 So I have to admit that I initially definitely underestimated the seriousness of this QAnon phenomenon. I kind of just, like, didn't take it seriously because I looked at it as just one of those kooky conspiracy theories that people with too much time on their hands are obsessed with. But it's much more than that. Like, as more and more former QAnon members speak out, as their families share their stories about how this conspiracy theory tore their family apart. Like, this is something much more than I had anticipated. This is consuming people's lives. And I think that part of the reason why initially I didn't take it as seriously as it was is because the conspiracy theory itself, when compared to other conspiracy theories, in my opinion, is so out there, so easily disproven. I mean, the thing about QAnon is that you have one individual giving people very specific dates and saying this is going to happen on this date and then it doesn't happen. What Q says is going to happen never comes to fruition. So just like in and of itself, the conspiracy theory you'd think would be self-defeating. But still, folks are glued to it. They're consumed by it and they just are refusing to let it go. And even though Donald Trump is out of office and the theory should be null and void, that's not actually the case. Because as Right Wing Watch reports, there are still believers in QAnon who think that Trump is going to resume his role as the president on March 4th of 2021. Now, initially, before I learned more about this, I would have thought, okay, well, they're going to see that that's definitely not going to happen. So they're going to be forced to come to terms with reality and acknowledge that that's not going to happen. And they're buying into bullshit. But this is a cult and that's not the way that cults work. They're not just going to change their opinion based on new evidence. They're going to find a way to rationalize this and think, okay, well, maybe this isn't the right date. Maybe it was me. Maybe I misinterpreted what Q was saying and it's just going to go on and on. But I don't want to talk about like the actual conspiracy theory itself. What I do want to look at is how it has changed people's lives for the worse, how it has basically torn apart families. This is genuinely sad to me, but it's fascinating. I think we have to learn about this and take it seriously and try to help deprogram these people because this really is a threat to the social fabric. Quite frankly, it's sad. It's deeply sad. I've talked to folks who have family members who have become obsessed with QAnon and it's like they're different people. Like who they were before they became involved with QAnon was a completely different person. I want to play this clip from CNN. It features two individuals who talk about how their parents became obsessed with QAnon. And what they say here is really, really depressing. I lived just a few blocks south of the Capitol and so I started seeing people walking on the sidewalk, heading up to the Capitol with Trump flags and red hats. And I thought to myself, I wonder if my mom's here. I just thought to myself, let me check her YouTube. Loan hold choice. Right here at this rally. Look at this. I will never stop loving my parents. But it's this switch that flips in them when they're talking about what the latest Q drop means. They're not logical anymore. They're not understanding and often they're not kind. Not only does she really believe it, but it intersects in her mind with her religion. She has never put anything else on the pedestal equal to the Bible. And it really feels like that with this QAnon stuff. A conspiracy theory has taken over both these women's lives, but not by their choosing. I just want to have a mom who loves me or just pass that. They say their parents have been sucked into QAnon. My childhood was as perfect as any childhood could be. In the recent year or two years where this has become so much stronger within them, they've become completely different people. This woman is still desperately trying to save her relationship with her parents. It's why we've agreed to hide her identity. How did this all start with your parents? All through growing up. It was constantly, oh my gosh, like the Clintons. Oh my gosh, the Illuminati, things like that. But it all started really in the 2016 election cycle. Hillary Clinton and all of the Democrats are pedophilic and cannibalistic people that are trying to control the world. Things definitely heightened when I got to college. They would background search my professors. Hey, your professor, yeah, they're a registered Democrat. She knows my wife is a Capitol Police officer. When she did that, that said everything to me. That she was willing to put my wife's life in danger. And if she had called me up or texted me later that day or the next day and said, Hey, listen, I was at this rally. It got way out of hand. I'm really sorry. How are you guys? That would have changed everything, but it's been crickets. I haven't heard from her. We repeatedly reached out to Daniel's mother for comment and she did not respond. Have they changed their lifestyle in any way as a result of this? Well, last time I was there in my family's house, told me that