Trump supporters openly discussed forcing Congress and Vice President Pence to overturn the election results.
A supporter of President Donald Trump, seen wearing a QAnon shirt, is confronted by Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber during the invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Conspiracy theories spread online are the backbone of Donald Trump’s falsehoods about his loss in the U.S. election. The real world consequences of those conspiracies have now exploded.
A collapse in political legitimacy means people think the normal rules don’t apply anymore, making the world a more difficult and even dangerous place for all of us.
It’s no surprise the unexplained structures have the internet buzzing. But they haven’t entered the ranks of other great conspiracy material — and history helps explain why they probably won’t.
Parler is similar to Twitter but doesn’t control or discourage hate speech or calls to violence.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Image
Millions of supporters of Donald Trump have flocked to the far-right social media platform Parler, where hate speech thrives.
This man visited the Soviet embassy in Mexico City while Lee Harvey Oswald was in Mexico in 1963. Officials thought it might be Oswald.
Corbis via Getty Images
Gonzalo Soltero, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
In 1967 a Mexican reporter told the CIA he had met Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City just before the JFK assassination. New research and recently declassified intelligence pokes a hole in his story.
In the age of social media, conspiracy theories are collective creations.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Emilio Ferrara, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Twitter bots amplify conspiracy theories, including the so-called ‘collective delusion’ that is QAnon, making them appear more popular and able to reach more real humans.
People display Qanon messages on cardboards during a political rally in Bucharest, Romania on Aug. 10, 2020.
(Shutterstock)
The QAnon conspiracy movement is the latest in a long line of moral panics that emerge as a response to change. False theories are used to undermine claims to social justice raised by marginalized groups.
Graphic narratives can be a great tool to teach media literacy.
(Shutterstock)
Donald Trump said followers of conspiracy theory ‘are very much against pedophilia.’ What he didn’t mention was the demonic imagery and language that peppers QAnon posts.
Romanian supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theories shout slogans against the government’s measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections, like wearing a face mask, during a rally in Bucharest in August.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Facebook and YouTube have brought in measures to stop the spread of dangerous QAnon conspiracies, but members of the Q community have found new ways to promote false theories on social media.
The Christian right began to coalesce around social and cultural changes in the late 1970s. A scholar explains the emergence of conspiracy theories at the time.
People are drawn to conspiracy theory communities when times are uncertain.
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