In the basement of her house, sitting in a desk chair next to her bed, Louise, from 24 years, quietly recounts the only five conversations he had with his mother Margareth in the past eight months .
In the most recent, her mother assured her that Chinese troops were installed on the Canadian border with the United States, where the two reside, awaiting a signal from the new US president Joe Biden to take over the country and establish socialism.
Louise lives alone with her mother, who during this interview was in the kitchen.
Originally, the rooms of both They were contiguous and the two used to cook together or surprise each other with a new culinary recipe.
Now Louise lives in the basement and limits his circulation around the house to the moments when he sneaks into the kitchen to search for c omita.
And she bathes in the early mornings, when Margareth is still asleep.
The almost complete breakdown of the family relationship began almost a year ago and is a consequence of the spread of conspiracy theories associated with the new coronavirus pandemic and the American electoral process.
How is a QAnon devotee born?
At the same time that the coronavirus spread throughout the world, Louise’s mother began to doubt the severity of the virus.
She rebelled against the use of masks and confinement, and he began to search for sources on the internet to reinforce his beliefs. He proudly counted that he spent between five and ten hours a day on these kinds of searches.
Thus he immersed himself in conspiracy theory forums, like QAnon, who propagates the unsubstantiated thesis that Donald Trump was waging a secret war against Satan-worshiping pedophiles who are part of the state, the business world and the press.
And he began to flood the mailbox E-mail of friends and acquaintances with messages with this type of content.
“She believes that Trump was defending freedom and saving people who were oppressed by the covid, a farce turned into a weapon by the Chinese ”, sums up Louise.
The The story of Louise and Margareth has been repeated in recent months in thousands of homes in the United States and Canada.
Family crises involving parents, siblings or partners turned into fervent supporters of QAnon are the culmination of a process that was also seen to a lesser extent in other western countries, such as Brazil, where exchanges of fake content and political differences divide family and friends.
Although there are no figures on the separation of families in the US, some indicators give certain clues.
On the social network Reddit, in July 2019, a group called “Bajas de Q Anon ”with the aim of becoming a space where users share their family experiences and offer comfort and advice for those in Louise’s situation.
In June 2020, the forum had only 3, 500 members, but now they are 132, 000 , with thousands of stories of breakup and pain .
“Although conspiracy theories are as old as humanity itself, an environment of uncertainty, anxiety and social isolation, such as the pandemic of 2020, is ideal to spread this type of interpretation around the world. And it was further facilitated by the ability to consume both true information and proven false content on social media, ”explains Dannagal Young, a public opinion expert and student of conspiracy theories at the University of Delaware.
Real effects of content on networks
Margareth’s actions were not limited to the virtual world. She attended street demonstrations by anti-vaccine groups and ended up unable to access her neighborhood businesses after she refused to wear a mask and for disobeying measures to contain the pandemic.
“She invited people to meetings here at home during the quarantine to discuss conspiracy theories. When those people were here, I didn’t leave my room. I am in danger because I have severe asthma, treated with medication. I’m scared for myself, ”says Louise.
One of the most obvious real effects of the actions of groups like Margareth’s was the invasion of the Capitol by supporters of former President Trump that caused five deaths and prevented for a few hours the certification of Biden’s electoral victory by the US Congress last January 6.
One of the protesters, who entered the building wearing Viking clothing, wore a sign that read “ Q sent me here “, Referring to the code name of the internet user who started the conspiracy theory of QAnon.
In the early morning of January 7, hours after the invasion of the Capitol, Margareth was to his Twitter account and posted: “Trump won. I didn’t even sleep tonight, I’m very happy. ”
Joana, Louise’s mother’s sister, says that she thought that her relative would“ end up moving away ”from her beliefs after seeing that things were not they confirmed and that Biden won and took over the country.
“Unfortunately that did not happen. She is very devoted to these ideas and spreading them. He convinced our father of 85 years of which did not receive the covid vaccine – 19. I don’t know how to solve that now, “says the woman, who confirmed to BBC News Brazil the story made by her niece.
Joana also restricted contact with her sister to the minimum necessary.
Change of government, not belief
It is possible to assume that Trump’s electoral defeat and the transition of government would resolve some of these family conflicts. And although the accounts of some of QAnon’s biggest followers showed doubts about the consistency of their ideas after Biden’s inauguration, for a significant number of them, adherence to the theory and anger increased.
In fact, in many families the problem worsened.
“For people who are fully involved with a conspiracy theory, when the prediction is not fulfilled it does not matter. Sometimes this is where people commit even more strongly to the conspiracy itself. For people who put so much time and energy into it and even damaged their personal relationships, turning your back on theory would be like admitting that the last year, or the last two or three of your life, has been a waste. “, explains Dannagal Young.
That is exactly what Sonia, from 26 years, he relates.
He had to leave the house where he lived with his mother, stepfather and two younger brothers in a quiet suburb of Kansas City, Missouri (central USA).
