Tracing the roots of an American brand of extremism
With the attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters, some of whom wore QAnon shirts and brandished confederate flags, the far-Right’s threat to American liberal democracy is more visible than ever.
Geoff Livingston — Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
In September 2020, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher A. Wray, warned that the most pressing threat facing the United States (US) was from anti-government and far-Right groups. The security breach on Capitol Hill in Washington DC last week revealed the dangers of these movements to America’s democratic traditions. There are many far-Right ecosystems in the US, but recently the likes of QAnon, Boogaloo Boys and Proud Boys, among others, have become the driving examples of quasi-cult like movements developed on conspiracy theories and ideologies, often beginning their lives online.
QAnon is an internet conspiracy theory that has its cult-like followers believe that Donald Trump is leading a war against a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and media. Q, the anonymous leader of the movement, claims to be a top-level military official who is intimately familiar with the deviousness of this “deep state.” No matter how bizarre QAnon beliefs may sound, reportedly at least 24 US congressional candidates had pledged allegiance to Q and Trump even deemed these followers to be people “who love our country.” Such words of encouragement from the president allowed these fringe ideologies to gain mainstream appeal.
