Editing Satanism (section)

==Accusations of Satanism==
<!-- Groups or individuals alleged to have practiced Satanism before the appearance of modern Satanism in the 1960s -->
According to author [[Arthur Lyons (writer)|Arthur Lyons]], "Satanic religions are as old as monotheism and have their origins in Persia of the sixth century",{{#tag:ref|An abstract of Lyon's book appeared on US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs web page.<ref name="Lyons-1988">{{cite book |last1=Lyons |first1=Arthur. |title=Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Worship in America |date=1988 |publisher=Mysterious Press |url=https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/satan-wants-you-cult-devil-worship-america |access-date=16 January 2024}}</ref> |group=Note}}
and Joe Carter of the conservative ecumenical journal ''[[First Things]]'' writes that "real satanism has been around since the beginning of history, selling an appealing message: Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God."<ref name="Carter-2011-fountainhead">{{cite journal |last1=Carter |first1=Joe |title=THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF SATANISM |journal=First Things |date=8 June 2011 |url=https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2011/06/the-fountainhead-of-satanism |access-date=16 January 2024}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|In the 19th century, Charles Baudelaire (and others with variations of the wording) was quoted saying, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."<ref name="QI-trick-2018">{{cite web |title=The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn't Exist |url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/03/20/devil/ |website=Quote Investigator |access-date=16 January 2024 |date=20 March 2018}}</ref>|group=Note}}

On the other hand, religious scholar Joseph Laycock writes that the "available evidence suggests" that Satanism began as "an imaginary religion Christians invented to demonize their opponents".<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention/>
Confessions of worship of Satan came only after torture or other forms of coercion in early modern Europe.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention/> While early stories of satanic activity have been commonly labeled and regarded as propaganda based on falsehood, they also partially shaped the beliefs of what would become modern religious Satanism. Those who absorbed and accepted the tales sometimes began to imitate them (celebrating Black Masses for example), a process known to folklorists as "ostension".<ref>{{cite book |first=B. |last=Ellis |title=Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live |location=Jackson |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2003}}</ref>

===Medieval and Early Modern Christendom===

{{See also|European witchcraft|Maleficium (sorcery)|Witch-cult hypothesis}}
[[File:Baldung_hexen_ca1514.jpg|thumb|360x360px|[[Hans Baldung Grien]]'s ''Three Witches'', c.&nbsp;1514]]
As Christianity expanded throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, it came into contact with a variety of other religions, which it regarded as "[[pagan]]". Christianity  being a monotheist religion, Christian theologians believed that since there was only one God (the God of Christianity) the gods and goddesses with supernatural powers venerated by these "pagans" could not be genuine divinities but must actually be demons.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=23}} However, they did not believe that "pagans" were deliberately worshipping devils, but were instead simply misguided and unaware of the "true" God.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=24}}

Those Christian groups regarded as [[Heresy in Christianity|heretics]] by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] were treated differently, with theologians arguing that they were deliberately worshipping the Devil.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=24–26}} This was accompanied by claims that such individuals engaged in acts of evil—incestuous sexual orgies, the murder of infants, and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]—all stock accusations that had previously been leveled at Christians themselves in the [[Roman Empire]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=25–26}} In Christian iconography, the Devil and demons were given the physical traits of figures from [[classical mythology]], such as the god [[Pan (god)|Pan]], [[faun]]s, and [[satyr]]s.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=24}}

The first recorded example of such an accusation being made within [[Western Christianity]] took place in [[Toulouse]] in 1022, when two clerics were tried for allegedly venerating a demon.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=25}} Throughout the [[Middle Ages]], this accusation would be applied to a wide range of Christian heretical groups, including the [[Paulicians]], [[Bogomils]], [[Cathars]], [[Waldensians]], and the [[Hussites]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=28}} The [[Knights Templar]] were accused of worshipping an [[Cult image|idol]] known as [[Baphomet]], with Lucifer having appeared at their meetings in the form of a cat.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=126}} As well as these Christian groups, these claims were also made about Europe's Jewish community.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=28–29}} In the 13th century, there were also references made to a group of "Luciferians" led by a woman named Lucardis which hoped to see Satan rule in Heaven. References to this group continued into the 14th century, although historians studying the allegations concur that these Luciferians were probably a fictitious invention.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=29–31}}

