“We should not have political leaders who are believing in nonsense, because they can act on that nonsense.” Uscinski said. “What concerns me is that you have people latching on to an anonymous, unaccountable leader. I’m concerned that this person could encourage bad behavior among followers.”
Connections to violence
Kathryn Olmsted, a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, said she views QAnon as being much more dangerous than conspiracy theories that center on historical events, such as JFK’s assasination or the Sept. 11 attacks, because QAnon focuses on events unfolding in real time.
“They’re saying there is this group of satanic pedophiles who are ruling the country and hurting children,” said Olmsted, who wrote a book on anti-government conspiracy theories. “If someone really believes that, they would be motivated to violence, because, well, we’ve got to stop these satanic pedophiles.”
Last year, an FBI memo obtained by Yahoo!…
