The Birth of QAnon – By EJ Dickson (Rolling Stone) / Sept 2 2020
Parenting influencers have embraced sex-trafficking conspiracy theories — and it’s taking QAnon from the internet into the streets
With her bouncy, honey-streaked hair, tastefully pastel-and-beige-hued grid and effortless ability to wear such garments as shapeless khaki rompers, Ciara Chanel Self, a Dallas, Texas-based interior designer and parent of a toddler, appears on Instagram to be the prototypical mom influencer. She regularly posts aspirational photos of cream-colored nurseries, 2-year-olds’ birthday parties, and apple-cheeked toddlers gallivanting by ocean sunsets. Only one highlight on her Instagram stories would seem to indicate otherwise: a tab labeled “woke,” where she has compiled conspiracy theories about Ghislaine Maxwell and the “global elite pedophile ring” afflicting our nation. “Child trafficking, torture, rape, and murder…we should be rioting in the streets you guys. Yet NO ONE is talking about this,” she writes, concluding with the hashtag #SaveTheChildren and the exhortation “dark to light.”
Both of these mantras are linked to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory positing that President Donald Trump is lying in wait to bust a left-wing Deep State cabal that, among other things, runs an underground pedophile ring. Self, who emphatically declined to comment for this story, is just one of many mom influencers who have leaned into the conspiracy theory, promoting it alongside nursery decorating tips, minimalist birthday cakes, and dimple-kneed baby photos in posts that garner thousands of likes. The #SaveTheChildren hashtag, and numerous #SaveTheChildren marches across the country, have played an outsized role in bringing lifestyle influencers in general into the conspiracy theorist fold, but particularly moms, many of whom are drawn to the child redemption narrative inherent in QAnon ideology.
Those who cover the parenting space (what is derisively referred to as the “mommy blogosophere”) are hyper-aware of this shift. “Over the past few weeks, we have seen an uptick in conspiracy theory posts across our channels,” says April Daniels Hussar, managing editor of the parenting website Romper, adding that she’d started noticing this increase at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Mostly, we receive an influx of comments when we feature celebrities and political figures who are believed to be ‘child traffickers.’” She says these comments have primarily been showing up on Instagram and Facebook, with the hashtags #SaveTheChildren and #SaveOurChildren and “links to dubious websites about child trafficking and QAnon.”
Continue to article: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-mom-conspiracy-theory-parents-sex-trafficking-qamom-1048921/
