What is 'Redemption Theory?' Inside the new anti-government conspiracy theory taking hold with QAnon

Over the past few years, the QAnon conspiracy theory movement has built up a bizarre religion around former President Donald Trump, as followers generally believe that he is protecting America from a cult of Satanic child-raping cannibals who consume blood to live forever -- all of which has been influenced by older conspiracy theories, including centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes like the Blood Libel.

But even now, the QAnon narrative continues to evolve, and most recently has been infiltrated by activists from the so-called "Sovereign Citizen" movement — shown clearly by one anti-government activist, Bobby Lawrence, who pushed the so-called "Redemption Theory" at a recent QAnon gathering that featured Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.

In his speech, Lawrence pushed a number of bizarre concepts, like that "Satanic rituals" are being performed on newborn infants through "contracts," and that doctors (or "dock-TORS" as he pointedly pronounced it) are getting parents to "pledge their children."

Writing on Twitter, Anti-Defamation League extremism researcher Mark Pitcavage broke down the basic beliefs of "Redemption Theory" — and how it is now being tied into the bog-standard beliefs of QAnon.