they have a three-year supply of meat and freezer. Told me that they bought up a bunch of ammo. Are you concerned that they might blow their life savings on these freeze-dried foods and 300 pounds of meat? Not their life savings. My college tuition. That's hard. Whoever is the person that was running this Q account, what would you say to them if you could sit down and talk to them? I'd tell them that they ruined my life, that they've ruined my family, that they took what's supposed to be the best, most consistent, most loving part of my life, and they turned it into evil. That is really interesting. And what I learned from this video is that the scale of QAnon, like the reach of it, was a lot more broad than I had anticipated. Like, I thought that basically the QAnon folks believed that this conspiracy just involved, like, national Democrats. But as that one woman said in the video, like, her parent did research on one of her professors and concluded that, oh, this person must also be part of that pedophile cannibal ring because they're a registered Democrat. Like, they genuinely believe that, like, the conspiracy is vast and it is far-reaching and a lot of people are in on it. And that's why they find it so compelling, I think, because this is something that's so big and they feel as if, like, they had this information that nobody else has and they don't just want to, like, educate themselves. I use educate, you know, very charitably here, but they want to inform others about this because they think they found something that's very serious and if there was, like, this group of politicians who were, like, worshiping the devil and eating children and eating others, human beings, I don't even understand that part. But if that were true, wouldn't that be, like, really shocking? So they go out of their way to try to convince others that, like, look, if you look for the conspiracy in this area, in this college, for example, you're going to find it because it is everywhere. They talk about how, like, it intersected with religion and, you know, her mom has never put anything on a pedestal equal to the Bible. Like, that's how serious they took QAnon. They've become completely different people. This is what I've heard as well. And I do want to share an article from the HuffPost. They did a really lengthy write-up that is fascinating. I'm not going to read this to you because it's too long, but I am going to link you to it because I think that this really gives you some insight into how people who were consumed by this conspiracy theory behaved. So children of QAnon conspiracy theorists explain how they're now trying to de-radicalize their boomer parents because they have been completely brainwashed by this conspiracy theory. So I'm going to go over a couple of examples. There's more. But there is a 19-year-old. His name is Sam. And he explains that his mom, even though she was never really political, she became consumed by QAnon. And part of the reason why is because even though she wasn't necessarily a political person, she was always a little bit more paranoid than usual. Like, she didn't fly on planes after 9-11. And as a result, that paranoia has led to her becoming obsessed with this QAnon conspiracy theory and supporting Donald Trump. There's a 28-year-old woman named Elena. And she says that her mom is intentionally going into debt because of QAnon. They believe that because of Q, that there's going to be some new financial system that emerges that will wipe away her debt. This is one of the elements of QAnon. They revived some old conspiracy about some new system. And because of this, because her mom believes this so much, she's ruined her life and is not paying her bills and encouraged her and her husband to not pay their mortgage because there's going to be this new system. And when you believe it that much, if you think that all of this is going to be wiped away, your debt, then why would you? It's a rational decision if you believe this. There's a 46-year-old woman named Kara. And she says that her mom literally just stopped taking care of herself because she became so obsessed. They didn't care about anything, but QAnon even stopped seeing her grandchildren. So this is absolutely destroying families. Destroying families because that individual, they become so consumed with this conspiracy theory that their identity and QAnon become inextricably linked to where they are QAnon and they're now trying to save members of their family who they believe should also adhere to the QAnon conspiracy theory. And there's a couple of screenshots that I want to share with you just to show the conversations that these folks had with their parents who were obsessed with QAnon. So this one is between Elena and her mom on Discord. Elena says, honestly, mom, I really thought you were smarter than this. This shit is all made up bullshit lies. Elena's mom responded by saying, oh, I'm smart. I'm highly intelligent. It makes me sad to see you be so brainwashed, but you will see. So Elena is then very clearly shocked saying brainwashed by, because I mean, obviously she's not the one who's brainwashed. And then Elena's mom says nobody wants to admit their entire belief system is a lie. And then she says, it