Journalist Jesselyn Cook surveys ‘The Quiet Damage’ of QAnon

Journalist Jesselyn Cook had been covering “the dark corners of the internet” for a few years when she noticed something changing around 2020. A previously niche conspiracy theory known as QAnon — which posits that the world is ruled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles, and that Donald Trump will rescue us from them — was gathering new followers. “I saw it transform from this tiny, discounted fringe thing into a really influential movement that played a big role in our politics and a big role in our culture,” says Cook.

While attending a QAnon rally, Cook says, “I felt like I’d stepped into a different reality and that was very, very real to them. It got me thinking a lot about not just the harm that conspiracy theories and disinformation are doing to our democracy and our public health, but what’s going on with families and behind closed doors, out of sight,” she adds.

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“I really got interested in the human side of it. This was some of the most heartbreaking reporting of my career, just talking to people who felt like they have watched their loved ones transform into strangers and they felt like they were mourning people who were still alive.”

“The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family” follows five families struggling to bring their conspiracy-believing relatives back to reality. Cook says she chose her subjects among hundreds who reached out to her after she wrote articles about QAnon.

“This issue is so stigmatized that so many people felt they had nobody to talk to about these things,” Cook says. “It’s hard to turn to a friend and say, ‘Things have been rough, my dad thinks Hillary Clinton eats babies.’”

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For Cook, who will be a Nieman Fellow at Harvard this fall, a big lesson from writing the book was seeing how easily people can slip into conspiratorial beliefs. “Disinformation regarding vaccines and pedophilia and sex trafficking” are gateways that prey on real and relatable fears. “You can see how millions of people can be pulled in through these kinds of threads.”

It’s a lot harder to pull someone out of their grip. “I completely understand the impulse to try to correct falsehoods with facts,” Cook says. “But what I found again and again through my reporting is that at this level, people going down conspiracy theory rabbit holes, they aren’t really seeking truth. They’re seeking something that makes them feel better. There’s something in their lives that’s feeling unfulfilled.”

Jesselyn Cook will read at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 22, at Harvard Book Store.