I have recently discovered that my bf strongly believe in Qanon. When I tried to take the logical root and ask him what proof he had of these theories he told me that the state had surpessed them. I ended the relationship and have tried to remain friends but knowing he believes in this stuff really bothers me. Not sure whether to just ignore the problem or completely shut him down. Any advice on how to help him see reason? For those who have recovered or know someone who recovered what worked? Was there a single moment or lots of things that led up to it? Is it worth trying to help him?

Someone over in r/politics suggested that I might find sympathetic ears here. The title is my assessment of what happened to me.

I have been a lifelong Republican, because I thought I mostly just admired Republicans. I experienced growing up in difficult circumstances, which then became cushy circumstances during the Reagan administration, the core of my early years. Lots of military in my family, which made me lean towards politicians exalting the military industrial complex. My dad made good money in defense and adjacent industries. And he was a writer, a liberal arts medievalist; mom was a recovering hippie.

We all thought Trump was a good idea. Obama was fine, we didn't vote for him, but there was no animus. Just -- his tone was scolding of the right, and only barely tolerant of the right-of-center. The Tea Party was ravaged for their hokey-ness, and back then I didn't like it. Democrats could be fucking mean, and it really seemed like we needed a GOP candidate with the chutzpah to fight as dirty as (I perceived) the left could do.

My mom passed away pretty tragically just a few months after Trump was elected. She favored him, and would have voted, but her health was in a steep decline that fall. She had a very keen intellect, and was definitely not someone on board with ending Roe, for example. She thought Trump would be always be doing 1000% better if he kept his mouth shut more often. Sort of her dying political thought.

Anyway, interest in following politics after Trump's win died as quickly as did mom. I was somehow relieved to ignore the Trump years. There was satisfaction in getting there, but nothing remained, and I was turned off from paying attention. So, I really didn't absorb much of the Twittersphere or podcast world, and really never cared for the titillations of 4chan or Qanon. That was weird background noise and I didn't think it was catching on. Maybe with MTG, internet loons, but surely not any meaningful chunk of the electorate.

This is enough to say...I think I came pretty naturally and innocently into the cult, and didn't need any direct exposure to the influencers. How my outlook changed has a lot to do with 1/6, and then Trump's just piling on...but it's also been about learning to pay attention to people that I either liked because they were on my side or people that I disliked for disagreeing. And it's a very weird feeling to flip wholesale. Am I just proving myself to be easily swayed?

my mom is gonna eat these like apricot kernals to kill cancer stem cells but I told her theres a compound in it that when ingested turns into cyanide or something. She said the bag is lying about eating only 2-3 and that shes gonna start at 3 and work her way up as a "tolerance." She also said that she got this info from the "fenbendazole page" on facebook and other articles. She said ancient tribes eat them and have never gotten cancer. She said that they're lying about the cyanide harming you because its poison because big pharma doesn't want you to know that it helps cure cancer!!!

I don't even know what to do at this point. She also homeschools me which is just great /s, always been that way.

Like I'm 15. She's almost 60.

I lost a very good friend to the Q fog a few years ago. Since then, I've become interested in the stories of those who have fallen down the rabbit hole. Even more so, though, I'm fascinated by people who came back from it. I have a lot of admiration for them, in fact. To be able to pull yourself up from such a strange spiral is really incredible and yields some inspiring first-hand experiences.

So for those who experienced the Qult and managed to get out, what changed? Was it a singular, "AH HA!" moment? Was it a process? Can you pinpoint a moment where your belief started to turn around?

Hi,

I´ve just published a Medium summary on my neuroscience-based idea on how to reclaim our minds from trauma and harmful cultural conditioning.

I´m too close to it to see it objectively.

Can I please ask you for your feedback on its flaws and on how I can make it more actionable/ useful?

Thanks

Hi all,

This isn’t entirely Qanon, however it does tie in to an extent. I fell down the rabbit hole to some extent in 2020 due to Covid and ever since then I’ve gone through various phases of crippling anxiety and catastrophizing. My current phase relates to WW3 or Nuclear War.

I keep trying to pull myself back to being more rational, however one subject can trigger me again, I try to follow more reputable news sources such as AP. However I really struggle to shake off the intrusive thoughts of “are they telling the truth?”

I’m from England, so I feel like I shouldn’t even buy into these and I’m not even sure if I do. I’m just confused and lonely, which means I’m constantly alone with these thoughts. I’m 27, I feel like I should be enjoying life.

Hello everyone,

I am a researcher with a Canadian non-profit organization called the Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV). We, along with our German partners at modus|zad, are conducting a survey to better understand the impacts of having a loved one involved in conspiracies related to anti-government or anti-authority beliefs, including those related to QAnon. We aim to create a guide for front-line practitioners, like social workers and mental health counsellors, to better understand and address the unique needs of these individuals and their loved ones. This research is funded by the Government of Canada. You can read more about the project in the official press release.

For this survey, we are seeking individuals whose loved one(s) believe in any or all of the following:

• The government is illegitimate or illegal
• The 'legitimate' government has been infiltrated or replaced by bad actors
• Individual obligations to the government (such as taxes or utility bills) are illegal
• Government authorities, including the police, have no legal authority
• The government is trying to brainwash, manipulate, or exploit ordinary people to advance a secret plan or conspiracy

If any of the above statements apply, you can access our survey in 3 languages (English, French, and German) below:

For English-language survey, please click here.

For French-language survey, please click here.

For German-language survey, please click here.

The survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete and all responses will remain confidential.

A sincere thank you to everyone on this forum, and to the moderators for approving this request!

Wow, where to start? Let me preface by saying I’m a 30 year old female in a VERY rural area of a state in the south. Very predominantly Republican, evangelical Christian, y’all get the drift lol.

