[m_ke]

I agree, but as mentioned here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24159257 QAnon has morphed into a master conspiracy to unite all of these crazy groups.

The same people that push Qanon are also pushing anti mask, anti vaccine and etc conspiracies.

[dleslie]

I saw that, but I'm not convinced that the breadth of scope is what's interesting. The other targets of interest I mentioned are also often "big tent" or "broad umbrella" conspiracies that pull in many others.

Ie, Lizard people come from the Hollow Earth and are conspiring with Planned Parenhood and UN Agenda 21 to depopulate the planet; this is a believed conspiracy you can find on conspiracy boards.

What makes QAnon different is that it's a movement that exists largely as a result of the sophistication of modern social networks and the ability of small groups of people to wield enormous platforms on them.

The Anti-Vax, Birther and Sandy Hook conspiracies were sort of the early progenitors of this medium: they took the conversations off the aged PHPbb boards and various sub-reddits and on to the social networks. QAnon is often _the same people_ simply continuing to talk with each other.

They've just been learning how to use the tools at their disposal, and have become proficient at it.