Taking a walk on the wild side

By Lachlan Ellis

It’s a conspiracy so absurd, you wouldn’t read about it – except now you can, with a new book from a Moorabool writer delving deep into the sinister cult known as ‘QAnon’.

If you’re not quite sure what QAnon is, you’re not the only one – but local writer Van Badham has been in the belly of the beast, which she says is conning thousands of vulnerable people.

A post asking her Facebook followers about QAnon garnered hundreds of messages, and Ms Badham got into deeper research before writing an article on the conspiracy for The Guardian, which went viral.

She’s devoted the last 12 months to learning more for her book, ‘QAnon and On’, even going undercover in QAnon groups.

What she discovered was shocking.

“I’ve discovered that there are a lot of bad faith political actors in this space, who weaponise people who are in distress for political ends. QAnon believers were very present at the January 6 attack on the Capitol building in the United States…they had been urged to go there by propagandists,” Ms Badham told the Moorabool News.

“People are prone to conspiracy thinking when they’re in distress…obviously, the pandemic has distressed a lot of people. People being cooped up inside [during the pandemic], with the internet…are very vulnerable to manipulation, and there are people willing to manipulate them.

“If you can convince people that Hillary Clinton is an alien lizard or that Joe Biden is a clone…and those are things that people do believe…you can convince them of anything. You can convince them to give you money, you can convince them to, say, set buildings on fire, you can convince them to riot against democracy,” she said.

The wacky beliefs of QAnon followers include that John F. Kennedy Jr. will come back from the dead, and that a group of cannibalistic pedophiles conspired against Donald Trump’s presidency.

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-02-15/10

in the 15 February 2022 edition
OR
pick up a paper around your town.