My story with Q starts all the way back in 2012. I was a freshman in college. My roommate and I were up at 3am watching random YouTube videos, and by the luck of the draw we came across one about Beyoncé. It went into vast detail about her alleged ties to the Illuminati, demonic entities, satanic rituals, etc. We were flabbergasted to say the least. This video led us to a few others concerning celebrity ties to the Illuminati, MK Ultra, demonic possession, just any of that you can imagine. I was taken aback. Everything I knew suddenly became a lie. People I looked up to in my childhood became demon possessed child abusers that drink adrenochrome for breakfast. The most heartbreaking of these being Taylor Swift (which I never actually believed lol).

It took a while for me to come to terms with the perversion of Hollywood, and how it had leeched into modern families in normal homes. Over the next couple months, I did more research, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, you know all of the most scholarly resources I could conjure within a higher learning environment lol. But seriously, something clicked. Everything made sense. Most of the celebrities that I found with ties to the Illuminati were liberal. Of course, if they were liberal, they did not have the same Christian values that I had. This was the mindset pushed upon me and was one I was struggling to get out of. But naturally, if they were not Christian, they didn’t want normies like me to be Christian either. That’s how it all starts, our media. It’s hidden in plain sight. *I am not happy nor proud of this time and thought process in my life. Please please know that. I make no excuses for it.

Everywhere I looked I began to see it. Somewhere in the next year I eventually found pizza gate. This was another huge turning point for me. I was seeking out symbols, buzzwords, you name it. Of course as you look specifically for things, you see more of them. Epstein became a big concept to me at this time too. Any and everyone with possible ties to him were on the purge list for me. I would no longer watch or purchase or partake in anything with anyone on the list of people I deemed as bad, or connected to the Illuminati.

Again, I was a very passionate evangelical Christian at this time in my life. Demon possession, exorcism, all those things are huge topics. Everything and everyone could have some type of demonic possession or stronghold. This caused all of the ties that eventually bound me to Q so much deeper.

During this time, Donald Trump wasn’t even on my radar. I’m sure he was on someone’s out there, but I honestly do not even recall him or whisperings of his involvement until the year leading up to the 2016 election.

I tried to talk to people I trusted about these things, of course I was met with a whole lot of crazy looks. I would tell my Dad and Stepmom and beg them to please look into the stuff I was finding. There are underground tunnels for child trafficking and abuse out there!! There are people under mind control literally walking the street! Clones, body doubles, making shoes out of children’s skin! I felt like I was screaming into the void.

As the years go by, I continue researching. I find evidence on the Clintons, the Obamas, most of Hollywood. Now enters Donald Trump.

He was finally the person that was going to dismantle the system and drain the swamp. Sometime around this, my stepmom calls me and says she’s went down the rabbit hole. She wants to know everything I know. We have many many conversations about what each of us has learned. She’s in head first with me. We all live in close proximity, so naturally we begin prepping for the end of time. We know it’s coming, we’re canning everything, planting gardens, gathering shelf stable foods, all the good stuff. We research the clones and the lizard people together. We both share our favorite “underground” news sources. Every single month there’s a new blackout day of reckoning where everything is going off the grid, we’ll be under martial law, we’ll have to fight the commies coming to take our guns, the whole nine.

I want to iterate that this was real to us. Very very real. We truly believed at any point in time, the lights would go out, the phones would stop working, and we’d have to initiate our plan to protect our families. This was a real and valid thought every. Single. Day.

Trump gets elected, it’s a celebration. Finally someone to drain the swamp. He’s going to expose the darkness in the system. He’s the man for the working people, he’s got plans with us in mind. At this point, it’s still maybe a little-more-than-mild happiness with him at this point. He’s still so brash and abrasive it’s hard to fully throw all our trust at him. But he has Christian leaders praying with him, so it must be alright.

Every day my stepmom and I get together and discuss what we’ve found “down the rabbit hole”. Sometimes it was a George Soros funded protest, sometimes it was Oprah abusing a child. Every day we got together and compared notes.

We discover Q at some point here. I don’t have any other way to explain it other than we were decoding that shit down to the millisecond. We’d decode times that trump tweeted to a Q drop to a Facebook post to buzzwords used. It was always some new revelation. Q would drop a word that Trump would use in a speech two weeks later and we’d compare the timestamp in the speech to the time Q dropped to the sum of the numbers in the date and BY GOLLY it made sense!! Trump knows what’s going on in the deep state and he’s on our side!! He wants to save the children too!! And he’s sending us secret messages, those of us “awake” enough to pay attention.

Every other week it seems, we were getting notifications on the underground apps and websites that Trump had saved human trafficking victims. We’d wait on the Q drops to see what was happening next, and what to look for. We waited and waited for Nesara/Gesara, all of our debts would be wiped free.

This goes on for YEARS. And then Covid happens.

I work in an essential job. To put it lightly, my workplace knew in our hearts that some of us would die, and the others would be stuck there providing health care for the sick of us. Because nobody was coming to help. That was the mindset. I don’t even have to go into how traumatic the pandemic was for everyone, especially the earliest days.

Of course, the lockdown and the masks are a form of government control. They’re trying to push us to see just how far we’ll allow them to herd us in like sheep. They’re taking our DNA and putting it in a database on the covid swabs. So I’m not submitting to covid testing. I’m not wearing a mask anywhere that I’m not mandated to wear one. This is all a big engineered scam sent to us deliberately by China to wipe us out. Trump has the answers if everyone will just listen. Yes, I took ivermectin.

I’m sure as HELL not getting a vaccine. It’s the mark of the beast, it’s a microchip, it’s how they’ll finally kill me. All the sheeple lining up to get it could never be me.

