QAnon is arguably one of the most powerful and insidious conspiracy theories and political movements of the 21st century. Since its inception in 2017, die-hard QAnon followers have become a regularity in malls, grocery stores, cinemas, local councils, and congressional chambers all across the US. Part of the group’s success, and indeed why it’s managed to indoctrinate so many ‘normal’ people, lies in its ability to present whichever narrative best suits the confronting political climate in any given moment. Whether it’s a satanic paedophile ring, a stolen election, anti-vaccine propaganda, or two clones that have replaced the real-life Jill and Joe Biden, QAnon has consistently found ways to generate fabricated claims that align with pre-existing anxieties, ensuring the movement is kept alive and satiated.

Over the past seven years, psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists have studied and written about QAnon. Focus has been centred on attempting to understand its methodology and, more importantly, track its widespread impact—particularly among conservative alt-right movements. It’s also important to note that while QAnon began in the US, it’s now successfully infected dozens of countries around the world.

The combination of relentless online stimulation, backed up by mainstream political endorsement (especially from the current President of the United States), has turned QAnon into one of the biggest threats society currently faces.

Now, with QAnon being as big as it is, it would take a whole lot more than one article to unpack all of its recent search and destroy missions. So instead, we’re going to focus on some of the most impactful actions from the movement in recent times. Moreover, it’s crucial we dissect exactly how QAnon’s existence has splintered thousands of families across the globe.

QAnon, while typically associated with conservative and right-wing ideologies, isn’t an inherently political movement. It operates on a much deeper level. The first rumblings of QAnon were found on platforms such as Facebook and X (then known as Twitter) alongside other more obscure conspiracy theory and fringe sites like 4chan and 8chan.

Its core belief system revolves around the idea that there is an anonymous Washington insider, known as Q, who feeds snippets of confidential information into the public realm—the biggest nugget being that there is a secret satanic cult of cannibalistic paedophiles operating within the highest circles of the establishment. Donald Trump, who was the elected President of the United States at the time of QAnon’s rise in popularity, is believed to be leading a covert team to try and destroy the toxic predatory forces at work.

If you’ve heard about QAnon, you’ve likely also heard about Pizzagate. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, let me break it down. In 2016, a man and father of two from North Carolina, Edgar Maddison Welch, travelled to a pizza restaurant in Washington DC hell-bent on an important mission: to catch Hilary Clinton sexually abusing children in the pizzeria’s basement.

Welch had become obsessed with the conspiracy theories he’d been consuming online, and this indoctrination got to such a point that he actually got in his car and drove across the country. Once Welch arrived at the pizza restaurant in question, he calmly walked in armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, a .38 handgun and a folding knife, geared up to do whatever it took to save these children’s lives.

PIZZAGATE is real pic.twitter.com/utuaCKhc8Z

— MrTruthBomb (@realMrTruthBomb) May 31, 2025

But there were no children being abused in the basement. Pizzagate was an incredibly apt example (and a warning sign) of how this kind of extremism and ideology is not isolated to online communities and Reddit threads. Fast forward to mid 2025, and there are QAnon followers facing prison sentences for threatening to execute certain politicians.

Pizzagate may have been one of the first times we watched QAnon’s impact play out in real life, but it could’ve never have prepared us for what was about to come next.

It’s truly hard to quantify exactly how deeply rooted the ever expanding branches of QAnon’s conspiracies are embedded in its follower’s minds. Plus, with there being no ‘official’ membership, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know how many believers there truly are.

As I previously mentioned, this movement has become extremely forward-thinking, identifying public fears and manipulating people’s vulnerabilities in order to plant seeds of doubt. That doubt and concern then spirals into something so extreme and ludicrous it’s hard to find a way back to reality.

A recent AI-powered study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships has shed light on how QAnon conspiracy theories have fractured family dynamics.

“By analyzing over 75,000 sentences referencing ‘family’ from the subreddit r/QAnonCasualties, the study revealed a wide range of emotional, psychological, and practical impacts on those with QAnon-believing loved ones,” the study’s description read.

Primary themes that emerged from the study were overwhelming feelings of loss, devastation, fear, and anxiety. Users expressed concerns over their family member’s welfare, as well as their own.

Other posts focused on harrowing stories of loved ones stockpiling weapons or becoming hostile to marginalised groups, including racial minorities and LGBTQ+ people.

And it’s of course not just family members who’ve lost loved ones to QAnon, but friends and colleagues too.

@justsammorris

There’s a lot more to be said, but here’s a short version in 3 minutes. Tho the main message is QAnon ruins lives.

♬ original sound - Sam Morris

QAnon has always been overtly pro-Trump. To them, Trump is a brave and heroic patriot and all the political challenges he faces, especially from Democrats, simply reinforce QAnon’s narrative that Trump alone wishes to dispel and destroy the evil satanic cabal. Why would the liberals want him back in power when he alone can once and for all bring peace and justice back to the nation?

It was largely QAnon followers who stormed the capitol in 2021, demanding justice for what they believed to be a “stolen election.” According to The New York Times, Twitter removed more than 70,000 QAnon-affiliated accounts after the riots. One of the leaders of the pack, QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley, became a global symbol for the grassroots movement.

In terms of how Trump feels about QAnon, well, as is typical for the president, his statements regarding the group have never been particularly well thought out:

@accountablegop

Donald Trump on QAnon: “They like me very much, which I appreciate…I’ve heard these are people that love our country.” (2020) #republicanvotersagainsttrump #RVAT #Republican #nevertrump #trump #politics #political #Washington #politicaltiktok #foryou #fyp #2024 #2024election

♬ original sound - Republican Accountability

However, it was Trump’s recent decision to actively promote a QAnon conspiracy theory on social media that really set fires ablaze. On Saturday 31 May 2025, the President of the United States reposted a completely insane claim on Truth Social that former President Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with clones or robots…

While those of us who haven’t fallen victim to QAnon’s poison would take one look at this post and immediately swipe it away as another baseless and ridiculous theory, this kind of conspiracy works wonders at further rotting the minds of thousands of individuals who’ve become susceptible to utter nonsense.

Trump posting Qanon conspiracy should be immediate grounds for removal by the 25th Amendment…if his cabinet actually had any guts or moral integrity pic.twitter.com/y96CI3tM1a

— Big Red Celt (@BigRedCeltTT) June 1, 2025

A post on the Reddit page r/QAnonCasualties confirmed this, with one user writing: “My wife believes Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a clone—and that Jill Biden must have been cloned too, because ‘the real Jill couldn’t live with a clone.’ I told her back in 2022 if cloning were real, wouldn’t someone like Trump use a clone as a decoy for public appearances—so that if something ever happened, the ‘real’ Trump could walk out alive and declare, ‘It wasn’t me.’ That would be the story of the century. But logic doesn’t seem to matter once someone goes all in.”

“This stuff has seeped so deeply into our relationship that it’s hard to have a simple conversation anymore. I feel like I’ve lost the woman I married—and I know many of you here understand that exact kind of loss,” the post continued.

QAnon shows no signs of slowing down, with its impact and influence growing by the second. And with so many other politicians now likely feeling emboldened by Trump’s actions to publicly support the conspiracy theory movement as well, it’s only a matter of time before the boundary between fact and fiction completely ceases to exist.