Life, the Quniverse, and Everything, Part 2: QManTrafficking and the ‘Plandemic’

Featured photo credit: Orlowski Designs LLC / Shutterstock.com

Part 1 appeared in the March/April 2021 Skeptical Inquirer.

The cult of QAnon has emerged as one of the most dangerous ideologies of the past five years. Followers became quickly radicalized, awaiting a “Great Awakening” and fueled by a shifting narrative of the “Storm,” awash in conspiratorial concepts. There is no true definition of what this “Storm” is or when it will happen, but the tumultuous year that was 2020 gave QAnon followers a treasure trove of possibilities.

The global pandemic has enhanced the ongoing culture wars in America and helped swell the ranks of QAnon. Some people already deeply enmeshed in QAnon began to see signs of the “Storm” in the pandemic, while those who were open to conspiratorial beliefs but not yet ready to jump into the rabbit hole found themselves pulled in by high levels of stress and uncertainty in 2020.

Even for those grounded firmly in reality, it was frustrating to hear the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) change their guidelines as the pandemic grew from bad to worse to seemingly apocalyptic. World leaders with authoritarian predilections, including Jair Messias Bolsonaro of Brazil, Xi Jinping of China, and of course Donald Trump in America, came to the fore amid the natural confusion surrounding any novel outbreak. Scientists were in a constant struggle to fight the virus, the misinformation about the virus, and the outright disinformation spewed by these world leaders. Trump directly interfered with the CDC throughout the pandemic and in July announced that the U.S. was withdrawing from the WHO. This was thankfully undone by President Joe Biden on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021. Trump openly opposed any safety measures that affected the economy, contradicting the voices of legitimate scientists and even encouraging people to revolt against “lockdown” measures.

While the numbers of infected and dead rose, so did the ranks of QAnon followers. Confusion and uncertainty are the two main ingredients for conspiracy theories, and there was more than enough to spread around.

QAnon began to find new recruits in the form of anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, and anti-lockdown protestors. Bill Gates became demonized in scores of “documentaries” that circulated online (and later were removed from YouTube). Many had one goal: to convince people that COVID-19 was a hoax and that it was not a pandemic but instead a “Plandemic” (see “Plandemic Conspiracy Goes Viral, Sells Books,” SI, September/October 2020).

This played into the Q narrative perfectly. QAnon followers saw the “plandemic” as the perfect cover for mass arrests of the Hollywood elite pedophiles. The FBI was, they believed, using a fake outbreak to keep people at home while they were arresting John Podesta, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, and others.

Obviously, none of this makes any sense whatsoever. Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein, and Harvey Weinstein were all high-profile people who were arrested without cover of a contrived pandemic. If any high-profile celebrities were going to be arrested for sex crimes, it would have been done just as it always has been. But every event, even ones that seem ridiculously mundane, have a different explanation in the world of QAnon.

Reports of tents to hold overflow patients in New York City hospitals led to rumors among the Q crowd that “mole children” were being liberated from the underground tunnels where they had been kept as secret sex slaves for years.

Most QAnon and Q-adjacent conspiracy theories that revolve around COVID-19 come down to the belief that hundreds of thousands of children are being kept locked up and tortured. In reality, there are children separated from their families and locked in cages, but these children number in the hundreds and are in the custody of immigration authorities—courtesy of Trump’s harsh anti-immigration rhetoric. But to QAnon followers, these children either don’t matter or don’t exist.

The most frightening aspect of conspiracy theories is that there is often a kernel of truth to them, but these tiny truths are not terrible enough for conspiracists; they need to be beyond the pale.

Human trafficking is very real and very damaging, but the reality isn’t even close to what QAnon believers claim. As for pedophile conspiracies, Jeffrey Epstein was an example of an actual rich, elite, hebephile who utilized his connections to avoid justice for years. Epstein was part of an actual conspiracy. But in the world of QAnon, Epstein was definitely murdered—by the Clintons, of course—taking an actual conspiracy and turning it into a wacky conspiracy theory.¹

The circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death have led to much speculation online. While the appearance of fractured hyoid bones, revealed by Epstein’s autopsy, is typical with strangulation victims, there is no solid evidence that has been presented to demonstrate that Epstein was definitely the victim of a homicide.

The strangest aspect of QAnon and their Epstein narrative is their seeming avoidance of the topic. Epstein would appear to be proof for QAnon, but his connections to QAnon’s hero, Donald Trump, present uncomfortable problems for the Quniverse.