People were dying. People I knew were dying.

I went with a friend from work to get the vaccine. I still don’t know how or why, but I did. And I’m thankful I did. Through all my selfishness I did, and encouraged others to do it after I did. My parents still don’t know that I got it.

I was so scared I was going to die, I was so scared that I had taken the mark of the beast, and I was more scared that whatever choice I made in the vaccine would negatively affect those around me. (Ironic after two paragraphs ago, I know)

Somewhere between the response to the pandemic, and January 6th, I began coming out of the fog, very quickly.

January 6th made me question everything I had been told, read, and seen. It was literally a full circle moment in many ways.

I had began deconstructing as an evangelical, but I still very much am a Christian. My biggest question to myself was how on earth can I continue to defend this behavior? January 6 leaves me unable to find words to accurately describe. Senseless to say the least. A disgusting act by people I aligned myself with. I could no longer do it. It took some time, took lots more research, self reflection.

So now, I’ve yanked my head out of the sand. Looking around me, literally everyone is on the same page I was YEARS ago. It’s all save-the-children and Trump worship. We’ve literally had family members die from covid but it’s still a sham. It’s a big joke. January 6 was a display of Patriots. We should be proud of them.

But Trump is the savior, can’t you see? They’re trying so hard to push him out because he’s the only one who can save us. They stole an election from him. They stole democracy from the American people.

I wasn’t buying it anymore.

I was no longer believing that every other week would be the great reset. No longer believed that Trump is still the president, the military swore him in through a back door ceremony.

Currently, my stepmom still decodes Q. The assassination attempt was tied back to a drop about “the shot heard around the world” and was supposed to catapult us into the great reset where all of our debt is wiped away.

My stepmom allows 0 sugar, dyes, MSGs, “bioengineered”, and processed foods in their home. No medicine because big pharma. No doctors appointments unless absolutely necessary. No vaccines at all.

Their children aren’t allowed to watch anything Disney, or any shows with “characters” unless it’s a specific Bible show they get on some faith based streaming service they have.

It is the most heartbreaking circumstance that I have caused. I try to talk to her, and try to show her things. Any time she doesnt fight back, I know it’s just to placate me. She thinks I’m an insane liberal now. I try to keep the peace to stay in the children’s lives and to hopefully continue to speak truth into hers.

Looking back on the over 10+ years of my life, there are SO many times I’m thinking, “Bitch, you need a therapist!” Lol, I’m happy to say I am medicated now. I believe a lot of these beliefs I was predisposed to and fell so easily.

I didn’t even touch on the nuances of racism, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-semitism, and more hatefulness. That’s a whole other story.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading my musings. I know my timeline jumped a little. This is just my rambling introduction of my life with Q, and a little of the after.

Please PLEASE know that there is hope for you or anyone you know involved in this. I wish I knew the answer, but honestly lots of the talking points I’ve seen on this sub are super helpful. Please understand that as harmful as the thoughts and beliefs can be, they are so real to your Q person. It is truly a cult.

I hope I can update y’all the day that my stepmom comes back to me. And I look forward to seeing more reQovery in the days to come.

I skimmed over a lot for the sake of your time as a reader, if anyone would like more detail on anything, I’d be more than happy to expound!

I don’t know how many of us are here. It seems we are relatively few in contrast to the 18k+ members in this sub.

And I’m guessing that ex-QAnons are generally very hesitant to talk about their experiences - especially in a public forum - as there usually trauma and shame they’ve had to deal with, and it’s unpleasant to revisit, especially if you don’t trust you’ll receive emotional care and support, and are risking the possibility of receiving yet more shaming, accusations and make wrong. Some might also fear that their friends on Reddit might track their posts and comments and do not wish to “come out of the closet” as an ex-QAnon.

So two questions-

1. Have I accurately described the basic reason for your hesitancy or unwillingness to share your story? If not, please clarify.

2. Is there any kind of set up you can think of that would have you feel sufficiently safe to be able to talk about or write about what made you vulnerable to falling into QAnon, what you went through as a QAnon, what ultimately helped to get out, and how it’s been trying to recover from the experience?

I know it’s a risk to share; and, your insights could help many others who are trying to heal from this.

Are you here because you:

• Are an ex-QAnon?

• Have professional skills you’d like to use in service to people who need support here?

• Need support exiting a conspiracy theory mindset?

• Are close to someone who is in QAnon and are hoping to gain insights?

• Are no longer close to someone who in QAnon - the relationship is basically over?

• “Lurker”?

• Other?

I have refrained on expressing my opinion on this because I don’t feel it’s my place, however, I do have my thoughts on it as a person who was taught to be in Q at 17, but was only in it for a year until I woke up. However, I did grow up in a predominantly black community & my parents had a very close friend who was poc & passed when I was in 5th grade. But because of my parents downfall into Q, when Floyd was murdered in the streets they were the ones to scream about how he had a criminal record & blah blah blah, but I never really followed suit with them on that topic & always felt like they were wrong to passively talk shit about the outrage as a result of the situation. I actually remember my mom being disgusted by it at first because this was right at the beginning of her & my stepdads downfall into Q. I remember her being horrified in the living room & my stepdad lowkey justifying it without saying it by talking about how Floyd was a criminal.

What are your thoughts?

Did you used to believe in so-called conspiracy theories and perhaps also acted according to your views? Or do you know someone who did?

I am a criminology student and, as part of my master's thesis, I would like to investigate how belief in conspiracy theories develops and influences behavior.

I am looking for people who are willing to share their experiences in a qualitative online interview (interview language: preferably German). Your identity and personal data will be kept confidential and will not be published in any way.

