Please explain QAnon to me.

[milestogo]

I've read the blurb on Wikipedia. But honestly, I've never paid attention because I didn't think it was significant.

[True Dough]

1. This about sums it up:

[milestogo]

3. Thank you.

Now I'm dizzy.

[True Dough]

6. Believe me

you're nowhere near as dizzy as they are!

[SlogginThroughIt]

2. A disinformation campaign

A disinformation campaign using conspiracy theories to explain away failed predictions that keep people whipped up in rage against their own government and self interests. It uses a lot of anti-jewish crap as well.

[milestogo]

4. And now some of these crazies are in Congress.

[kimbutgar]

5. Vice news had an excellent documentary about the crazy Qanon

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8ww7/where-did-qanon-come-from

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9. Thank you.

[Zorro]

20. I encourage people to watch this 3 part series

It's very educational and quite disturbing. Some very weird QAnon characters are interviewed.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I'm not sure anyone can explain it.

What I can't figure out is why anyone would believe things that are not only false but that could not possibly be true. There is some speculation that QAnon started out as an elaborate LARP game that gradually took over people's brains to the point that they really believed the nonsense.

[vlyons]

8. QAnon is an old Nazi cult, rebranded.

They are fiercely anti-semitic, and their conspiracy theories are recycled from way way back to before WWI around 1902. This article was posted earlier on DU. Please read it.

https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/

[Takket]

10. Do this....

Remove your brain

Stick it in a blender for five minutes

Pour the liquid goop back into your head.

Now you understand qanon

The best way to understand it is to work backwards. Smart people presented with information look for an explanation. Qanon people start with the explanation they want to be true, then make up their own information to support it.

[milestogo]

12. ...

[Skittles]

11. think of what kind of people would vote for a pussy grabbing con man for president of America

you just know they can be made to believe ANYTHING

and QAnon is just more PROOF of that

[Kitchari]

13. Fascinating analysis from a game designer: Qanon is a game that plays YOU

Qanon is a game that plays YOU:

From the article:

QAnon grows on the wild misinterpretation of random data, presented in a suggestive fashion in a milieu designed to help the users come to the intended misunderstanding.

Much more at [link:https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-analysis-of-qanon-580972548be5]

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. Summary: You are outside the loop of everything, but you can be inside if you just trust me.

[Cicada]

15. I just watched In Search of Q on Vice tv, very interesting

My wife has a super power, the ability to record things from our TV, so we just watched two one hour episodes about Q, at least one more to come. I can’t do that record from TV thing very well. My complementary super power tho is something she is not good at, the ability to use a remote control so we can watch things on Netflix and Amazon prime. In Search of Q was really interesting and scary.

[d_r]

16. It's just conspiracy theories

Don't expect them to make sense.

Someone posted in a gross message board that they were an inside informant with special messages from trump.

Because it was anonymous anyone could go n pretend to be "q"

The posts were riddles and internet sitset up for discussion boards to solve the riddles and give each other clues.

They believed the comet pizza store was a front for abducting children and holding them in the basement.

They believe an international cabal secretly rules the world. They video each other raping children and then murdering children so that they will never betray each other.

This is a derivative of older conspiracy theories that jews run the world and murder children.

They believe that the people in the cabal torture the children to derive adrenochrome from them, then they take it or just eat the children.

They believe there were videos of Hillary clinton doing this on anthony wieners laptop.

They believe this deep state conspiracy is ran by democrats and hollywood.

They believe that trump was secretly investigating all of this and was goi g to publicly execute the members of the cabal.

They had an important role to ay in all of this by investigating the clues that q left for them on the internet.

Only trump knew the truth and only he could save america and the children.

They used the idea of child trafficking to draw people in.

The followers became so devoted and invested in this that they could not face the fact they were being duped. They think only they know the truth and that other people are just sheep.

I think it shows how pitiful we are with mental health care. With social media, delusional people can share and support other delusional people in ways that were never possible.

[Totally Tunsie]

17. CNN - I believe Anderson Cooper - is showing a special presentation

this evening at 9:00 p.m. about the origin, beliefs, and operation of QAnon. From the promo of it, it looks to be pretty comprehensive. Could be worth a watching.

