She never received a response, she said, and went through radiation and surgery alone. In the fall, Rogers was diagnosed with breast cancer and reached out to her daughter for help.
After Rogers pushed back on her daughter's claims, Rogers said her daughter cut off all communication. By summer, her daughter delved into Q ideas of pedophilia and voter fraud, she said. Her daughter wouldn't take virus precautions, even after Rogers, who has severe asthma that has required hospitalization, said she felt unsafe visiting. But last spring after the coronavirus appeared and her boyfriend lost his job, Rogers said that clean-living ethos grew "more militant" and her daughter became angry at her for refusing to see the pandemic as a scam. "This has seriously infiltrated our society on multiple levels."īefore the pandemic, Rogers said her daughter questioned vaccines, ate organic and eschewed chemicals, even making her own detergent. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates during the pandemic. "This is not just a silly little thing," said Sara Rogers, whose anti-vaccine daughter has embraced falsehoods about Dr. Thousands still check in daily on new theories - including recent posts that Oprah Winfrey was wearing an ankle monitor during her royal interview, proof to some that she had been arrested for child sex trafficking.Ī January poll by YouGov, conducted after the insurrection, found that 20% of those who voted for former President Trump in the recent election had a somewhat or very favorable opinion of QAnon.
6 Capitol attack, believers have regrouped in more obscure forums like Telegram, or created workarounds on mainstream platforms to avoid censorship. Although Twitter, Facebook and other online forums purged some conspiracy content before and after the Jan. (Dario Lopez-Mills / Associated Press)īut all those interviewed said they were speaking out because, unchecked, QAnon continues to metastasize. He was arrested after being part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Jacob Anthony Chansley, who also goes by the name Jake Angeli, is a QAnon believer shown in November in Phoenix protesting the vote count in Arizona. Her husband recently left her, calling her a "liberal baby killer" because she refused to believe the conspiracies that consumed his days. "It's been hard to find people to even understand what you are going through," said Evelyn, who asked that her last name not be used. In recent months, a Reddit group called QAnon Casualties for family and friends of believers has grown to 144,000 members. Lonely and often isolated, such family members have been seeking support wherever they can find it. Many parents, spouses and siblings feel like a cult has ensnared one of their loved ones, and are unsure if they should intervene or focus on protecting their own mental health.
These include claims of lizard aliens intent on enslaving humans, plots for a mass depopulation of the planet and support of public executions. Yet for people such as Beltran, the dangers of QAnon have been all too apparent, as family members have slid into angry extremism - proselytizing ideas that are often racist, anti-Semitic and untethered to reality. Experts estimate that as many as 20 million Americans have at least partially embraced Q-inspired conspiracies.
The FBI has labeled it a domestic terror threat and it has been linked to more than a dozen potentially criminal acts across the country. Once dismissed as a crackpot belief system undeserving of serious attention, QAnon has emerged as a national security priority in the wake of the Jan.