Read on Twitter
1/ I hate doing this because I'm not into twitter spats but let's go because comments like this are problematic. When making comments about QAnon at least try and read the articles written about it before the last month, which almost always link to that FBI bulletin. https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1335285282858471425
2/ Most of the community that has been researching & observing QAnon prior to its mainstreaming, have been saying they are a threat to public safety.
However extremism and radicalization are not neat boxes
https://ctc.usma.edu/the-qanon-conspiracy-theory-a-security-threat-in-the-making/
https://www.intrepidpodcast.com/podcast/2020/8/18/ep-131-a-qampa-on-qanon
https://icct.nl/publication/q-pilled-conspiracy-theories-trump-and-election-violence/
However extremism and radicalization are not neat boxes
https://ctc.usma.edu/the-qanon-conspiracy-theory-a-security-threat-in-the-making/
https://www.intrepidpodcast.com/podcast/2020/8/18/ep-131-a-qampa-on-qanon
https://icct.nl/publication/q-pilled-conspiracy-theories-trump-and-election-violence/
3/ calling it a Russian op without real evidence is extremely problematic and you might as well be playing for the other side as it amplifies the image of the foreign boogeyman. That link to Russian accounts. 4
4/ the Reuters article that is cited states5 "Russia is amplify ing QAnon accounts" does not mean Russia is running QAnon. The report cites @MelanieFSmith Graphika report which state foreign actors have show interest but not leveraged QAnon https://graphika.com/reports/interpreting-social-qs-implications-of-the-evolution-of-qanon/
5/ foreign state media mentioning QAnon along side all international media is not Foreign Interference. Also the data of Russia amplifying QAnon in 2017 and 2018 was a select few account amplifying everyone and anything around the Trump Campaign.
6/ @ISDglobal @DFRLab @Graphika_NYC have all covered this in part and have come to the same conclusion. Before amplifying content that opposes this at least read the reports.
7/ also while everyone is blaming Russian, Iran actually tried to leverage fake QAnon accounts during the debate that Twitter took down and no one said blip about Iranian leveraging QAnon it's always Russia.
See this piece by @Shayan86 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/election-us-2020-54373314
See this piece by @Shayan86 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/election-us-2020-54373314
8/ all these new QAnon experts that are jumping on the seen with their hot take of a foreign psyop because there is now at this is organic, need to do some historical reading about populism in America, history of right wing extremism, and how radicalization works.
9/ QAnon is not the first domestic extremist movement that is anti-establishment and anti-government in the USA that has risen during a time of societal and political upheaval. Just because it started online does not mean it is a phenomena driven by offline factors.
10/ in a post 2016 election world, the lines between mainstream and the extreme is becoming extremely blurred, geopolitical and socio-political events around the globe have created an environment fertile for the rise of populism and mainstream extremist narratives
11/ the USA, Canada and others have a history of right wing extremism and this history has remnants today which lay the foundation of the emergence and growth of right wing and conspiracy movements today (JBS, Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma, AIP, Posse Comitatus, etc.)
12/ the persistence of right wing and conspiriacy movements are indicative of the broader normativity of racism and other elements of in/out grouping in communities sucdeptible to right wing extremism and conspiracism.
13/ these groups are founded upon a wider populist socio-political apparatus that have given extremist groups validation to these groups interpretation of the economic, political and cultural state of the USA (this phenomena is partly why QAnon resonated outside the US)
14/ These movement are born out of the weakened social fabric of our nation's, a foreign power did not weaken them, that has happened slowly over the years and it is something that can be leveraged by extremist to grow their movements today.
15/ these groups have grown domestically and organically because they emphasize the power and sovereignty of the people, they have constructed a corrupted elite that rules and dominates our societies against the will of the people...
16/...they ostracized and construct a dangerous image of the other that threatens the culture, economic security and political stability of the nation and they play upon the nostalgia of a better past and a promise of a golden age.
17/ all of this has been echoed by elected officials around the globe where QAnon has found root and grown. There has nothing to do with a foreign powers, but with the fact that social fabrics have weakened over the years and COVID has strained them to a breaking point.
18/ I have covered in the past how social media data shows that the pandemic played a central role in the growth of QAnon. https://twitter.com/_MAArgentino/status/1292245496271187968
19/ if it wasn't for the political, health and economic insecurities created by the pandemic, QAnon likely would not have grown as it had and that is not something that and Foreign power could have guessed.
20/ QAnon's growth is a complex phenomena that has multiple factors at play and do not require a foreign power to grow or exist. There is a history of similar movements that have grown and existed domestically which are also foundations to QAnon
21/ if individuals have real evidence of Russian interference/ Russian control behind QAnon there are 84 countries with QAnon communities that would likely be interested in this evidence. If you do not have it stop pushing a Russian boogeyman narrative and being a useful idiot.
