Breaking news: Did you know that, “A group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media?”

Did you believe me? According to a poll by NPR and Ipsos 17% of Americans did. 

This is the core belief of the QAnon conspiracy theory. 

Additionally, QAnon followers believe that the world is run by a group of elitist Democrats that are Satan-worshipping pedophiles. These Democrats include political figures like Barack Obama, President Biden, and Hillary Clinton. But they also include entertainers and celebrities, like Ellen Degeneres and Tom Hanks, and religious figures like Pope Francis and Dalai Lama. Many followers also believe that members of this group murder and eat their victims after molesting them to get adrenochrome, a life-extending chemical.

The belief is that former president Donald Trump was elected by top military generals to put this to an end and bring these evil Democrats to justice.

It is also important to note that QAnon is constantly changing and adapting. Like when Donald Trump lost reelection in 2020, many believers accepted that they had been duped. But others still believe that Trump is planning a comeback.

What’s more is that some Republicans elected at state and local levels support QAnon. In fact, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted her support for QAnon on social media. Now, she says that she regrets it, although she continues to promote QAnon-supported conspiracy theories. 

Harvard graduates, yoga moms, and Wall Street executives have also expressed support for QAnon. This may sound surprising, so why is QAnon so appealing? 

QAnon is a political movement, but it is also a community for believers and a source of entertainment. A game designer, Adrian Hon compared the conspiracy theory to alternate-reality games saying believers “open a fascinating fantasy world of secret wars and cabals and Hillary Clinton controlling things, and it offers convenient explanations for things that feel inexplicable or wrong about the world.”