#263 | The Cult Within A Cult: QAnon — A License To Fascistic Impulses w/ Jared Yates Sexton

Intro: 9:22

In this interview, I speak with political commentator Jared Yates Sexton, author of the upcoming book ‘American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People.’

As I remark on in this discussion, I first became aware of Jared and his work from his analysis of the QAnon conspiracy theory. I ask him to expound on the tenets of this alarmingly popular and increasingly pervasive belief system (which we characterize as having the attributes of a pseudo-religious cult), its roots on the anonymous online forum 4chan, as well as the impacts this reality-bending narrative is having on contemporary politics in the United States.

Jared states very clearly what this toxic narrative is producing right now in his recent article ‘A Cult Within A Cult: Qanon, Conspiracy Theories, and Growing Fascism’:

To fully grasp what Qanon is and what it could become, we have to break down the very essence of this cult. It is a rebranding of the New World Order conspiracy theory that has held sway over American politics for the past two decades and a side-effect of the Right’s war on science, education, and experts that has been waged on behalf of monied and powerful interests. It is a conspiracy theory that Trump and Republicans have flirted with and tacitly embraced as it scrubs clean flagrant corruption and miscarriages of justice. It has been made possible by repeated attacks on objective reality by a president, a party, and a movement that can only win elections when they are held inside a completely fabricated alternate reality wherein voters must choose between a satanic conspiracy and a party that continues to destroy democratic institutions.

In short, Qanon is a conspiracy theory that legitimizes fascism. Its narrative of a system that has been so corrupted by “traitors” and “conspirators” that elections and democratic institutions themselves are unreliable means that violence of any sort is not only logical but necessary. The indictments and arrests and executions and even assassinations are necessary if it is a life or death situation, particularly if our country and the lives of its people are in the balance. Qanon, like the New World Order conspiracy theory and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion before it, is a lie that gives its believers license to indulge in their worst and most fascistic impulses. It makes them heroes in a struggle. It makes them saviors of their own reality. (https://bit.ly/3imUVOS)

Jared Yates Sexton is the author of several books, including ‘The Man They Wanted Me to Be,’ ‘The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore’, and ‘American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed its People’, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. He currently serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about Jared and his work: https://www.themuckrake.com / https://www.jysexton.com / https://twitter.com/JYSexton

- Pre-order a copy of his new book ‘American Rule’: https://bit.ly/3iqcgXm

- Subscribe to The Muckrake Podcast: https://apple.co/30GXyFd

- Watch and subscribe to Bourbon Talk: https://bit.ly/2DrnFY5

- The song featured in this episode is “The Touch from Within” by Tobacco from the album Ultima II Massage: https://youtu.be/e2zZivK5k5A