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AS THE weeks and months of covid-19 drag on, I have found myself dragged into an increasingly bewildering and frightening conspiracy theory. I am no conspiracy theorist myself, unless you count the belief that much of the world is currently run by buffoons. When I first heard of QAnon, I filed it alongside 鈥渇lat Earth鈥� as an infuriating but essentially harmless fringe belief. But the more I learn about it, the more worried I become that it could kill off any chance we have of emerging from the pandemic into a greener, more enlightened world.

You may think, like I did at first, that QAnon isn鈥檛 worth spilling ink over. You may also think that an article about it has no place in a popular science magazine. But bear with me.

To cut a long story short, QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that contends the world is run by satan-worshipping paedophiles who traffic children for sex and for a life-extending compound that is extracted from their adrenal glands. It is named after a shady character called Q, who posts 鈥渋nside information鈥� on internet message boards. While it is all total and utter nonsense, two US presidents loom large in the QAnon narrative: Obama as one of the controlling elites and Trump as Q himself or the leader of the fight against the elites and the 鈥渄eep state鈥�, a shadowy organisation that really runs the US.

None of it has any basis in fact and preposterous, fetid conspiracy theories are nothing new. But QAnon has taken them to a new level. It has evolved into an umbrella conspiracy theory that can accommodate all deranged beliefs and unite previously antagonistic conspiracies under the same banner. Its beliefs are seeping into everyday discourse, including mainstream media. Several Republicans standing for office are . If Trump defies the polls and retains the presidency, QAnon votes will have helped put him back into the White House. And if he loses but cries foul, QAnon followers will be among those trying to restore him to power despite the result.

Don鈥檛 get me wrong, US voters are entitled to vote for whoever they think will make the best president, and the result must be legitimate. But another four years of Trump would be disastrous for our existential battles against climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and more pandemics. Only science-based policies can dig us out of those holes.

鈥淚t seems that when you have unshackled yourself from one bit of reality, letting go of the rest comes easily鈥�

Unsurprisingly, QAnon doesn鈥檛 have much time for science or science-based policies. In its world view, they are just another tool of the elite to distract from what is really going on and an excuse to implement policies to cement their status. During the pandemic, QAnon has evolved to be explicitly anti-science. Recently, Q has declared that covid-19 is either a hoax or a bioweapon and that climate change is a con.

That was evidently a smart move on Q鈥檚 behalf. According to , Q has tempted some prominent climate-change deniers 鈥� who were already expanding into the covid-19 denial business 鈥� to start spreading QAnon poison. I fully expect anti-vaccine activists to be next to join the bandwagon. It seems that when you have unshackled yourself from one bit of reality, letting go of the rest comes easily.

QAnon hasn鈥檛 just cornered the market in conspiracy theories, but is morphing into a conspiracy-industrial complex of reality denial that threatens to sway the most important US general election since the last one.

Combating it will be difficult, if not impossible. Many articles of QAnon faith have been proven spectacularly and blatantly wrong, such as the allegation that a basement of a famous pizza restaurant in Washington DC was the centre of the paedophile ring (it wasn鈥檛 and it has no basement). But these setbacks only serve to strengthen true believers鈥� faith.

On a good day, I think of QAnon as a fascinating case study of human psychology and behaviour, laying bare how far from reality our minds can stray, how social forces can drag people into parallel universes and how we can sustain beliefs in the face of what is irrefutable evidence to the contrary. But then I wake up.

Believe me, I don鈥檛 want to give these people the oxygen of publicity or stoke a counter-conspiracy theory that fervidly imagines QAnon wields greater power than it actually does. But I think it is time that a wider audience was made aware of just how dangerously influential this is becoming. QAnon believers aren鈥檛 mildly eccentric flat-Earthers or shills for the fossil fuel industry. They are fighting a war against reality. That is one existential battle you really don鈥檛 want to lose.