Falling into the freedom movement … and getting out – The Age

The freedom movement, initially centred around anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine sentiment, saw protesters take to the streets, particularly in Melbourne, every weekend for almost two years to reject COVID health measures.

Last year, as lockdowns lifted, the movements leaders shifted their attention to vaccine mandates. This year protesters have descended on Canberra, including on Saturday, talking about everything from the dangers of vaccination to QAnon-adjacent theories about paedophiles within the Australian government.

Convoy to Canberra protesters marching towards the parliamentary triangle in Canberra on Saturday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

At the extreme edges are those who claim they are willing, as sovereign citizens, to launch a full government takeover violent or otherwise.

In his latest annual threat assessment, delivered this week, the boss of Australias counter-espionage agency ASIO, Mike Burgess, highlights growing concern about online radicalisation during the pandemic, noting vaccine mandates and lockdowns had fuelled extremism that is not specifically left or right-wing.

More time in those online environments without some ofthe circuitbreakersof everyday life, like family and community engagement, school and work created more extremists, he wrote.

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The federal government this month announced it would commit more than $60 million to countering violent extremism amid an increase in conspiracy theories during the pandemic and concerns about MPs safety, and on Wednesday the Victorian Greens secured a parliamentary inquiry into the growing threat and influence of far-right extremism in Victoria for the same reasons.

But another complex problem has been left in the pandemics wake: the path back for thousands of individuals whose lives, livelihoods and personal relationships are in tatters after going down the rabbit hole of these conspiracy theories.

While the path is different for each person, experts and former conspiracy theorists say we urgently need to better understand why and how this descent happens.

Just before the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020, Jackson was working part-time as a musician; composing music for productions, gigging around Melbournes suburbs in cover bands and teaching guitar. Victorias initial six-week lockdown drove her out of work. She had no real social interaction for more than two months.

At home, scrolling on her phone, she found anti-lockdown groups starting to call out what they saw as overly harsh measures from an increasingly dangerous police state.

I stumbled across some things on the internet, and I was like oh this makes sense, I dont want to be locked down, she says. She cant remember the specific video or post that first touched her conspiracy nerve, but she became a big fan of influencers such as Monica Smit of Reignite Democracy Australia a lobby group backing Craig Kelly and the United Australia Party Smits partner, podcaster Morgan Jonas, and Avi Yemini from Canada-based right-wing commentary website Rebel News.

I was slowly finding myself getting brainwashed, Jackson says. I kept looking into conspiracy theories, including QAnon. I started rooting for Donald Trump, which was ridiculous. Being trans hes not very favourable to us.

Once a born again Christian, Jackson had left her faith over a decade earlier, ousted from her church for coming out as transgender. It was a deeply wounding experience she still has trouble talking about.

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Ive sort of been a little bit of a loner [since], she says. I found a bit of community in the anti-lockdown movement.

She became a regular on the front line at Melbournes anti-lockdown rallies, coming onto polices radar for disseminating a handbook on how to thwart officers at protests.

I got sucked in big time to the point where I was doing ... very dodgy illegal stuff that Im ashamed of now, but at the time I thought it was totally justified, she says.

Shes visibly distressed about the abuse she hurled at police on the front line.

I gave them so much shit, I called them every name under the [sun], she says.

The trouble for policymakers and concerned family members is a lack of information available to help them navigate relationships with loved ones who have succumbed to misinformation.

Freedom protesters at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne on September 22, 2021.Credit:Eddie Jim

Conspiracy theories are not new, but in the internet age they grow and morph quickly. Pre-pandemic, QAnon a theory that the world is run by a cabal of paedophiles who drink the blood of children was dominant online. Evidence from online support groups suggests that now the overlap between QAnon and anti-vaccination sentiment is strong.

One of the moderators of the 230,000-person Reddit page QAnon Casualties is Sydney man Jitarth Jadeja. Five years ago, he returned to Sydney from a university exchange in the United States and was living at home, studying part-time with no job or partner. He became increasingly obsessed with US politics. I was really basically on my own, on the internet just all day, every day.

He was shocked when Donald Trump unexpectedly won the presidential election in 2016. His worldview was shattered, and he questioned how it could have happened, searching for alternative media and less mainstream social media platforms. Before long, he fell deep into the fast-growing worldwide conspiracy theory of QAnon.

Eighteen months later, a series of lightbulb moments made him realise QAnon was a con (he wrote about this experience in a Reddit post which later went viral). He has since talked publicly about his experience, of going down the rabbit hole and climbing back out, to help others understand why people believe in conspiracy movements.

One thing Ive found, and this is anecdotal, but I really have found this to be a common trait is that theres [often] some sort of preceding trauma that occurs before someone falls down a rabbit hole, Jadeja says.

For me it was finding out I had ADHD ...I think people forget that when COVID hit it was very traumatic for everyone. It happened very quickly.

I dont think it was just that people were online more often. People are online all day at work. But it was a trauma I think people were traumatised and they went looking for answers. So that really expedited the whole conspiracy situation.

Research has suggested that conspiracy theories often prosper in times of crisis, with a 2017 study finding that during times of societal upheaval, peoples experiences of fear, uncertainty and being out of control stimulate a motivation to make sense of the situation, increasing their likelihood of turning to conspiracies.

Another study, published in 2018, found that the emotions which make up the psychological origins of believing in conspiracy theories include anxiety, uncertainty, or lacking control. Research conducted by psychology experts in Britain shows that belief in conspiracy theories is particularly strong among people with unsatisfied psychological needs.

