Exclusive
Status: 03/31/2022 06:00
From stories of children being sacrificed to the invasion of the Capitol, the QAnon movement has attracted a lot of attention in the US. One study shows: In Germany, AfD voters, in particular, believe these legends.
By Patrick Gensing, tagesschau.de
To this day it is unclear exactly how the QAnon cult came about – but precisely this diffuse aura seems to be one of the reasons for the movement’s popularity. In the US, QAnon has become a rallying point for conspiracy believers.
The capture of the Capitol in 2021 unleashed the movement’s destructive force; Images of attackers – dressed as shamans or in fancy dress uniforms – stunned the public with the cult of conspiracy.
Trump supporters, including “shaman” Angeli, stand in front of a police officer inside the Capitol in Washington (USA) on January 6, 2021 Image: dpa
But QAnon also has many supporters in Europe. A representative survey, available exclusively to tagesschau.de, shows how widespread belief is in the core legends of QAnon. The survey was carried out by the non-profit Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS).
According to CeMAS, the results support the thesis that the German-speaking area outside the US is likely the largest digital QAnon scene.
Minority Believes QAnon Myths
Accordingly, seven percent in Germany and more than eleven percent in Austria believe their own country is being ruled by a foreign power that pulls strings in the background. Less than 5% of people in Germany (3.1%) and Austria (4.3%) think the government, media and financial world are controlled by a group of satanic pedophiles who run a global child sex trade. . Another five percent think this is at least partially possible.
Just over 5% in Germany and just under 8% in Austria believe that “true patriots” may have to resort to violence to save their country.
Child Trafficking, Deep State and the Great Storm
QAnon is often described as a meta-conspiracy narrative because it combines very different narratives. But there are certain legends that are typical of this medium – such as alleged satanic child trafficking networks or the idea of the so-called Deep State, that is, a secret state within a state.
It also includes a belief in rigged elections and the conviction that it would take a “big storm” to install “legitimate leaders”.
The unvaccinated agree much more often
A large part of society in Germany and Austria rejects such statements. But who agrees? According to the results, people who have not yet been vaccinated are far more likely to believe conspiracy stories that are not typical of QA.
In Germany, 46% of the unvaccinated agree at least partially with the main conspiracy narratives of the QAnon scene, while only 8.7% of people who have received at least one vaccine agree with these narratives.
The situation is similar in Austria: approval ratings of 41.1% for unvaccinated people versus 11.4% for people who have been vaccinated.
A total of 4.3% of respondents from Germany and 9.2% from Austria said they had participated in protests against the protection measures against the crown at least once – more than half of the protesters believe QAnon conspiracy stories.
AfD and FPÖ supporters tend to believe in QAnon
Furthermore, AfD and FPÖ supporters in particular tend to believe in QAnon conspiracies. In Germany, almost 44% of this medium (or better) agree with these legends. Other groups of voters clearly reject this – from 91% in the Die Linke party to 96.3% in the Greens.
A similar pattern can be seen in Austria: here, 46.1% of FPÖ supporters and 32% of the vaccine-critical MFG party agree with QAnon’s conspiracy stories; at least 90% of the other parties reject these statements.
range explodes
The study states that with the onset of the corona pandemic, “the reach and size of the QAnon scene on YouTube and Telegram has exploded.” The legends of the QAnon movement were linked to those of the middle Reichsbürger.
Six QAnon channels on Telegram have more than 100,000 subscribers and a total of 115 QAnon channels with at least 1,000 subscribers have been identified. News from the QAnon medium reaches hundreds of thousands of accounts in German-speaking countries every day. The research also confirms that people with a strong belief in QAnon conspiracies get more information from Telegram.
With around 140,000 subscribers, the German-language channel Qlobal-Change is well behind the larger English-language channel GhostEzra (300,000 subscribers) – but it also caters to a significantly larger audience than the German channel.
The recruitment of participants for the research took into account that the sample reflects the distribution in the general population by parameters such as age, sex, education and state. In the survey, conducted online by the market research institute Bilendi & Responds, 2,202 people in Germany and 1,099 people in Austria over 18 years of age participated in the period from 17 January 2022 to 22 January 2022. After data cleaning , data from 1,970 people in Germany and 1,012 people in Austria could be used. CeMAS has already published the survey results here.
Suddenly friendly to China
The pandemic is no longer the dominant topic in public. But, as experts expected: the topics are interchangeable, conspiracy believers can adapt their legends to current events. Many “side thinkers” have suddenly spread Russian propaganda – and the QAnon networks have recently shown themselves visibly well-disposed towards China – which has a central role as a strategic ally for Putin.
An analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) concludes that the Russian attack on Ukraine is changing many views: “In a surprisingly short time, Xi Jinping appears to have transformed himself from villain to hero in the pantheon of the QAnon conspiracy.” The ISD warns that QAnon could become a gateway for Chinese state media propaganda.