QAnon and the BITE Model (Control of Behavior, Information, Thoughts and Emotions)
Additional Reading:
Conspiracy Theories, Cults and How to Help Friends and Loved Ones with Debunker Mick West
How to Help People Involved in QAnon–A Reddit AMA: QAnonCasualties
AUTHORITARIAN PYRAMID CULT STRUCTURE
To help discern the member hierarchy of a destructive cult, I typically use the pyramid below. To apply this structure for Trump’s followers, let’s first start outside the pyramid with “fringe members,” people who are affiliated very loosely in a behavioral sense and may be indoctrinated into the authoritarian belief system. They are influenced and involved with the destructive cult, but not to the extent of someone who may work for Trump in the administration or one of his businesses. That individual may be evaluated as less extremely mind controlled than the staffer but is still involved in a destructive, mind control (BITE) experience. People mostly use smartphones and these digital devices serve as the personalized delivery system for cult indoctrination–if they believe all critical information is “fake” or evil.
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QAnon is a political cult. It has a coherent black/white, good vs. evil and us vs. them ideology. Trump is the putative savior, a messianic figure able to end and bring to justice an international cabal of satanic child traffickers. Underlying the story is Q, a super patriot digital soldier who clarifies and magnifies the spiritual mission of Trump and the faithful. A so-called “Great Awakening” will lead to the arrest of all high profile pedophiles or traffickers (the “enemies” of children). Judgement Day, known as “The Storm” will arrive at any moment, in advance of the 2020 US Presidential election. People are influenced through their smartphones, their computers, and media they consume that all reinforces the notion of an all or nothing, good versus evil ideology. To be a follower of Qdrops is to enter into a version of a live action game, where there is no individual critical thinking. Everyone who criticizes Trump is labeled an enemy, a brainwashed agent of the left, a member of the cult of Soros etc. When you realize that so many prophecies have utterly been wrong and start to question and dare verbalize doubts to other believers, you will be chastised and punished. Family members and friends who ask critical, confrontational questions in factually based conversations are seen as a problem and they are avoided.
It is important to state that people can become involved with authoritarian cults like Putin’s Russia, or the Chinese Communist Party, or organized criminal cartels; for these people, the BITE model is even more extreme. Trump true believers have accused me of being brainwashed by the left or the mainstream media. If they take the time to evaluate my books, writing and interviews, they will understand that I do listen to pro Trump sources like Fox, conservative sources like the Wall Street Journal, as well as follow on Twitter many people I do not trust as fact based. There are also left-leaning political cults such as those presented by Mao or Lenin and Stalin. The BITE model is a vehicle for understanding the phenomenon of mind control, not for assessing left or right leaning ideology as representing good or bad and/or evil. I use the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as the basis for my analysis.
Green means does not apply
Orange means it partially applies
Red means it absolutely applies
Behavior Control
Regulate an individual’s physical reality (only in terms of attending rallies and protests)
Dictate where, how and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates
Dictate when, how, and with whom the member has sex
Control types of clothing and hairstyles (only insofar as wearing tee shirts, hats, etc)
Regulate diet -food and drink, hunger and/or fasting
Manipulation and deprivation of sleep (only in so far as some believers are not getting 7-9 hours of sleep- pertains to everyone)
Financial exploitation, manipulation, or dependence (only about pressure to give more money)
Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time
Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self-indoctrination, including the Internet
Permission required for major decisions
Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors
Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative
Discourage individualism, encourage group-think
Impose rigid rules and regulations
Encourage and engage in corporal punishment
Punish disobedience by beating, torture, burning, cutting, rape, or tattooing/branding
Threaten harm to family or friends (by cutting off family/friends)
Force individual to rape or be raped
Instill dependency and obedience
Information Control
Deception
Deliberately withhold information
Distort information to make it more acceptable
Systematically lie to the cult member
Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:
Internet, tv, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media
Critical information
Former members
Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate
Control through a cell phone with texting, calls, and internet tracking
Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs Insider doctrines
Ensure that information is not easily accessible
Control information at different levels and missions within the group
Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when
Encourage spying on other members
Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member
Report deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership
Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by the group
Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:
Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies, and other media
Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources
Unethical use of confession
Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries
Withholding forgiveness or absolution
Manipulation of memory, possibly false memories
Thought Control
Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth
Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality
Instill black and white thinking
Decide between good vs. evil
Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)
Change a person’s name and identity
Use of loaded language and cliches which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzzwords
Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts
Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking, and even to age regress the member
Memories are manipulated and false memories are created
Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:
Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
Chanting
Meditating
Praying
Speaking in tongues
Singing or humming
Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism
Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine or policy allowed
Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil or not useful
Instill new ‘map of reality’
Emotional Control
Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong, or selfish
Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of hopelessness, anger, or doubt
Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault
Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as:
Identity guilt
You are not living up to your potential
Your family is deficient
Your past is suspect
Your affiliations are unwise
Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish
Social guilt
Historical guilt
Instill fear, such as fear of:
Thinking independently
The outside world
Enemies
Losing one’s salvation
Leaving or being
Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment, and then declaring you are a horrible sinner
Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins
Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority
No happiness or fulfillment possible outside the group
Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc
Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends and family
Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock-and-roll
Threats of harm to ex-member and family (threats of cutting off friends/family)
Additional Reading:
What to Do About the QAnon and Those Ensnared in It? Interview with Travis View
QAnon: What Is It About? A Discussion With Conspiracy Theory Researcher Travis View
Conspiracy Theories, Cults and How to Help Friends and Loved Ones with Debunker Mick West
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