Two experts of extremist radicalization take us down the QAnon rabbit hole, exposing how the conspiracy theory ensnared countless Americans, and show us a way back to sanity.
In January 2021, thousands descended on the U.S. Capitol to aid President Donald Trump in combating a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Two women were among those who died that day. They, like millions of Americans, believed that a mysterious insider known as « Q » is exposing a vast deep-state conspiracy. The QAnon conspiracy theory has ensnared many women, who identify as members of « pastel QAnon, » answering the call to « save the children. »
With Pastels and Pedophiles, Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko explain why the rise of QAnon should not surprise us: believers have been manipulated to follow the baseless conspiracy. The authors track QAnon’s unexpected leap from the darkest corners of the Internet to the filtered glow of yogi-mama Instagram, a frenzy fed by the COVID-19 pandemic that supercharged conspiracy theories and spurred a fresh wave of Q-inspired violence.
I have been (relatively mildly, considering what I’m capable of) obsessed with Pastel QAnon in the past few years and of course, when I saw that this book existed, I needed to get my hands on it.
I think it’s an excellent overview of QAnon for people who don’t really understand what’s going on (and I’m part of these people even after all my reading), but the « pastel » part sometimes falls short. There is a very good chapter on the women of QAnon and the role of women in radicalization in general that I found very interesting.
The authors aren’t afraid of hammering their point, which is good if you’re not very attentive, but can sometimes get annoying if you’ve been taking notes! They also suggest a few solutions, some of them more practical than others − on the more practical side, I’ve enjoyed the « how to ask for sources » advice for when you see outlandish claims from someone you know and the idea of « positive astroturfing » (my words) to counteract the right-wing one.
Not unforgettable, but on this topic, this remains the best book I’ve read for now.