How QAnon Rips Families Apart
In “The Quiet Damage,” Jesselyn Cook traces the effects of the conspiracy theory on the spouses, children and siblings of believers.
THE QUIET DAMAGE: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family, by Jesselyn Cook
The percentage of Americans who believe in conspiracy theories may not actually be increasing — one recent study suggests the figure has been largely stable, if disturbingly high, over time — but for anyone active on social media during the past few years, it has certainly seemed that way. The pandemic unleashed a perfect storm of conditions: Mass Covid lockdowns fueled mistrust in the government and fears about the vaccine. Americans were stuck at home endlessly scrolling, and social media algorithms were priming more and more people to travel further down the dark reaches of the internet.
It started to become clear that the fantastical beliefs associated with QAnon — for instance, that a secret cabal of elites was engaged in widespread sex trafficking of children — were no longer a fringe phenomenon. Many QAnon supporters were among the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. As journalists and pundits attempted to parse the movement’s threat to American democracy, Jesselyn Cook, an investigative reporter at NBC News, took on another aspect of QAnon’s rise: the fractured families and relationships it has left in its wake.
In “The Quiet Damage,” Cook paints haunting portraits of a diverse group of Americans struggling to pull loved ones back from the cultlike movement. Through the detailed stories of five families that capture the movement’s reach, Cook shows us people who are often written off as crazy by those who haven’t seen QAnon’s disastrous brainwashing effects up close.
Cook uses pseudonyms for her subjects. There’s Doris, an older woman whose ordeal being misdiagnosed with cancer (she turned out not to have the disease) became a gateway to “alternative medicine” influencers peddling anti-vax sentiments and political conspiracies; Kendra, a Black millennial whose childhood experiences of racism while being bused to a white school led her to distrust the government; and Alice, a former Bernie Sanders supporter whose desire for a more peaceful world paradoxically caused her to embrace a movement rife with intolerant and hateful beliefs.
Cook aims to “return some sense of personhood and dignity” to these people, which she says is an essential first step to combating a growing threat; according to a recent poll, one in four Americans harbors some conspiracy beliefs. Vulnerability to conspiracy theories, she points out, has to do with life experience: Systemic injustice and inequality hold wide swaths of Americans in a chokehold, limiting their options to transform their lives.
