Postcards spreading baseless conspiracy theory mailed to New Hampshire homes

Over the past few days, people across New England have been getting postcards in the mail tied to the conspiracy theory known as QAnon.The postcard sent to mailboxes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts references prior disasters, the pandemic, war in Ukraine and claims the end of the world is near. It’s all part of the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon.”No name. No signature. You don’t know who he is,” said Tony Duquette, of Manchester, who received a card Saturday.The mailer has a return address of a post office box in Portsmouth. On the other side are pictures of celebrities and politicians, along with a QR code that leads to a lengthy document.”He made no sense. He made no sense,” Duquette said. “I mean, it was broken English. I stopped reading about halfway through and stopped.”The QAnon movement spreads misinformation, including the belief that the world is being controlled by devil-worshiping pedophiles who will be brought to justice by former President Donald Trump. “I think fear is very important for understanding these movements,” said Dartmouth College professor Randall Balmer.Balmer is an expert in American religious studies at Dartmouth College. He called the mailer nonsense and said QAnon followers want to spread their conspiracies.”Those who are trying to interpret these apocalyptic prophesies also are building on fear and trying to motivate individuals to behave in certain ways or align themselves with certain beliefs in order to forestall the end of the world, or whatever they think is the coming apocalypse,” he said.The Postal Service released a statement saying: “While certainly controversial, there doesn’t appear to be anything in the mailing that would make it illegal to send through the mail.”The Postal Service said the mailers were widespread in their distribution.