In part one of “The Pilling of Gotham,” Stephanie Kemmerer asked if the creators of the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon drew inspiration from Fox’s Batman-based TV show. Today she looks at season 2, full of blood libels, resurrections, and literal underground child trafficking.
Heading into season two of Gotham, we learn of an ancient order formed by the Dumas family, who were betrayed by the Wayne family 200 hundred years ago, and now want to kill Bruce Wayne in a “ritual blood sacrifice.” One of their lead members, Theo Galavan, is the mayoral candidate who staged a false flag attack with Jerome’s assistance. Galavan is killed, but he’s later resurrected and brainwashed to believe he’s an avenging angel.
This touches on two concepts popular in the QAnon mythology. The “blood sacrifice” is similar to the concept of adrenochrome harvesting that we saw last time, which all stems back to the medieval era and the completely invented concept of the blood libel — the idea that Jewish people were stealing Christian children and drinking their blood.
Additionally, the Quniverse is full of ideas about celebrities who faked their deaths and returned as different people (e.g. Katy Perry is really JonBenét Ramsey), or celebrities who died and were replaced by doubles (like Avril Lavigne). They also seem to like clones, which are part of the Indian Hill experiments, of course.
Season two of Gotham introduces Arkham Asylum’s head psychiatrist, Hugo Strange, who’s also in charge of the nefarious experiments at Indian Hill. Strange is engaging in illegal human experimentation, including mind control and reanimation of the dead. It’s worth noting this work is done literally underground, another idea that QAnon likes. One “Q Drop” hints there are underground tunnels on Little St. James, the island owned by world-renowned scumbag Jeffrey Epstein. During the first round of COVID “lockdowns” in 2020, the Quniverse declared the virus was a hoax and the whole thing was cover for an operation rescuing “mole children” from underground tunnels.
Human trafficking is another one of QAnon’s favorite tropes, and they believe it’s endemic and widespread throughout society. If QAnon’s number of missing persons were accurate (some *800,000* every YEAR), nearly every family in America would be mysteriously without one of their members. This kind of belief is dangerous, especially when it detracts from legitimate anti-trafficking efforts.
A continuing thread throughout Gotham is young Bruce Wayne, not yet Batman, seeking the identity of his parents’ murderer. Following this trail eventually leads him to a top secret, shadowy cabal of the city’s elite, called the Court of Owls. The official symbol of Bohemian Grove, the secret, men-only, members-only campground in California, just happens to be an owl surrounded by the words, “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here,” a line from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To conspiracy theorists, the owl represents the ancient Canaanite deity Moloch, who’s associated in Biblical lore with child sacrifice.
Journalist and author of The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson, wrote about attending the annual Cremation of Care ceremony at the Grove in his book Them: Adventures With Extremists, during which an effigy of the owl is burned. To the rest of the world, the Cremation of Care is more like Burning Man, but to QAnon it’s like The Wicker Man, complete with human sacrifice.
Alex Jones and David “Everyone is a Reptilian” Icke both spoke of Bohemian Grove as a place for ritual sacrifices long before the Court of Owls appeared in Gotham. So if Q, in his deluded mind, was inspired by elements of the show, his inspirations were lifted from older ideas. As aforementioned in the discussion of adrenochrome and “ritual blood sacrifices,” nothing about QAnon is new, save for its ability to so quickly radicalize people.
Check out part 3 right here!
AIPT Science is co-presented by AIPT and the New York City Skeptics.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.