The Mainstreaming of QAnon
Heidi Siegmund Cuda interviews Dr. Mia Bloom on a human trafficking film some are calling an indoctrination event designed to spread a violent apocalyptic theology throughout American politics
When I first saw the trailer for Sound of Freedom four months ago, I called my podcast colleagues and told them my concerns. We produce an investigative show on disinformation and radicalization, and by outward appearances, it seemed to be a vehicle to mainstream QAnon — the lie that a shadowy network of Democrat and Hollywood elites are trafficking children through underground tunnels in order to harvest “adrenochrome” from their blood. The substance is supposed to have anti-ageing powers and QAnon followers believe that it is more potent when harvested from frightened children. They also believe that Democrats have been the perpetrators of this satanic ritual abuse and trusted Donald Trump to “save the children” from the “forces of darkness”.
A week ago, disgraced and indicted Donald Trump hosted a screening of the film at his golf club in New Jersey.
“Sound of Freedom has traumatized millions of people… and now they are targeting a manufactured pain and rage at the Democrats,” tweeted Jim Stewartson, an investigative reporter and my co-host on the RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast. “In short, it’s Pizzagate 2.0 with Biden playing Hillary.”
Pizzagate refers to a child trafficking lie weaponized against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and promoted by the same factions now promoting Sound of Freedom.
Our other co-host, technologist Joshua C. Fidel said: “Sound of Freedom is a media IED disguised as entertainment. The subject matter and storyline are designed in such a way as to burrow into viewers’ brains and cause an emotional explosion to disrupt rational thought through trauma-induced dissociation.”
Those who report on the film’s questionable merit and objectives on Twitter are immediately swarmed by inorganic armies lobbing abusive taunts of being a paedophile.
The film’s star actor Jim Caviezel often appears on QAnon media outlets to promote conspiracy theories. In recent days, the film has been heavily promoted by the same people who promote QAnon, the Big Lie, and Pizzagate.
To try to understand how the film may be weaponized to impact the 2024 election, I reached out to Dr. Mia Bloom, a communications and Middle East Studies professor at Georgia State University, who has spent decades traveling to global hotspots to research how people are indoctrinated and radicalized.
Her book, Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon, explains how women are being indoctrinated into QAnon through ISIS-style trauma events, and she sees Sound of Freedom as dangerous for democracy.
How does the film mainstream QAnon?
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