QAnon is voting for a cult leader to be president

Question

The conspiracy theorist group, "QAnonymous", has had its online presence since 2017. Its first post was made in conjunction to the pizzagate scandal that Hillary Clinton faced in the 2016 presidential election. Since 2021, the rates of QAnon beleif among Americans have gone up from "14 percent to 23 percent" (Pazzanese). The main positioning of QAnon is that the "cabal", or those in the democratic party, are corrupt and are aiming for presidency in order to maintain power over the people and to restrict the "free thinkers". QAnon believers warn about "the storm" that will come this upcoming election. QAnon followers have a spectrum of belief ranging from the antivaxx conspiracy theorists to the dooms day conspiracy theorists. Every QAnon follower who attended the January 6th capitol riot will swear that no Trump supporters raided the capitol, but Antifa did. QAnon followers often have narcissistic tendencies or a victim complex, which explains the paranoia of the democratic party hiring government agents to pose as one of them to intentionally make the republican party look bad. QAnon, along with the rest of the republican party, cannot accept the fact that they are backing a cult leader, so in turn blame the democratic party for using media to report on the heinous acts of power they demonstrate.

Comments

https://whyy.org/episodes/how-qanon-became-a-movement-cult-and-the-conspiracy-theory-of-everything/

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https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972564176/antifa-didnt-storm-the-capitol-just-ask-the-rioters

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This is really interesting, but I could use some clarification. I personally don't hold any beliefs agreeing with QAnon, but the assertion that "every QAnon follower who attended the January 6th Capitol riot will swear that no Trump supporters raided the Capitol, but Antifa did" is quite a sweeping generalization. It’s true that some conspiracy theorists tried to push the narrative that Antifa was involved, but it's important not to overgeneralize about such a large group of people. Also, many participants in the January 6th riot were open Trump supporters, and there’s extensive video and photographic evidence of their involvement. Claiming that all QAnon followers hold this view may not account for the diversity of beliefs within that community.

Answer 1

The main claim of this post is that QAnon is backing a cult leader—Donald Trump—for president because of conspiratorial beliefs about the Democratic party and its role at the center of the "Deep State." The anti-democratic (the party, not the ideology) beliefs then skew their perception of any negative press about Trump. The article linked does not discuss QAnon's support of Trump beyond a reference to a specific conspiracy belief known as the storm that foresees Trump destroying the democratic cabal that is secretly in control.

The claim that all QAnon supporters and Republicans back Trump is overgeneralized and unverifiable. In fact, there is substantial evidence that while Trump remains popular with the GOP, there are a number of important members of the party that have come out publicly against him (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republicans-endorsing-kamala-harris-2024/) including his former vice president Mike Pence (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4820988-mike-pence-donald-trump-kamala-harris-2024-presidential-race/).
 

Furthermore, there is no reference in the linked source to Trump as a cult leader. However, there is evidence that the Trump following has become cultlike (https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/09/think-twice-before-saying-cult/)(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/202406/what-makes-a-cult-leader).

While the information on QAnon and it's conspiracy theories are backed up by this article, there is nothing in the source provided that backs up the primary claim that Trump is a cult leader and his followers, out of a lack of acceptance of this fact instead vilify the media.