Photo: Screenshot from the edited video
According to the investigative media Bellingcat, QAnon is a conspiracy theory falsely claiming that the former American President Donald Trump has been fighting a long time to defeat “Satanists, pedophiles, the deep state and the cabal” (frequently used terms in the narratives of the promoters). Although Trump is no longer the President and the QAnon predictions are not happening, the conspiracy continues to attract new followers. In April 2022, Bellingcat wrote that most of the QAnon supporters regard Putin as a hero fighting by “Trump’s side”, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) stating the following:
There are many ways of eliminating Satanists from the Deep state for the big, massive crimes committed against humanity, but very important for the survival of mankind is the execution of any one of them as soon as possible.
Furthermore, adding to the context of this interpretation, a video clipping is shared showing the President of Russia Vladimir Putin shooting, while the screen in the background is alternating pictures of the US President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as of Klaus Schwab, Anthony Fauci (US expert on infectious diseases put in the focus with the COVID-19 pandemic), Justin Trudeau (the Canadian Prime Minister), Bill Gates, Anthony Albanese (the Prime Minister of Australia) and Rishi Sunak (the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom). The video ends with a common recording of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The video itself was edited by a social network user. In other words, it is not true that Putin is shooting at these characters. The recording is edited in a way to make it look that way.
Indeed, all of these people have been satanized as alleged and non-existent “criminals against humanity” in a propagandistic, unsubstantiated manner, while the post presents Putin as someone who is fighting against them for “sustaining mankind”.
Conspiracy theories about Putin and Ukraine facilitated by Putin
The theory that Putin is fighting Satanists to save the planet from the so-called deep state is yet another QAnon conspiracy. Putin himself was involved in its creation when justifying the attack of Ukraine in the fight against Satanists.
As “Rolling Stone” puts it, some social network users believe that Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine to destroy the “deep state”, the non-existent global government believed to have the purpose of bringing down Donald Trump. That, however, is not true. For quite some time Putin believed that democratic nations should be under Russian control, a position that provoked actual aggressive military invasion with thousands of casualties. In a polarized world that distrusts real facts, disinformation is rapidly spreading.
As extremism researcher, Abbie Richards, puts it, when false stories circulate, it can have real-world consequences for those in harm’s way, in this context – Ukraine.
It seems like people don’t understand why misinformation is so dangerous during a crisis. People, especially people in Ukraine or with family in Ukraine, deserve an accurate depiction of what’s going on. When people share fake or doctored content, it is harmful to people in Ukraine who need an accurate understanding of where there is danger, says Richards for “Rolling Stone”.
On the other side of the spectrum, saying that QAnon followers are celebrating Putin’s military invasion in Ukraine is disinformation about the reason – that they believe is an operation against the deep state. They believe in the fantasy that a cabal of powerful people, pedophiles, and Satanists, including democrats in high positions are governing the deep state. According to their beliefs, Donald Trump was sent to put an end to the deep state. Bearing in mind the involvement of QAnon on 6th January, or the support extended to the coup in Myanmar, these narratives justifying the aggressive military invasion of a sovereign and democratic country do not come as a surprise, but they are really dangerous.
The narrative that the military invasion in Ukraine is the savior of the mankind from deep state satanists is persistent online from the very beginning of the invasion and spread by QAnon circles, falsely claiming that the war is not a war, but a “necessary cabal operations cleansing, not attacks on innocent civilians”.
QAnon support increased in the US following Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections according to several surveys from 2021 performed by the Public Religion Research Institute. The think-tank discovered that a quarter of the Americans (22 percent) believe that the “storm is coming” which for the supporters of this conspiracy theory is a synonym for arrests and political turmoil. Even 18 percent of the respondents replied that they believed violence was necessary to “save America”, while 16 percent admitted that they believed that pedophile Satanists were controlling the government as well as the media and the financial institutions.
It is not true that the military invasion of Ukraine is for cleansing Satanists who rule some kind of a deep state. Russia has performed a military invasion in Ukraine and people’s lives are lost every day, while Ukraine is forced to defend itself from Putin’s military invasion. From the very beginning of the military invasion, the QAnon followers supported Russia’s narratives as an attempt to justify the aggression. France 24 claims that China is also involved in this support.
In its analysis, Bellingcat states that many of the channels of the QAnon movement in the world support Russia’s military invasion on a regular basis.
They see the invasion as an effort to take down the international “Cabal” around which QAnon’s conspiracy theories are centered. They posit different ideas on the war’s goals, whether it’s to destroy US “bio-labs” in Ukraine they claim are inventing a new Covid-like disease or that it is about preventing the “Great Reset” which supposedly seeks to use the pandemic to destroy capitalism and install a one world government. All of this supposedly makes Russia an ally in this fight and the invasion a war against all evil, for all good, Bellingcat writes about the QAnon narrative related to Russia and Ukraine.
According to the description of Bellingcat, QAnon is a conspiracy theory that falsely claims that the former American President Donald Trump has been working for a long time on defeating “Satanists, pedophiles, the deep state and cabal” (frequently used terms in the narrative of the promoters). Although Trump is not President and QAnon’s predictions are not becoming reality, the conspiracy continues to attract new followers. Apart from the US, the theory has been spread to many countries and many other dangerous narratives have been created thereof, for example, those spread by the anti-vaxxers. QAnon followers remain active in the conspiracy theories related to Ukraine as well, specifies Bellingcat.
Putin – a hero!?
In April 2022, Bellingcat reported that most of the QAnon supporters treat Putin as a hero fighting by “Trump’s side”.
In September 2021, a UK QAnon channel claimed that Putin had been fighting the satanic deep state cabal since he came into power, which is why the global media has made out Putin to be the “bad guy”.
Of course, this is propaganda – a bunch of not argumented, not substantiated, and not proven claims that jointly contribute to the creation of an illusion that should mislead the public.
All politicians specified in the post we are fact-checking are falsely projected as representatives of some kind of a deep state, although they have been officially elected in democratic elections. They do not present any kind of shadow government but are part of the regularly elected government.
Hence, from all of the above-noted facts, the post we are fact-checking is assessed as not true.
