What’s Q Gotta Do With it?
How the Qanon conspiracy theory helped to fuel an attempted coup.
Like many Americans and, ya know, fans of democracy in general, I was up late last night buzzing with anxiety. Apparently it’s hard to sleep after a coup attempt; truly loving the essential life lessons 2021 is bestowing upon us just seven days in.
I was glad to see a lot of good reporting in the mainstream media on the root causes of yesterday’s chaos, but I think there’s some essential context missing from many of the stories I read while doom-scrolling into the wee hours of the morning.
I understand why. There are no easy answers here, and the threat our country and the world is facing from far-right terrorist groups is at once extraordinarily complex, upsetting, and — in the case of what I’m about to get into — very fucking weird.
However, I think it’s crucial to understand how the Qanon conspiracy theory helped to drive much of what happened at the Capitol yesterday, because a large portion of the rioters photographed running amuck inside the halls of Congress are prominent voices in the Qanon world.
These people are well-known in far-right circles, which makes the claims from the right that this was an “antifa” plot even more ridiculous. (For the record, “antifa” is not actually an organized group of people like the Proud Boys or the KKK. Being “antifa” literally means you are against fascism. There is no monthly meeting, there is no secret agenda. It’s just a way of saying you oppose fascism. I digress.)
Here is the reality missing from a lot of reporting about the coup: Many of those who stormed the halls — including the woman who was shot and killed — truly believe in the core tenets of the Qanon conspiracy. In short, they think that an anonymous source inside the intelligence community is using 4chan and 8chan to post cryptic riddles in an effort expose a centuries-old global conspiracy that ONLY Donald Trump can save us from.
Here are some things Qanon supporters *ACTUALLY* believe:
- A cabal of “global elites” (consisting mostly of rich Jewish people, outspoken liberal celebrities and, ‘natch, the entire Democratic Party) are secretly running the world. They also worship Satan, because of course they do.
- These evil elites routinely kidnap children, who they torture and brutally rape so that they will produce a chemical called adrenochrome. The elites drink this in order to stay young. The more they hurt the children, the better the adrenochrome works. (This is literally a plot point of Dr. Sleep, but go off I guess??)
- Donald Trump has been engaged in a secret battle against this international, Satanist pedophile ring since he became president.
- His plan will culminate in a civil war which will end with Democrats, celebrities, politicians etc being HUNG EN MASS IN THE STREETS. This is a goal they are actively working toward.
Q started posting in 2017. Their first post was a part of a live action role-playing game (LARP) popular on 4chan, in which users pretend to be intelligence agents and build off each other’s posts. In strange, unrhymed verse, someone claiming to have a Q-level security clearance revealed that Hillary Clinton was on the verge of being arrested. (Neither this first prediction, nor anything Q has since foretold, has ever come to pass.)
No one on 4chan took it seriously, but it made the jump from 4chan to Reddit and then to Facebook, where a bunch of bored suburban boomers got sucked in. It has since spiraled out of control, and the pandemic — which has left so many of us unemployed, bored and glued to the internet — has only exacerbated the situation.
Right now, Qanon is recruiting at an alarming rate, and it’s not just your problematic uncle or already fash-leaning racists. Over the past few months, I have personally watched friends and acquaintances on the left, specifically those with an interest in alternative medicine, spirituality, astrology and health/wellness, fall headfirst into this hole and become completely consumed.
Qanon is attractive because it give the believer a purpose, something to fight against. If you believe in Q, you also believe that you are personally helping to uncover an ancient global conspiracy. You believe you are fighting the ultimate evil. You believe you are special and smart and capable of changing the world for the better.
Qanon is a cult. And like many cults, it cloaks itself inside of other issues, keeping the most poisonous, crazy parts of its ideology under wraps until a new recruit has been sufficiently pulled in. While much of Q theory and culture is rooted in the familiar evils of white supremacy, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, anti-intellectualism and Evangelical Christianity, these dark roots are deliberately camouflaged for mass palpability.
This is why Scientology leads with self improvement and not Xenu, why NXIVM led with ethics and not branding, why The Peoples Temple led with racial harmony and not mass suicide, and now, it’s why Q has inserted itself into the dialogue around child sex trafficking.
Have you noticed an uptick in “Save the Children” rallies popping up in cities worldwide? These events claim to be raising awareness about child sex trafficking, but are actually just incognito Q rallies. While they are set up as something no one could possible oppose (who would be against stopping children from being sold into sexual slavery??), if you peel back the layers of obfuscation, they are fundamentally about Q, and the trafficking they are protesting is not based in reality.
This is not to say that child sex trafficking isn’t an issue. But what it actually means to be the victim of child sex trafficking is so wildy different from what Qanon preaches. Most kids who are sexually trafficked are not kidnapped off the street by strangers looking to drink their blood to stay young. The vast majority of child sex trafficking victims are hurt and abused by family, friends and people in their lives. Spreading misinformation about how child sex trafficking operates in this country does not help the children who are actually being abused, it actively hurts the cause.
Like many other cults, Qanon followers use coded, innocuous-sounding language online. In the coming days, most of the faces we saw in pictures and videos taken inside the Capitol will likely be ID’d. Pay attention to what you see on their social media pages. They use specific language/hashtags like: “Where we go one, we go all” aka (# WWGOWGA), # SaveOurChildren, # PizzaGate, # TheGreatAwakening, # DigitalSoldiers, # TrustThePlan, etc.
Honestly, the most hilarious (?) thing about all of this is that the person who is, in all likelihood, currently behind Q is a pig farmer named Jim Watkins who lives in the Philippines. Watkins owns and operates 8chan, a message board rife with child pornography and hate speech, which also happens to be the only place Q now posts. The irony of this should be delicious, but I’m too anxious to eat it up right now.
Obviously I’ve spent far too much of my quar solitude digging into this. At first it was for fun — if there is one thing I love, it’s some weird cult shit. But the more I learned, the less fun it became. By the time yesterday rolled around, I had enough context to realize how deeply this belief system has engrained itself into the far-right mindset; it’s practically a core tenet of the Trumpest ideology.
Many, many of the people who raided the Capitol truly believe they are fighting to save children from being tortured, raped and DRAINED OF THEIR BLOOD by the evil Democrats and global elites.
Just take a second with that. If you believed that, what wouldn’t you do?
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If you’re interested in learning more about the batshit cult that has helped to cultivate our collective national nightmare, I recommend the following resources:
The Qanon Anonymous Podcast —Both an excellent starting place and a deep dive. These dudes have been at it since 2018 and every episode is incredibly in-depth and often hilarious.
Q Clearance: Unmasking Qanon — A short investigate series from former VICE reporter Jake Hanrahan, this is a short and sweet summation of Q and the people behind it.
The ReplyAll episode Country of Liars — If you’re not already a ReplyAll subscriber, do yourself a favor and click that button now. ReplyAll stories are all over the place but are typically focused on solving internet mysteries and dissecting online culture. In this episode, they explore the Watkins family and how Q rose to prominence.
The r/qcult_headquarters and r/parlerwatch subs on Reddit — Both good ways to keep an eye on what Q proponents are saying without having to follow them on Twitter or make a Parler account.
Culture Warlords by Talia Lavin — A terrifying look into the white supremacy dark web. So much of Q theory is based in age-old antisemitism. This is probably the scariest thing I read in 2020 and that is saying something because I also read the news every day.
Knowledge is power guys, stay safe out there.
XOXO, Quossip Quirl
