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Nevilledog

(50,687 posts)
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 05:37 PM Apr 2021

QAnon Women in Politics

QAnon Women in Politics Part One: The QAnon Candidates

https://gnet-research.org/2021/04/28/qanon-women-in-politics-part-one-the-qanon-candidates/


Content warning: discussion of rape and sexual violence statistics and child abuse.

The 2020 United States election marked QAnon’s formal entry in the American political arena, and women were at the forefront of the movement. While prior to this, former president Donald Trump had been frequently accused of indirectly encouraging or endorsing support for QAnon, as reported by Alex Kaplan, the US general election saw 97 candidates running for office with ties to the conspiracy theory, of which 37 were female.

Of these female Q-supporting candidates, 16 qualified to be on the ballot in the November general election after competing in primary elections or having fulfilled other requirements to be featured on the ballot. Of these 16, 12 were Republican candidates running for Congress – two others ran for Senate, one as a write-in candidate and one as a candidate for the Independent Party of Delaware.

This meant, that of the record 94 female Republican Congressional candidates in the 2020 election, just over one in seven espoused some degree of public support for QAnon. Furthermore, the only two Q-supporting candidates to win Congressional seats – Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado – were both women.

These statistics are important. Not only are women historically underrepresented in politics, but in extremist movements they are also often relegated to supporting roles, or their involvement with the group may be understudied. Thus, the number of women at the very forefront of the QAnon extremist movement is both unusual and significant.

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QAnon Women in Politics Part Two: QAnon Careers

https://gnet-research.org/2021/04/29/qanon-women-in-politics-part-two-qanon-careers/


Over the last year, the QAnon conspiracy has cemented itself as part of the furniture of the American political landscape, and women have played a crucial role in making the conspiracy a household name. Part one of this miniseries which examines women’s roles within the QAnon political sphere, highlighted the ways in which female QAnon Congressional candidates promoted the conspiracy as part of their campaigns for political office in 2020. This next part will instead concentrate on the careers women established for themselves after, or as a result of, the election, demonstrating that women continue to be at the very forefront of QAnon’s foray into the political mainstream.

QAnon Congresswomen

Clearly the most prominent QAnon women to have established political careers are Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia – the only QAnon-supporting candidates running for Congress in 2020 who were successful in winning seats. During their campaigns, both Boebert and Greene could be defined as showing ambivalent support for QAnon as at first they each seemed to embrace the conspiracy or used it to appeal to a wider audience, before later denying their support.

Lauren Boebert refrained from ever directly identifying as a QAnon supporter throughout her campaign and has claimed that she does not follow the conspiracy theory. However, she seemed to encourage support from QAnon believers during an appearance on the “Steel Truth” show what has promoted the conspiracy theory. On the show, she confirmed that she was “very familiar” with the Q movement, and that, although it was “more [her] mom’s thing,” she hoped the conspiracy was real as it would only mean “America is getting stronger and better and people are returning to conservative values.” Similarly, Boebert also appeared on ‘Patriot’s Soapbox’, a highly popular YouTube show for viewers who are incredibly invested in QAnon, and which shows a live feed of viewers constantly sharing theories about the conspiracy at all times. While again, Boebert was careful never to explicitly endorse QAnon, her appearance was undoubtedly a signal to the QAnon community.

By contrast, Greene, who has historically embraced a wide range of conspiracy theories, appeared more directly engaged with QAnon, writing favourably about it on a conspiracy news website. According to QAnon researcher, Travis View, Greene was involved in QAnon as early as November 2017. She has also directly quoted Q drops on her Facebook page during her Congressional campaign in 2018, a detail which differentiates her from later adopters of the conspiracy who may not engage directly with posts by Q.

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QAnon Women in Politics (Original Post) Nevilledog Apr 2021 OP
KNR and bookmarking. niyad Apr 2021 #1
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