Jitarth Jadeja was already deep into conspiracy theories when he first heard of Q.
One day in December 2017, he tuned into Infowars, the media outlet run by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Two guests on the radio show were talking about the “calm before the storm,” a reference to an absurd theory that President Trump will soon wage a secret war against a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and a slew of other evildoers. It’s one of the many tall tales believed by followers of the movement called QAnon, ranging from the false claim that the government created vaccines to track citizens to the ridiculous idea that Hillary Clinton and Katy Perry drink the blood of young children to gain eternal youth.
“It was pretty generic conspiracy theory stuff at the time, but because Alex had them on his show, it gave them an air of legitimacy with alternative media,” said the 32-year-old Sydney, Australia, resident in a phone call late last month. He was hooked. For the next 1½ years, he closely followed the movement, spending hours each day devouring as much Q-related content as he could find. Continue reading.