From Berlin to Washington, and Brasília? Assessing QAnon as a Bridging Narrative for Anti-Government Extremism

Berlin 2020, Washington 2021, Brasilia 2023: Since the pandemic, both research and security authorities observed surges of anti-government violence. Eschewing established categories of extremism, the incidents brought together heterogenous sets of actors who heavily rely on conspiracy theories and social media. Even though the incidents gained significant scholarly attention, comparative analyses have so far been limited. This paper investigates the transnational dimensions of anti-government extremism (AGE) through the lens of conspiracy narratives, focusing particularly on the QAnon movement's role as a radicalising and unifying force across polities, social media platforms and extremist milieus. Empirically, the paper explores the relationship between the storming of the Reichstag (Berlin, 2020), the Capitol (Washington, 2021), and Congress (Brasília, 2022) by conducting comparative network analyses of QAnon-related Telegram channels in the run up of the events. By then examining their qualitative linguistic usage patterns of hate speech and calls for violence, this paper also considers narrative similarities that foster anti-democratic attitudes and anti-government violence. The paper builds on the hypothesis that meta-conspiracy theories with anti-elitist epistemologies like QAnon operate as powerful bridging narratives, connecting diverse actors and movements across regional and political contexts.