Kash Patel Is the Hero QAnon Has Been Waiting For

And contrary to the popular belief that QAnon followers are generally older people with more time on their hands to spend on conspiracy websites, PRRI data shows that 22 percent of those under 50 believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory, compared to just 14 percent of those over 65.

“I don’t doubt the belief in conspiracy theories like QAnon,” PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman told WIRED. “Trump supporters in particular are already primed to support conspiracies with no basis in fact at a higher level than the general public. Coupled with historic levels of mistrust of government and various other institutions among many Americans, the conditions that allow such theories to flourish and even grow are sadly not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Trump’s return to the White House has been widely celebrated by the QAnon community, whose members believe that all the wild predictions Q made in thousands of their posts will now come true.

“The general consensus is that Trump is going to crush the deep state and all the evil libs will go to jail as soon as possible, we’ll go back to the gold standard and the Fed will be destroyed,” Mike Raines, a researcher who closely tracks the QAnon community, told WIRED. “Ukrainian biolabs to be exposed as source of Covid and [Anthony] Fauci and company will all be executed for crimes against humanity.”

This can be seen on Telegram channels and fringe platforms such as Gab and Truth Social, where QAnon influencers hunker down in anticipation of a massive purge of QAnon accounts on mainstream platforms in 2021 following the attack on Capitol.

But it is also increasingly seen on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and most notably X, from which, Billionaire Elon Musk’s takeoverProvided a fertile ground for conspiracy to thrive, in addition to providing an income for influencers who could monetize their bullshit.

Meta, TikTok, and X did not respond to comments about QAnon content on their platforms.

“It certainly doesn’t help that under the mask, unproven QAnon conspiracy theories have flourished across X, giving them a massive audience and veneer of legitimacy,” Cook said.

Trump was among those on what was then called Twitter after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Pushed to post on his own tiny platform, Truth Social, he quickly embraced QAnon wholeheartedly, promoting QAnon-affiliated accounts nearly 1,000 times, according to An October analysis by Media Matters.