Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory are sharing a fictional history of this movement as well as old false claims about US political events.Â
Photo: Flickr
On January 10, 2023, one of the Facebook profiles of conspiracy theorist Vesna Curguz posted a short “history” of the QAnon movement, in which it is claimed that it has existed since the assassination of American President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and a series of incorrect claims about events in American politics in the past decade are cited as well.
As of the date of writing this analysis, the mentioned post has been shared about 120 times. In another post, dated January 14, this profile claims that Q’s psychological operation is underway, the goal of which is “liberation from the Matrix” and “cleansing the Earth of satanic garbage” through the physical removal of “satanic armies and their instruments”.
Edo Jakasa is cited as the author of these claims, and they were published on a couple of other Facebook profiles (1, 2). We did not find a post with these claims on Edo Jakasa’s profile.
What is QAnon and how long has it existed?
The QAnon conspiracy theory has been the subject of several analyzes conducted by Raskrinkavanje, which you can read below:
In an analysis from April 2021, it was explained that the QAnon conspiracy theory originated in 2017 on the Internet forum 4Chan, where a person who introduced himself as “Q Clearance Patriot” claimed to be a high-ranking military officer close to the then-US President Donald Trump. Over time, QAnon began to include a narrative about how the world is ruled by a satanic “cabal” (which includes members of the US Democratic Party and Hollywood stars) that runs a child trafficking ring. Children, according to this narrative, are kidnapped and kept in secret underground tunnels to obtain the “adrenochrome drug” from them, which cabal members use for rejuvenation. The “cabal”, supposedly, needs to be defeated by Donald Trump who will thus save the world from evil.
With the spread of “conspiracy” QAnon claims on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, mainly during the Covid-19 pandemic, this conspiracy theory gained a large number of supporters.
The harmful social consequences of a strong belief in this conspiracy theory were demonstrated on January 6, 2021, when QAnon conspiracy theorists participated in the raid on Capitol Hill in Washington. Read more about it in our analysis available here.
Despite the strong belief of its supporters, the QAnon conspiracy theory is not based on any facts and the claims it contains are often out of line with reality.
Claims about adrenochrome, for example, are completely meaningless. Our partner fact-checking web portal Fake News Tragac (FNT) explained in an analysis from 2020 that adrenochrome is a chemical compound obtained by the oxidation of adrenaline. Its main application is in medicine and is used to stop bleeding. Claims that it is a “rejuvenation drug” obtained from abused children are completely fabricated.
Dr. Robert Chilcott, Head of the Department of Toxicology at the University of Hertfordshire, confirmed this for FNT:
There is a compound called adrenochrome, but it is fiction that it can be used as a rejuvenating agent.
The claim about adrenochrome as a drug obtained from child torture originates from the fictional novel “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” from 1971 by Hunter S. Thompson.
aging a secret war against them.
Therefore, QAnon is a conspiracy theory created in 2017 by an anonymous 4Chan user. Contrary to the claims of Veqqa Qurguzovski’s post, the Q movement “to fight the deep state” has not existed since the 19th century.
Fabrications about Tom Hanks’ execution and Julian Assange’s reports
Another example of the absurdity of “conspiracy” claims from QAnon is the claim that in 2018 Donald Trump executed the American actor Tom Hanks, “a leading figure in the global child trafficking group”.
Although Tom Hanks has been in several movies and has made many public appearances in the past five years (1, 2, 3,), QAnon supporters are convinced that he is either dead or arrested for paedophilia. Hanks, like several other famous names from Hollywood, was accused of child abuse by former actor Isaac Kappy, who died in 2019 after falling, or perhaps jumping, from a bridge. Although Kappy has never backed up his accusations with any evidence, they continue to circulate in “conspiracy” circles on social media.
The claim that Julian Assange confirmed in his report that Barack Obama ran a paedophile ring from the White House is also unfounded. Julian Assange is the founder of the website WikiLeaks, which has published thousands of internal and secret documents from various governments and corporations.
Last year, QAnon supporters shared on social media an alleged screenshot of an email between Obama and Hillary Clinton, showing a conversation about pizza and hot dogs, which they interpreted as code words for the sex slave trade. However, as the fact-checking web portal PolitiFact published in an analysis from August 2022, such an e-mail does not actually exist. A search of the WikiLeaks database using keywords from the alleged e-mail showed no results.
Given all the facts, we evaluate the claim that the Q movement fighting against the “deep state” has existed since the end of the 19th century, as fake news and a conspiracy theory.
We give the ratings for fake news and conspiracy theory to claims that Donald Trump executed Tom Hanks in 2018 and that Julian Assange’s report showed that Barack Obama ran a paedophile ring from the White House.
We also assess the claim that Q’s psychological operation is currently underway to “release it from the Matrix” and deal with the Satanists as a conspiracy theory.
(Authors: Emir Zulejhić and Nerma Šehović, Raskrinkavanje.ba)
