Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Playing with fire — did QAnon start as a cynical game?

We may never know how the conspiracy theory originated, but its consequences are far from farcical, as two new books reveal

The QAnon Shaman Jake Angeli at the Stop the Steal rally in Washington DC on 6 January [Getty Images]
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  • The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult and Conspiracy Theory of Everything

    Mike Rothschild

    Monoray, pp. 288, £14

  • Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon

    Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko

    Stanford University Press, pp. 256, £14

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