Kash Patel is the hero QAnon has been waiting for

And contrary to the popular belief that QAnon adherents are typically older people with more time on their hands to spend on conspiracy websites, PRRI data shows that 22 percent of those under the age of 50 believe in and QAnon conspiracy theories, compared to only 14 percent of those aged. more than 65.

“Don’t suspect belief in conspiracy theories like QAnon will dissipate soon,” PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman tells WIRED. “Trump supporters in particular are already ready to support conspiracies that are not based in any fact at higher levels than the general public. Combined with historic levels of distrust in government and a variety of other institutions among many Americans, the conditions that allow such theories to flourish and even grow, unfortunately, are not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Trump’s return to the White House has been widely celebrated by the QAnon community, whose members believe that all the wild predictions that Q has made in his thousands of posts will now come true.

“The general consensus is that Trump is going to crush the Deep State and that all the bad guys go to jail ASAP, that we will go back on the gold standard and the Fed will be destroyed,” Mike Rains, a researcher who closely follows the QAnon community, he tells WIRED. “Ukrainian biolabs will be exposed as the source of Covid and (Anthony) Fauci and company will all be sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.”

This can be seen in Telegram channels and fringe platforms such as Gab and Truth Social, where QAnon influencers have gone wild following the mass purge of QAnon accounts on mainstream platforms in 2021 following the attack on the Capitol.

But it can increasingly be seen also on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and, especially X, which has, since the acquisition of centibillionaire Elon Muskit has provided fertile ground for the conspiracy to thrive, in addition to providing an income for influencers who can monetize their bullshit.

Meta, TikTok and X did not respond to comments about QAnon content on their platforms.

“It certainly doesn’t help that under Musk, unsubstantiated QAnon conspiracy theories have flourished throughout X, giving them a massive audience and a veneer of legitimacy,” says Cook.

Among those who fired what was then called Twitter after the January 6 attack on the Capitol was Trump. Driven to post on his own little Truth Social platform, he quickly embraced QAnon wholeheartedly, promoting QAnon-related accounts nearly 1,000 times, according to an October analysis by Media Matters.