Q has made mention of Epstein only thirty-seven or so times. One Q Drop talks cryptically about secret underground tunnels on Epstein’s island. This is part of the Q narrative: to take that grain of truth—that sexual abuse occurred on the island—and weigh it down with fantastical imagining of secret underground tunnels. (It leads one to consider the possibility that conspiracists who imagine these things are just as sadistic as those they believe to be performing them would be.)

Therein lies the ultimate irony of QAnon and other ridiculous conspiracy theories: the conspiracy theory destroys and denigrates the grain of truth contained within it. The conspiracy theory becomes a conspiracy by distracting us from the truth.

Project MK-Ultra was an actual government mind control program run by the CIA. But this was not enough for the conspiracists. It was supplemented—primarily by a woman named Cathy O’ Brien, who claimed to have been part of an ongoing mind control program called Project Monarch. While conclusive evidence exists that MK-Ultra was indeed real, no such evidence exists for O’Brien’s claims.

The unethical Tuskegee Experiment has been folded into the narrative as well. Black men with syphilis were told they were receiving treatments for their disease. No treatments were ever given. The anti-vaccination movement has grasped at this historical travesty and utilized it to demonstrate why no citizen should ever trust Big Pharma or the government. To make these actual events more fantastical than they were—and they were beyond terrible—is an insult to those who were harmed because of them. It also makes the topic of legitimate conspiracies and wrongdoings a difficult one to discuss.

Some of the most outspoken debunkers of fake conspiracies, such as Mick West and Michael Shermer, are quick to note the existence of real conspiracies and the harm they have caused, demonstrating that one proven conspiracy does not equate to truth in all or any conspiracy theories.

Within the world of QAnon, there is further damage being done through the proliferation of these theories. Child abduction by strangers does indeed happen, but it is far rarer than the bogus statistics offered by QAnon followers suggest. In actuality, children are most often abducted by a family member—usually a parent involved in a custody dispute—or someone the child knows.

QAnon estimates that children go missing by the hundreds of thousands each year. These children end up as sex slaves who are harvested for their adrenachrome and then killed and cannibalized. As forensic pathologists know, bodies are not easy to dispose of, and it would be impossible for even some well-connected secret cabal to dispose of so many bodies unnoticed. Human trafficking is a very real thing, but again the numbers are nowhere near what QAnon states. The reality of human trafficking is far different from anything QAnon imagines.

Timothy Vasquez, an immigration lawyer from Ohio, is appalled by the rumors that QAnon has spread about trafficking. Vasquez says the most effective refutation of QAnon’s trafficking claims can be found in the number of T Visas that are approved. T Visas are special visas available to immigrants who have been victims of trafficking, and Vasquez says, “T Visas are being denied at an astounding rate.” The denial of these visas demonstrates that human trafficking is not being viewed by the government as a widespread threat. “The reality of trafficking is so different,” he says, with the common misconception of the “sensationalized image like in the movie Taken. Oftentimes the trafficking victim doesn’t know they’re a trafficking victim.” Vasquez says that the misinformation QAnon has presented about the topic of human trafficking has changed the public view of what trafficking is and how it occurs.

Vasquez says that Trump’s inhumane immigration policies were “so hypocritical. These policies make it easier to traffick people because of the shame.” Victims who have been groomed and taken advantage of are afraid to come forward, especially if they have been trafficked into the United States illegally. Human trafficking is defined far more differently than pop culture or QAnon would have you believe. Trafficking isn’t always about the sex trade; it can also include people who have been brought into the country illegally and are forced to work for very little money under threat of being turned in to the authorities. The common myths about human trafficking—especially the hyperbolic fantasies of QAnon—have “really done a lot of damage for helping real victims,” says Vazquez. Under Trump’s hardline immigration policies, both legal and illegal immigrants have had a harder time finding safety in the United States.

QAnon followers have also caused damage in other ways. They tie up trafficking hotlines with tips about so-called “mole children,” while the people who are calling for legitimate help for themselves or for missing children are forced to remain on hold.

In addition, because of their unhinged thinking, it is not uncommon to find QAnon believers losing custody of their children to foster homes or Child Protective Services (CPS). In Colorado, Cynthia Abcug, a QAnon believer, lost custody of her son and, along with other QAnon followers, hatched a plan to kidnap him to get him back.

