QAnon—Religious Roots, Religious Responses

Abstract

Conspiracy theories are not new to religion, nor an exclusively modern phenomenon. But they take on more destructive and wide-ranging impact with modern communication technologies. Looking at the root psychosocial mechanisms of conspiracy theories, we argue that they frame ideas, history, and culture through the cognitive mindscape of special, ‘hidden knowledge’. They also serve as a unifying theory of conflict and narration of history. The COVID epidemic has strained the economic and political system. Although it may be a matter of perception for Q-followers, a sense of precarity is enhanced by QAnon, thus unleashing and mustering an awakening for such extremist paranoid discourse of ressentiment. This parallels the cognitive mindscape of ‘the Great Replacement’. Prior to election 2020, QAnon’s base had been growing in Evangelical communities. Its presence continues to be felt.