If you are interested in participating or would like to get more information, please contact me at anja.thiele@stud.uni-regensburg.de.

Feel free to share the post with people who might be interested in participating in an interview. I appreciate any help!

Many thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I'm Georgie Yukiko Donovan, a documentary director from London, UK. I’m currently developing a project that explores the profound impact of QAnon and the spread of misinformation on families and communities. This project is particularly focused on the UK, and I’m looking to speak with those who have experienced the heartbreaking reality of losing loved ones to these conspiracy theories.

If you're based in the UK and are open to sharing your story, I’d be incredibly grateful to hear from you. I understand how sensitive and personal these experiences are so any conversations at this stage will be completely private and off the record.

Please feel free to reply here or DM me directly if you’re willing to talk. Your insights could be invaluable in helping to shed light on the wider impact of this issue.

What´s your favorite online platform (e.g., blog, website, digital magazine, podcast or YouTube) that you use for your trauma/ self-growth?

EDIT 3:30pm ET: We've had some technical challenges with Reddit that made this post and others inaccessible for the past few hours. (Hopefully it's working now!) Feel free to ask questions and I'll drop in to answer them tomorrow. Thanks!

Hi! I’m an investigative journalist who writes about communities inside the darkest and strangest corners of the internet, most recently as a reporter for NBC News.

You might recognize me from CNN’s hour-long documentary special on QAnon followers, "Waiting for JFK: Report from the Fringe." Or maybe you’ve read my extensive reporting on the movement, like my feature on the children of Q believers: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/children-of-qanon-believers_n_601078e9c5b6c5586aa49077

My latest work is The Quiet Damage, an award-winning narrative nonfiction book for Penguin Random House. It follows five conspiracy theory-shattered families from very different walks of life (spanning generations, races, classes and political leanings) — including a brilliant lawyer, a diehard Bernie Sanders supporter and, tragically, a second grader who all fell deep into QAnon. I charted the arc from characters’ pre-conspiracy theory lives to the depths of their convictions, to — in some hope-inspiring cases — their rejection of disinfo and mending of broken bonds.

Among the things I learned over three years chronicling these stories is how ordinary people can become consumed by extreme conspiracy theories. I observed firsthand what can work and what doesn’t when trying to escape the rabbit hole, as well as the biggest barriers to recovery. I also reported deeply on how grifters and other opportunistic peddlers of disinfo capitalize on lies and hate at the expense of those searching for truth.

You can find the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706443/the-quiet-damage-by-jesselyn-cook/

I’m looking forward to chatting with you all at 1pm EDT! PROOF HERE: https://imgur.com/a/YnJGiBk

In the last year, I (M19) have been called a bigot, a racist, a monster, and everything in between. I brushed it off for a while, but I think it might be true.

It started with the Oct. 7 massacre and its aftermath. In the span of roughly a month, I went from being pro-Palestine to pro-Israel, mostly because I learned what was going on. I still am pro-Israel, and that won’t change. I know better than to label Israel’s actions genocidal given the context. I know better than to blindly support people whose views are almost universally the opposite of my own (i.e. the Palestinians). That stuff is all well and good in my (potentially flawed) opinion, and my parents agree. However, the rest is not as pretty.

As I saw more and more news on the war, I increasingly began to view the Palestinians as less human. The point of no return was seeing the polls regarding Palestinian support for the massacre, which said that there was broad support for it. Hearing other legitimately disturbing facts, such as the “Red Hands” incident, made me go berserk, with me even calling them “animals” on more than one occasion. I also frequently accused them of everything from cannibalism to human sacrifice, in addition to mass murder and rape. I suppose that the irony of this is that I want to make myself a better person and yet deny that they can improve as people. Even when news outlets reported about Gazan condemnations of Hamas and some Gazans wishing to set aside their differences with Jews, I think “they’re still animals.”

The war also hardened and, frankly, radicalized my stance on Islam and Muslims. This is where the conspiracy theories really come in. Seeing Muslim support for Hamas, even here in the US, made me trust them less and less. Now, I look at every Muslim with distrust. I remember reading a Wikipedia article on “Islamo-Leftism,” the belief that Muslims pretend to support left-wing ideas in order to gain support from leftists and make it easy to take over societies and create totalitarian Islamic theocracies. Wikipedia says that it’s a conspiracy theory, but I believed it almost immediately. I saw the ban on Pride flags in Hamtramck, Michigan, the first US city with a Muslim-majority city council, as proof. This eventually devolved into an immense hatred for not just Islam as religion, which deserves criticism, but for Muslims as a people. To be frank, hearing about how Muslims respond to criticism of their religion did not help. If anything, it confirmed my ideas. I bring this up because conspiracy theorists stop at nothing to find evidence for their ridiculous claims. I may have the mind of a conspiracy theorist, and as Charlie, a.k.a. penguinz0, said in a video, once you believe one conspiracy theory, you believe all of them.

By now, I’m in the “jihadis are everywhere” camp, believing that moderate Muslims are radicals in disguise who seek to murder you when you least expect. It’s so bad that I’m saying that when Muslims cook meals for the poor, they have sharpened knives under the tables to stab anyone who doesn’t submit to Allah. Islam is a violent religion, but that doesn’t mean that every Muslim must be violent. I’m also saying that Eurasia/the Great Replacement is real in response to all of the problems that have arisen in Europe due to immigration. I’m even saying that Europeans must prepare to reclaim their lands from the Islamic horde and that the West needs to find a solution to the Muslim Question. No, seriously. At least I never advocated for a Final Solution. Oh, and to top it off, I’ve been saying that the Nazis were secretly Muslim or Muslim puppets. Hitler, Himmler, and possibly some other Nazis were sympathetic to Islam, but they obviously weren’t themselves Muslim. The worst part is, I imagined that all of these beliefs were the true counterparts to age-old antisemitic canards. “Islamo-Nazism” was the true counterpart to Judeo-Bolshevism, in my view. This sounds rather ridiculous out loud, but I found it believable.

