How QAnon led to US Capitol Hill riots? Shocking effect of conspiracy theories fueled by Donald Trump supporters
The political unrest during and after the 2020 US Presidential Election was something that the world had never seen before. Republicans and Democrats were doing everything and anything to win the election. But, the Republicans were far more pro-active in the campaigns and tried to manipulate the people of America with various theories and baseless speculations.
However, one thing that made the election so treacherous was the bunch of online conspiracies that fueled a lot of unrest in the nation. The biggest threat to people was none other than ‘QAnon’. Now, a lot of things have been said about the entire movement and its supporters. Before going into the specifics, let’s briefly understand what is ‘QAnon’ and how it started?
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What is 'QAnon' movement and How it started?
The ‘QAnon’ movement started in October 2017 on the message board 4chan. An anonymous user named ‘Q Clearance Profit’ posted a message on the message board and told the people how former president Donald Trump is here to save the country. The user also claimed that he was a high-ranking intelligence officer who had access to all the information about Trump’s plan to punish the people who are ruining the world.
A lot of Trump supporters joined in and started a movement named ‘QAnon’. The movement saw a massive influx of people in a short period of time. In no time, the movement, which started from a message board on a website, became a national phenomenon.
How did QAnon put ordinary people at risk?
The QAnon movement has been instrumental in making America a ‘divided nation’. A lot of conspiracy theories have made people believe that the Democrats and the people who support them are actually ruining the country. That’s one of the major reasons why they wanted the Democrats to lose the election. Many conspiracy theorists floated “fact-less” things about Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain.
One of the QAnon supporters was taken into custody after blocking a bridge near the Hoover Dam with an armored vehicle. According to the reports, it was found that a man named Matthew Wright pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge. Wright said he was really unhappy that Trump had not yet made the mass arrests QAnon supporters had anticipated.
In March 2019, a 24-year-old man, Anthony Comello, allegedly killed a person because he felt that the person was a part of the “deep state”. According to the culprit’s lawyer, Comello believed that he was “enjoying” the protection of President Trump himself.
Even elected members of the House of Representatives pushed QAnon messages ahead of the 2020 elections. These kinds of conspiracy theories floating on the internet created a lot of chaos in the country. However, people did not know that something even bigger was coming their way.
How did ‘QAnon’ fuel the insurrection at the Capitol?
Originally, the result of the presidential election was to be announced on January 6, 2021. However, due to COVID-19, a lot of votes came by mail-in ballots. Initially, Donald Trump was leading when the counting began. But things began to change when the volunteers started to count the mail-in votes.
Biden started getting ahead in the states where Trump was leading. As soon as things started going downhill for Trump, the QAnon supporters stepped up and started to manipulate the minds of people by using mindless and fact-less theories.
They started floating the Dominion Conspiracy Theory on social media and laid the foundation for riots that took place on January 6 in Washington D.C. The conspiracy theory baselessly alleged that employees of Dominion Voting Systems switched votes for Trump to votes for Biden. Theory managed to reach Trump and he also acknowledged them by talking about it across various platforms.
The theory made the matters worse and the far-right wing supporters were angry with what was happening. The QAnon supporters started the “Stop The Steal” movement, which alleged Donald Trump actually won the presidential election and that President Joe Biden’s win was fraudulent, and used the internet to organize a violent coup attempt.
Hundreds and thousands of Donald Trump supporters took out a rally and made their way to the US Capitol. However, things got ugly when they climbed on the walls of the Capitol and tried to take an entry inside the Senate building. Shockingly, when the riot took place, the entire Senate was present inside the building. The lawmakers were attending a hearing about the election result.
Police officers charge in and take the former vice-president, Mike Pence, out of the chamber and lock the doors as police officers guard the doors.
The rioters were successful in making an entrance inside the chambers, but fortunately, all the lawmakers were taken out on time.
The entire nation was stunned after seeing what just happened. Many believed that it was the ‘QAnon’ supporters who were responsible for the insurrection and some reports actually make us realize that it was indeed them who fueled the insurrection.
According to a report by BuzzFeed News, Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, said that more than half of QAnon-related Twitter accounts, or about 20,800, tweeted about January 6 in the days before the riot. Many of them also discussed the possibility of sieging the building of the US Capitol.
False allegations of mass election fraud made by QAnon followers helped fuel the deadly Capitol insurrection. The word ‘QAnon’ featured prominently in the criminal indictments filed against those who were a part of the riots. A lot of videos shared by several journalists, who were trapped inside the Senate building when the insurrection took place, showed a man wearing a ‘QAnon’ t-shirt while leading the rioters into the Senate chambers.
Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com/CfVIBsgywK
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021
The inclusion of QAnon followers in the riots shows how a harmless fringe forum became a gathering space for those who wanted to create utter chaos by taking advantage of such a divided nation.