“The Most Dangerous Conspiracy Theory in the World” — Vice, 2021, 6:46 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7o3bVInA2A

Contributed by Mary Scafidi, Cabrini University

QAnon is a new conspiracy theory group that believes Hollywood and the government are full of pedophiles who drink children's blood. Interestingly, this is essentially the same claim from the anti-Semitic book The Protocols of Zion, which portrayed wealthy Jewish families as controlling the world. With QAnon, anti-Semitism is replaced with hatred towards Hillary Clinton and other liberal elites. This video shows us how the Internet can breathe new life into absurd (and dangerous) ideas that have been around for centuries. It also demonstrates the great lengths people will go to when supporting an authoritarian regime whose claims are rarely grounded in truth. For when the truth is absent from the ranks of leadership, evil ideologies from our past more easily reemerge.

From the video’s description: The internet has been accused of wrecking many things over the years – print media, Blockbuster and privacy, for instance. One thing it definitely hasn’t killed, though, is the antisemitic conspiracy theory. In fact, the internet is breathing new life into ideas that have been doing the rounds – sometimes causing mass murder – for centuries. In this episode of Truth Hurts, we look at how today’s biggest conspiracy movements are just recycling the same old, evil lies.