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The Roots of QAnon: Discourse! August 2020

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What is QAnon? In this August 2020 episode of Discourse!, David Robertson, Megan Goodwin, Savannah Finver and Jonathon O'Donnell discuss this conspiracy movement's links to American religious history and contemporary political discourse.

Featuring

Savannah Finver

Megan Goodwin

S. Jonathon O’Donnell

David G. Robertson

About this episode

Take a journey into the dark heart of American politics in this month’s Discourse! Join David Robertson, Megan Goodwin, Savannah Finver, and S. Jonathon O’Donnell to discuss QAnon. Explore the roots of this multifaceted conspiracy theory in the Satanic Ritual Abuse scare of the 1980s and ’90s, the parallels with earlier millennial narratives, and the connections with modern evangelical Christianity. The panelists also discuss how depictions of QAnon in religious language (i.e., “death cult”) are being used by different actors within and outside the movement, with both sides revealing significant features of contemporary American politics.

The panelists recommend the following piece by Adrienne LaFrance, “The Prophecies of Q,” part of The Atlantic‘s project “Shadowland” about conspiracy thinking in America.

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