QAnon survived deplatforming to persuade 17 percent of Americans

Evidence

As Trumpism normalized fringe beliefs, an even more bizarre conspiracy theory emerged: QAnon. Beginning in November 2017, an anonymous 4chan user named “Q Clearance Patriot” claimed Trump was secretly working to dismantle a global cabal of “Satan-worshiping pedophiles.” These cryptic posts, later traced to South African blogger Paul Furber and the owners of 8kun, Jim Watkins and his son Ron, gained a cult following. By 2020, despite widespread deplatforming by major social media platforms, QAnon had attracted a significant base, with 17 percent of Americans believing its core tenets. Supporters emblazoned their slogans—such as WWG1WGA (“Where we go one, we go all”)—on hats, T-shirts, and bumper stickers. Entrepreneurs turned QAnon into a cottage industry, selling merchandise and hosting events. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 454

Categorization

• QUESTION: QAnon as an internally-branded subculture built on merch and events seems to contradict the omnivore monoculture premise — worthy of testing against Marx later in the chapter.