
The Wizard of Q - dbcooper
https://harpers.org/archive/2018/06/the-wizard-of-q/
======
Gargoyle
QAnon is one of the most fascinating things happening on the internet.
Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and
more people.

It's worth examining because it sheds light on how the less obviously false
narratives most of the rest of us invest in are spun. Since it's so crazy, the
mechanisms are more clear. Since it still works on many people, the mechanisms
aren't that different.

I don't know who Q is (other than clearly not who they claim to be) or what
their objective is, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

~~~
sergiotapia
>Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and
more people.

Literally posts things that happen VERBATIM days later. "obviously false
narrative"? Hardly.

[https://i.imgur.com/mEb9p0Q.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/mEb9p0Q.jpg)

~~~
api
I think this provides strong evidence that Q is Trump propaganda.

~~~
risotto_groupon
It hardly seems like the academic, probing, research oriented state sponsored
kind though. It feels more like the half-baked but polished-seeming
"Cloverfield 4" ad campaign kind.

~~~
api
That may well be more effective.

~~~
risotto_groupon
I suppose, if you want your puppet state to last as long as a movie release...

------
noonespecial
The Q twitter account itself seems pretty uninteresting. I'm just about
certain its some sort of automatic string generator connected to a few major
news feeds.

The interesting thing is the people who comb through the text "cloud-spotting"
for little bits of text that fit their narrative and reposting those bits
announcing that "Q is right!"

If all you read is that second order feed from those people, you can see how
someone who's not very informed might start to believe. Its like a twisted
horoscope.

The really interesting thing is that as the random text from the Q account
moves down through social media accounts, it somehow becomes "news"!

~~~
ryanmarsh
_The Q twitter account_

Q doesn’t use Twitter. Q has stated numerous times any communication outside
of 8chan is not Q.

~~~
api
Q uses 8chan? Wow. Didn't realize that. 8chan is full of basically straight up
white nationalist fascism, or that's what I thought. I recall it making 4chan
look tame.

~~~
eb00
What really scares me about the chans is that during the government shutdowns
the anti-black posts completely stopped. /pol/ is normally littered with them
as well as other kinds of racist garbage, but it was the black ones alone that
just vanished. After the shutdowns they returned immediately. Who on earth is
being paid to do this and why?

~~~
api
Haha. You've never worked in government. There are buildings of people paid to
do nothing, where "nothing" often includes spewing shit on Internet boards and
social media sites. When they are off they are out doing other things.

Sounds like the vanguard of the master race need to get a real job.

------
dasmoth
Based on the title, I was nearly convinced that this would be about Arthur
Whitney (author of the K and Q programming languages)

~~~
zephyrfalcon
Or perhaps Albert Gräf, also the creator of a language named Q (now defunct):
[http://q-lang.sourceforge.net/](http://q-lang.sourceforge.net/)

~~~
omaranto
Well, defunct is a little harsh since its succesor Pure really is quite
similar: [https://agraef.github.io/pure-lang/](https://agraef.github.io/pure-
lang/)

------
baruchthescribe
From October 28 to Jan 4, Q was a MILINT insider very close to the President.
He provided ironclad proofs of this:

\- he predicted the President's Twitter going down.

\- he predicted the upheavals in Saudi Arabia.

\- he predicted the Pope would want to change the Lord's Prayer.

\- he predicted a bombing attempt by a Bangladeshi national in NYC.

\- he posted original photos taken from AF1 that matched the President's Far
East itinerary.

\- he used phrases the President would tweet a few minutes later.

\- the President once pasted an anon's comment into his Twitter showing he was
watching live.

He leaked on 4chan for a month, then moved to 8chan /cbts/ \- my board. I ran
this board for just over a month and he made 200+ posts on it. From Jan 5 to
the present, it's been an imposter who cracked his tripcode password, and it's
worthless nonsense: cold reading, vague terminology and the like.

~~~
kej
Out of curiosity, how do you know the Jan 5th onward posts are a different
person? To an outsider they all look like vague cold reading. I guess what I'm
asking is what difference so you see between the two versions?

~~~
baruchthescribe
I detail the more-or-less complete timeline here:

[https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/980789585801351168.html](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/980789585801351168.html)

------
neonate
[http://archive.li/s1QDg](http://archive.li/s1QDg)

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techntoke
Please note my write up on QAnon being a government-sponsored PSYOP for Trump
here, and don't forget to petition the government and seek restitution for the
harmful propaganda being spread on American citizens:

[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-citizen-psychological-
wa...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-citizen-psychological-warfare-brad-
erhart/)

Since Q was partially outed a couple days ago, Corsi has been on Alex
Jonestown twice now (even though they were previously promoting it) saying Q
has been taken over and is now disinfo generated by AI.

------
brookhaven_dude
It is just Russian paid trolls taking basement dwellers and anime lovers for a
ride.

------
ryanmarsh
Talking about Q with people who haven’t followed it closely, to include
journalism about Q, feeds the Q phenomenon for the simple reason that so many
people get _it_ wrong. By wrong I mean, it’s as if they haven’t done their
research, or worse, have an agenda. If you’re going to write about Q,
furthermore if you’re going to criticize Q, it would serve your cause well to
research it _thoroughly_ because the autists will eat you alive further
painting Q as a “deepthroat” the cabal “doesn’t want you to know about”.

