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The Batshit Insane QAnon Conspiracy Theory

Hugo Stiglitz

By Hugo Stiglitz
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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23367

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I debated starting this thread but this stuff is starting to hit the mainstream and frankly it’s disturbing.

Propornot suggests it originated from Russia but they aren’t saying exactly how they know (to protect sources and methods).  It doesn’t really matter where it started at this point because it’s being propagated by Americans.

There was a rally/march for QAnon believers today in DC.

Here’s a great twitter thread covering the march.

 

 

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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23367

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Last week Roseanne Barr — who, with the hit reboot of her show, has become one of the most prominent Donald Trump supporters in the country — tweeted that the president has freed hundreds of children a month from sexual bondage. “He has broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere,” she wrote. (The tweet has since been deleted.)

Barr’s tweet, puzzling to the casual observer, was a reference to QAnon, an expansive, complicated pro-Trump conspiracy theory. The theory is fascinating as an artifact of our current political derangement, but more than that, it’s profoundly revealing about the lengths to which some Trump supporters will go to convince themselves that his presidency is going well.

As Paris Martineau explained in New York Magazine, QAnon was born last October, when someone claiming to have “Q” level security clearance started a cryptic thread on 4chan, the online message board and troll playground. It was titled, “The Calm Before the Storm,” a phrase Trump had recently used. Q posted hints, some in the form of questions, ostensibly meant to help clued-in Trump supporters understand what was really going on in Washington beneath the facade of chaos and incompetence. (“What is military intelligence? Why go around the 3 letter agencies?”)

From these clues, a sprawling community on message boards, YouTube videos and Twitter accounts has elaborated an enormous, ever-mutating fantasy narrative about the Trump presidency. In the QAnon reality, Trump only pretended to collude with Russia in order to create a pretext for the hiring of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, who is actually working with Trump to take down an inconceivably evil and powerful network of coup-plotters and child sex traffickers that includes Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros.

“QAnon points out that this is the beginning of the end for the Clintons,” said Jerome Corsi — a prominent proponent of the lie that Obama was born in Kenya — on a YouTube broadcast in January. He warned that the world would be forced to contend with “films of innocent children pleading for their lives while people are butchering them.” Once that happens, presumably, Trump will be revealed as a master of 12-dimensional chess who successfully distracted smirking elites with his buffoonery while he was quietly saving the world.

Posts on other websites, as well as YouTube videos, Twitter accounts and even a book, have taken the theory in countless directions, encompassing characters from the model Chrissy Teigen to disgraced politician Anthony Weiner. The creativity poured into QAnon is striking; it’s like something between a sprawling work of crowdsourced postmodern fiction and an immersive role-playing game.

But for many people, QAnon is very real. Barr has tried to make contact with Q on Twitter. InfoWars, the website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — who has a close relationship with Trump confidant Roger Stone — has consistently promoted it. Last month, Cheryl Sullenger, senior vice president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, posted an article on the group’s website about an “intel drop” from Q revealing a White House plan to end Planned Parenthood. Sean Hannity retweeted a post with the #QAnon hashtag.

Some elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory — secret elites, kidnapped children — are classic, even archetypical. “In all Western culture, you can argue that all conspiracy theories, no matter how diverse, come from the idea of the Jews abducting children,” Chip Berlet, the co-author of “Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort,” told me. Stories about globalists stealing children for sex aren’t that far removed from stories about Jews stealing children to use their blood making matzo.

One twist, however, makes QAnon unusual. Conspiracy theories are usually about evil cabals manipulating world events. QAnon, by contrast, is a conspiracy theory in which the good guys — in this case, Trump and his allies — are in charge. It’s a dream of power rather than a bitter alibi for victimhood. It seems designed to cope with the cognitive dissonance caused by the gap between Trump as his faithful followers like to imagine him, and Trump as he is.

