General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat's your take on QAnon?
Who is it? Where?
Was it a long-term plan or just a WTF kind of goof?
Is anyone behind it now or is it self-perpetuating by low-IQ cultists?
Can it really be that hard to track it down? Is anyone trying? Where is Anonymous in this?
Does it really matter? After all, the cultists seem okay so far with the Woodward revelations (of course, if they even know about them).
kimbutgar
(21,206 posts)And I have been battling my husbands 22 year old nephew who told me I needed to be in a looney bin for not believing in it today!
BlueTsunami2018
(3,503 posts)And the cult is too stupid to realize it.
Thats all it is.
Miguelito Loveless
(4,474 posts)has now spun out of control.
It is going to get people killed. A Time magazine article had this paragraph to give you a feel for what is going to happen.
Arthur and Frank explained theyre not followers of QAnon. Frank says she spends most of her free time researching child sex trafficking, while Arthur adds that she often finds this information on the Russian-owned search engine Yandex. Franks eyes fill with tears as she describes what shes found: children who are being raped and tortured so that the cabal can extract their blood and drink it. She says Trump has seized the blood on the black market as part of his fight against the cabal. I think if Biden wins, the world is over, basically, adds Arthur. I would honestly try to leave the country. And if that wasnt an option, I would probably take my children and sit in the garage and turn my car on and it would be over.
https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-theories-2020-election/
Q-Anon is a death cult.
MustLoveBeagles
(11,636 posts)That's terrifying.
Miguelito Loveless
(4,474 posts)Hopefully, her quote will get her a visit from CPS.
cayugafalls
(5,645 posts)There is merch to be sold.
Pushing the theory on to bigger platforms proved to be the key to Qanons spread and the originators financial gain.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531?fbclid=IwAR1CA4l9cO7Gvu-KY8ZJjTozsn6jG1MBIG3dUsEhVDQaIAOdbVc_v5-t3Zk
Bengus81
(6,933 posts)to the woman who owned the hair salon in San Francisco for her "gotcha" moment (which is now totally forgotten), think how much this bunch of guys will drag in off of those same clowns all willing and able to get out a credit card.
In their flaming RW Trump Humper World you can make a fortune by spewing fake patriotism, hating Mexicans and spinning ridiculous "theories".
cayugafalls
(5,645 posts)So they are making money while espousing the sickest of ideologies.
https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/
Louis1895
(768 posts)Hanzzy72
(51 posts)I chalked it up to being started by some conservative think tank meant to indoctrinate the conspiracy theorist crowd into the Republican party -- but what you've posted is a far scarier alternative that I didn't consider.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)but this is interesting...
By William Turton
September 11, 2020, 2:55 PM EDT
Popular aggregator site received millions of monthly visitors
Qmap.pubs creator is known online only as QAppAnon
A popular website for posts about the conspiracy group QAnon abruptly shut down after a fact-checking group identified the developer as a New Jersey man.
Qmap.pub is among the largest websites promoting the QAnon conspiracy, with over 10 million visitors in July, according to web analytics firm SimilarWeb Ltd., and served as the primary archive of QAnons posts. The website aggregates posts by Q, the anonymous figure behind the QAnon theory, and the creator of the Qmap.pub website is known online only as QAppAnon.
===
The fact-checking site Logically.ai identified Jason Gelinas of New Jersey on Sept. 10 as the developer and mouthpiece for the site. New Jersey state records connect QAppAnon to Gelinass home address, Bloomberg found.
========================
A LinkedIn profile for Gelinas says he works as an information security analyst at Citigroup. Citigroup declined to comment.
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)It is one thing to have fringe conspiracy theories that people believe in, but quite another to have it go mainstream and be endorsed by a political party.
Getting people to believe, en masse, absurd things sets them up for more absurd things and then, that can lead to horrific results. I am not being sensationalist about this, the potential is there, especially when whomever is behind QAnon seems to be utilizing and rebranding something we have seen before. You could say it is a Nazi cult as per this article:
A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power.