In Florida, QAnon follower Neely Petrie-Blanchard shot and killed Christopher Hallett, who was involved in the Q Adjacent “Sovereign Citizen” or “E-Clause” movement. This movement is categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which explains it thusly:

At some point in history, sovereigns believe, the American government set up by the founding fathers—with a legal system the sovereigns refer to as “common law”—was secretly replaced by a new government system based on admiralty law, the law of the sea and international commerce. Under common law, or so they believe, the sovereigns would be free men. Under admiralty law, they are slaves, and secret government forces have a vested interest in keeping them that way. Some sovereigns believe this perfidious change occurred during the Civil War, while others blame the events of 1933 when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard.

Petrie-Blanchard met Hallett through their common belief in sovereign citizenship and is accused of turning on him and murdering him when his efforts to help her regain custody of her daughters had failed. She had also begun to believe that he was secretly working for the government.

This is not the first time a QAnon follower has been charged with murder, but it is one of the first QAnon cases involving accusations of murder and child custody. In March 2019 in Staten Island, New York, QAnon follower Anthony Comello was arrested for the murder of Gambino crime family member Francesco Cali. In a photo taken of the shooter at one of his court hearings, he is purposely revealing his palm with the phrase “Q sent me,” scrawled on it. Comello was later declared mentally unfit to stand trial and was remanded to a state Office of Mental Health facility. According to an article published in The Intelligencer, filings from his defense attorney state that “Mr. Comello became certain that he was enjoying the protection of President Trump himself, and that he had the president’s full support.”

These are just three examples of the violence QAnon provokes and glorifies. While all three perpetrators are currently jailed, another Q-related murderer has been released on bail with the help of former 1980s sitcom child actor Ricky Schroder.

The seventeen-year-old who shot and killed two people in Portland in 2020 is being represented by a QAnon lawyer. It is unclear whether or not the shooter himself is a QAnon follower, but his attorney, L. Lin Wood, is. Wood was thrust into the spotlight after the 2020 election. The motive behind the murders appears to be related to racist ideology rather than QAnon, but again we see QAnon playing a role—this time indirectly—in a murder.

If you are beginning to see a pattern, it is very real and very dangerous—unlike the imaginary patterns conspiracists see. QAnon purports to want to “save the children,” while its beliefs and radicalized methods of thought are damaging children and leading to murder.

Even more astounding and ironic is the fact that 8Chan (now 8kun), the message board that became the primary source of “Q Drops,” has been home to posts containing child pornography. In December 2020, a QAnon politician, Ben Gibson, who had been a candidate for Congress, was arrested on four counts of possessing child pornography.

QAnon does not save anyone—certainly not children—and it does nothing to help real victims of sexual abuse or human trafficking. QAnon is very dangerous and must not be taken lightly. It is a shameful aspect of current American conspiracy culture, but it cannot be ignored. This is a movement in which followers are so brainwashed into believing they are “digital soldiers” that they are ready to become soldiers in real life too.

Facebook and Twitter are finally acting to ban groups and accounts linked to QAnon, but this action comes too little, too late. Twitter has been decidedly more active and responsible while Facebook falls back into its usual promise to do better in the future.

There is a downside to these measures: Toward the end of 2020, QAnon followers began migrating to Gab and Parler, fringe social media platforms that were practically unmonitored and tout themselves as champions of true free speech. These sites have become a slimy stew of misogyny, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, fascist and neo-Nazi rhetoric, white supremacy, and violence. Now QAnon followers are mingling with the Boogaloo Boys and Proud Boys, and the three different hate groups are beginning to adopt each other’s beliefs.

On January 11, 2021, shortly after the Capitol Insurrection, Amazon, Google, and Apple removed Parler from their app stores, essentially shutting it down temporarily. Parler found a new home through the domain host Epik. This hosting company also hosts Gab and The Daily Stormer, an American neo-Nazi message board.

Scores of legitimate journalists covered Parler, and many posted on Twitter terrifying and unhinged screenshots collected there. One shows a December 12 post from Milo Yiannopoulos (himself a purveyor of hate speech) that reads: “If you’re still a Q believer, please kill yourself. Many thanks.” To which another Parler user replied, “How about we kill you instead?”

People make threats online all the time, but from a legal perspective each one needs to be investigated and taken seriously in every instance. In most instances, while still illegal, these threats are found to be nothing more than words. But with QAnon there is a more real and likely threat.

