Deep state hit piece

The Week QAnon Became Everyone’s Problem - The conspiracy theory-based movement poses a different type of terrorist threat.

Many reports describe it as fringe, but while QAnon started on the fringes, it now has millions of followers, presidential validation, and widespread media coverage.

Jihadists and white nationalists use the internet in similar ways: organizing, recruiting, spreading information, and encouraging self-starters. Here there’s some overlap with QAnon. Like white nationalists, QAnon is a diffuse, leaderless movement.

If Trump loses, or it looks like he’s losing, some might follow their conspiracy theory to the conclusion that evil is winning and they have to try to stop it with force.

Again, the dangerous subset need not be large. Given the size of the QAnon community, a quarter of one percent taking the violent implications seriously means at least a few thousand potential threats that could become more active around election time. Dangers include armed intimidation at polling places the day of the vote, and of electoral or judicial officials in the event of a contested result. Some may turn to violence, attacking individuals and locations they believe are involved in the conspiracy, seeing it as a last-ditch effort to “save the children.”

f Trump starts tweeting things like “RIGGED! They’re trying to take your country. Don’t let them! THIS IS IT! Second Amendment!” — let alone if he uses QAnon lingo like “the Storm is upon us” — there’s a risk that some violence-embracing QAnon followers decide to act. And if some do, it could encourage others.

Maybe I’m wrong, and the election will pass without self-starter terrorism connected to QAnon, white nationalism, or other far-right ideologies. I hope so. But the probability is far enough from zero that counter-terrorism and law enforcement should make it a top priority, at least until the results of the election settle in

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/08/week-qanon-became-everyones-problem/168124/

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