.....the QAnon digital soldier oath. The oath is lifted from the pledge taken by senators at their swearing-in, with one small addition tacked on at the end, the letters “WWG1WGA.”
Though the precise origins of the oath are murky, it spread from hard-core QAnon followers and into Republican ranks in a matter of weeks, illustrating how adherents of the conspiracy have enmeshed themselves — and their theories — in conservative circles.
There appear to be vague references to the oath on social media and internet message boards going back to early June. But it took off on June 24 after a so-called Q drop — that is, a post by the person purporting to be Q, the originator of the movement who claims to be a high-ranking official with access to top-secret information. The post was on 8kun, a new message board that has quickly become a home for all flavors of conspiracy theorists and extremists, especially QAnon followers.
Under the subject line “Digital Soldiers: Take the Oath and Serve Your Country,” the user laid out the text of the oath. The user then added: “Take the oath. Mission forward. Q.”
It quickly gained traction outside QAnon circles. Among the most recent people to take the oath was Michael T. Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser, who is expected to soon begin campaigning for Mr. Trump. He posted
a video on Twitter over the July 4 weekend with guests reciting the oath and intoning the phrase “where we go one, we go all.”
His lawyer said Mr. Flynn, whose case on a charge of lying to the F.B.I.
remains in limbo, was interpreting the works of a 16th-century poet, though she did not specify which bard he was referring to. Soon after the tweet, Mr. Flynn made his Twitter account private, limiting who could see the video.
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How far QAnon candidates can go remains an open question; the vast majority of Republican voters have shown little inclination to buy into the movement’s wildest claims. Yet some of its themes are now a regular feature of conservative political discourse, and even candidates who only espouse parts of QAnon’s racist, anti-Semitic and violent conspiracies could pose real threats if elected."
“It is really more like flat-earth adherents who have a different way to interpret the world, which colors everything they see,” said Alice E. Marwick, aprincipal researcher at the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
No matter how many of the candidates win, their mere presence on the political scene is helping to further spread a conspiracy that, at its core, sees the government as a dangerous enemy."