On Thursday, the usually even-keeled Mike Allen published a piece in Axios titled, “The case for extreme worry,” about how those close to Trump are panicked by his erraticism. The president’s whims and resentments have led to stock market convulsions and may soon result in painful tariffs that affect American farmers, an important part of his base. Mueller’s special counsel investigation continues to close in. Republicans have lost special election seats in red-leaning areas all over the country. But QAnon offers assurance that everything is under control.

Barr, for example, retweeted a QAnon post arguing that conservative criticism of the omnibus spending bill, legislation many on the right deplored, was shortsighted. In releasing funds to the military, it said, the bill would set off a climactic series of events: “Swamp drain begins, military seizes TRILLIONS in cabal assets, returning them to the people.” An inspector general report would then reveal the establishment’s unspeakable crimes, after which “the strings will be cut from the propaganda machine and people will stop falling for the garbage MSM,” or mainstream media. Trump, and those who believe in him, would be vindicated.

You don’t create a wild fantasy about your leader being a covert genius unless you understand that to most people, he looks like something quite different. You don’t need an occult story about how your side is secretly winning if it’s actuallywinning. Publicly, many right-wing politicians and pundits disdain the Mueller investigation and pretend to believe that Trump’s ties to Russia are negligible. But among part of the Trump base, the effort to explain them away appears to be creating psychic strain.

“You cannot possibly imagine the size of this,” said a Q dispatch last month. “Trust the plan. Trust there are more good than bad.” Q almost certainly doesn’t know any state secrets, but he, she, or they understand that some fervent Trump supporters require more reassurance than they’re willing to admit. Their desperate conviction that they will be proven right about Trump betrays a secret fear that they will be proven wrong.

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Degenerate Gardner

Degenerate Gardner 4085

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It's not (just) batshit insane delusion.  Like BLM agitators and Jade Helms as was mentioned, it feels like active measures.  Yes, that it has resonated with some is mind blowing.  But who organized the rally and publicized it?  Is it a real domestic movement or is it crazies getting stirred up by distant foreign actor?

As a general rule of thumb, the fact that Roseanne and I are in different camps on this is reassuring.  I'm not too young or old to remember that Roseanne is to performing the national anthem, what Donald Trump is to serving the office of the President.  Watch and pretty quickly you feel like the institution has been defiled and debased, far worse than any kneeling NFL players.  You think a QAnon rally is disturbing?

 

 

 

 

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ChiTownDoc

ChiTownDoc 21175

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6 minutes ago, Whitman said:

I really doubt that.

Yeah you're right...but let's take a look at how batshit crazy the idiots who believe this shit are.  Right wing nutters.  Lulz...they saw the nutjobs on the left and quickly handed over their Natty Light. 

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Homercles

Homercles 10206

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Well just goes to reinforce my experience that, the smaller your world is (social, economic, cultural)...then the more small things get blown out of proportion. The internet just gives those people a fire hose of information to cherry pick ideas from. Sad.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 46266

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3 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

"There hasn't been any non-evidence yet" is a real quote from this. god damn

I'd be tempted to ask that person if they could create a Venn diagram demonstrating their perspective.  Hilarity would ensue, starting with "what's a Venn diagram"?

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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23367

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Just spent some time reading some Qanon posts on other forum. It’s worse than I thought.  Some of these folks have an almost jihadi like righteousness about their movement and are focused of “red-pilling the Dem-witted.”  This why this is a growing movement.  

Trump could shut this shit down at anytime with a speech but you know he’s a part of it so yeah, it will eventually get ugly.

wonderful.

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TornACL

TornACL 7729

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It's the dumbest conspiracy theory of all time, which is fitting since we live in the dumbest era of all time.

If you read any of the Q shit on social media, no one ever says anything. It's just a ridiculous maze of tweets and retweets of various accounts with vague statements like "Something BIG is about to be announced!" and then hundreds of responses talking about getting ready and whatnot. No one ever talks about what the BIG is.

