A Note on “Save the Children” Protests

From NBC News:

…On Saturday, more than 200 “Save the Children” events are scheduled to take place across the country, organized by a constellation of individuals and newly formed groups, according to an NBC News analysis of Facebook events.

…QAnon spent years on the fringes of the internet, with the theory evolving and often growing less specific. What was originally a conspiracy theory that centered on an anonymous internet poster has now become something of a catchall for a variety of beliefs about a hidden group of child abusers in positions of power.

…One group that formed in July, “Freedom for the Children,” has organized more than 60 rallies in 26 states and Canada, according to their website, where they accept donations. Until Wednesday, personal Facebook profiles for co-founders Bhairavi Shera and Tara Nicole seen by NBC News contained posts with conspiracy theories about Bill Gates, the coronavirus and QAnon’s precursor, pizzagate. By Thursday, Shera’s personal profile had been either removed or deleted, and Nicole deleted or made previous posts private.

According to the BBC’s Shayan Sardarizadeh, there was a crowd of 500 in London, and on Facebook he found footage from “Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newport, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Dundee”. A video here shows that the London contingent eventually made its way to Buckingham Palace, where the crowd chanted “paedophiles” through the gate – to the delight of Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Guiffre, who Tweeted her thanks in response. One of the banners visible here reads “Westminster pedos are protected”, a reference to the various conspiracy theories that were heavily promoted in the tabloid press between 2014 and 2016, and which remain current despite the critical assessment of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the the conviction of the hoaxer Carl Beech.

Meanwhile, an Australian reporter named Cameron Wilson notes that events were “scheduled for Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne”. He adds:

It’s complicated because Save Our Children isn’t a creation of QANon supporters, but they’re co-opting the movement (which is a lot more palatable than their usual “Satanic elite cabal” schtick)

A series of clips from a protest in Hollywood, uploaded by Left Coast Right Watch, can be viewed on Twitter starting here.

Some New Age activists apparently regard Donald Trump as a “light worker“, which dovetails with the central QAnon belief that Trump is about to expose VIP paedophiles and Satanists by announcing mass arrests of opponents and members of “the elite”. But to the dismay of veteran QAnon enthusiasts, many of the weekend’s protesters appear to have little interest in Trump and his populist nationalism; as one writes (screenshot here):

This shit was not organized by any Q outlet that we were aware of.  Just popped out of thin air?  These are not Q people. Zero red white and blue patriots in the crowd. Don’t fall for it!  They all  look like libtards ffs

As assessed by one Twitter user:

the tl;dr version is that QAnon used #SaveTheChildren to try to trick a bunch of new people into their ranks and redpill them into Trump supporters

they’re angry at the CA protests cause the lefties they roped in still hate Trump

The shift to phrases like “Save Our Children” or “Save the Children” started as a way to get around social media action against QAnon hashtags, but beyond being a handy logo is “Q” even needed any more for substantive content? The mass arrests have been continually postponed; Trump has now indicated that he knows little about the movement; he has sent well-wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell; and at this moment his re-election is far from certain.

The roots of the weekend’s protests are broader and deeper than QAnon, and perhaps it is more likely that the energy of QAnon will be assimilated into it rather than that QAnon will co-opt it.

UPDATE: In addition to the above, there was also a UK protest in Nottingham – the self-proclaimed “police whistleblower” Jon Wedger was in attendance and has put online a video, where he is shown talking to Louise Dickens and other activists. This particular event was billed as a “veterans’ march”, and at one point Wedger speaks with someone in military uniform. Another video of the event, apparently uploaded by Tommy Robinson’s “TR News”, shows at least one “Q” placard, along with banners alluding to “grooming” allegations and one stating “Children’s Lives Matter”.

Mail Online has assembled images from Nottingham and an account from social media. According to their write-up:

Giant crowds ignored social-distancing guidelines as they filled Old Market Square with banners claiming ‘Antifa protect pedos’ and ‘God bless Donald Trump’.

And one man was found holding a flag promoting the Werwolf Resistance – an alleged Neo Nazi group… 

Several men are also shown bearing a banner that reads “WHITELAW – We Kneel For No One”,  presumably meant to express contempt for the Black Lives Matter “take a knee” movement.

2 Responses

  1. As if Donald Trump would not be shouting from the rooftops if he had a “pedo arrest task force” with such successes as they claim (especially as Hilary apparently runs all these cults) and given his history for fibbing he’d claim to have such forces even if he didn’t.
    Clearly the entire matter doesn’t interest him, not on his radar but I see he subtly accepted the loon’s support.
    RE: @pizzagate which was an integral part of these fanatic’s beliefs- the original claim Qanon spread on Reditt was that there was a secret tunnel from the Washington pizza parlour to the White House were the Kenyan Barry ‘Barack” Obama and his cross dressing male “wife” Michelle (in reality a former local council worker from Atlanta) had their daily babies delivered direct to the kitchen to be prepared for supper whenever the Clintons called by but that was quietly dropped as the years wore on with Donald Trump in residence and failing to disclose the tunnel.
    I had built up a relationship with a Qanon fanatic and asked him about this discrepancy and he claimed the recent drama where Trump had to retreat to the WH basement safety shelter was all part of the plan and a signal to his followers and said tunnel had been destroyed by Trump in his first month in office.
    Qanon and Trump Cult followers are quite unique from other cults in that their beliefs run wild and they create their own mantras and rules

  2. The organisers of the Huddersfield campaign are acting very strangely – they reported “attempted abductions” that weren’t in the press, and coincided with the timing of the demo.
    I’ll be posting updates on my page at saveourchildren.uk.

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