Why did this happen? Maybe it was just my anger. Maybe I felt so angry at people that I began to think irrationally. Extremists often try to make people angry in order to radicalize them. I also hypothesized that it could’ve been a form of Messiah complex. Namely, I imagined myself bravely defending a queer, Jewish friend of mine from an evil Muslim trying to kill them. Yes, the thought actually went through my skull. Maybe it was because I liked being right and enjoyed laughing at people who were wrong. I have a reputation as the “smart” kid, which instilled in me a strong desire to always be right. As a result, I correct people often. Or maybe it’s because I want to be something greater than myself.

I have a feeling that that’s the reason. With my size and physique, I doubt that I can defend anyone from an attacker. I’m a college student with no hope for the future; I sincerely believe that my most likely career path will be through my part-time job at a grocery store. No one wants to live that life. Maybe I thought that if I could be part of a “new movement” of sorts, I could be something greater. Earlier this week, I was advocating for state atheism and a total ban on Islam at the very least. I did all of this while still identifying with the left. Maybe I thought that I was going to be the face of a new movement. I read an article on Andrew Anglin’s progression from a liberal to the neo-Nazi he is today. Much of it was apparently because he wanted to be something greater. Perhaps the same was true for me.

I apologize for rambling. Can any of you offer some advice?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-12/conspiracy-theory-believers-on-how-they-got-out-of-rabbit-hole/103907258

I went from thinking Sandy Hook was fake to volunteering for Lenny Pozner's HONR Network. Brent spent years in the rabbit hole and now he debunks and dissects false belief systems. If we can break out, anyone can. If you are ready to break free from the rabbit hole or have already broken free but feel isolated there is help. I'm always happy to talk to people. Sometimes you just need someone to listen without judgement. I've also spoken with people who have lost loved ones to the rabbit hole. (I am not a counselor or therapist, but I will listen and support and give experiential advice.) I'm not on here much, you can reach me at DOUBTIsTheWayOut@proton.me If you are interested in volunteering for HONR, you can fill out a form at honrnetwork.org The goal of HONR is to help people who are victims of cyberstalking and harassment. There is a whole wide, wonderful world out there beyond the lies of conspiracy theories.

The working title of the book will be Escaping The Rabbit Hole: How to leave conspiracy theories behind and improve your mental health.

I'm wracking my brain trying to think of some ideas for a cover.

I like the idea of a person stepping out of a rabbit hole removing a rabbit mask. The issue is I'd like to not exclude anyone - white, black, brown, male, female, etc. Mainly because everyone can be sucesptible to conspiracy theories.

I'm also open to other ideas.

This book is going to be written for conspiracy theorists that want to leave conspiracy theories behind, and "go back to normal" so to speak.

So if you're in that camp, what would resonate with you?

https://preview.redd.it/8hwxgf296w7d1.png?width=405&format=png&auto=webp&s=504a3312762966102ba53848be50e289258533db

https://preview.redd.it/6faadzcxxv7d1.png?width=270&format=png&auto=webp&s=23ee214c37107e4a4f1f7b2a342d4f21f692af4b

I'm starting to lean more towards the right cause I feel that liberals have failed the US. But at the same time I don't wanna become so right wing that I believe in Q Anon and all that other bullshit. With most right wing people its all or nothing if you dont believe in Q or dont fully agree with them your not on their side and I think thats a very dumb primitive way of thinking. What should I do abandon any right wing views I have and go full on left or keep the views I have and just stay away from extremists?

Hi All,

I've been following this movement/ideology for years now. I've seen how it has affected people I know, I've read others stories, and I've done a decent bit of research to try to make sense of things.  Ever since 2016 or 2017, I've been bookmarking articles/links/studies and about a month or so ago I stumbled across an article.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/war-minds-mitigating-effects-ideological-subversion

This article contained a bunch of links and resources that I had saved over the years, but COL White was able to tie it all together in an articulate way. I strongly recommend reading the article if you haven't yet.

I believe that if the person hadn't already been following Q posts, the trojan horse was a nonstop social media disinformation (turned misinformation from converted users) campaign. I've seen things from Q slowly bleed into other social media platforms in unassuming ways (memes, comics, videos, comments). Everyone's algorithms then would pull the user deeper and deeper down the conspiracy pipeline. Every comment section filled with people who believe the conspiracy, bad actors trying to reinforce it, trolls, and bots. I think spreading all of this was also unknowingly encouraged with the monetization of social media, which is probably one reason why there’s so many grifters and snake oil salesman on social media these days.

Possible factors that were at play: The isolation, a lack of new media literacy, the need for answers/control in uncertain times, fear and anxiety, constant confusion, denial, turning to religion, possible untreated mental health issues that boiled up from the trauma of 2020, and/or pride... it all may have led a sunken cost fallacy that remains with many of them now.  A problem now is that a lot of them are living in an echo chamber, feeding off each other, distant from family or old friends.

I think there might be a way to gently guide them back to reality, detox from apps/sites, while mending their broken relationships, and hopefully show them another perspective (empathy) in the process.

I'm working with a psychologist, a scientific researcher, a developer, and a few other specialists to hopefully help with this situation. We hope that if one person comes back to reality because of this project, it'll be worth it. We think that if some people react positively to the project, it will hopefully spread around and help others in the process.

How can you help?

