PROUD BOYS March For Trump arriving at Farragut Square along Connecticut Avenue at I Street, NW, Washington DC on Saturday afternoon, 12 December 2020 (Photo: Elvert Barnes Photography / Creative Commons)
Rolling Stone writer Fortesa Latifi says Redditors are mouning what looks like the permanent loss of family members as Trump 2.0 drowns the national argument in lies and conspiracy.
The subreddit r/QAnonCasualties subreddit crawls with alienated family members saying “Dad has gone full nazi,” or “Mom finally contacted me after my late stage cancer diagnosis to screech … about black people.” There are also plenty of entries in the line of “Mom said she’s removing herself from my life.”
The QAnon conspiracy claims the U.S. is run by a cabal of “Satanic, pedophilic Democrats who can only be stopped by President Donald Trump.” Originally treated as fringe, the movement gained credibility as more and more Republican politicians began winning elections on QAnon claims. Now that President Donald Trump has fully embraced the movement, r/QAnonCasualties sub redditors are growing “pessimistic and exhausted.”
READ MORE: John Roberts owns this nightmare — and he has no one to blame but himself
“Five years ago, if your family was deep into the Q lore, you could say, ‘Hey, look at all of the people out in the world saying that this is bogus,’” said Dr. Jennifer Whitmer, a sociology professor at California State University Stanislaus, who studies conspiracy theories. “But now, with those beliefs being mainstreamed, they gain more legitimacy and it’s harder to challenge them. Those fringe beliefs have become legitimized through sources of power.”
With Trump taking office and elevating Q-sympathizers like Kash Patel to head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, posters are developing a “fatalist bent” that their family will never again be normal.
“There’s no winning,” said r/QAnonCasualties sub member Jill. “You could show them anything you want — facts and everything — and they won’t believe you.” A subreddit moderator named "Dan" also pointed out that for some, it's difficult to accept the finality of the loss.
“Maybe the first time something crazy happens, it shakes you to the core. The next time, you’re more able to handle it," Dan said. "The difficult reality for me to really accept was that it was impossible to change someone’s mind about things.”
READ MORE: 'I might just be done': Idaho woman says new Trump policy would kill her business
The most family members can do, said Whitmer is try to draw victims away from the cult by “finding ways to occupy” their attention.
“Spend time with your family or get them involved in something else. It might not necessarily change their mind, but [could] distract them,” Whitmer said. “That seems to be the most effective thing we saw, the thing that actually leads to changes in beliefs.”
She added, however, that cult-consumed victims can lash out in painful ways and that when pushing to reconnect you should take care to “protect yourself,” even if that means taking space away from the relationship.
Read the full Rolling Stone article here (subscription required).
READ MORE: (Opinion) American billionaires plan for a world without us in it