According to ThoughtCo, “A political extremist is someone whose beliefs fall outside mainstream societal values and on the fringes of the ideological spectrum.” Following this definition, one could argue that it is no difficult task to find political extremists in today’s social climate. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there were around 838 hate groups across the US. Among these were several groups whose members could be found at the Capitol on January sixth, during the insurrection. Among those were nationalist groups like the Proud Boys, as well as believers of the popular conspiracy theory Qanon. 

Following January sixth, the relatively unknown conspiracy theory was pushed front and center into American politics. Asking about what highschoolers at WFS knew about the Qanon after January 6th, Mateo Niiler ’24, had a lot to say; ” I know that it’s a far-right conspiracy theorist group that believes that the election was faked (they stormed the capitol building), and they (Qanon not the group controlling the election) sent out false info about the BLM movement as well as several other movements”. Rasheed Bashir, ’24, also knew that “They believe Ulysses S. Grant was the last real president and Trump will take power in a military coup”.  While Qanons publicity is relatively new, the idea isn’t. Qanon was founded in October of 2017, on the message board 4chan. An anonymous user, known as Q, claimed he was a top-level government official with “Q” level clearance. According to him, some global elites were a cabal of Satan worshipping pedophiles. This cabal includes Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, as well as celebrities like Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey. Even the Pope has been included on that list. Donald Trump, the former US president, fits into this story as the hero. Trump was supposed to be the person to arrest all these pedophiles with his presidential power; in a play called “The Storm”, which is a reference to a photo-op with Trump where he says; “You guys know what this represents? Maybe it is the calm before the storm.”. During Trump’s presidency, Q was giving hints on what’s going on to his followers, first on 4chan, then on 8chan, and finally on 8kun.

While these posts originated on 4chan, they quickly spread to more mainstream outlets like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Reddit, to name a few. One prime such example is Twitter, where Qanon hashtags were thriving before a purge on July 21st, 2021 which removed thousands of accounts linked to Q. John Hanson, Middle School Social Studies Teacher, linked some of these social media platforms to Qanon’s rise. He says, “While I do not know a lot about Qanon, the sense of finding a community – a group to join – appears to be a reason people are seeking out this organization. Also, the internet provides a whole new opportunity for sophisticated recruitment strategies. “. Some of these recruitment strategies include the popular “follow back” approach, where supporters would promise to follow back anyone that follows them. Another widely successful approach to recruiting is tying in other conspiracy theories such as 5G, disbelief in Coronavirus, and anti vaccine sentiments to create a vast network of Q supporters. It was so difficult to censor some of these supporters because of their proximity to the Trump campaign; which began to label some of these conspiracy posts as “political conversation”. Eventually, Twitter and other platforms labeled these types of posts as misinformation, but by that point, January 6th was already a reality. 

While Qanon has been a pretty extreme example of conspiracy groups and domestic terrorism, one could speculate the modern US political climate is at a historic divide. Matt Meyer, New Castle County Executive, gave a few simple ways to close this political gap. He says to “Encourage people who like MSNBC to watch a little FOX, and people who watch FOX News all the time to watch a little MSNBC.  I like to encourage people to get involved in community organizations that are not necessarily politically aligned”. While domestic and political extremism may be on the rise, addressing the fears and the systems that help spark these destructive groups could help curb this. Informing ourselves about Qanon gives us the ability to address similar situations in the future; which may be a unified America’s saving grace.