17% of Americans polled agreed that "a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” QAnon’s central lie.
37% more said they "didn't know".
The article details their pervasive reach into other media outlets such as Newsmax, One America News and even Fox News.
I know that there are several surveys similar to this that I think are intentionally distorted to amplify the actual belief(which IS significant to begin with).
Although I totally agree, regardless of the numbers, the reality is that they are alarmingly too high and a huge problem.
I could use a similar interpretation of a survey and claim that 67% of people think that we have a climate crisis and 35% think that we will all die by the year 2030.
Do they really believe that?
Probably some elements but in surveys, where questions often call for a yes or no response, they often don't capture what the person is really thinking.
For instance, those that believe partially, may just know that there is a deep state of unelected bureaucrats that spent 2.5 years and 30 million dollars, breaking laws and rights of Americans to try to obliterate a legally elected President.
They may see the biased MSM being on board with this.
In a survey, KNOWING this about Muellers investigation and other legit facts(it really happened) will result in them responding to partially believing in a conspiracy theory as defined by the survey and a yes.
People who believe in tons of bogus conspiracy theories, also know this............but they often get lumped together.
In a survey like this, metmike might actually been seen as one of them that partially believes in a couple of items....... because of what i know, based on overwhelming facts and evidence of what happened before, during and after the Mueller investigation.
And that's the thing. People that know this are much more likely to believe that this was not just an isolated occurrence and there is much more going on. ........which makes them much more vulnerable to falling for the bogus conspiracy theory stuff.
This is where some of us part ways with that group..............because almost nobody takes the time to objectively, analyze the facts/evidence in a scientific way and use critical thinking to arrive at conclusions........always looking at both sides.
They just go to their favorite, usually politically biased source. If the source can prove the corruption of the Mueller investigation, they become believable in all things............while bs-ing their way into capturing the minds of the believers with propaganda.
A great example of this affect, was how the most investigated election is history, that proved irrefutably, over and over that Biden won, was twisted, for political agenda, using propaganda, as being a scenario of Biden stealing the election.
One can guess that 99% of the QAnon believers were (easily) convinced of this.
disclosure: I have never visited QAnon
However, reading our various sources, i gather that QAnon is a far-right, radical conspiracy theorist site...with a cult-like following of gullible people.
a thinking person then has to make a decision... where should he get important information?
Is it our MSM, FaceBook, Twitter, youtube, etc.....the powerful group of information purveyors who tell the masses what to think, what to know, what to read, what to say, what to believe.... and anyone who dares to express views different from their ideology is suspended or expelled, or "cancelled"?
are they not similar "radical", far-left "conspiracy theorist" sites (as displayed in the "Russia Investigation") for "gullible people?
If our social media allowed "free speech", QAnon would have a small membership. But with all the 1984-style thought-control our MSM and social media sites are using, QAnon will probably grow considerably. .
https://www.bbc.com/news/53498434
At its heart, QAnon is a wide-ranging, completely unfounded theory that says that President Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.
QAnon believers have speculated that this fight will lead to a day of reckoning where prominent people such as former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be arrested and executed.
That's the basic story, but there are so many offshoots, detours and internal debates that the total list of QAnon claims is enormous - and often contradictory. Adherents draw in news events, historical facts and numerology to develop their own far-fetched conclusions.
In October 2017, an anonymous user put a series of posts on the message board 4chan. The user signed off as "Q" and claimed to have a level of US security approval known as "Q clearance".
These messages became known as "Q drops" or "breadcrumbs", often written in cryptic language peppered with slogans, pledges and pro-Trump themes.
Actually, thousands do. The amount of traffic to mainstream social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube has exploded since 2017, and indications are the numbers have gone up further during the coronavirus pandemic.
The big social media companies subsequently tightened their rules about QAnon content and took down hundreds of Q-supporting accounts and videos.
But social media and opinion polls indicate there are at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who believe in at least some of the bizarre theories offered up by QAnon.
And its popularity hasn't been diminished by events which would seem to debunk the whole thing. For instance, early Q drops focused on the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
QAnon supporters claimed Mr Mueller's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election was really an elaborate cover story for an investigation into paedophiles. When it concluded with no such bombshell revelation, the attention of the conspiracy theorists drifted elsewhere.
True believers contend deliberate misinformation is sown into Q's messages - in their minds making the conspiracy theory impossible to disprove.
QAnon supporters drive hashtags and co-ordinate abuse of perceived enemies - the politicians, celebrities and journalists who they believe are covering up for paedophiles.
It's not just threatening messages online. Twitter says it took action against QAnon because of the potential for "offline harm".
Several QAnon believers have been arrested after making threats or taking offline action.
In one notable case in 2018, a heavily armed man blocked a bridge over the Hoover Dam. Matthew Wright later pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.
A Pew Research Center study in September 2020 found that nearly half of Americans had heard of QAnon- double the number from six months before. Of those who had heard about it, a fifth had a positive view of the movement.
And for many believers, QAnon forms the foundation of their support for President Trump.
Mr Trump has, unwittingly or not, retweeted QAnon supporters, and prior to the election his son Eric Trump posted a QAnon meme on Instagram.
One outspoken QAnon supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, was elected to the US Congress in November.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon
QAnon[a] (/ˌkjuːəˈnɒn/) is a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory[2] alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic[3][4][5] pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against US president Donald Trump, who is fighting the cabal.[6] QAnon also commonly asserts that Trump is planning a day of reckoning known as the "Storm", when thousands of members of the cabal will be arrested.[7][8] No part of the conspiracy claim is based on facts.[9][10][11][12] QAnon supporters have accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials of being members of the cabal.[13] They have also claimed that Trump feigned conspiracy with Russians to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the sex trafficking ring and preventing a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.[14][15] The QAnon conspiracy theories have been amplified by Russian state-backed troll accounts on social media,[16][17][18][19][20][21] as well as Russian state-backed traditional media.[16][22]