QAnon, CultTok, and Leaving It All Behind
Illustration: Angelica Alzona/Gizmodo
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“I was impressed that it only took four years,” Danielle, self-identified ex-cult member, 34, said on a phone call. This was a few days after Joe Biden’s inauguration, and we were talking about the previous week of SOS social media posts from wide-eyed QAnon followers, like a TikToker propped up on a pillow, pleading, like a disoriented hostage: “If nothing happens on the 20th, how many of you are going to feel stupid as hell?”
With Danielle’s long catalogue of TikTok videos poking fun at Trump worship and conspiracy theories, I waited for her to chuckle, but she was serious. “Just realizing that it’s a lie is only the first step in the process right there,” Danielle reflected. “They’re going to go through some stages until they come out on the other side.”
In one sense, the Sack of the Capitol on Jan. 6 was the farce that launched 1,000 snips.
Snip: “From years of covering white nationalists and the alt-right, I already knew that the right contained violent and anti-democratic elements,” Buzzfeed reporter Rosie Gray wrote. “What Jan. 6 showed was how deeply even the nice church ladies and retired grandpas who have nothing to do with those groups have descended into an alternate universe.”
Snip: You could have replaced Gray’s byline with that of Violet Blue,
New York Chimes, or Scarlet Green,
Chicago Baboon, and the words would have been almost the same. One message has been standard for years among liberals: The right is fascist. The new twist is extreme:
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
While federal investigations into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol will no doubt continue for months, next week’s Senate trial in the second impeachment of Donald Trump brings into focus the question of who is accountable for the recent assault on American democracy. While the vote last week on the constitutionality of the trial signaled how Republican senators may vote on conviction, one thing is clear: Trump did not act alone in inciting the insurrection. Without a network of organizations, allies, politicians and devoted conspiracy theorists willing to encourage and spread his lies about voter fraud, Trump’s protest would have been silenced by his campaign’s losses in court following his defeat at the ballot box. Trump’s mendacity was possible because millions of people were led to believe they could trust his word as a matter of faith.
USA TODAY
Like millions of other Americans, Franklin Graham watched the disturbing images of last week s riots at the U.S. Capitol with swelling concern and anger.
Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said he was sickened to see people attack my Capitol and break down the doors of my Capitol and was dismayed to see how President Donald Trump riled up the protesters. I don t think it was the president s finest moment, he said.
But Graham said he doesn t expect the tumult at the Capitol to deter evangelical Christians from supporting Trump.
No regrets : Evangelicals and other faith leaders still support Trump after deadly US Capitol attack Rick Jervis, Marc Ramirez and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA TODAY
Trump takes no responsibility for Capitol attack
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Like millions of other Americans, Franklin Graham watched the disturbing images of last week s riots at the U.S. Capitol with swelling concern and anger.
Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said he was sickened to see people attack my Capitol and break down the doors of my Capitol and was dismayed to see how President Donald Trump riled up the protesters.