'I hate Trump, she likes him - we both think he staged assassination attempts'

NakedHunterBiden

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”

QAnon supporters were among the crowd that stormed the US Capitol building on 6 January, 2021, in a violent protest against Joe Biden's election victory. Now Wild Mother wants to believe the idea she has seen on social media that they might have been involved somehow in staging Trump's shooting in July - in order to frame the Deep State.

But Wild Mother says, according to the posts she has seen online, "good guys in the military", known as White Hats, had been doing covert operations to counter the Deep State. And one theory that popped up on her feed claimed the July assassination attempt was staged by them to show the public the threat Trump is under.

Wild Mother doesn't claim to know for sure if the QAnon theory is true - but she does know what she wants to believe.

"I think our country needs rescuing from our government right now. It's a horrible mess. A horrible mess," she says.

Once Wild Mother started to question whether a news event could have been staged, it seemed as though any of them could be.

"It's like going to a magic show as a kid and then that you find out for the first time that the magician is pulling one over on you. Now, every time you go to a magic show, you know what they're doing," she tells me.
Reuters / Martin County Sheriff's Office A still from a police video showing Ryan Routh, a man with a mop of blond hair, sunglasses and a pink T-shirt pulled up over his stomach, flanked by two deputies from the Martin County Sheriff's Office
Reuters / Martin County Sheriff's Office
Ryan Routh is accused of going to Trump's Florida golf course armed with a rifle
As both Camille and Wild Mother came to rely more on social media, the beliefs they picked up contributed to a fracturing of their relationships in the real world.

Camille finds it hard to have conversations with some of her close family who support Trump, while Wild Mother says it played a part in her separating from her now ex-husband, who she says strongly opposed conspiracy theories.

"Does it make it difficult? Yes. Did it create a wedge? Was it possibly one of the things that ended my marriage? Maybe," Wild Mother says.

Meanwhile, Camille also found herself embroiled in arguments on X which left her with her guard up in the real world, too. "It's a little scary because I feel like every time I leave the house, it's a potential for conflict," she says.

This atmosphere of suspicion and conflict doesn’t just have consequences for these women’s personal lives - but for society too.

Officials, election workers - and politicians around the USA have found themselves subject to hate and threats as a consequence of this wider belief that almost anything and everything - including elections - is being rigged and staged.

For Wild Mother, people are "walking a really fine line" between seeking justice and harmful behaviour.

"It's not writing your senators and calling them racist names. But if you were somebody who truly did your research and found that there was an issue, do I agree that you should use your voice? Absolutely," she says.

"I think that we all have ways of doing that. For them, it just so happens to be harassing people."

While Wild Mother and Camille say they have never threatened anyone themselves - and strike me as empathetic, kind people - the mistrust fostered in part by their social media feeds has eroded their faith in society and its institutions.

Camille, who was so opposed conspiracy theories, now finds herself using the language of them.

She appears to be one of many recruited into this way of thinking - by July’s assassination attempt and the social media algorithms drawing people deeper into an online world detached from reality.
 
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