You probably heard about QAnon this week. When a reporter asked Donald Trump about it; the president said, “I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate” and called them “people that love our country.”

When asked about “this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals,” Trump said “I haven’t heard that. But is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? I mean, you know, if I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it.”

Mainstream media outlets ran reports about the conspiracy theory, bringing it to new audiences. By focusing on Trump’s involvement — supposedly leading a secret war against a “deep state” of child sex traffickers — many reports left out the public aspect. QAnon followers believe a government official with high-level “Q” clearance feeds them cryptic but decipherable messages via the imageboard website 4chan (then migrated to 8chan, now 8kun) in preparation for a violent, holy, revolutionary event called “the Storm,” in which they, Trump, and their secret allies will rise up and free the world from an evil pedophile cabal, complete with mass arrests and executions.