What exactly is QAnon saying about ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’?
This year hasn’t been great for comedian & TV show host Ellen DeGeneres. For a long time, she stood high on a pedestal – preaching kindness & generosity – but that façade’s now come down crashing.
Ellen’s been under constant scrutiny ever since reports about a toxic workplace at her eponymous The Ellen DeGeneres Show surfaced, which sparked an internal investigation into the workplace by WarnerMedia. The allegations & accusations range from racism, workplace intimidation, and maltreatment of employees all the way to misconduct.
The negative press for Ellen didn’t stop at that. Social media’s been ablaze with people sharing incidents of their distasteful encounters with the popular talk show host. All the anecdotes point to how she’s not as nice as her public image– solidified by her own show – would have you believe.
Enjoy the QAnon show
Enter QAnon. Many of us know it as a sprawling conspiracy theory group that gripped America’s fringe right, but the QAnon phenomenon has bloomed into something much larger. QAnon proposes a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that claims President Donald Trump and the U.S. military are waging a secret war against an international cabal running child sex-trafficking rings and more.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but at its core, QAnon is an online community that believes that – according to “anti-disinformation expert” Brooke Binkowski – Trump is the savior of the United States and that an international alliance is helping him overturn the deep state. Trump retweeting QAnon-promoting accounts has only field Q supports. It’s no surprise, then, that QAnon merchandise is spotted at his rallies.
QAnon followers have made social media a quagmire of conspiracy theories in the process. Social media platforms like Twitter & Facebook have been trying to clamp down on the accounts of QAnon followers and their messages, called Q drops. So while we’re hooked to the developments in the Ellen storyline, QAnon intersected with the plot via social media.
They never thought she would lose
The two worlds collided when Ellen’s wife Portia de Rossi posted on her Instagram. That’s not the surprising part – after the recent spate of accusations against Ellen, we all expected de Rossi to post in her defense, seeing as many celebrities have been doing so already.
Portia posted the non-controversial “I stand by Ellen” typographic captioned thus: “To all our fans….we see you. Thank you for your support. #stopbotattacks #IStandWithEllenDeGeneres”
Considering Ellen’s famous friends have been rallying to defend her, this post by de Rossi was rather mild & not expected to ruffle any feathers. But what exactly are these bots de Rossi referred to? For all we knew, people sharing their traumatic encounters with Ellen are real human beings reporting seemingly authentic accounts.
Here’s a likely explanation. While The Ellen DeGeneres Show was battling fires on the internet, the anti-human trafficking movement on social media was being co-opted by the QAnon movement. So, one look around de Rossi’s post gave us a likely clarification. It’s possibly why comments under the post included, “STOP BOTS…?? How about STOP CHILD ABUSE….Oh yeah i forgot who your [sic] with…”
In fact, lurking a bit more on her account – and on the accounts of several other celebrities like Tom Hanks & Oprah Winfrey – gives a clear picture on how the QAnon followers are propagating theories. By “rationing” these tweets with replies, Q fans bombard social media with claims these high-profile celebrities are a part of a massive pedophile ring.
Is the storm upon us?
Tom & Rita Wilson recently became Greek citizens, and Q has hinted that this move – along with other celebrities’ and public figures’ moves to distance themselves from the United States – are motivated by a desire to avoid criminal consequences stemming from alleged pedophilia and other sordid behavior.
Lamestream media and Silicon Valley social media executives are clearly on a mission to discredit & deplatform (respectively) QAnon promoters in their narratives and on their platforms. Whether that’s due to these figures being implicated in alleged criminal conspiracies or for an altruistic imperative to improve the accuracy of public information flow – or some other reason – we’ll let you decide.
