The QAnon conspiracy theory came to the forefront Tuesday during a Trump rally in Tampa, Florida when some within the crowd could be seen holding signs with the letter ‘Q’ or ‘We are Q’ written on them. It presumed the people holding up these signs are the same ones at the forefront of the debunked Seth Rich conspiracy or the Pizzagate shit some on the far-right still try to peddle. Again despite Pizzagate being exposed as complete and utter BS.
But this ‘Q‘ or ‘QAnon’ thing is new. Not new as in last night, it’s actually been around for quite some time it was only during last night’s rally that it started making its way into the mainstream.
So what is it?
‘Q’ or ‘QAnon’ is believed to be according to the ‘followers of Q’ a person or group of people with access to government secrets. Some believe ‘Q’ is a government agent with top security clearance who’ll drop classified information on 4chan and 8chan message boards as well as more mainstream platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Via the Washington Post:
“Tampa rally, live coverage,” wrote “Dan,” posting a link to President Trump’s Tampa speech in a thread on 8chan, an anonymous image board also known as Infinitechan or Infinitychan, which might be best described as the unglued twin of better-known 4chan, a message board already untethered from reality.
The thread invited “requests to Q,” an anonymous user claiming to be a government agent with top security clearance, waging war against the so-called deep state in service to the 45th president. “Q” feeds disciples, or “bakers,” scraps of intelligence, or “bread crumbs,” that they scramble to bake into an understanding of the “storm” — the community’s term, drawn from Trump’s cryptic reference last year to “the calm before the storm” — for the president’s final conquest over elites, globalists and deep-state saboteurs.
But the purpose of QAnon isn’t just supposedly dropping government breadcrumbs on the web. It’s also no coincidence that ‘followers of Q’ were spotted in some numbers at Trump’s rally Tuesday night in Tampa. The other objective of QAnon is protecting Trump from a ‘shadow government’ or ‘deep state’ who is at war with a non-elitist, anti-globalist 45th president who in turn is trying to rid the nation of such.
P.J. Tobia of PBS also gives a further description of QAnon:
So, this all started last fall on 4chan, which is an anonymous online message board.
And last fall, a user calling himself QAnon began posting little nuggets of information. Q is actually a reference to the Q clearance. It’s one of the highest security clearances in the U.S. government.
Q claims to be highly placed in the government and has built visibility into a kind of conspiracy of globalists, a permanent criminal government that’s been running the U.S. government for decades. This, of course, includes the Clintons, the Obamas, the financier George Soros, and many, many others.
The conspiracy goes on to posit that President Trump will team up with the U.S. military and crush this — and crush this cabal by throwing them all in jail, starting with Hillary Clinton.
In order though to have the full confidence in protecting their boy king, followers of Q often time look for signs of it’s existence. For instance, followers will look for any connection to the number 17 as ‘Q’ is the 17th letter of the alphabet. Followers found this coming full circle and lost their shit when the Alabama football team gave Trump a jersey with the no. 17 on it. Followers however didn’t connect the obvious dots that it was also 2017 and the 17 on the jersey would be a representation of that and probably not some underground group of nut bags who spend way too much time on message boards.
Unfortunately however with Trump in the White House giving more of that sick legitimacy when it comes to continuing to promote the media as the ‘enemy of the people’ No. 45’s other conspiracy peddling ways has further helped promote this whole asinine notion of QAnon. Likewise, the followings of Q feel more emboldened especially when they have the likes of Roseanne Barr and Curt Schilling on their side to bring violence to the public.
Via the New York Times:
The paranoid worldview has crossed over from the internet into the real world several times in recent months. On more than one occasion, people believed to be followers of QAnon have shown up — sometimes with weapons — in places that the character told them were somehow connected to anti-Trump conspiracies.
“The biggest danger is you are one mentally unstable person away from the next massive incident that defines whatever happens next,” Mr. Decker said. “The next Pizzagate, which for better or worse did define the political conversation for a while.”
In June, a man armed with a rifle and a handgun drove an armored vehicle to the Hoover Dam on what he said was a mission from QAnon: to demand that the government release the Justice Department’s report from its inspector general on the conduct of F.B.I. agents during the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
…
Most recently, a suspicious and possibly armed man showed up at the law offices of Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the adult film performer known as Stormy Daniels, after Q posted a link to Mr. Avenatti’s website and a picture of the office building. The man did not enter the premises.
In an interview, Mr. Avenatti said he had received a large number of threatening emails and social media posts in recent months, “but this one we have significant reason to believe posed a significant threat.” He said local law enforcement was investigating the incident.
“I do think it is dangerous, absolutely,” Mr. Avenatti said. “And I think it is incumbent upon the president to quash this nonsense as opposed to feeding it.”
The most important thing to remember when it comes to all of this though is for the very most part conspiracy is based on very little fact but more so to try and control the narrative. I’m not saying that Trump is a follower of this bullshit – although it wouldn’t surprise me in the least – Trump, like he continues to give a horrid legitimacy to racist alt-right clowns he continues to give that same absurd legitimacy to the Alex Jones’ of the world who wake up and fall asleep to Q and 4chan message boards.
And even if a Trump supporter or simple everyday person has never heard of QAnon – which is still the case – the followers of Q continue to play a huge role by promoting what they as well as Trump want to hear on the ground and on the internet.