If you were entrenched in Q: What pulled you in? What apps, websites, events kept you in? How did you get out? Was there a specific event that changed your perspective? Have you been able to repair your relationships? If you do not feel comfortable sharing your experience in the comments, feel free to message me directly. Glad to have you back, genuinely. I think groups like this are absolutely incredible, you all offer a great service and perspective to many.

If you have a friend or a loved one that is or used to be into Q: Same questions as above.

If you know anyone who might be able to offer their expertise, like a developer or something, feel free to DM me.

If you’re interested in learning about the project and would be open to reviewing the work and provide feedback we’d be super grateful, send me a DM.

I know it's a long shot and it feels like wishful thinking, but we're low on options it seems. I just wish I stumbled across COL White’s article sooner.

Hi all,

I am a researcher from The University of Salford conducting a study titled Investigating the potentiality of an “Extent of Coercive Control Universal Scale” - an exploratory study as part of my master’s programme dissertation in the Psychology of Coercive Control (supervised by Dr Rod Dubrow-Marshall).

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the 'Extent of Coercive Control Universal Scale,' a tool designed to assess experiences of coercive control in different environments such as domestic situations, workplaces, cults, and human trafficking scenarios.

My aim is to refine this scale to ensure it is reliable and effective for identifying if coercive control exists and presents similarly across different contexts, thereby contributing to better support and interventions for affected individuals.

I am seeking participants who have experienced coercive control in any environment to complete three short questionnaires to contribute to this study. For more information about the study, please visit https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/salford/extent-of-coercive-control-universal-scale

Thank you for considering this request. Best regards, Kacey Baker K.baker7@edu.salford.ac.uk

Hi

I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on controlling anxiety related to how you dealt with conspiracy theories

I’m a lot better now than I was, in 2021 somedays I could barely leave my due to the crippling fear/anxiety. I really bought into the vaccine depouplation, WEF “Great Reset”/Bilderberg/NWO and it took me a long time to pull myself out of the rabbit hole.

Occasionally I will come across things online that bring back those fears and anxiety and it’ll stay on my mind for days after. I do things like the gym to keep myself grounded.

I just wondered if anyone had any tips from your own experiences that might help?

(Also posted in r/QAnonCasualties)

The first critical question to answer for yourself is: ‘How important is this relationship to me?’ If this is a relationship that you feel strongly you want to save, then you can do that. It will require putting some of your own beliefs aside—at least for the time being—so you don’t spend precious energy arguing about things you clearly disagree about.

Patience is key. This may be a phase, and this may be long term—even a forever shift. You just can’t know. I was advised to contemplate this two ways:

One: Think of this akin to something far less contentious, like a nonreligious person finding Jesus and becoming a Born Again Christian or embracing some other evangelical belief system. Once converted, the world is different for them. They see reality through a different lens, and no matter how hard you try you will NOT shift their view. So don’t even try. You have to accept that this is their view, and no amount of logic, science, pleasing, or anything else will change their mind.

Two: The second way of thinking about this is as an illness or an injury. Some would say falling down this rabbit hole is similar to a psychotic break. Taking that view, how would you show up for your fiancé if he broke his leg or had a head injury? Show up the same. Be loving. Be caring. Stay close so he doesn’t hurt himself or others, and be his protector to the extent he will allow it. Encourage him to be reflective enough not to make decisions or take actions that can have significant negative consequences while he is in an alternative reality or ungrounded state.

Next, if you want to work this through, here are some keywords that may become your gospel: patience, curiosity, balance, love, and support.

Curiosity: This was a hard one for me, but I signed on to it and did my best. Essentially, put your mind in a place of childlike curiosity. I had to constantly remind myself that no one really knows the objective truth. No one has enough information to be absolutely sure of their position. Therefore, can you leave room in your mind for the potential that what you have come to believe may not be so? If you can hold that and then listen to your beloved with curiosity, that will go a long way. I would also make an agreement with him—that he should not be seeking to change your views just as you commit not to try and change his. You will simply agree to share information with each other, but not debate.

Balance: I suspect your fiancé is deep in the rabbit hole and for him there is little else to focus on. It is almost a compulsive disorder. It is designed to be addictive. I suggest working hard to get him to focus on being present in life with you, focusing on aspects of being alive that are happening here and now. What do you enjoy doing together? What projects are important? What activities that have nothing to do with being online are essential to your well-being and enjoyment of life?

The discussion of beliefs and time spent ‘doing research’ needs to be limited to maybe one to two hours a day. Encourage him to stay aware of how his time spent scrolling online is taking away from his life, including connection with you, family, career productivity, etc. See if you can motivate and inspire him to strike a balance. That needs to be his commitment; to maintain balance and well-being in his own life, and to give energy and attention to nurturing your relationship together. Again, your work is to meet him with curiosity—to accept where he is at, rather than reacting to and judging him.

Love: Focus on your love and your dreams for your future. Remind him why the two of you have chosen each other. All of that still exists. It has been overshadowed by Q, but it is still there, and the balance will hopefully bring him back to remembering.

In the end, I needed to accept that my beloved might never come back to her old self. I needed to see if I could find a way for life to be good even if that was the case. I gave myself six months to see if we could find our way through, but I did not tell her. In that time, I needed to prove to myself that life with her could still be good. During that time, I fervently hoped she would return to the Alicia I remembered. I feel fortunate beyond words that she ‘came around’ almost exactly six months after she went down the rabbit hole. However, if she hadn’t, we had still worked out a way to be together. But life is much better with her back out of the rabbit hole.

