Journal article
Into the storm: QAnon and the appeal of conspiracist millennialism in far-right and fascist political movements
- Abstract:
- Despite widespread criticism, condemnation, and the failure of many of its prophecies, QAnon remains one of the most successful conspiracist social movements of the 21st century, gaining millions of followers, propelling adherents to cultural and political success, and radically re-shaping the policies and rhetoric of the now ruling party of the most powerful nation on Earth. Despite this success, there has been limited academic research that has attempted to understand the role that conspiracist and millennialist social movements like QAnon have in the broader success that far-right parties have experienced across the globe. This paper will address this central question through a detailed case study of the QAnon movement. It will begin by providing a framework to understand the persistent relationship far-right and fascist parties have historically had with millennialist and conspiracist social movements, which have frequently functioned as important parts of their political coalitions. Moving to then provide a detailed overview of the QAnon movement, I will analyse how QAnon differs from early pre- and post-war fascist conspiracist movements, noting in particular how QAnon draws from a far more eclectic and improvisational millennialism than these older more nationally bounded movements, and how the movement’s international appeal and decentralized structure highlights the digitally mediated and globalized nature of modern far-right parties that represent an important evolution from the fascist era of the 20th century. Through this analysis, this paper demonstrates the enduring but changing role that conspiracist and millennialist social movements play in supporting far-right and fascist parties, and that confronting the global far right must involve a sustained assault on its apocalyptic vanguards.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 414.6KB, Terms of use)
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- Publication website:
- https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/stair/stair/2025/00000020/00000001/art00007
Authors
+ Leverhulme Trust
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/012mzw131
- Grant:
- ECF-2023-583
- Publisher:
- Ingenta Connect
- Journal:
- St Anthony's International Review More from this journal
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- Pages:
- 56-76
- Publication date:
- 2025-05-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-04-03
- ISSN:
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1746-451X
- Language:
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English
- Pubs id:
-
2127576
- Local pid:
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pubs:2127576
- Deposit date:
-
2025-06-02
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- This paper has been made open access via creative commons licensing (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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