Within Christian thought, the idea developed that certain individuals could make [[Deal with the Devil|a pact with Satan]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=57}} This may have emerged after observing that pacts with gods and goddesses played a role in various pre-Christian belief systems, or that such pacts were also made as part of the Christian cult of saints.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=58}} Another possibility is that it derives from a misunderstanding of [[Augustine of Hippo]]'s condemnation of [[augury]] in his ''[[On Christian Doctrine]]'', written in the late 4th century. Here, he stated that people who consulted augurs were entering ''quasi pacts'' (covenants) with demons.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=57–58}} The idea of the diabolical pact made with demons was popularized across Europe in the story of [[Faust]], probably based in part on the real life [[Johann Georg Faust]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=60–63}}

As the late medieval gave way to the [[early modern period]], European Christendom experienced a schism between the established [[Roman Catholic Church]] and the breakaway [[Protestant]] movement. In the ensuing [[Reformation]] and [[Counter-Reformation]] (1517–1700 CE), both Catholics and Protestants accused each other of deliberately being in league with Satan.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=35}} It was in this context that the terms ''Satanist'' and ''Satanism'' emerged.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=257 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=2}}

====Witch trials====

[[File:Wickiana4.jpg|thumb|The [[torture]] used against [[Witch trials in the early modern period|accused witches]], 1577. Estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe vary between 40,000 and 100,000.]]
The early modern period also saw fear of Satanists reach its "historical apogee" in the form of the [[Witch trials in the early modern period|witch trials of the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries]],{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}} when between 30,000 and 50,000 alleged witches were executed.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}} This came about as the accusations which had been leveled at medieval heretics, among them that of devil-worship, were applied to the pre-existing idea of [[European witchcraft|the witch]], or practitioner of malevolent [[magic (paranormal)|magic]].{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=133 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=37}} The idea of a conspiracy of Satanic witches was developed by educated elites, although the concept of malevolent witchcraft was a widespread part of popular belief, and [[folkloric]] ideas about the night witch, the [[wild hunt]], and the dance of the fairies were incorporated into it.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=38}} The earliest trials took place in Northern Italy and France, before spreading it out to other areas of Europe and to Britain's North American colonies, being carried out by the legal authorities in both Catholic and Protestant regions.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}}

Most historians agree that the majority of those persecuted in these witch trials were innocent of any involvement in Devil worship.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=70}} Historian Darren Eldridge writes that claims that there actually was a cult of devil-worshippers being pursued by witch hunters "have not survived the scrutiny of surviving trial records" done by historians from 1962 to 2012.<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-39>{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=39 |year=2012}}</ref>
However, in their summary of the evidence for the trials, the historians Geoffrey Scarre and John Callow thought it "without doubt" that some of those accused in the trials had been guilty of employing magic in an attempt to harm their enemies and were thus genuinely guilty of witchcraft.{{sfn|Scarre|Callow|2001|p=2}}

====Affair of the Poisons====
{{main|Affair of the Poisons}}
In a scandal starting with the poisoning of three people, prominent members of the French aristocracy, including members of the king's inner circle, were implicated and sentenced on charges of poisoning and witchcraft. Between 1677 and 1682, during the reign of King [[Louis XIV]], 36 people were executed in Satanic panic known to history as the [[Affair of the Poisons]].<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.2-Poisons/> At least  some of the accusers were implicated others under torture and in hopes of saving their lives. These highly unreliable reports include what "may be the first report of a satanic mass using a woman as an altar".<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.2-Poisons>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: Chapter 2, Imagining the Black Mass. The Affair of the Poisons</ref>

===18th- to 20th-century Christendom===

[[File:Seal of Baphomet.svg|thumb|Stanislas de Guaita drew the original goat pentagram, which first appeared in the book ''La Clef de la Magie Noire'' in 1897. Adaptations of this inverted pentagram would later become synonymous with [[Baphomet]].]]

The [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and [[Scientific Revolution]] changed humanity's understanding of the world. The mathematics of [[Isaac Newton]] and psychology of [[John Locke]] "left little space for the intervention of supernatural beings".<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-41>{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=41 |year=2012}}</ref> [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[evolution]] undermined the doctrine of the Fall in the Garden of Eden and the role of the diabolical serpent, while also providing an "alternative account of human evil" in the form of "a residual effect of our animal nature".<ref name="devil-oldridge-2012-67">{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=43 |year=2012}}</ref> The [[Industrial Revolution]] and urbanization disturbed traditional social relations and folk ideas to undermine belief in witchcraft and the devil.<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-67/> Understanding of disorders of the mind undercut demonic possession.<ref name="devil-oldridge-2012-67"/>   But while the hunting and killing of alleged witches waned, belief in Satan did not disappear.