That's from the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/
They may go there slowly in order to camouflage the potentially shocking ulterior motives. At some point, those who are hooked completely will be easy marks, depending on how many there are and how far it has crept into the Republican party via candidates.
In this case, the conspiracy IS the conspiracy theory itself. Whomever is pulling this one off seems to have an end goal and its not good.
Initech
(100,104 posts)dawg day
(7,947 posts)Or maybe 8 chan?
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)The irony of which is that he promotes/allows pedophilia.
He seems to be involved but not the only one. The people who outed Gelinas are close to outing the rest.
dalton99a
(81,599 posts)https://medium.com/@registrarproject17/jim-watkins-is-q-the-russians-are-helping-him-and-other-adventures-b457848e210b
JIM WATKINS IS Q AND THE RUSSIANS ARE HELPING HIM
Jim Stewartson
Aug 16
Liberal In Texas
(13,579 posts)"The man behind Qanon is a vile hate-merchant coordinating with OANN, Flynn and Russian intelligence."
The link to the Mediium story is a fascinating read.
https://medium.com/@registrarproject17/jim-watkins-is-q-the-russians-are-helping-him-and-other-adventures-b457848e210b
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)he's on top of this mess. His other Medium piece is good too. (Title something like "Q is coming for your family"
dawg day
(7,947 posts)Of course, all the Q people will just say this is part of the conspiracy. "George Soros is paying him to pretend to be Q!"
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)I follow a few "leaders" on social media and with the outing of one of the "Q Team" yesterday, a viral post started off by saying something to the effect "Even if the 1% chance Q ends up being something nefarious, our cause is just and we're awake"....blah, blah
Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)And pours it on the floor)
Initech
(100,104 posts)Unless it's a Bud Light, then it's OK to pour on the floor!
MontanaMama
(23,337 posts)I endorse your message.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)dalton99a
(81,599 posts)QAnon Key Figure Revealed as Financial Information Security Analyst from New Jersey
Published: Sep 10, 2020 12:40:15 PM
TheBlackAdder
(28,222 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)The conspiracy theory's targeting of Soros and the Rothschilds has led The Washington Post and Jewish-American magazine The Forward to accuse it of containing "striking anti-Semitic elements" and "garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones".[82][21] An August 2018 Jewish Telegraphic Agency article said, "although not specifically, some of QAnon's archetypical elementsincluding secret elites and kidnapped children, among othersare reflective of historical and ongoing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories".[83]
The Anti-Defamation League reported that while "the vast majority of QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories have nothing to do with anti-Semitism", "an impressionistic review" of QAnon tweets about Israel, Jews, Zionists, the Rothschilds, and Soros "revealed some troubling examples" of antisemitism.[84]
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, another example of a conspiracy theory likely to have been subtly exploited by foreign intelligence services to exacerbate preexisting weaknesses and suspicions in a national culture for the purpose of stoking internecine damage to its unity and institutions, has intersected with the QAnon conspiracy theories, with a Republican QAnon fan retweeting a Twitter thread about the Rothschild family, Satanic High Priestesses, and American presidents saying that "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion Is Not A Fabrication. And, It Certainly Is Not Anti-Semitic To Point Out This Fact."[85][86] The retweeter later denied knowing the content of the thread, although anti-Semitic references appeared in the first few tweets.[87] Similarly, Trump has denied knowing anything about QAnon except that QAnon fans like him and "love our country."[88]
By 2020, QAnon followers were advancing a theory that Hollywood elites were engaging in "adrenochrome harvesting," in which adrenaline is extracted from children's blood to be oxidized into the psychoactive drug adrenochrome. Adrenochrome harvesting is rooted in antisemitic myths of blood libel dating to the Middle Ages, claiming that Jews murder Christian children for their blood for use in religious rituals.[89][90][91]
QAnon believers have promoted a centuries-old antisemitic trope about an international banking conspiracy orchestrated by the Rothschild family.[92] Mary Ann Mendoza, who sits on the advisory board of Women for Trump, was scheduled to speak at the 2020 Republican convention, but was dropped hours before her appearance after it became known she had promoted the trope on Twitter.[93]
Behind the Aegis
(53,991 posts)Seems more than a few don't want to see or acknowledge the rank and huge part anti-Semitism plays in this bullshit.