Then eventually you'll see screenshots of some bullshit message board where some terrible writer has written a 3000 words essay in a single paragraph in 8 font, which says nothing, but just continues to drop the same circle-jerk buzzwords and vague ominous insinuations that something BIG is about to be announced!  Of course, there's casual mention of certain names and buzzwords and everything, suggesting that if you're in the know you know what they mean. Wink wink. But if not, keep reading, and get educated!  Never mind the fact that nothing will ever be said, just keep reading and then you can nod knowingly the next time you see the same meaningless words stated over and over again, and presto! You're part of the club!

At least other conspiracy theories, as crazy as they may be, actually have a story. This is just a social media rabbit hole.

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TornACL

TornACL 7729

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Also I am convinced that about 80% of the QAnon shit on Twitter at least is just written by trolls for a laugh to wind up any of the idiots who actually believe this garbage.

You don't even have to know anything about what bullshit these people are peddling. Just drop the right hashtags and say something vague and meaningless like "Tomorrow's the big day!" and you'll get a bazillion retweets.

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hayden_horn

hayden_horn 11365

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12 minutes ago, TornACL said:

It's the dumbest conspiracy theory of all time, which is fitting since we live in the dumbest era of all time.

If you read any of the Q shit on social media, no one ever says anything. It's just a ridiculous maze of tweets and retweets of various accounts with vague statements like "Something BIG is about to be announced!" and then hundreds of responses talking about getting ready and whatnot. No one ever talks about what the BIG is.

Then eventually you'll see screenshots of some bullshit message board where some terrible writer has written a 3000 words essay in a single paragraph in 8 font, which says nothing, but just continues to drop the same circle-jerk buzzwords and vague ominous insinuations that something BIG is about to be announced!  Of course, there's casual mention of certain names and buzzwords and everything, suggesting that if you're in the know you know what they mean. Wink wink. But if not, keep reading, and get educated!  Never mind the fact that nothing will ever be said, just keep reading and then you can nod knowingly the next time you see the same meaningless words stated over and over again, and presto! You're part of the club!

At least other conspiracy theories, as crazy as they may be, actually have a story. This is just a social media rabbit hole.

on the old board, when charlie strong recruitment season was in full gear, i amused myself by starting to post bullshit like i had insider information. i was just making shit up on the fly. people believed me. as a matter of fact, what you just wrote could actually describe a lot of the $9.95 recruiting services. 

however, this goes to 11. that video posted above is shocking. but then again, this picture exists:

920x920.jpg

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Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14625

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2 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Just spent some time reading some Qanon posts on other forum. It’s worse than I thought.  Some of these folks have an almost jihadi like righteousness about their movement and are focused of “red-pilling the Dem-witted.”  This why this is a growing movement.  

Trump could shut this shit down at anytime with a speech but you know he’s a part of it so yeah, it will eventually get ugly.

wonderful.

This is my real worry when it comes to things like that.  Ten percent of the population simply processes information differently than the other 90%.  Whether "crazy" is the right term or now I don't know but they way their emotions are connected to their intellect is simply different.  A politician says "Take Your Country Back," and 90% takes that to mean show up and vote.  The other 10% hears that and thinks they need to shoot Gabrielle Giffords at a grocery story in Tuscon or blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City or storm a pizza parlor with an assault rifle.  These 10% are on both sides but most seem to be currently on the Right, for some reason.

That's why I find the GOP so distasteful and it goes back to 2008.  The leadership understands this but they do it anyway.  Trump fully understands that labeling the media "the enemy" means someone is going to shoot up a newsroom in Baltimore.  

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Chooky

Chooky 13319

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Goat balls.  This shit is so far down the idiot trail it's hard to even laugh anymore.  All of it.  Close to half of this country is full on ready for an autocracy and all their leaders have to do now to create an enemy is simply lift a finger and point in a direction.  Any attempt at discourse with these gibbons is futile.  It'd be like trying to have a conversation with a group of skinheads at a keg party while they're amped up on bro power and the band 'Screwdriver.'  Unless people like George Will or P.J. O'Rourke learn to write in bumper sticker format, there's no reaching them.  Fuck it.  Yeah, there's a wave coming.  A dumb wave.  The dumbest wave imaginable.    

