, Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has taken power in the country for one year due to the military’s claims of the results of the November democratic election being fraudulent.
The country’s armed forces arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate whose party, the National League for Democracy, won a majority in the parliament in 2015, as a result of Myanmar’s first recognized free election in 25 years. Suu Kyi has spent years advocating for democracy in the country, and was placed under house arrest by the military in 1989. She is venerated by many in Myanmar, despite failing to stop military action against an ethnic minority, the Rohingya, in what is broadly considered a genocide.