18% Americans believe ‘violence may be necessary to save US’

Troubling statistics show 17 per cent of Americans believe in right-wing QAnon conspiracy

BEIJING:

Seventeen per cent of Americans were deemed as believers of the right-wing QAnon conspiracy in October 2021, up from 14 per cent in March 2021, a recent survey has shown.

Among the 19,399 respondents surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute, 16 per cent agreed that "the government, media and financial worlds in the United States are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping paedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation," which is one of the core beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy.

Read more: Twitter suspends QAnon-linked Republican lawmaker's account

Eighteen per cent agreed that "true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country," and 22 per cent believed that "there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders," said the study.

The QAnon conspiracy movement emerged on the internet in late 2017 and according to the study, the "most visible role" it has played was in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.