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- Factual Dispatch #47: Everything You Wanted to Know About QAnon But Were Afraid to Ask
Factual Dispatch #47: Everything You Wanted to Know About QAnon But Were Afraid to Ask
Q, Drops, Crumbs, the "Great Awakening," attempting to blow up the Hoover Dam, and miscellaneous insanity.
My Abnormal Psychology professor repeated the same point every week: weird behaviors & beliefs become disorders once they negatively impact your life in meaningful, massive ways. Less formally, the difference between someone who believes in luck and someone with paralyzing OCD, is the amount of time it takes to get out the door. QAnon, the deadly fog of conspiracy theories about everything from James Comey to Prozac, nuclear weapons, and the Illuminati, is now too important to ignore/brush aside. Strap on those goggles, even though they do nothing.
First, what the heck does the acronym QAnon mean?
“Q” refers to the faceless/nameless person who is “selflessly risking it all” to get this information out to the anonymous readers and awakened thinkers around the world who “drops” clues. These clues are studied by “anon,” anonymous readers, who then communicate the information out to the populace.
What is QAnon?
The core of the QAnon conspiracy miasma, is a belief that a '“Great Storm” or Great Awakening” is coming. This is a political torture porn fantasy where Trump and his allies mass arrest his political enemies for conveniently heinous crimes, sweeping away both sides of the political chessboard and defeating the “Deep State.”
The best long-form reads on QAnon are by Will Sommer over at The Daily Beast, Kevin Roose at the New York Times, and a great podcast from the Brookings by Ben Collins & Brandy Zadrozny (summarized in a NBCNews article). Kevin Roose’s summary made it into the Wiki page for QAnon, so I’ll quote it here (emphasis mine):
QAnon is the umbrella term for a sprawling set of internet conspiracy theories that allege, falsely, that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who are plotting against Mr. Trump while operating a global child sex-trafficking ring.
QAnon followers believe that this clique includes top Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros, as well as a number of entertainers and Hollywood celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres and religious figures including Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. Many of them also believe that, in addition to molesting children, members of this group kill and eat their victims in order to extract a life-extending chemical (adrenochrome harvesting) from their blood.
The first image in this Dispatch is a loose summary web of the conspiracy theory topics. I wish I was kidding.
Who is Q?
While nothing has been confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt, there is some technical evidence that Jim Watkins, the guy who bankrolls & hosts 8chan/8kun (Editor’s Note: See Factual Dispatch #20 for more on 8chan & its connection to mass shootings) is also responsible for hosting Qmap, the source for all Qanon related “drops.” So, take that for what it’s worth.
Is anything QAnon believes real?
Short Answer, absolutely not. Long answer, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabsolutely not.
How do you know? You can’t possibly know that for sure!
When your research methods include counting numbers and letters in tweets, I’m not losing sleep when I discount your conclusions.
Who are QAnon followers?
Vox reported on a neat analysis of the reddit posts related to QAnon. When you cross-reference who makes QAnon posts with what sub-reddits they’re a part of, interesting data surfaces to the top:
Search for QAnon on Twitter and thumb over to the People Tab, and you’ll see Trump is listed, even above the more prominent QAnon podcasts and QAnon region pages.
At time of writing, 14 state or House level candidates on the Republican side are openly avowing the Golden Corral of conspiracy theories, with varied level of support from their respective party chapters. Some point to Lindsey Graham calling the conspiracy theory “batshit crazy,”as proof the GOP hasn’t embraced these people, but with Eric Trump straight up dropping Q symbolism on his instagram, and Trump having tweeted or retweeted QAnon accounts over 216 times, Q & the GOP are increasingly seen as one in the same. Why is that bad? Jeet Heer’s words over at The Nation feel relevant:
QAnon is sometimes treated as if it were analogous to the Tea Party movement or the John Birch Society, a right-wing faction within the GOP coalition. But in fact it is much more violence-prone than those groups. It’s closer in spirit to terrorist organizations like the KKK, which had ties to political elites but also instigated extrajudicial violence.
Wait, violence? I thought it was just wacky conspiracy theories?
