It's a straight line from Q Anon's pedophilia hysteria to the GOP's groomer rhetoric [View all]

Most rational people find it easy to dismiss the wild conspiracies that animate the Q Anon universe. Chief among them is a vast network of pedophiles that includes everyone from Tom Hanks to the Dalai Lama, to say nothing of most Democratic politicians. In addition to abusing children, Q Anon posits that this group also kills and eats the kids for adrenochrome, a psychoactive drug in their blood.

But Republicans never let a libel go to waste. Recognizing that suggesting the Pope dines on altar boys may be going too far, they instead have decided to modify accusations of pedophilia to fit the culture war template. Every once in a while, though, they can’t help drawing a straight line between the fringe and the mainstream.

That happened last week when Chaya Raichik, the rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ activist behind the Libs of TikTok account, appeared on the program of Q Anon conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine for an exclusive interview. The interview was every bit as stomach-churning as you would expect, but what’s noteworthy wasn’t so much the content but the venue.

Raichik has not been a Q Anon proponent, at least not publicly. But her appearance on Lorraine’s show underscores just how little difference there is between the delusions of the Q Anon universe and the vicious rhetoric of politicians targeting the LGBTQ community.

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