Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat

by Derek Beres

Whatever they’re called, the villains are after innocent children, whose blood, according to the lore, contains some essence of purity and vitality. This would be the adrenochrome of the QAnon fever dream: a substance that Anons believe the Elites extract from kidnapped children to ingest as a youth elixir. QAnon memes spreading the fiction show children, post-harvest, with dark circles over their eyes. The so-called panda eyes are striking on the mostly white faces. And so children are pure and empty vessels for adult neuroses that flow in two opposing directions. As the victims of vaccination, their innocent blood is allegedly corrupted, with made-up consequences such as autism. As the victims of QAnon blood libel, innocence is extracted from their veins, leaving a lifeless, terrified husk. Whether poisoned or bled, the violation occurs at the tip of a needle, where the state gains access to the inner person. “The natural body meets the body politic in the act of vaccination,” writes Eula Biss, “where a single needle penetrates both.”