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TornACL

TornACL 7729

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5 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

There has to be at least a couple Trumpkins on this site that believe this Q diphittery, guess they are to embarrassed to admit it.

seems like something badmofo, or clear Lake, or swam would fall for.  

$100 on Dolemite

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Message Board User

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15 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

10k post thread on Texags politics board. 

Holy crap - just perused the thread and most of them are true believers.  Like this guy:

stetson
 
AG
 
What's funny is that Q predicted this world wide effort by the media to portray Q followers as conspiracy nuts with their 4 a.m. marching orders. It's amazing how well coordinated the world wide media is and at the same time see how easy it is for them to control the narrative.
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Message Board User

Message Board User 12396

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More texags:

I'm starting to see some of my ultra lib north eastern friends link to Qanon articles.

Of course their post is accompanied by "are people this crazy?" Dad backed up by their lib friends responding similarly.

Of course they are posting links talking about the most far out theories that weren't started by Q himself, but that's expected.

Oh well, word is spreading

 

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TornACL

TornACL 7729

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That is hilarious.

 

Crackpot conspiracy group does lunatic crackpot things

Media calls it out as such

Crackpot conspiracy loons: "See, we predicted they would portray us as lunatics. All part of the grand scheme!"

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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23367

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17 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

Holy crap - just perused the thread and most of them are true believers.  Like this guy:

stetson
 
AG
 
What's funny is that Q predicted this world wide effort by the media to portray Q followers as conspiracy nuts with their 4 a.m. marching orders. It's amazing how well coordinated the world wide media is and at the same time see how easy it is for them to control the narrative.

I don’t go into the Aggy Qanon area because I fear my eyes will get AIDS but thanks for this report.  I look at the LSU Qanon thread mostly to see how crazy it’s gotten.

An example:

E37EC9C8-A929-49EB-832E-B8AC0CBEFF0F_zps

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105457

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2 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Ten percent of the population simply processes information differently than the other 90%.  Whether "crazy" is the right term or now I don't know but they way their emotions are connected to their intellect is simply different.  A politician says "Take Your Country Back," and 90% takes that to mean show up and vote.  The other 10% hears that and thinks they need to shoot Gabrielle Giffords at a grocery story in Tuscon or blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City or storm a pizza parlor with an assault rifle.  These 10% are on both sides but most seem to be currently on the Right, for some reason.

You don't know how right you are.

Nearly 25 years ago (pre internet), I was a baby lawyer, and my firm had a huge case -- big enough that we did a mock trial study.  We brought in 10 mock juries, of randomly selected local folks (kinda like a regular jury would be).  They would fill out detailed thoughts/comments at each stage.  Day 1, we did the mock opening statements -- the defendant parties were large insurance companies (it was a complex investment case).

As I was reading through the comments, most of them were normal thoughts on what the arguments looked like, etc.  But then...there were a handful that were utterly batshit.  "I would never find in favor of an insurance company because they're part of a global syndicate controlled by the Queen of England, and they run the drug trade and child sex trafficking rings at her behest."  And seriously, that was (paraphrased) one of the comments.

I brought these comments to the jury consultant, and asked him dude, WTF?  And he chuckled, and explained "well, you need to know this - about 1 in 10 folks is what you and I would call batshit crazy.  They function normally in most respects -- could be the waiter at your favorite restaurant, your dry cleaner, whatever.  In your ordinary interactions, they seem normal.  But if you get them talking at all about anything political or cultural, they're nuts.  And they're out there.  They're in every jury pool you've got.  The challenge is smoking them out before selection."

Truly about 1 in 10 people is a nut who believes that aliens are programming their thoughts, QAnon is real, some shit like that.  Always has been.

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F250

F250 28826

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50 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

More texags:

I'm starting to see some of my ultra lib north eastern friends link to Qanon articles.

Of course their post is accompanied by "are people this crazy?" Dad backed up by their lib friends responding similarly.

Of course they are posting links talking about the most far out theories that weren't started by Q himself, but that's expected.

Oh well, word is spreading

 

Keep in mind that these people worship a dog and fervently believe in all kinds of aggy mythology.

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