THEY WANT YOU DIVIDED

How QAnon is monetizing child trafficking victims

What good is a conspiracy theory you can't profit from?

DEREK BERES

17 August, 2020

With over 2,000 items on Amazon and 6,600 items on Etsy, QAnon-related swag is now a big industry.

Many top QAnon devotees are using this conspiracy theory to promote supplements, t-shirts, and pendants.

This baseless theory is doing more harm than good to the child victims it purports to help.

As the three-year-old "movement," QAnon, makes inroads into the American mainstream, the far-right conspiracy theory—Donald Trump is taking down the "Deep State," which is in large part comprised of an elite, Satanic cabal of pedophiles—is having real-world impact. Besides damaging abused and traumatized children (the victims it purports to help), there are further troubling theories, such as the LGBT movement being a palate cleanser designed to prepare America to accept pedophilia.

QAnon is also gaining political momentum. To date, 75 congressional candidates have supported QAnon in some capacity; 70 are Republicans. There's also a GOP super PAC, Disarm the Deep State, run by 8chan founder Jim Watkins. 8chan was a major gathering place for Q devotees. After being shut down, it reemerged as 8kun on a Russian hosting service.

Watkins realized he could monetize QAnon. He's not the only one. There are over 2,000 QAnon-related tchotchkes for sale on Amazon, including books, posters, mugs, t-shirts, and minted coins. That Q catalog is tame compared to Etsy, where over 6,600 items are for sale, including a number of face masks (for the rebel who isn't quite rebellious enough to eschew basic science) and a selection of bumper stickers that effectively warn other drivers to stay as far away as possible.

How many of these memento peddlers are really QAnon devotees? Hard to tell. Some people will monetize anything. If you want to trace Q activists turning their platforms into cash cows, you have to root them out one by one.

https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/qanon-monetization?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

ROOT THEM OUT ONE BY ONE?????