Their Family Members Are QAnon Followers — And They're At A Loss What To Do About It
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2021
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, U.S. authorities are increasingly regarding QAnon as a domestic terror threat — especially following last week's insurrection at the Capitol. But the people in the best position to address that threat are the families of Q followers — and they're at a loss about how to do it.
Some of those family members spoke with us about how their family members started following QAnon and how that has affected their relationships.
Travis View researches right-wing conspiracies and hosts the podcast QAnon Anonymous. He explains how the QAnon story is not all that different from digital marketing tactics, and how followers become detached from reality.
Dannagal Young is an associate professor of communications at the University of Delaware and studies why people latch onto political conspiracy theories. She share some ways to help family members who are seemingly lost down one of these conspiracy rabbit holes.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Way Tyler, and we're going to use his first name only for reasons we'll explain in a bit. |
| 0:05.1 | The Way Tyler describes his dad is that he's a guy who whatever he does does it 100%. |
| 0:11.3 | Which is normally a very positive attribute. Usually those things are hobbies or |
| 0:16.4 | you know motorcycles or off-road vehicles. And this time he just went 100% off the deep end for |
| 0:24.2 | a Republican and that and that Trump support. And that means on January 6th Tyler like the |
| 0:30.6 | rest of us was glued to the television. Because just days earlier he had gotten a text from his sister |
| 0:36.2 | about their father's plans to be in Washington DC for a pro Trump rally. He read that text to us. |
| 0:42.8 | Just for your information dad is driving and taking the camper to DC this week. And he intends to |
| 0:48.4 | stay in a hotel and has a reservation. She just told me all his guns are loaded and summer on the |
| 0:53.7 | floor. So as the nation watched as thousands of people began to march towards the Capitol. |
| 1:02.1 | Tyler's head was spinning. Knowing he was there was certainly nerve-wracking and knowing that he |
| 1:07.3 | would probably be one of those guys who was going to try and get into the Capitol you know or try |
| 1:14.8 | to maybe try to hurt someone. I do know he brought his guns. I don't know if they were ever used |
| 1:22.6 | but that'll that'll that'll that'll weigh on you. |
| 1:31.4 | Tyler's dad isn't just partisan. He's a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory. And we aren't |
| 1:36.8 | using his last name so Tyler can speak openly about that relationship. One that he says has |
| 1:41.6 | completely fallen apart as his dad has gotten deeper into Q. His father is back home now. |
| 1:48.5 | But Tyler is still trying to wrap his head around all of it. How a run-of-the-mill conservative |
| 1:54.1 | like his dad could sink into a world of conspiracies about the election could drive across the country |
| 2:00.1 | armed and prepare to fight against a peaceful transition of power. Consider this. US authorities |
| 2:07.6 | are increasingly regarding QAnon as a domestic terror threat but the people in the best position |
| 2:12.8 | to address that threat. The families of Q followers are at a loss about how to do it. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.