There's this weird trend where people try to downplay QAnon by observing that only several million Americans endorse an absurd extremist ideology that fueled the capitol insurrection.

And they always ignore the fact that QAnon is an international movement for some reason. https://twitter.com/kdrum/status/1359708630975537153

Before there was polling, I remember worrying about the possibility that just 1% of Americans believed that an 8chan anon was dishing out secrets about the coming violent military-led purge of Trump’s political enemies. But these people are out here like "6%? That's nothing!"

A key part of downplaying QAnon is making the category error of claiming that QAnon is a mere conspiracy theory akin to "the moon landing is fake."

A big difference: moon landing truthers don't commit terrorism, murder, kidnapping plots, and insurrection. https://twitter.com/Yascha_Mounk/status/1359884168352653312?s=19

In 2018 it was unthinkable that QAnon followers would help lead a deadly Capitol riot, be elected to congress, and number in the millions worldwide. That was a nightmare scenario. So it's a bit jarring to see people claim that QAnon is nbd after those things happened.