According to account, his family had a comfortable economic life and little interest in politics until the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man suffocated by a white policeman in late May 2020, triggered the largest street protests in the United States in recent years.
While Sonia and her fiancé joined to the manifestations of the Black Lives Matter movement, his mother and stepfather began to follow more and more right-wing pages, until they began to consume QAnon content on social networks.
The level of tension in the family increased so much until she and her parents agreed that it was impossible to continue living under the same roof .
“When the elections were approaching (November 3), it was Halloween night, my fiancé and I came from the street and my stepfather was talking to one of his friends. We walked in, he looked at us and didn’t say hello. He did go to his friend and said: ‘If you vote for someone other than Trump, you’re a traitor,’ ”says Sonia.
It was not an isolated episode.
“They acted aloof all week, but getting more and more aggressive. So I didn’t feel like it was a safe environment and I didn’t want to cause any problems. My stepfather had bought a gun for the first time during the Black Lives Matter protests. He was convinced that they were going to break into his house and kill people. At that time, it just didn’t seem safe to confront him anymore, ”says the woman.
Sonia will get married in June of 2021 and it is unlikely that her mother and stepfather are in the party.
Today she lives in the house of a friend’s family as she cannot afford to rent a space alone with her salary as a primary school assistant teacher. Since leaving home, contacts with her mother have been limited to cell phone messages in which her mother transmits false content about covid – 19 and reaffirms that Trump won the elections.
Political and personal damage
The date of a new inauguration of Trump that these conspiratorial groups disclose on the internet is 4 of March .
This led the National Guard to maintain a contingent in the federal capital until 14 of that month before the possible arrival of a large group of Trumpists and followers of conspiracies who could try to repeat scenes like those of January 6.
Since the invasion of the Capitol, the surroundings of the United States Congress building have been armored. The FBI issued successive warnings of risk of what it calls “domestic terrorism” from QAnon’s followers.
For Professor Young, the problem is divided into two: a social problem and a family problem.
At the social level, the researcher maintains that internet platforms should silence the profiles that advertise this content.
Since January 6, companies such as Twitter and Facebook eliminated thousands of accounts with extremist content and they even silenced the profile of Donald Trump. In response, Margareth and many others moved their conversations to other apps like Telegram, demonstrating how difficult it can be to reduce the spread of conspiracy theories.
In addition, Young says that political leaders would have to speak more clearly about the fact that they do not support this kind of worldview, even if it means losing a large number of voters.
“When Trump He was questioned about the QAnon campaign, he said he did not know what it was, but did not report them. That is seen within the movement as a sign of support “, says the expert.
The ex-president’s behavior is no exception.
In a report titled “The QAnon Conspiracy: Destruction of Families, Divide Communities, and Undermine Democracy,” Rutgers University researchers state that “when politicians confront their involvement in the movement, often reject an overt affiliation, but continue to spread tags ( hashtags ) and memes (related to QAnon). ”
The researchers cite as an example a publication on Twitter of Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the Brazilian president, from September of 2020. In the message, the legislator wrote in English: “ A storm is coming “, a typical expression of QAnon.
The United States Congress has faced a similar problem in recent weeks. Two newly elected Republican MPs joined or showed some kind of sympathy towards QAnon’s conspiracy ideas.
One of them, Marjorie Taylor Greene, ended up being sanctioned by the House of Representatives for endorsing, before If elected, posts with extremist content such as the suggestion to assassinate Democratic leaders.
“I started looking for things in Internet, to ask questions like most people do every day, to use Google. And I stumbled upon something called QAnon. I posted about it on Facebook, read about it, talked about it, asked questions about it, and then more information came through. They made me believe things that were not true, “said Greene some time later.
Destroyed families
The congresswoman’s words, However, they did not resonate in Louise’s house.
Talking with her mother is still practically impossible because any exchange of phrases takes them to some point where the dialogue focuses on QAnon and the conversation turns unviable.
It is something that the Rutgers researchers describe as standard behavior in these cases.
“When family members express disagreement, they often find themselves with hostility. Disbelief about the central myths is perceived as a threat. When families fail to fill this void, they often distance themselves. Sometimes family members who reject QAnon are considered part of the conspiracy “, indicates the investigation.
Although the experts’ recommendation is to try to limit family interactions to pleasant and uncontroversial topics, and showing affection despite disagreements, Louise is skeptical about returning to some kind of normalcy in her mother-daughter relationship.
She tries to get a steady job at the area of information technology and is saving the emergency aid provided by the government to be able to move.
Margareth believes that the money provided by the government is part of a plan to create indebtedness between the citizens.
“When I told her that I didn’t believe it, she wished that I became a slave and suffered because I don’t want to open my eyes,” says Louise.
BBC News Brazil did not contact Margareth or Sonia’s parents because this could put the interviewees at risk.
The names of the interviewees were changed to protect their identities .
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