And contrary to popular belief that QAnon adherents are typically older people with more time on their hands to spend on conspiracy websites, the PRRI data shows that 22 percent of those aged under 50 believe in QAnon conspiracy theories, compared to just 14 percent of those aged over 65.
“I don’t suspect belief in conspiracy theories such as QAnon will dissipate anytime soon,” Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI, tells WIRED. “Trump’s supporters in particular are already primed to support conspiracies not based in any fact at higher levels than the general public. Combined with historic levels of mistrust in government and a variety of other institutions among many Americans, the conditions that allow such theories to fester and even grow are sadly not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Trump’s return to the White House has been celebrated widely by the QAnon community, members of which believe that all of the wild predictions that Q made in their thousands of posts will now come true.
“The general agreement is that Trump is going to crush the Deep State and that all the evil libs are going to jail ASAP, that we’ll be back on the gold standard and the Fed will be destroyed,” Mike Rains, a researcher who closely tracks the QAnon community, tells WIRED. “The Ukrainian biolabs will be exposed as the source of Covid and [Anthony] Fauci and company will all be sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.”
This can be seen in the Telegram channels and fringe platforms like Gab and Truth Social, where QAnon influencers hunkered down in the wake of the mass purge of QAnon accounts on mainstream platforms in 2021 following the attack on the Capitol.
But it can increasingly also be seen on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and, most noticeably X, which has, since centibillionaire Elon Musk’s takeover, provided a fertile ground for the conspiracy to thrive, in addition to providing an income for influencers who can monetize their bullshit.
Meta, TikTok, and X did not respond to comments about QAnon content on their platforms.
“It certainly doesn’t help that under Musk, unevidenced QAnon conspiracy theories have flourished all over X, giving them a massive audience and a veneer of legitimacy,” Cook says.
Among those kicked off what was then called Twitter following the January 6 attack on the Capitol was Trump. Pushed to posting on his own tiny platform Truth Social, he quickly embraced QAnon wholeheartedly, promoting QAnon-linked accounts almost 1,000 times, according to an October analysis by Media Matters.
