Im in my bedroom on january 6th watching thousands of people at the United States capitol on the day that the president ial election was supposed to be certified. Like most of us, last winter i watched live as people stormed the United States capitol. Fueled by the baseless claim that the election was stolen. Make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, from me. Stop the steal stop the steal this is the consequence of Conspiracy Theories rung amok. Accusations of lies, treason, even pedophilia flew from all directions. It begs the question, how did we end up here . Americans have always been fascinated with alternate versions of the truth. The clues were all there, actually, that it had the potential to get as huge as its become. But in the last decade, Conspiracy Thinking has gone mainstream, and it may not be entirely our fault. If youre a democrat and im a republican, the algorithm is incentivized to push us apart. Tonight were taking a closer look at a system thats designed
i m in my bedroom on january 6th watching thousands of people at the united states capitol on the day that the presidential election was supposed to be certified. like most of us, last winter i watched live as people stormed the united states capitol. fueled by the baseless claim that the election was stolen. make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, from me. stop the steal! stop the steal! this is the consequence of conspiracy theories rung amok. accusations of lies, treason, even pedophilia flew from all directions. it begs the question, how did we end up here? americans have always been fascinated with alternate versions of the truth. the clues were all there, actually, that it had the potential to get as huge as it s become. but in the last decade, conspiracy thinking has gone mainstream, and it may not be entirely our fault. if you re a democrat and i m a republican, the algorithm is incentivized to push us apart. tonight we re taking a closer
of information that was just so polar opposite was really what caused me to crack. i began to question what was happening. as she dug deeper into the internet, trying to make sense of it all, melissa discovered a new theory. the pandemic was a cover up for something far worse. what were some of the things specifically that you saw that really affected you after going down that rabbit hole? i saw clips of videos that were floating around on twitter. it was people in positions of power abusing children with proof, you know, that s their voice, that s their house, and i had never seen anything like that. melissa had stumbled into america s fastest growing conspiracy theory, qanon. the information seemed very real and very credible, and horrifying. but did you ever think that that all could be contrived?
[ bleep ]ing wearing a [ bleep ]ing $40,000 [ bleep ]ing rolex? i don t have the [ bleep ]ing right to [ bleep ], [ bleep ] up? the target video was just one of several posted by melissa when she was following qanon. in them, she bragged about connections to q, loyalty to donald trump, and used a torrent of racist language. yeah, i use the n word, i use it all [ bleep ] day. [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. overnight, melissa lost clients, friends, and nearly her marriage, after her husband filed for divorce. call donald trump and ask him, if you don t believe me. do you have his phone number? do i have his phone number? i m on the phone with him all the time, i m [ bleep ]ing wired. when you look at that video, what do you think about? never in a million years would i think that i would have been the type of person to join a cult, but that s exactly what i did. it s very easy to get swept up. based on a poll conducted in 2021, an estimated 15% of the american publi
like if you put these clues together correctly, you will vanquish an unthinkable evil. anna tells me, qanon is more than just memes and viral clips, it s part of a much older, darker story. the idea of a secret group of sexually abusive evildoers is literally a medieval conspiracy theory. it is an anti-semitic idea, which holds that jews specifically were meeting in secret late at night to slaughter christian children and use their blood in rituals, but it has spread beyond that. you can see elements of it in qanon which claims that evildoers are meeting in secret to abuse children. our kids are not for sale! the ancient lie has been weaponized again and again throughout global history but still didn t deter melissa, who herself was raised jewish and descended from holocaust