Even though Joe Biden was inaugurated as the forty-sixth president on January 20, 2021, and even though Q has not posted since December 8, 2020, QAnon is not going away any time soon. While it is unlikely that many QAnon people can be talked out of it through logic and reason, we must become our own version of “digital soldiers” and combat their misinformation at every turn. We might not be able to save many who are already down the rabbit hole, but we may be able to stop a few who are curiously peering into it.

Note

1. The phrase “conspiracy theory” is often confused with the word conspiracy. For clarification, a conspiracy theory is unfounded and unproven, while a conspiracy can be proven with solid evidence. For example, the proven conspiracy to attack on September 11, 2001, involved Middle Eastern hijackers, whereas the conspiracy theory throws the U.S. government into the mix as accomplices.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to immigration lawyer Timothy Vasquez for his interview and to Valentina Restrepo-Montoya of The Florence Project for additional information on immigration.

Sidebar: QAnon and the January 6 Capitol Insurrection

On January 6, 2021, as Congress gathered to certify the electoral votes that gave Joe Biden the presidency, a violent insurrection took place at the U.S. Capitol. Fueled by a speech President Trump gave shortly beforehand, a mob consisting of well-armed militia members, QAnon supporters, white supremacists, and MAGA Trump supporters stormed into the Capitol with minimal effort. Recent reports suggest that this event might have literally been an “inside job.” Lauren Boebert, a U.S. Representative from Colorado, was live Tweeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s location during the event. Boebert had made announcements prior to the insurrection that she was planning on bringing her gun to the Capitol that day and declared that day to be 1776. Boebert is friendly with the QAnon crowd, and questions still surround her involvement in the attack on our democratic process. Claims were made that she was seen giving an unofficial tour to people wearing MAGA hats and shirts the day before the insurrection.

The most notable character from this incident was Jake Angeli, The Q Shaman, with his trademark LARPing Viking helmet and makeup. He has been a big name in what has been referred to as “the QAnon extended universe” by the hosts of the QAnon Anonymous podcast who have encountered him at multiple QAnon rallies and events prior to January 6.

This event demonstrated to the broader American populace what researchers into QAnon have been saying for years: QAnon followers are a dangerous, extremist group with high motivations and unquestioning faith; they were willing to do anything—even commit acts of violence and treason—to keep Trump in office. In typical fashion, social media platforms responded too late. They could have helped stop this years ago but waited until these violent actions forced their hands.

As a result of the insurrection, four rioters and one Capitol police officer lost their lives. Rosanne Boyland was carrying a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag and was ironically trampled to death. According to Snopes: “It’s not yet clear whether the injuries she sustained by being trampled were what caused her death, or if her death was caused by something else, such as a medical emergency, which might also have prompted her to fall to the ground” (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rosanne-boyland-trampled-flag/). Another woman, Ashli Babbitt, died after being shot in the neck while trying to climb through a door with smashed glass inside the Capitol building. Babbitt was a hardcore QAnon supporter. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died in the hospital from injuries he sustained from the insurrectionists. Two other deaths were attributed to “medical emergencies.” Three days after the riots, another Capitol police officer, Howard Liebengood Jr., who had been present at the event, took his own life.

Boyland and Babbitt fell into the rabbit hole and believed in QAnon so strongly that they ultimately died for it. They died for a fabricated lie because it had become their own reality. Make no mistake: they were traitors to this country and our constitution, but that does not mean we cannot look sadly upon their demise and see it as an immense tragedy. In the wake of the events of that day, Q remains quiet. Without Trump or Q, some of the QAnon followers were restructuring their narrative to claim Biden is Trump in disguise after undergoing surgery similar to that in the film Face/Off. Others started to post online about their doubts, and some were coming to their senses. But it is generally agreed that QAnon is not dead and may in fact persist for quite some time, reminding us once again of the sign cult leader Jim Jones had in his quarters in Guyana, borrowed from George Santayana: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

—Stephanie Kemmerer

Stephanie Kemmerer

Stephanie Kemmerer is a researcher and writer for the podcast Even the Podcast Is Afraid and an occasional contributor for the Southern Oddities podcast, both owned by Ordis Studios (https://www.ordisstudios.com/). She currently resides in Bisbee, Arizona, and is interested in true crime, the paranormal, politics, and conspiracy culture. The podcasts are available on all streaming services. Her Twitter handle is @mcpasteface.

Note

Acknowledgments

Further Reading

Sidebar: QAnon and the January 6 Capitol Insurrection

Stephanie Kemmerer