During the 18th century, gentleman's social clubs became increasingly prominent in Britain and Ireland, among the most secretive of which were the [[Hellfire Club]]s, which were first reported in the 1720s.{{sfnm|1a1=Introvigne|1y=2016|1pp=58–59 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=66}} The most famous of these groups was the Order of the Knights of Saint Francis, which was founded circa 1750 by the aristocrat [[Sir Francis Dashwood]] and which assembled first at his estate at [[West Wycombe]] and later in [[Medmenham Abbey]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=66–67}} A number of contemporary press sources portrayed these as gatherings of [[atheist]] [[Rake (character)|rakes]] where Christianity was mocked, and toasts were made to the Devil.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=66}} Beyond these sensationalist accounts, which may not be accurate portrayals of actual events, little is known about the activities of the Hellfire Clubs.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=66}} Introvigne suggested that they may have engaged in a form of "playful Satanism" in which Satan was invoked "to show a daring contempt for conventional morality" rather than to pay homage  to him.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=60–61}}

The [[French Revolution]] of 1789 dealt a blow to the hegemony of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in parts of Europe, and soon a number of Catholic authors began making claims that it had been masterminded by a conspiratorial group of Satanists.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=71}} Among the first to do so was French Catholic priest Jean-Baptiste Fiard, who publicly claimed that a wide range of individuals, from the [[Jacobins]] to [[tarot|tarot card readers]], were part of a Satanic conspiracy.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=71–73}} Fiard's ideas were furthered by [[Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym]] (1765–1851), who devoted a lengthy book to this [[conspiracy theory]]; he claimed that Satanists had supernatural powers allowing them to curse people and to shapeshift into both cats and fleas.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=74–78}} Although most of his contemporaries regarded Berbiguier as suffering from mental illness,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=84–85}} his ideas gained credence among many occultists, including [[Stanislas de Guaita]], a [[Christian Kabbalah|Cabalist]] who used them for the basis of his book, ''The Temple of Satan''.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=85–86}}

A reaction to this was the [[Taxil hoax]] in 1890s France, where an anti-clerical writer [[Léo Taxil]] (aka Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès), publicly converted to Catholicism and then published several works alleging to expose the  Satanic doings of [[Anti-Masonry|Freemasons]]. In 1897, Taxil called a press conference promising to introduce a key character of his stories but instead announced that his revelations about the Freemasons were made up, and thanked the Catholic clergy for helping to publicize his stories.<ref name=Confession>{{cite web
|url= https://www.learnreligions.com/alternative-religion-4684831
|accessdate= 25 October 2007
|title= The Confession of Leo Taxil
|date= 25 April 1897
|archive-date= 2008-05-13
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080513164148/http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_confessiontaxil.htm
|url-status= dead
}}</ref> Nine years later he told an American magazine that at first he thought readers would recognize his tales as obvious nonsense, "amusement pure and simple", but when he realized they believed his stories and that there was "lots of money" to be made in publishing them, he continued to perpetrate the hoax.<ref name="National Magazine, 1906">''National Magazine, an Illustrated American Monthly'', Volume XXIV: April – September 1906, pages 228 and 229</ref> Around the same time, another convert to Catholicism [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]], also helped promote the concept of active Satanist groups in his 1891 work ''Là-bas'' (Down There). Huysmans "helped to cement" the idea  the black mass as Satanic rite and inversion of the Roman Catholic mass, with a naked woman for an altar.<ref name="Britannica-White"/> (Unlike Taxil, his conversion was apparently genuine and his book was published as fiction.)

