NPR: Without Their ‘Messiah,’ QAnon Believers Confront a Post-Trump World
Now that former President Donald Trump has left office, the community of believers in the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory are left wondering what will happen next.
Washington Post national technology reporter Craig Timberg has written about QAnon and related subjects in recent months. He acknowledges that it can be hard to sum up exactly what QAnon is.
“Our copy editors [at the Post] are questioning whether we should call it a ‘conspiracy theory’ or an ‘extremist ideology,’ ” Timberg tells Fresh Air. “Some researchers think it’s a cult. Some think it’s an alternative reality game.”
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QAnon supporters, Timberg notes, regard Trump “not merely as their president and leader, but also as essentially a messiah.” People with QAnon paraphernalia were well represented in the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.