QAnon Was Born Out of the Sex Ad Moral Panic That Took Down Backpage.com

The Intercept

Left

Mixed Factuality

Independent: First Look Media

QAnon Was Born Out of the Sex Ad Moral Panic That Took Down Backpage.com

Americans adore a moral panic. During the Red Scare, we believed that Soviet agents were everywhere, having secretly infiltrated all levels of society. In the 1950s, the U.S. government banned switchblades over unfounded fears that we were in the throes of “West Side Story”-style knife violence. The Satanic Panic convinced Americans of the 1980s that absurd claims of ritual abuse and sacrifice were somehow credible. Around the same time, there w…