[ornotna]

18. There's special about it tonight on CNN

If you get it. See above ↑

[Trailrider1951]

21. You can stream CNN without subscription here:

https://www.livenewsnow.com/american/cnn-news-usa.html

and here:

https://livenewstime.com/headlines/

Occasionally the sites will kick you off, so just hit the refresh button, or go to the other site

and remember that the broadcast time is probably Eastern Time Zone. Adjust if you live farther west.

Hope this helps

[milestogo]

22. thanks, I will check it out

[CrispyQ]

19. There's no way to explain it.

I have two Q-anon whackos in my family—that I know of—& the stuff they believe is insane. It's seriously shake-your-head crazy. They have total distrust of any mainstream media. One of the news shows interviewed two avowed Q-anon members. I mostly remember a young woman with two little kids. She lived in suburbia. The reporter asked her, "You don't really believe that democrats are Satan worshiping pedophiles, do you?" She said, "I don't want to, but yeah, I do." That told me everything right there. She DOES want to—she wants to believe awful things about people she disagrees with. I think it's part of what drives these people. Also owning the libs. Which I totally don't get, but it's big with them. It makes them feel good to know they've pissed someone they disagree with off or made them uncomfortable. Even if it's all just in their mind that they did that.

[LeftInTX]

23. I can't keep up with all of these R wing groups!

Q anon
Boogaloo Bois
Groypers
Proud Boys
1776'ers
Three Percenters
America First
Oath Keepers

Throw in 4chan, gamergate, 8chan. I do think Q'anon, Boogaloo and Groypers tend to be younger than Oath Keepers...That's about all that I've figured out!


Don't feel bad. There is too much information to digest!

Video from Vice..I had to hunt for it!

[C_U_L8R]

24. There are two parts.

The idiot horde. And their manipulators.

Hang out with someone on a meth binge and you'll get the gist. There is no logic... it's just endless yanking the strands of a big honking ball of crazytown. Apparently addictive.

[mnmoderatedem]

25. lon on to iwillbelieveanything.com

it will re direct you to their website

[chowder66]

26. It's a conspiracy factory...

made up of mostly the population of people who keep conmen and scammers in business.

They are people with zero coping skills which leave them gullible.

Social Media has made it possible for them to find each other and validate each others crazy conspiracy theories which gives them false confidence then emboldens them.

They get off on building a fantasy world that has been kept secret from them their whole lives until the internet wizards told them otherwise.

When their fantasies fail to materialize they have to get their next "hit" by jumping on a new conspiracy or they will invest everything into creating a new one or reworking an existing one..... if they don't do this... they will have to face reality.

[Behind the Aegis]

27. Repackaged anti-Semitism with various other conspiracy theories.

That's about it.

[Orangepeel]

28. you know how L. Ron Hubbard made up Scientology and now a lot of people believe it?

Q-anon is sort of like that, only even more dangerous and not tax exempt. And their version of L. Ron won't go public.

[Solly Mack]

29. Think bad acid trip. Got it? Well, a bad acid trip is more grounded in reality than Qanon.

Never had a bad acid trip?

Then think cult. Think people in search of a purpose that explains life because all the reality-based, evidence-based answers don't make them feel better - so something comes along that, no matter how much so obviously a lie, gives them purpose because, for them, it explains everything.

It makes them feel good about themselves.
It gives them purpose.
It causes them to feel "in-the-know" - and therefore chosen or special.
They have "THE truth" (as in the only truth) and all the self-righteousness that comes along with that thinking.

They experience an "Ah-Hah" moment of everything they have secretly felt washing over them because - it's all true.

They are the real victims. There is a reason why life isn't going great for them - and it's not them. There really is something wrong with people who don't agree with their racism, their religion, their opinions and ideas - and it is because those people are baby-eating lizard people hellbent on taking over the world.

Add in a dash of nationalism and a heaping spoonful of "lost cause" ideology; then bake - your Qanon is ready.


Someone made some shit up and it took off from there. Then an entire movement and myth was built around it.