brewens
(13,622 posts)Snake Plissken
(4,103 posts)People like to laugh at these shit for brains freaks and just brush them off, but they should not be brushed off, they are mentally unstable and believe they are doing he work of God, just like the suicide bombers in the Middle East.
There is no doubt in my mind that we will once again be dealing with mass shooting in schools and churches if Trump loses, the right wing media will once again go out of their way to incite these nutters into violence.
Tarc
(10,476 posts)with numbers vastly inflated by Russian bot farms.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)I've gathered so many excellent resources that I can't begin to summarize them and the impact it has had on millions and millions of diverse people.
Regardless of who actually started it (it looks like it may be revealed fairly soon; the people who outed Gelinas know others), I have no doubt that people like Bannon and Putin have been amplifying (if not controlling) it since the number of ridiculously gullible people no doubt surprised even them.
TheBlackAdder
(28,222 posts)Turbineguy
(37,372 posts)the crazy contest.
Squinch
(51,021 posts)As for who Q is? Who gives a shit. He's (I feel certain it's a he) is just another in the sea of right wing psychopaths.
They're so numerous, they're just a blur.
FM123
(10,054 posts)Nearly 600,000 people have voted for candidates who support QAnon
The overlap of Q supporters with Trumps base of support is not a coincidence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/01/nearly-600000-people-have-voted-candidates-who-support-qanon/
CanonRay
(14,119 posts)Somebody is making a shitload of money off this.
Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)As far as the whole QAnon cult, I think some clever propagandists saw an opening with the Trump phenomenon of mass manipulation and they ran with it. I think the QAnons are the same type of people who believe The Enquirer is true news and WWE is real wrestling. Their brains yearn for meaning and closure for everything that happens in their lives.
Of course, Republicans weaponize everything and they use these groups to divide-and-conquer Americans. They could probably be radicalized to the point of frequent violence. Republicans are again nurturing a dangerous fringe group that we will all have to deal with. The response to them in itself will be used by the cultists as proof of deep-state takeover, IMO.
Sympthsical
(9,121 posts)And now it's its own brand of crazy.
A lot of this stuff originates on 4chan, which was originally just a bunch of internet trolls messing with people, but then actual white supremacists got involved.
It's a total shitshow.
Generic Brad
(14,276 posts)And occasionally some American oligarchs get involved when they think it suits their agenda.
made up by some guys on 4Chan. I looked for the thread on Reddit and can't find it where it explains it all. I will keep looking.
sanatanadharma
(3,736 posts)Prior to the internet, the largest found intensely-insane population 'point of view' was confined by walls.
Now Q's quote anonymous qlues (sic) to create tapestries of sick-fiction, while assuring themselves that they are the 'moran-al majority'.
Stupidity, insanity, the ignorant and egoic are never not dangerous.
Yavin4
(35,446 posts)It's a grift that has gotten out of control
Dorian Gray
(13,501 posts)Low info idiots congregate on line
One person makes shit up as a goof.
low info idiots buy it all
Russians amplify it
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,368 posts)Various grifters have seized on it to make money. But unlike, say, a religious huckster fleecing those who want a picture of a god that looks after them, this appeals to the worst anti-societal tendencies, like the Chinese Cultural Revolution did.
Yes, it matters. It's playing with fire.
MyNameGoesHere
(7,638 posts)Swede
(33,288 posts)They are cultists that do not accept reality. Armed, angry, and on a mission from their god.