Colin Klein, an associate professor at ANUs School of Philosophy, has studied online conspiracy theory communities. Many people assume the path into misinformation and conspiracy theories is similar to that of a virus, where people bounce around online, get exposed to misinformation and get infected.

Instead, his teams research, which analysed a large set of Reddit comments, found that those susceptible to conspiracy theories tend to seek out fringe and conspiracy forums because it fits with either how theyre thinking about the world or experiences theyve had.

And so it looks like people arent just passive consumers of information. Theyre working towards finding stuff that makes sense to them, or makes sense of the world for them.

For Jackson, it was her experience with Victoria Police that planted the seed for her escape.

In late May last year, at her last freedom protest, she was encouraged by other protesters to throw herself in front of police after receiving a move-on notice.

Police arrested her, while she says the others ran away. I was kind of thinking, where the hell are my friends? she recalls. They all just buggered off and left me.

I was confused ... so I didnt give the police a hard time at all. And they said, Look, were going to give you a move-on because youve been so cooperative.

The following week Jackson was arrested at home and taken in for questioning over her role in the protests and the anti-police booklet circulating online.

When the formal interview was over, she says officers spoke to her candidly about their life, their families and how difficult it had been working on the front line during the pandemic, showing sympathy for her struggles with her gender and mental health. I realised, these arent the Gestapo or anything I had it all wrong.

I had tears when I was just talking candidly with them just saying, God how have I f---ed my life up like this?

Police didnt lay charges that day, and offered Jackson a lift home.

I said, no, actually, I wouldnt mind walking. I need to think about my life.

Jackson went home and fell into a deep, days-long depressive spell, during which she self-harmed. By this point she had lost ties with her extended family, had a criminal record and felt she had been manipulated.

Around this time she found others online who had grown sceptical of the movement, and had begun questioning the extraordinary amounts of money being raised. This and follow-up welfare visits by the police were the final impetus for her to leave the freedom movement.

The weight that came off my shoulders instantly it was unbelievable, she says.

If I didnt leave, I would have probably ended up in some sort of psych ward or something. When you believe that strongly in something and that the police are coming for you, the governments coming for you, youre going to get sent to a concentration camp.

I used to be in my apartment and Id have the door barricaded with a couch and tables. Id booby-trapped the windows.

It was consuming and eating me away. Totally just destroying my soul and my friendships I lost a lot of friends.

It was consuming and eating me away. Totally just destroying my soul and my friendships.

Jadeja, whose father still believes in QAnon after he introduced him to it, says trying to reason with those caught up in conspiracy theories is fruitless.

Focus on their behaviour rather than their beliefs. Chances are if they believe in this, their behaviour changed ... they become more anxious, theyve become more agitated, more aggressive, they cant not talk about it ... so focus on their behaviour, he says.

Jitarth Jadeja says the focus needs to be on behaviour, not contesting beliefs.Credit:60 Minutes/Nine News

Say its fine, I dont care what you believe, but that doesnt explain why you havent done the dishes or picked up Jamie from soccer the last two Sundays in a row.

Jadeja hopes that sharing his story and the lessons he and others have learned can increase conversation around de-radicalisation. Now more than ever, being able to better understand the influences that lead people to QAnon and other conspiracies is crucial, he says.

They say tinfoil hat brigade. What has that got to do with a goddamn thing? Youre acting like these people are crazy, like they belong in a nuthouse. These people go to work. They have family. And they believe you are a part of a controlling cabal, and they will justify incredible misdeeds as a justification for righting wrongs. And that includes violence, he says.

I just dont think that anyone has quite grasped how serious the situation is.

Those who come out of the rabbit hole should be able to find a path back to normality without being shamed, he says. There has to be some sort of pathway back to polite society for most of these people because most of them havent done anything. If there isnt, then theres no incentive for them to come back.

Jackson says she is now getting her life back on track. Shes recently moved house for a fresh start after a long period of recovery living with her parents, and this week is going back to university to study a masters degree in music. She recently recovered from COVID-19 too, a mild case she attributes to now being vaccinated.

She becomes emotional when she talks about her extended family, who welcomed her back at Christmas.

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The biggest moving part for me was seeing my nieces, she says. I didnt see my nieces for like eight months, and I love my nieces. And just seeing them again was amazing.

I was expecting I was going to have to spend [Christmas] by myself and I got a call from my brother the day before and he said, Youre more than welcome. Whats in the past is in the past, and were glad that youre safe and that youre out of that.

Ash still keeps an eye on the movement, which was responsible for a fire at Old Parliament House in December and has now set up a permanent camp at the Canberra Showgrounds with leaders claiming to stay put until the government is cleaned out.

Amid calls for an end to vaccine mandates and vaccine passports are speeches about the paedophile cabal by leaders who have repeatedly called for MPs to be hanged.

Last week convoy leader James Greer, who raised almost $200,000 in crowdfunding for the protest, was arrested after police found a loaded rifle and ammunition in his car at the protest campground.

Its so different to what it was even a year ago, says Jackson. I can fully see some sort of domestic terrorist thing happen.

She believes most people will have to hit rock bottom themselves in order to leave the movement, and hopes her story helps others.

I still care about some of these people, you know? I hope they can get out.

Have information about this story? Email the journalists securely at rachaeldexter@protonmail.com and sfoxkoob@protonmail.com

Mental health support is available 24/7 by calling Lifeline on 13 11 14

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Falling into the freedom movement ... and getting out - The Age