What to do if you are QAnon follower? For years and years, you’ve believed that the Russians were the good guys, and that Biden was somehow in cahoots with Ukraine and making a fortune. But suddenly your television set and phone undeniably tells you that the Russian army is acting like a monster, led by a monster. They are bombing babies. What do you do, QAnon follower?

You make Ukraine the bad guy instead of China. Trump always pronounced China weird (he pronounces everything weird). Maybe he has been telegraphing “Ukraine” every time he said “China”?

According to Vice:

QAnon followers are boosting an unhinged new conspiracy theory that claims former President Donald Trump was purposely mispronouncing the word “China” for years, as part of a secret plot to alert the world that COVID-19 was manufactured in Ukraine.

The latest conspiracy theory being spread among QAnon adherents ties in with the wider conspiracy about U.S. biolabs in Ukraine and suggests that QAnon may be shifting its longstanding perception of China as the enemy.

Yes, we heard that Ukraine had a “bio lab” (so does Gonzaga University, go Zags), one right near the border. We know this because Tucker told us with ominous music playing silently in the background, so silently you couldn’t hear it. But, Tucker – like the QAnon folks, was slyly trying to make the Ukrainians bad people who deserved to be invaded. Or at least not victims.

First, some enterprising QAnon sleuth claimed to have “discovered” that there was a place in Ukraine called “chy-na” and further claimed that Trump’s distinct pronunciation of “China” was the former president’s attempt to signal to his followers that what he was talking about was “chy-na” in Ukraine, and not China.

In recent days, the theory has grown, and many QAnon followers now argue that when Trump referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus,” he was secretly referring to the Ukrainian chy-na, and trying to tell the world that the virus was manufactured in Ukraine, a claim that ties in with the broader belief that Ukraine is home to some “deep state” plot to control the world.

It is almost impossible not to joke about QAnon but nothing happening in Ukraine is a joke. It does say a LOT when these people have to go to such lengths to protect their man’s relationship with Moscow.

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[email protected] with Nicole Hickman