Former ‘die-hard believer’ of QAnon explains what finally made her question the conspiracy theory
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QAnon is believed to have first started in 2017 after an anonymous poster, who hailed themselves as ‘Q’, alleged that they had a level of US security approval known as ‘Q clearance’.
Using the message board 4chan, the person started sharing ‘Q drops’ with far-right propaganda and dozens of conspiracy theories, one being that the US government, media and financial worlds are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.
Over the years, QAnon theories have spread like wildfire across the internet – something which former QAnon believer Katrina Vaillancourt partly blames for the group ending up having a ‘mental and emotional grip’ on her.
It was in 2020 Katrina fell down what she calls the ‘rabbit hole’ that is QAnon – a time when there was a lot of uncertainty in the US.
The pandemic was ravaging parts of the globe, large populations were on lockdown, new mRNA vaccines were the proposed solution, and Donald Trump was coming to the end of his presidential term having taken over what was once a Democratic country.
Katrina had long been a follower of Bernie Sanders and said she was ‘terrified’ of Trump, but all this changed overnight for her.
She explained to UNILAD: “Bernie Sanders, in May of 2020, endorsed Joe Biden. And for me, that was heartbreaking. It was not okay.
“We were also two months into the pandemic, and I did not trust what I was seeing in our news in regards to the origins of the virus and the plan for resolving the crisis that we were in.”
Going on to say that she had ‘lost all faith’ in the political party that she had followed for many years, Katrina also started to grow suspicious about the pandemic and how it was handled after watching Plandemic – a trilogy of conspiracy theory films.
But it was a 10-part docuseries called Fall of The Cabal, which she’d been urged to watch by a friend, that sealed the deal for her.
The series looks at a host of conspiracy theories that link with some of QAnon’s core beliefs, as well as white hats (somewhat ethical security hackers) and their connection to Trump.
Content retrieved from: https://www.unilad.com/community/life/qanon-conspiracy-theory-katrina-vaillancourt-038012-20240916.
