QAnon's 'collateral damage': Families struggle to pull loved ones back from the brink

LOS ANGELES — Jenny Beltran was always close to her half sister — until her sibling moved to Florida with an alt-right boyfriend and started posting conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and pedophilia.

The breaking point came last summer when Beltran attended a local Black Lives Matter rally not far from her Panorama City home, then received a text from her sister questioning why she was protesting in support of "animals."

Beltran decided to cut off communication.

"When you cross a certain line, it's hard for me … especially when it comes to race," said Beltran, who is half-Mexican and was raised in part by a Black woman. "My boyfriend, my mom, they want me to talk to my sister again, but it's heartbreaking for me."

Once dismissed as a crackpot belief system undeserving of serious attention, QAnon has emerged as a national security priority in the wake of the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. The FBI