In the early 20th century, the British novelist [[Dennis Wheatley]] produced a range of influential novels in which his protagonists battled Satanic groups.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=266–267}} At the same time, non-fiction authors such as [[Montague Summers]] and Rollo Ahmed published books claiming that Satanic groups practicing black magic were still active across the world, although they provided no evidence that this was the case.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=141–142}} During the 1950s, various British tabloid newspapers repeated such claims, largely basing their accounts on the allegations of one woman, Sarah Jackson, who claimed to have been a member of such a group.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=143–149}} In 1973, the British Christian Doreen Irvine published ''From Witchcraft to Christ'', in which she claimed to have been a member of a Satanic group that gave her supernatural powers, such as the ability to [[levitation (paranormal)|levitate]], before she escaped and embraced Christianity.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=159–161}}

In the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, various Christian preachers—the most famous being [[Mike Warnke]] in his 1972 book ''The Satan-Seller''—claimed that they had been members of Satanic groups who carried out sex rituals and animal sacrifices before discovering Christianity.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=164–170}} According to Gareth Medway in his historical examination of Satanism, these stories were "a series of inventions by insecure people and hack writers, each one based on a previous story, exaggerated a little more each time".{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=161}}

Other publications made allegations of Satanism against historical figures. The 1970s saw the publication of the Romanian Protestant preacher [[Richard Wurmbrand]]'s book in which he argued—without corroborating evidence—that the socio-political theorist [[Karl Marx]] had been a Satanist.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=262–263 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2p=66}}

===Ritual abuse hysteria===
{{main|Satanic panic}}
At the end of the 20th century, a [[moral panic]] arose from claims that a Devil-worshipping cult was committing sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism in its rituals, and including children among the victims of its rites.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=13}} Initially, the alleged perpetrators of such crimes were labeled "witches", although the term ''Satanist'' was soon adopted as a favored alternative,{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=13}} and the phenomenon itself came to be called "the Satanism Scare".{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=15}} Those active in the scare alleged that there was a conspiracy of organized Satanists who occupied prominent positions throughout society, from the police to politicians, and that they had been powerful enough to cover up their crimes.{{sfnm|1a1=La Fontaine|1y=2016|1p=13 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2p=381}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=Preceded by some significant but isolated episodes in the 1970s, a great Satanism scare exploded in the 1980s in the United States and Canada and was subsequently exported towards England, Australia, and other countries. It was unprecedented in history. It surpassed even the results of [[Taxil]]'s propaganda, and has been compared with the most virulent periods of witch hunting. The scare started in 1980 and declined slowly between 1990... and 1994, when official British and American reports denied the real existence of ritual satanic crimes. Particularly outside the U.S. and U.K., however, its consequences are still felt today.|source=Sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne, 2016{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=372}} }}

One of the primary sources for the scare was ''[[Michelle Remembers]]'', a 1980 book by the Canadian psychiatrist [[Lawrence Pazder]] in which he detailed what he claimed were the [[repressed memories]] of his patient (and wife) Michelle Smith. Smith had claimed that as a child she had been abused by her family in Satanic rituals in which babies were sacrificed and Satan himself appeared.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=175–177 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2pp=374–376}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=115–116}} In 1983, allegations were made that the McMartin family—owners of a preschool in California—were guilty of sexually abusing the children in their care during Satanic rituals. The allegations resulted in a [[McMartin preschool trial|lengthy and expensive trial]], in which all of the accused would eventually be cleared.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=178–183 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2pp=405–406}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=116–120}} The publicity generated by the case resulted in similar allegations being made in various other parts of the United States.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=183}}

A key claim by the "anti-Satanists" of the Satanic Scare was that any child's claim about Satanic ritual abuse must be true, because children do not lie.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=16}} Although some involved in the anti-Satanism movement were from Jewish and secular backgrounds,{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=369 |2a1=La Fontaine|2y=2016|2p=15}} a central part was played by fundamentalist and evangelical  Christians, in particular [[Pentecostalist]] Christians, with Christian groups holding conferences and producing books and videotapes to promote belief in the conspiracy.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=15}} Various figures in law enforcement also came to be promoters of the conspiracy theory, with such "cult cops" holding various conferences to promote it.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=191–195}} The scare was later imported to the United Kingdom through visiting evangelicals and became popular among some of the country's social workers,{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=220–221}} resulting in a range of accusations and trials across Britain.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=234–248}}