took me a long time of going through cognitive dissonance. I guess we just shouldn't talk anymore. I am tired of being hurt by you. Now, this is what Elena's mom is saying to Elena. You can tell just by the things she says, to even know what cognitive dissonance is. This is not a stupid person. This is a seemingly intelligent individual who knows about the way that our brains try to get us to not accept new information. If we have a belief system that's contradicted, the feelings that we feel are really unpleasant. Like we want to reaffirm what we already believe. But this person, Elena's mom, believes that it's actually Elena who doesn't believe in QAnon, who's the one that's been brainwashed, presumably by fake news and mainstream media. There's another text that I want to show you. This is between a man named Daniel and his mom. His mom is a two-time Obama supporter, and she voted for Donald Trump and became obsessed with QAnon. So he was texted this YouTube link to a QAnon thing. He says, this is literally fake news, and she says, that was quick. Thanks for checking it out. He says, please stop texting me your conspiracy propaganda. It's traumatizing enough to know you believe these lies and have been conned. These sources are 100% fake. Have a good night. And then she responds by saying, by the way, you now have the presidency, the Congress, Senate, FBI, CIA, DOJ, and you're still not happy until you have the 100 million Trump supporters in concentration camps, including your own mother. Have a good night. So there's this level of victimization that they feel. They feel as if they're oppressed. And on top of that, they aren't content to just believe the conspiracy theory. They're actually proselytizing. They're trying to share this conspiracy theory and get others to believe like it's a religion. It's a cult. It's honestly really shocking. And what we have to do is everything in our power to try to help these folks. But part of the point made in that HuffPost article, which was great, by the way, is that there isn't really like a support group. Like, this isn't something that psychologists have studied for hundreds of years. This is a new phenomenon. Like conspiracy theories aren't new. But this in and of itself, like how zealous these folks are, this is different than what we've seen to have this many people believe this on the scale of like a fucking religion of sorts. And so really the one thing that folks have to comfort in if they have a loved one who became obsessed with QAnon is they've been going to subreddits and they're sharing, you know, QAnon casualties. That's one of them is sharing their stories. And that's really all that you can do is share tips with each other. I think that ultimately these people, they have to want to change, right? They have to have the desire to change. And you know, you can try to convince them. And I think that if anyone is going to convince them, it's going to be their loved ones. But this is something that is going to take a long time for these folks to overcome. I can't imagine QAnon existing decades from now, but you know, it might not exist in the same form. It could evolve, adapt to survive. I mean, this conspiracy theory is fucking, you think that by now it'd be over because Trump's out of office. He was supposed to declare martial law and arrest everyone on January 20th. And that didn't happen. But you know, the goalpost just keeps getting moved and folks keep believing it. Now, I think that January 20th was crucial because a lot of people were speaking out saying, okay, maybe I was duped. Was this all a lie? And that's really good. That's important. And we have to welcome these people back to society and reality. And we can't like shame them for abandoning their terrible beliefs and flawed beliefs. Like what we have to try to do is offer support, offer support to the folks who are trying to de-radicalize their parents who have become obsessed with QAnon and just try to help them. But I mean, the best that we can do is be understanding. And that's why I wanted to talk about this. I think that if we don't know what we're dealing with here, then it's really difficult to be understanding. But these are human beings and we have to try to come from a place of love and understanding and try to get them to apply, you know, a higher standard to things that they accept as the truth. Re-teach them or help them relearn how to evaluate evidence and facts and to use logic. It's tough. Look, with the internet, conspiracy theories aren't going to go away. But I think that we have to focus on ones that are really harmful. I think that QAnon is one that is particularly harmful because of the devastating impact that it has on families. Anti-vax conspiracy theories are very, very far-reaching and deeply harmful, especially during a pandemic since a vaccine is going to be the one thing that helps us end this pandemic. So there's a lot of conspiracy theories that we are going to have to combat as a society, how we do that. I don't know. But step number one is just learning and trying to understand what's happening here because we can't combat something that's harmful if we don't understand it. And that's where I'm trying to come in and help folks out. Thank you.