Support: Find a network of people to support you. This will be very hard on you. And you want to show up as best you can—and so you need to have people you can turn to for strength, compassion, empathy, and the occasional shoulder to cry on. Find people who care about both of you, who will not judge him for his new beliefs but can have some understanding for the fact that this trap has pulled hundreds of thousands of people into it. Many good-hearted, intelligent people with the best of intentions have unwittingly slid down the rabbit hole, and once you are in, no one on the outside can save you. You have to get yourself out. Best to find support people who can have compassion for both of you, as judgment will likely drive him further away.

Friends, family, and my therapist were all important to our success, and I am indebted to their patience with me.

Hi guys, i'm a brazilian 17 year old guy that was happy, sympathetic and caring towards others, I am catholic and I participate in Sunday school every Saturday, but since the start of the pandemic in march 2020 onwards, i suddenly became brainwashed and paranoic with Christian conspiracy theories, mainly Qanon, and end times prophecies but in 2022 it only got worse, it all started at school when my sociology teacher who coincidentally was an evangelical pastor started talking a little about the end of times/Ragnarok and my friend said that between 2023, 2024 the apocalypse will begin, or it doesn't happen anything in these years, very probably in 2025 and 2027, and i searched on youtube and i saw various evangelical channels claiming that we are at the end of times and 2030 the world will end bc in that year Jesus will come back to only save evangelical christians and will only save those who are on the Life Book and will throw everyone who's those name wasn't on Life Book burn alive on the lake of fire of the hell alongside the antichrist, false prophet and everyone who followed him and God will destroy the universe and we will be living in the New Jerusalem, and they say repent of sins because the devil exists and they insist on saying that sin and the devil exist even though this has not even been scientifically proven, such as not wearing short clothes like shorts, jeans, not getting tattoos or piercings, not eating meat of pork, prohibiting homosexuality, free will, dating during adolescence and many others, they say that we are experiencing the greatest apostasy in history, which means that people are moving away from faith and and God and ignoring the warnings about the doomsday bc the world is becoming more ''sinful'' and the love between the people has been cooled and we are living like in the antediluvian days when Noah warned about the cataclysm but people ignored, mocked and called him demented and paranoid and instead they were eating, drinking and partying until the flood came and destroyed the world. world and killed everyone, and they keep repeating this saying that this is real even though it has been proven that it never happened and that it is impossible for a storm this strong to cover the top of Mount Everest, they think they are right and scientists are wrong, because science is an ''abominable sin'' against God, They say that God is merciful but he is also wrathful and cruel against those who do not follow his commandments. and they also talk about Jesus' appearance as if it were true at that time even though it has not yet been proven. i've watched some videos of these pastors and missionaries of my country and never got their prophecies and predictions wrong, all of things that have said become true

They say that geopolitical tensions are increasing which will cause ww3, it is no wonder that countless billionaires around the world like Mark Zuckerberg are building bunkers and selling several of their assets, i saw a letter written in 1873 that a American Freemason named Albert Pike who in his letter predicted the first two world wars, and is now supposedly ''predicted correctly'' the third world war, which would begin with a conflict between Zionist Israelis and Arabs, and also they claim that this war between Israel and Iran -Hamas is also the prophecy of Gog and Magog being fulfilled, They also say that the world will enter an unprecedented global economic crisis worse than the great depression, which would increase prices absurdly and this would culminate in the greatest famine the world has ever had, surpassing the great famine of the Middle Age,

They also say that elites such as the World Economic Forum, the UN and the Bilderberg Group will launch a gigantic EMP weapon that will shut down all energy and appliances in the world, and that they will then enact global martial law that will taking citizens off the streets and homes via buses and putting them in concentration camps and killing mainly white and conservative Christian groups and burying them in FEMA coffins which will start the famous New World Order and mass depopulation through the great reset and agenda 2030 and will put an end to all cash and create an electronic currency where payment is made with the global fingerprint, which they also say will replace passports with this global biometric password, they also say that They will do away with clothes and food and will replace them with processed foods made from insects, GMOs and laboratory-grown meats and everyone will be forced to wear the same clothes and have their names changed they also say that they will install government cameras inside the houses to know if any intruder is entering the empty houses

and all of this will begin the antichrist's rise to power, he will be a powerful leader who will unite all sovereign governments into one government and people will worship him and will implant the mark of the beast, where no one will buy and sell without it and will kill everyone who does not accept the mark, which means that everyone in the cities will die, only those who go to the fields or mountains will survive, it is no wonder that they are asking to stock up on water, non-perishable food, batteries , flashlights, medicines especially ivermectin (so much so that I've seen reports of people curing themselves of COVID using this medicine and chloroquine) and radios to survive between 2025 and 2027, because according to them, there will be a pandemic 30 times more lethal than the previous one that will kill almost 400 million people in just two years and that will be the period where seal the seven-year peace agreement between Christianity, Judaism and Islam and will sacrifice a red heifer in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where it will be destroyed in sequence to begin the construction of the third temple where the throne of the antichrist will be during the final three and a half years

They also insists that global warming is a lie bc all of these disasters that are happening such as frequent strong earthquakes which happened in turkey, morocco, japan and taiwan recently, floods that left the southern of my country almost destroyed, tornadoes and hurricanes becoming stronger and killing more people and wildfires becoming more frequently is caused by these globalists, for example, the recent wildfires that happened in hawaii, canada and chile was caused by massive lasers coming from satellites and these floods and earthquakes caused by HAARP, and the fact-checking and social media such as reuters and afp is lying bc they are owned by rothschild and george soros for example

And i'm worried to have a cancer or a fatal heart attack when i become 20 years old that they discovered that in the last years have an increase on cases of cancer and fatal heart attack on young people, and they claim that is bc of the vaccines bc they contain aborted fetuses and microchips and graphene