In the late 1980s, the Satanic Scare had lost its impetus following increasing skepticism about such allegations,{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=210–211}} and a number of those who had been convicted of perpetrating Satanic ritual abuse saw their convictions overturned.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=213}} In 1990, an agent of the U.S. [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], Ken Lanning, revealed that he had investigated 300 allegations of Satanic ritual abuse and found no evidence for Satanism or ritualistic activity in any of them.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=213}} In the UK, the [[Department of Health (United Kingdom)|Department of Health]] commissioned the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine to examine the allegations of SRA.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=249}} She noted that while approximately half did reveal evidence of genuine sexual abuse of children, none revealed any evidence that Satanist groups had been involved or that any murders had taken place.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|pp=13–14}} She noted three examples in which lone individuals engaged in child molestation had created a ritual performance to facilitate their sexual acts, with the intent of frightening their victims and justifying their actions, but that none of these child molesters were involved in wider Satanist groups.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=118 |2a1=La Fontaine|2y=2016|2p=14}}

By 1994, the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria had died down in the US and UK,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=372}} and by the 21st century, hysteria about Satanism has waned in most Western countries, although allegations of Satanic ritual abuse continued to surface in parts of continental Europe and Latin America.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=456}} In the United States SRA ideas persisted among much of the public even as law enforcement had grown tired of false leads. A 1994 survey for the women's magazine ''[[Redbook]]'' reported in 1994, 
*70 percent of those polled "believe that at least some people who claim that they were abused by satanic  cults as children, but repressed the memories for years, are telling the truth"<ref>Ross, A. 1994. "Blame it on the Devil". ''Redbook'' June 1994, p.88</ref><ref name=Footnote213/>
*32 percent agreed with the statement, "The FBI and the police ignore evidence because they don't want to admit the cults exist",<ref name=Footnote213/><ref>Ross, A. 1994. "Blame it on the Devil". Redbook June: 86–89. 110, 114, 1</ref> and
*22 percent agreed that cult leaders use brainwashing to ensure that the victims would not tell.<ref name=Footnote213>213 W. Kaminer, ''Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety'' (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), p. 193.</ref>

===QAnon===
{{main|QAnon}}
Another Satanic conspiracy theory arose in the United States by 2017,<ref name="nymag">{{Cite news |last=Martineau |first=Paris |date=19 December 2017 |title=The Storm Is the New Pizzagate – Only Worse |work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |url=https://nymag.com/selectall/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-explained.html |access-date=26 March 2018 |issn=0028-7369}}</ref> with unsubstantiated allegations of organized Devil-worshippers in prominent positions committing sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism. The source of such claims began within a far-right political movement, made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q", which were relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. The central QAnon claim purports that a global child [[sex trafficking]] ring made up of Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons, and medical experts,{{sfn|Rothschild|2021|p=21}} were kidnapping, sexually abusing and eating children, but that (then-President) [[Donald Trump]] would round up the cabal and bring them to justice in a climactic event known to supporters as "the storm".{{sfn|Rothschild|2021|pp=9, 28, 175}}<ref name="far-right conspiracy theory">{{cite journal |last1=Guglielmi |first1=Giorgia |title=The next-generation bots interfering with the US election |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=28 October 2020 |volume=587 |issue=7832 |page=21 |doi=10.1038/d41586-020-03034-5 |pmid=33116324 |bibcode=2020Natur.587...21G |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Bracewell">{{cite journal |last=Bracewell |first=Lorna |date=21 January 2021 |title=Gender, Populism, and the QAnon Conspiracy Movement |journal=[[Frontiers in Sociology]] |publisher=[[Frontiers Media]] |location=Cardiff, England|volume=5 |pages=615727 |doi=10.3389/fsoc.2020.615727 |doi-access=free |issn=2297-7775 |pmc=8022489 |pmid=33869533 |s2cid=231654586}}</ref><ref name="Crossley">{{cite journal |last=Crossley |first=James |date=September 2021 |title=The Apocalypse and Political Discourse in an Age of COVID |journal=[[Journal for the Study of the New Testament]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=93–111 |doi=10.1177/0142064X211025464 |doi-access=free |issn=1745-5294 |s2cid=237329082}}</ref> With the lack of any evidence of child abuse or harm, and failure of the prophesized "storm" to appear before the inauguration of a new president, the conspiracy has waned but not entirely disappeared.<ref name="Dickey-Qanon-16-8-23">{{cite news |last1=Dickey |first1=Colin |title=From Sound of Freedom to Ron DeSantis: how QAnon's crazy conspiracy theories went mainstream |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/16/qanon-conspiracy-theory-sound-of-freedom-trump-desantis |access-date=2 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=16 August 2023}}</ref>