By SUDHIN THANAWALA
May 2, 2021


ATLANTA (AP) — The fatal shootings of eight people — six of them women of Asian descent — at Georgia massage businesses in March propelled Claire Xu into action.

Within days, she helped organize a rally condemning violence against Asian Americans that drew support from a broad group of activists, elected officials and community members. But her parents objected.

“‘We don’t want you to do this,’” Xu, 31, recalled their telling her afterward. ”‘You can write about stuff, but don’t get your face out there.’”

The shootings and other recent attacks on Asian Americans have exposed a generational divide in the community. Many young activists say their parents and other elders are saddened by the violence but question the value of protests or worry about their consequences. They’ve also found the older generations tend to identify more closely with their ethnic groups — Chinese or Vietnamese, for example — and appear reluctant to acknowledge racism.

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On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Travis View, one of the hosts of the QAnon Anonymous Podcast, one of the leading shows that critically picks apart and examines the Qanon conspiracy from a variety of angles, using humor to talk about the far-Right movement and its growing influence.

Throughout our discussion we touch on the threat posed by Qanon as a vehicle for the mass distribution of authoritarian and fascist politics, as View argues that the end goal of the movement is to create a Trumpian dictatorship made possible by massive amounts of violence. We also talk about the origins of Qanon, its future as a current with the Republican party, the fallout from the attempted coup in DC, and much more.

We end our discussion by talking about how some people have left the Qanon cult and how social movements might begin to ‘bring people home’ after watching family and friends be sucked into far-Right Facebook groups and social media platforms. While we end our conversation with no easy answers, we hope that the questions raised will spur continue discussions about moving forward in a rapidly changing world.