And they also talk about the woke agenda, where defenders of this theory claim that globalists use films, video games and series to misrepresent characters from these entertainment industries to promote progressive agendas such as LGBT, black lives matter, abortion and feminism,
for example, they made Ariel from The Little Mermaid black in live-action instead in white, as a way of indoctrinating masses and grooming children to be subjected to being perverse, it's no wonder that Disney is in one of the biggest crises in its history by excessively promoting identity issues in every film they release. And it's also no wonder that the number of abortions in the world increased over the last years

What I am most afraid of is the claim that globalists have knowledge of future events that makes the masses accept the event when a certain thing happens, this is called predictive programming, for example, in many disaster and science fiction films, there is a subliminal message in numbers called ''923'', supporters of this number mean that something very bad will happen on September 23rd, but obviously nothing happens, in White Noise for example, there was a train accident in the state of Ohio and in 2023 a train derailment with toxic products occurred in the same state as the film, Black Mirror ''predicted'' several technological innovations, The Simpsons for example predicted the September 11 attacks and Trump's victory in the elections, The Matrix also predicted predicted several technological innovations, such as the redpill movement and the production of babies in uterine machines. As for the Leave the World Behind', they say that the film predicted the accident of the ship that collided with the bridge in baltimore, Lastly, the film The Knowing is incredibly identical to the plot of the biblical apocalypse, but these claims are already debunked by fact checks

And i became scared of these prophecies that have been ''fulfilled'' such as Ezekiel which mentions that Dead Sea became filled with fishes and signs in the sky and stars disappearing

i will mention some of them:

They discovered recently that the moon have some rust pigments and the sun are frequently producing giant black spots which in apocalypse 6:12-17 means that the sun became black and the moon becoming blood

The days are passing faster, which on matthew 24:22 mentions that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

The Euphrates River is drying up which in apocalypse mentions that the sixth angel poured his bowl over the Euphrates River and its waters dried up and released four demons who destroyed half of the population

Some Rivers and seas are becoming red, which refers to Apocalypse 16:4 that the third angel poured his bowl on rivers and seas and became red as dead blood

And I started to think that some mathematical calculations they do are simply not coincidences, they took the year the Black Death ended in 1353 with the year the WHO declared a global COVID emergency in 2019, subtracting those years would give the result in 666 (2019-1353=666 to be simpler) which alludes to the number of the beast and nd other math that they also thinks its a proof that we are at the end of times uf we use the word ''CORONA'' as a code where the alphabet is corresponding to its letter in ascending order (for example a = 1, b = 2), it would give the numbers 3, 15, 18, 15, 14, 1 will also give the number of the beast is correct if we multiply these numbers.

I'm trying to follow channels that disagree that we are in the end times and treat people with love, like the method of preterism where it states that the apocalypse happened in the year 70, but they say that this is heresy because in Matthew 24:24 it says that in the last days false prophets will emerge deceiving many people and in 2 Peter 3:3 where it says that at the end of time many will mock and disagree with the imminent Return of Jesus

i'm asked my parents and my friends to repent of your sins and believe in the Word of God, But I bothered them so much that now they don't even want to hear it,

however after all that, I started to think that these evangelical channels only preach fear in people, thinking that Jesus is going to return physically and that I have been superior all the time for no reason at all. I researched these things so much that now it appears when I search for an account on Instagram or YouTube, I would like to thank anyone who could give me some tips on how to get out of this and get rid of these pests, how i do?

I live away from him and recently visited him on a family trip to Mexico. I hear him listening to all the same stuff my mom always talks about; your body being able to cure cancer on its own, grounding, the current transphobic narrative about how drag queens are turning kids trans, and he’s recently gone on a huge health food kick too. And like if it was just that in of itself then that’d be fine, but it’s everything else along with it. I don’t know everything he believes, but one time my mother told me “Me and your father are living in the real world” while we were in an argument, so that’s already extremely concerning. Please, what can I do?

We are two psychology students at the University of Vienna, currently writing our bachelor thesis. For our thesis we want to learn more about the belief in conspiracy theories. We are looking for people who formerly believed in conspiracy theories and are willing to share their story with us. The interviews will be led through videochats like Zoom; however, it can be led through other channels depending on your preferences. Your data will be handled confidentially, and all personal data will be anonymized in the final thesis.

We would be really thankful for your help and time! If you are interested or have further questions, send us a DM or an email at conspiracyunivie@gmail.com

I'm 19 now; I've been into the alt-right, pizza-gate conspiracy stuff since I was 12. I was pretty much raised into it.

Most of my friends know about that phase, they were there for it- and, for god knows what reason, put up with me long enough to pull me out. They don't know about some of the conspiracies, though- I knew to shut up about those. I felt like it was my job to slowly lead them there, which of course never actually happened.

I latched onto Qanon especially. I liked being apart of it, being able to dig into something that had a clear villain. I felt like a hero for it. But I was just some arrogant kid that had a lot of really horrific ideas.

Turns out, I'm trans. Kind of threw a wrench in the whole thing. I spent years trying to deny it and if I kept going I wouldn't be here to write this but I had enough support from friends to finally recognize myself for who I was and I guess that erodes a lot of the core tenets of some of these theories, right? Everything came crashing down.

The past few years have just been spent trying to rebuild it all. trying to figure out who I am and what I think and what it all means. My entire family has gone the opposite way. They don't take me seriously and I've given up trying, it's not my responsibility to fix them.

It's sort of lonely. I've kept this to myself- I can't get my family out of the pipeline, so I don't have much support from them. I can't talk to my friends about this stuff, they don't really know how bad things were during that time and I'm not ready for them to know who I was at that point, or how I really saw them. I still have absolutely no idea how to begin to make up for it all yet.