We Would Be Wise to Pay Attention to Trump's Apocalyptic QANON Posting Spree

https://religiondispatches.org/we-would-be-wise-to-pay-attention-to-trumps-apocalyptic-qanon-posting-spree/


As many have noted over the past few weeks—at least since his “mega-tantrum” during an Atlanta rally, as The Bulwark’s A.B. Stoddard put it—Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been behaving erratically. Indeed, although his campaign is reportedly grateful that it’s confined to Truth Social, that hasn’t stopped publications like the New Republic and Rolling Stone (among others) from labeling his latest posting spree “fascist,” as well as “vulgar,” “unhinged,” “crazed,” and “violent.”

At a certain point, we become so inundated with lies, conspiracy theories, grifts, nonsensical Jaws ripoffs, and the sharing of posts from horrific antisemites and racists that we start to shut down when presented with new ones. QAnon, for example, has become so deeply ingrained in far-right discourse—and, more disturbingly, in conventional Republican rhetoric—that we tend to just move past it.

Not because the damage is healed: as Jesselynn Cook details in her new book, The Quiet Damage, QAnon has ripped apart families and left lasting scars. And not because, post-Q, the beliefs have gone away: a PRRI survey from 2021 showed that as many as one in five Americans believes one of the core ideas of QAnon. Maybe it’s because, for the last two years, Trump has been openly embracing the rhetoric of the conspiracy movement. Maybe it’s because post-January 6th, rhetoric scares us less than open coup attempts. Or maybe it’s the fatigue of being told that a bizarre conspiracy theory like QAnon matters in the midst of all of the other calls for violence, conspiratorial garbage, and open legislative threats on America. After all, Project 2025 exists in this realm of reality, the Christofascist nightmare looming over us.

Still, it would be a potentially catastrophic mistake for us to ignore the former president’s open embrace of QAnon; not a single casual reference, not a rally song, not a sly wink and a nod, but the open sharing of core eschatological ideas and doctrine. Take the series of images the former President re-Truthed—yes, that’s the name for it—from “SpiritualStreetfighter 17.”

*snip*