This essay was posted on 5/28/2025.
Jesselyn Cook’s book, The Quiet Damage, is about how QAnon affected 5 people and their immediate families. It covers their introductions to QAnon, their experiences with QAnon, and their eventual resolution with QAnon. The outcomes varied greatly between each family.
What is QAnon? A group of web sites spread stories that echoed similar stories contained in a propaganda publication, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, written around 1902. Protocols is a pamphlet containing anti-Semitic rants that was used by Nazis in Germany and by Henry Ford and Father Coughlin in the US. Protocols claims there is a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world and claims that children are murdered for their blood, among other things. The current stories are similar, but liberal politicians and immigrants are the ones portrayed as criminals.
Just dismissing QAnon claims as fantastic lies seems pretty obvious, but the QAnon followers don’t take any direct criticism very well. Instead, they lash out with anger. In the end, their immediate families tend to dissolve and be damaged.
The book outlines an approach that seemed to work in one instance. The family members asked the QAnon supporter open-ended questions that encouraged further research. The family members’ questions often raised some doubt about QAnon in the mind of the cooperating supporter. Jesselyn Cook effectively contrasts the direct, critical approach to a QAnon supporter with the counseling approach. Questions clearly worked better than demanding accusations.
It is not surprising that Donald Trump’s rhetoric closely matches the QAnon messaging. The Quiet Damage explains why his followers can be unapologetically loyal and might just provide some clues in how to find some common ground with them. But it won’t be easy.
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