Is QAnon a cult? | the QAnon conspiracy movement

This appeared in The Millennial Source

Since its inception, with an anonymous post on the 4chan messageboard in October 2017, the QAnon conspiracy movement has been labeled a cult.

QAnon adherents believe that the world is run by an influential cabal of pedophiles and that President Donald Trump is akin to a kind of savior who is destined to expose and stop it. For many who follow the words of Q, the anonymous revelations have become almost a sort of religious text in themselves.

It isn’t uncommon for groups to be dismissed as cults by outsiders and the term is often thrown at supporters of politicians like Trump and former President Barack Obama. Some experts warn that the term is used too liberally and may not adequately fit QAnon. Still, an understanding of cults may offer insight into how to challenge the pull of QAnon.

The cult of QAnon?

In a 2018 Wired article, Renee Diresta lays out the case for QAnon being a cult. Diresta argues that QAnon, which he refers to as “Cult 2.0,” and other digital groups share traits with groups in the physical world that have traditionally been labeled cults.

Some of these traits include a prohibition on what Diresta calls “counterspeech.”