The QAnon conspiracy

This is the best conspiracy of late. I couldn't resist adding it to my book.

I had not heard of this far-right conspiracy theory until just recently. I suppose it has been resurrected because of the upcoming election. I am analyzing this theory only in a technical manner, not a political way. The task is to determine if it's true or not.

Basically, the theory arose back in 2017 as an anonymous post on imageboard 4chan, which is an English-language picture bulletin board based on the original Japan version. It's for posting things like anime, popular culture, sports and most importantly, politics. It also includes discussion. Eventually, Q moved to 8chan.

The original post by Q was subsequently spread all over the internet. Its original intent was to reveal that there was a secret underground conspiracy group aligned against President Trump and his supporters. The Q part of the title is for Q, the anonymous poster. It also stands for Q clearance, which is a secret clearance reference used by the U.S. Department of Energy for having access to secrete data about atomic weapons and materials, suggesting that this was from a person who had this clearance. Anon probably means anonymous.

Originally, the conspiracy revealed that there was a secret organization or cabal of devil worshiping pedophiles that were dedicated to subverting the world's governments, including the United States, and they would rule forever in secret. Donald Trump election and his supporters prevented this plan from being carried out. The secret pedophile group consisted of child sex trafficking liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking officials.

The theory also alleges that the Russian collusion with Donald Trump's election was a ruse to allow Robert Mueller to prevent a coup d'etat by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

QAnon supporters wear the 'Q' patch, which is a black Q letter inside a round black circle with a red background. A 'Q' by itself would be mostly red. People who wear this patch are believers of the QAnon conspiracy. QAnon supporters began appearing at Trump re-election campaign rallies, where they used the motto "Where we go one, we go all" That has a hashtag of #WWG1WGA.

I did not include a photo of this patch because it could be censored if taken out of context.

Supposedly, the FBI determined that QAnon was a potential source of domestic terrorism. The reality is that it's causing domestic problems and psychological breakdowns, not to mention acts of cival violence.

Okay, that's the facts about this theory. What does it all mean?

I see this as a typical apocalyptic theory, which has been around for a long time in one form or another. The main proposal of this theory's apocalypse is that the military will take over the country and will arrest all of the evil liberals and subject the Earth to a time of salvation and that it will become a utopia. QAnon refers to this event as 'The Storm' when all of the evil members of the cabal will be arrested. Events before that time is referred to as 'The Calm before the Storm'. These ideas sound almost like religious cult conspiracies that predict the end of the world; although, in this case there is a political motive involved. There are obvious references to the Last Judgement in the Book of Revelation, a clear evidence of extreme religious right ideas.

The idea that liberals are pedophiles originated in a Twitter post in 2016 by a white supremist group member that claimed that the New York City Police Department had discovered evidence of a pedophile ring linked to the Democratic Party by searching through Anthony Weiner's emails and that Hillary Clinton was involved and was being arrested. QAnon spread this theory, but it was obviously false.

As part of that theory, it was claimed that the reason for Clinton and her gang abducting children was to extract adrenochrome from them, a substance that could keep aging politicians young.

Other false claims by QAnon are that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a puppet leader installed by the CIA, and that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the granddaughter of Adolph Hitler. If you're going to claim wild things at least try to make them sound reasonable.
These ridiculously false ideas are a clue to the non-validity of a conspiracy theory, and this theory is full of them.

This conspiracy is the main reason that Bill Gates is being vilified as someone who created the pandemic to get rid of Trump.

These ideas sound a lot like apocalyptic science fiction plots.

The original 4chan /pol/ poster was identified as Q Clearance Patriot and the thread was entitled 'Calm before the Storm'. Whoever it is claims that false information is necessary. Necessary for what, stupidity!

Liz Crokin, a columnist and novelist, claims Q is John F. Kennedy Jr who faked his death.

There are several other theories about who he is, but none can be verified. When he posts on 8chan, Q uses a tripcode that is recognized by the server, a move that keeps it secret and not available to any other user.

I could go on and on about all of the crazy ideas that this conspiracy has created, but they are, for the most part, completely false and unsupported by fact. The fact is that this conspiracy is not going away and you will see Trump rallies with people wearing T-shirts with the red Q-symbol, mostly because the conspiracy is aimed at Democrats and liberals.

As you might expect, QAnon is also being used to obtain monetary contributions to the cause. Where is that money going?

As it turns out, the theory is really going strong now just in time for the election. In fact, Majorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter, has just won the Georgia Republican congressional primary.

Facebook has taken down a large, 200,000 member QAnon group and has removed racist and derogatory posts from QAnon followers. There is a sizable following of QAnon on Reddit, a site that doesn't censor.

QAnon has morphed into a political cult that is expanding all over the world, causing more troubles. Isn't the Covid 19 pandemic bad enough!
I don't think it's all that important as conspiracy theories go, but it's out there on the internet, which is where I found about it. If it's on the internet it has to be right.

Not!

Thanks for reading.