QAnon believers are the opposite of non-violent. It is a radicalizing construct, with the media finally starting to realize it. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) of the House of Representatives put forth a resolution condemning QAnon and rejecting its conspiracy theories. Within the resolution, they document QAnon as anti-semitic (Boy Howdy is it), and detail a handful of the crimes associated with it:
These are not quality-of-life issues or trivial concerns. Pizzagate was just the tip of the iceberg. The 2018 Hoover Dam attack was largely brushed aside as an isolated incident, but now, QAnon believers have started disrupting child custody cases and encouraging parents who have been separated from their kids to kidnap them back from CPS. As of the last week, this includes ex-Navy SEALs going “full Q.” From Will Sommer’s recent work:
Police and court records have lately revealed a previously unreported clandestine network comprising QAnon conspiracy theorists, fringe legal figures who draw on far-right sovereign citizen dogma and tactics, and even Republican politicians and officials. This network has allegedly encouraged and inspired other QAnon believers, especially parents, to commit crimes, including kidnapping. While QAnon violence and other criminal acts have previously appeared to be the work of random “lone wolf” actors, this network suggests that QAnon law-breaking has now moved into a new, more sophisticated phase.
Why do people believe it?
When you make vague or calamitous prophecies in parallel with a feeling of cultish identity, welcoming vibes, and “only we understand you” narrative structures, it’s easy to see how QAnon has gained traction. A heartbreaking piece by Reed Ryley Grable details losing their father to the conspiracy theory, a scenario that’s played out thousands of times across the country.
It’s the first “radically participatory conspiracy” where anyone can reinterpret the info. This gives its adherents skin in the game, as successful recognition within the community turns into podcasts or ad sponsorship and revenue. Jonestown can’t mess with affiliate marketing and FB groups. When there’s this much source material and argument over what is “True Q,” the sky is the limit.
Remember, I’ve only mentioned a handful of their beliefs. In true Jon Oliver fashion, remember that insane map of their beliefs at the beginning of the Dispatch? That’s an abbreviated map! This is the full map.
QAnon’s might also cripple the Evangelical Christian movement. Church-goers were already standing in front of the Firehose of Lies that is the post-Fox News media ecosystem, and had been primed to look for Satanic symbolism in everyday imagery by 30+ years of televangelists pumping fear of Satan into their minds. Given how much more punchy QAnon as a belief system is than even Fire & Brimstone Christianity, you can see how more and more are leaving the flock to join Q.
It also has some interesting parallels to the cult of Bitcoin that has swept across tech. Izabella Kaminska’s article for FT’s Alphaville details how both hail from anonymous message boards, both propagate anti-institutional trust are centered around mythmaking/waiting for a world-changing “Storm” event, and much more.
While Twitter took action against QAnon and Tik Tok deleted hashtags en masse related to QAnon back in July, the Book of Faces was predictably late as hell getting around things. After Trump got a little too handsy on Twitter with QAnon info, Facebook deleted a single large group in early august for repeatedly posting content that violated FB policies. This action just further infuriated Facebook employees after the violence in Kenosha this month. They know Facebook already has blood on its hands, and the world agrees. Their relative inaction on issues like this globally has led to a perception that they’re married to the ad revenue that is generated from people straddling these elements, everywhere in the world.
What can you do if you know someone who believes it?
Forbes has a good write-up of how to talk to people who are deep into Q, but know that you might be going on a fool’s errand. One of the saddest things I read last year was a VICE piece about the fail dinners QAnon adherents who had been estranged from their families had for Thanksgiving. Truly harrowing meals.
Royal Sampler
Gov’t shutdowns were a huge gift to big box retailers (Vox) Just as we’d feared, Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other companies able to navigate becoming “essential” ate even more of the lunch of their small business competition than usual.
UN Security Council Rejects US “Snapback” Iran Shenanigans (Yahoo! News) In a surprising show of global unity, America’s attempt to invoke the “Snap Back” provision of the JCPOA agreement Trump left a few years ago, was flatly rejected. With the next UN Security Council chair predicted to treat our have-cake-and-eat-it-too faffing about with even more of an allergy, forward momentum to punish Iran for violating the parameters of an agreement the USA walked away from, has fully dissolved.
When the Republican Party was Sane (The New Republic) Splendid look at President Eisenhower, unironically one of America’s greatest leaders.
Picking Locks with Audio Technology (Association of Computing Machinery) With a clear recording of the sound your key makes as it’s put into a lock and engaged, we can now 3D print a copy of it.
Song of the Dispatch: For all of my friends sick of idiot rich people who have been yammering that NYC is dead and full of radioactive bees, here is an uplifting trance track.
What do you mean it’s September?
Yours,TP.S. Take the survey!