How a South Carolina mother escaped the conspiracy cult

• Ashley Vanderbilt, 27, began to believe the QAnon conspiracy theory last fall.
• After the inauguration day, the South Carolina mother began to question the marginal group’s beliefs.
• In an interview with Insider, she described her transformation from a fanatic for QAnon into a potential Democratic voter.
• Visit the Insider Business section for more stories.

On the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Ashley Vanderbilt, 27, was glued to the television screen.

The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina housewife – a devoted follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory – was expecting an explosive event.

“I was convinced that we would have a blackout and the emergency transmission system would be disabled,” she told Insider. “Joe Biden, the politicians there, the Hollywood elites, everyone would be arrested.”

Vanderbilt stocked up on groceries, fueled his car with gasoline and prepared for the advent of ‘The Storm’.

Storm is the day that many followers of QAnon expected former President Donald Trump to miraculously retain power, arrest liberal elites and execute those considered traitors.

QAnon’s forums predicted that after the deadly US Capitol uprising, the prophesied reckoning would take place on Induction Day.

Andrew Lichtenstein / Getty Images

“When Kamala Harris took the oath, I started to get a little nervous,” Vanderbilt told Insider.

Then, your television malfunctioned. “He froze and my heart stopped,” recalled Vanderbilt. “I thought, ‘My God, this is going to happen.'”

She then watched in horror when Biden, to her disbelief, was sworn in.

“I started to cry, tears were streaming, I couldn’t stop,” said Vanderbilt.

‘I was wrong’

For many followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, as Vanderbilt once was, the opening day was the realization of their worst fears.

Like other QAnon supporters, Vanderbilt believed that Biden’s victory would have dire consequences.

“I thought that anyone registered as a Republican would be sent to re-education camps,” she told Insider. “Democrats were going to start closing churches and that would get worse to the point where they started executing Christians.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Vanderbilt was inconsolable. She called her mother in tears.

“I was crying, saying that China would take over, that we would all die, that we could no longer go to church,” she recalled.

She logged on to Facebook and decided to contact her fellow QAnon believers to understand Biden’s oath. “I wanted to see what they had to say,” she said.

Many in the Facebook group were still waiting for The Storm. Many clung to March 4 – the day when Trump’s most fanatical followers think the former president will be sworn in.

The belief that Trump will return to power on March 4 is rooted in the strange beliefs of the “sovereign citizen” movement.

The conspiracy theory is that a law enacted in 1871 secretly transformed the United States into a corporation. All presidents before 1871 were installed on March 4. According to the sovereign citizens’ movement, the next valid tenure will take place on March 4, 2021, and Trump will become the 19th president of the United States.

Vanderbilt, however, ended these complicated fantasies.

“I just didn’t believe it anymore. It just didn’t make sense to me,” Vanderbilt told Insider. “I didn’t know how a president could be sworn in, he could look so official and then things could still change.”

Part of his newfound skepticism came from disappointment. “The sadness and disappointment I felt at being wrong was like someone had died or I had gone through a horrible separation,” she said.

Having accepted that Trump was out of the office, she decided to post a video on TikTok.

“I was wrong,” she told her followers.

“It was at that moment that I really left,” Vanderbilt told Insider. “There was something inside me, not wanting to feel that devastation of being wrong again, that made me want to discover the truth.”

‘Life on this side is just more hopeful’

After posting the TikTok video, Vanderbilt received over 1,000 comments – most of these questions about his previous support for QAnon.

“The questions I was getting made me reflect and really destroy everything and realize how insane everything was,” she said. “They really ended up taking everything away from me.”

TikTok: @xashxnicole

Vanderbilt endorsed some of QAnon’s most fantastic claims. “I believed that there were these satanic cannibalistic pedophiles who ruled the world,” she explained to Insider.

A December NPR / Ipsos study found that, in a survey of 1,115 American adults, 17% believed that statement – the central tenet of QAnon conspiracy theory.

Vanderbilt also believed that several high-profile celebrities tortured children and drank their blood. “I even believed that the group had killed some of them [celebrities] out and it was actually his clones walking around, “she said.

South Carolina’s mother said she loved Trump. “I think I put it on this really unhealthy pedestal,” she told Insider. “I even started thinking to myself … did I put God in the back seat?”

Her quest to find the truth after Inauguration Day meant that she was now open to hearing alternative points of view.

“Having an open mind and learning how to find unbiased information has been very helpful,” the former QAnon disciple told Insider.

Now, Vanderbilt has replaced QAnon’s sinister fantasies with a more liberal set of beliefs in just over a month.

Ashley Vanderbilt

“I think it’s a shame that Trump was acquitted,” she told Insider. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t see that he was guilty.”

She also told Insider that she would not rule out a campaign or vote for a Democrat in a future election. “If I knew what the candidate was about and felt that we were on the same page, I would campaign for a Democrat,” she told Insider.

Vanderbilt says his political transformation has improved the quality of life. “Life on this side is just more hopeful and is not full of disappointment, anger, hatred and fear,” she said.

‘It’s easy to get involved in all of this’

Vanderbilt now plans to use his platform to educate others about how easy it is to get caught up in a conspiracy theory.

“It’s easy for anyone to believe and fall for it, and smart people do, too,” she told Insider.

The mother-of-one was first caught in QAnon via TikTok.

She liked some videos of Trump and the algorithm started recommending similar videos. Interested in what she was seeing, she reached out to Trump followers she knew with questions.

These people started sending YouTube links, adding her to Facebook pages and inviting her to Telegram group chats. She now recognizes that these pages were advertising for QAnon.

“I ended up getting very involved with Telegram and Facebook,” Vanderbilt told Insider. She spent hours, every night, watching live videos on Facebook from QAnon influencers.

“If you surround yourself with like-minded people, all thinking the same thing, it’s easy to get involved in it all,” she told Insider. “It is difficult to explain to someone who does not understand this.”

Videos related to child trafficking made her invest. “Trafficking is real and happens in the real world,” explained Vanderbilt. “Why wouldn’t I believe something like that?”

“It piqued my interest,” she added. “I wanted to know what was going on and I wanted to be able to stay ten steps ahead of everyone to make sure my daughter was safe.”

Ashley Vanderbilt

‘It’s really safe here’

Vanderbilt now hopes to “create a bridge of understanding” with current QAnon followers. The former QAnon believer wants people to know that there are other options.

“I would tell current QAnon followers that whenever they are ready to explore other options and look for alternative answers, there is a huge support system and a lot of incentive to be given,” she added.

“They need to know that everything is fine and really safe here,” said Vanderbilt.

She hopes that people who have fallen into the rabbit hole will be treated with “empathy”. “I’ve been where they are and as much as everything seems to be true,” she told Insider. “It is not.”