
What is QAnon? An introduction to the conspiracy theory that's eating America - edward
https://www.salon.com/2020/08/16/what-is-qanon-a-not-so-brief-introduction-to-the-conspiracy-theory-thats-eating-america/
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syspec
Apparently it's been discovered that QAnon is actually the founder of 8 Chan.

> If you type in on Twitter: 'Q Jim Watkins' you'll see how the true owner of
> Q got doxed recently. Q . pub, Q-map/Q-anon is tied to current 8chan owner
> Jim Watkins. He's known for escaping America to the Philippines after
> suggesting that 8chan would be a safe-haven for: 'Peadophiles.' He's a
> rampant conspiracy theorist. His IP not only tied to Q-anon it's also tied
> to a obscure Twitter knock-off site that's popular with White-Supremacists
> called GAB and also links to The Daily Stormer which is a Neo-Nazi: 'news'
> site. Jim Watkins is Q and it's a essentially a viral front solely dedicated
> to spreading anti-Semitism as well as white supremacy online through various
> social media platforms.

[https://twitter.com/tamarafurey/status/1298052647686033408](https://twitter.com/tamarafurey/status/1298052647686033408)

[https://twitter.com/HW_BEAT_THAT/status/1297616337984843776](https://twitter.com/HW_BEAT_THAT/status/1297616337984843776)

[https://twitter.com/bitburner/status/1298358752773431296](https://twitter.com/bitburner/status/1298358752773431296)

~~~
Fjolsvith
Twitter. That bastion of authoritative research.

~~~
shadowgovt
Given that your preferred institution of authoritative research is Q dumps,
I'd monitor the velocity of projectiles you're launching from your
transparent-silicon domicile.

[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-
conspiracy-...](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-
theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531)

~~~
Fjolsvith
And what points have I made in discussion where I link attribution to a Q
dump?

~~~
shadowgovt
You basically never attribute your points to anything.

But the tracking of the things you say to Q-conspiracy nonsense is extremely
telling regarding your info sources.

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socalnate1
Does anything know if other countries have the same levels of conspiracy
theory belief as the United States? I've tried to research this and largely
come up empty.

~~~
Barrin92
from personal experience (born in Germany, lived in several EU countries,
spent some time in the US), no. There are conspiracy theories that are
somewhat equivalent to QAnon in spirit like the _" Reichsbürger"_ one in
Germany which asserts that the state really is some sort of corporation owned
by Jews or the US or something along these lines and it has a modest
following, but it is completely outside of civil society.

The US seems relatively unique mostly because it doesn't have any legal or
information infrastructure to battle these sorts of misinformation. As soon as
conspiracy-theories venture into anti-semitism or hate (as they regularly do),
there exist legal tools to shut them down in Europe, and there is a healthy
public news/broadcasting infrastructure in most countries that manages to keep
a common reality intact.

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motohagiography
Reading that article, I can't help but wonder if the effects of solitary
confinement begin to manifest as a kind of pervasive low-level mental illness
after people have no physical, real life social contact for days on end. The
plot points of the conspiracy sound like the experience of talking to someone
who has been alone in their head long enough that they index on connections
they made themselves, and they expect you to share their reference points. The
details of these social hallucinations don't matter, it's the fact of them at
all, and what might be causing them that is the important piece to me. I've
met people seized by stupid ideas, and any attempt to dislodge the idea from
the outside will trigger its immune response, so you just smile and nod and
change the subject.

Having travelled the periphery of evangelical circles, there is an element of
that culture where metaphor and belief blur. What secular people might
describe using terms from psychology or literary narrative, some evangelicals
use a mythopoetic framework for discussing everyday struggles instead.

The author references the idea of a "Big Lie," which I see as a fast filter
for building a pipeline of people who are susceptible to being unmoored from
reality if you just give them some enticement. From this, I think QAnon most
resembles a new folk religion of isolated people, which is the effect of their
social atomization. It's what you get when you disconnect people from each
other and they need to understand the world in stories and create new ties.
Viewed that way, it could look less like a single conspiracy theory and more
like a modern variation of something like a "Voodoo," or a reactionary
"syncretic religion," as described in wiki:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism)

~~~
closeparen
Interesting idea, but QAnon dates to at least 2017. Also, are people who
believe in QAnon actually isolating? I would guess that if COVID-19 is a hoax
to you and your social circle, you're continuing to meet in person.

~~~
motohagiography
The isolation I'm referring to is the effect of post-social media polarization
that started around 2008 and the social isolation that seems to result from
it, where the people attracted to QAnon are ones who are among the "left
behind," in the progressive worldview. It's reactionary, as they are the focal
point of a global movement whose defining attribute is that it uses these
people and their culture as a symbol and a reference point to align against,
so many of them resort to whatever community they can still find.

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justanotheranon
the sad thing is this recent media hysteria has done more to legitimize Q in
the eyes of Qanon'ers than anything else. Since the very first Q post to /pol/
on 4chan back in the end of October 2016, where Q prophesied that Hillary
Clinton would be arrested the next day for treason, the community of
Conspiracy Theorists have been evenly divided about whether Q is real or a
LARP. clearly, a majority of the Q prophecies have turned out to be false and
never happened (i.e "Trust Sessions, Trust Wray").

But now that the Leftist media is putting Qanon on the front pages and in the
opening monologues of their talk shows, it's causing the opposite unintended
consequence: if Qanon was so fake, then why are famous journalists and billion
dollar media conglomerates talking about Qanon as if it is real? Therefore, it
must be real.

The media always needs a boogeyman. And if no boogeyman exists, then the media
will fabricate it. In 2016, it was the AltRight, which didnt really exist in a
big way in meatspace. Now in 2020 the new Boogeyman is Qanon, which also
doesnt exist in a large physical sense outside of obscure forums and memes. I
really hate how the media does this. It's a form of bullying, to pick a fringe
group that nobody takes seriously and elevate them to the next National Enemy.
It's also stupid, because instead of the media focusing on real issues, like
oh say COVID or the economic collapse or civil unrest in 100's of cities, naw,
the media chooses to focus on the lamest most powerless and kooky group of
conspiracy theorists.

thanks a lot media. no wonder everyone calls them the Fake News now.

I guess this is the media's version of Trust the Plan.

~~~
k4tz
This is a little disingenuous, isn't it? I'm no cheerleader for mainstream
media and agree that they can/often manipulate facts or selectively report
certain things, but I'm not sure if QAnon is that thing.

Is it realistic to say that QAnon is being covered instead of "COVID or the
economic collapse or civil unrest in 100's of cities"? I think these topics
still take center stage in reporting currently.

And QAnon is not merely some small internet thing -- many QAnon followers have
won primaries, so assuming that in aggregate these candidates have some chance
at winning (they do; see GA-14 for example) it's also weird to dismiss them as
powerless when they are likely to hold elected office.

