doTERRA and Young Living are multi-level marketing (MLM) companies sustained by distribution networks of women who sell their trademark essential oil products. We argue that women join essential oil MLMs based on an iterative, three-pronged strategy that not only recruits women as oil distributors but also simultaneously indoctrinates them to pastel QAnon conspiracy spaces: digitally driven, feminized realms situated at the nexus of New Age spirituality, wellness, and far-right ideologies. MLM distributors first compel women to look toward essential oils as a viable medical intervention by leveraging potential recruits’ distrust with medical establishments and hardship produced by intersecting structural inequalities (classism, racism, ableism, sexism). Women are then hooked in by promises of essential oils offering silver-bullet solutions to complex problems stemming from inequitable social systems. Finally, women get downlined into pastel QAnon disinformation flows through algorithmic production of confirmation bias. By coding qualitative data of MLM distributors and pastel QAnon influencers for digital content analysis, we identify socio-cultural and gendered trends of disinformation production at the intersections of wellness, pastel QAnon, and structural inequalities. These findings provide insights into the seductive appeal of disinformation beyond the textual content of the message and contribute to our understanding of the larger political economy of incentives and rewards that perpetuate disinformation-for-hire communities.

中文翻译：

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下线虚假信息：传销分销商如何使用性别策略进行招聘和柔和的 QAnon 灌输

doTERRA 和 Young Living 是多层次营销 (MLM) 公司，由销售其商标精油产品的女性分销网络维持。我们认为，女性加入精油传销是基于一种迭代的、三管齐下的策略，该策略不仅招募女性作为石油分销商，还同时向她们灌输柔和的 QAnon 阴谋空间：数字驱动的、女性化的领域，位于新时代灵性的纽带，健康和极右意识形态。传销经销商首先利用潜在招募人员对医疗机构的不信任以及交叉结构性不平等（阶级歧视、种族主义、体能歧视、性别歧视）造成的困难，迫使女性将精油视为一种可行的医疗干预措施。然后，女性被精油的承诺所吸引，精油可以为因不平等的社会制度而产生的复杂问题提供灵丹妙药的解决方案。最后，通过算法产生的确认偏差，女性陷入了柔和的 QAnon 虚假信息流中。通过对传销经销商和柔和 QAnon 影响者的定性数据进行编码以进行数字内容分析，我们确定了健康、柔和 QAnon 和结构性不平等交叉点上虚假信息生产的社会文化和性别趋势。这些发现让我们深入了解虚假信息在信息文本内容之外的诱人吸引力，并有助于我们理解使虚假信息雇佣社区永久存在的激励和奖励的更大政治经济。