As far as dog whistles go, none may be as dangerous
as the President of the United States sending secret signals to QAnon, a far-right conspiracy group espousing far-fetched radical theories like a ring
of “deep state” pedophiles secretly plotting against the President and his supporters. But that’s what happened Sunday when the President and his social media manager Dan Scavino
circulated a tweet depicting the President fiddling and featuring a QAnon tagline: “Nothing can stop
what’s coming.”
The message is dangerous for a number of reasons, including the fact that QAnon increasingly is moving from the virtual depths of 4Chan and sub-Reddits to the “real world.” It’s also
dangerous, because most Americans still are oblivious to it.
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New research released this morning by the Pew Research Center finds only 23% of Americans have even heard a lot or a little about QAnon, even though a number
of Republican officials and candidates openly support it, and individuals radicalized by the group have been committing violent acts.
Most recently, the group has begun promoting the
theory that the Coronavirus is part of an anti-Trump conspiracy.
Remarkably, Republican voters surveyed by Pew said they are even less cognizant of QAnon than Democratic voters, reaffirming
once again that democracy truly does die in the darkness.
