According to a report from Vice News, an organization created to counter QAnon conspiracies and get followers of the movement to see the light is floundering, creating problems for other groups. The anti-QAnon organization was unable to produce even one success story when pressed by Vice.
The report states that two people -- Desiree Kane and Jim Stewartson, who is described as an "alternative reality game designer" -- joined forces to create the Thinkin Project, dedicated to deprogramming QAnon devotees.
In an interview, Kane explained, "When people share with us what kinds of disinformation they are dealing with we share supportive fact and evidence-based reporting curated to the topic. We also share conversational tools to open up a non-confrontational dialogue and re-engage our loved ones and friends — many of whom have been in scary doomsday echo chambers and had a terrifying, demoralizing and isolating year."
However, as the report states, journalists and other who are pushing back against QAnon claim the Thinkin Project has not only been a failure but has also made their work harder.
"The group and Stewartson initially made big promises about what it was going to do, including working on being able to scale up efforts to deradicalize Qanon followers so that it would work for millions of people," Vice's David Gilbert wrote. "But so far it appears the group has succeeded mostly in attacking and alienating journalists and QAnon researchers while conducting their operation in almost complete secrecy to the point that no one really knows what the group is doing."
According to QAnon researcher Mike Rothschild, "It's really dangerous. There is an enormous need for help with deradicalizing people certainly from QAnon but just from conspiracy theories in general, I mean it's enormous. The problem is that I don't know who these people are. I don't know how they're qualified to help anybody. I mean, who are they?"
Rothschild added that Stewartson's theories about QAnon are suspect, making them counterproductive.
"He posted these Medium pieces over the summer about the Russians funding all of this, that QAnon is this gigantic conspiracy that goes all the way up to the very top and it goes back decades and I was like, 'oh, maybe I missed something here, maybe there's some aspect of this that I'm just kind of blind to,'" Rothschild explained. "So I read his stuff and it's just more conspiracy theories, just to explain a conspiracy theory. None of it holds up."
The report notes that "The work being conducted on the Thinkin Project's Discord server is focused on the collection of disinformation, sharing of articles about QAnon and building resources to share with those who contact the group. There is no effort to intervene personally with anyone, or even speak to QAnon believers directly. Instead those who get in touch are directed to a range of online resources with best practices about how to speak to someone who believes in QAnon."
With no interaction with QAnon believers, co-founder Kane admitted they could not claim a single conversion.
You can read more here.
