What is QAnon?

[Foxaèr]

I keep seeing atheists on Reddit getting upset over QAnon, so I have decided to look into what it is.

QAnon[a] (/ˌkjuːəˈnɒn/) is a far-right conspiracy theory[b] alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring is plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling them,[2] leading to a "day of reckoning" involving the mass arrest of journalists and politicians.[3] No part of the theory is based on fact.[4][5][6][7]

Although preceded by similar viral conspiracies such as Pizzagate,[8] the theory proper began with an October 2017 post on the anonymous imageboard 4chan by "Q", who was presumably an American individual[9] but most likely has become a group of people.[10][11] Q claimed to have access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States. NBC News found that three people took the original Q post and expanded it across multiple media platforms to build internet followings for profit. QAnon was preceded by several similar anonymous 4chan posters, such as FBIAnon, HLIAnon (High-Level Insider), CIAAnon, and WH Insider Anon.[12]

Q has accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking officials of being members of the cabal. Q also claimed that Trump feigned conspiracy with Russians to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the ring and preventing a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.[13][14][15] "Q" is a reference to the Q clearance used by the U.S. Department of Energy. QAnon believers commonly tag their social media posts with the hashtag #WWG1WGA, signifying the motto "Where We Go One, We Go All".

QAnon adherents began appearing at Trump reelection campaign rallies in August 2018.[16] TV and radio personality Michael "Lionel" Lebron, a promoter of the theory, was granted a photo opportunity with Trump in the Oval Office in August 2018.[17] Bill Mitchell, a broadcaster who promotes QAnon, attended a White House "social media summit" in July 2019.[18][19] At an August 2019 rally, a man warming up the crowd before Trump spoke used the QAnon motto "where we go one, we go all", later denying that it was a QAnon reference. This occurred hours after the publication of a report that the FBI had determined QAnon to be a potential source of domestic terrorism, the first time the agency had so rated a fringe conspiracy theory.[20][21] According to analysis conducted by Media Matters, as of August 2020, Trump had amplified QAnon messaging at least 216 times by retweeting or mentioning 129 QAnon-affiliated Twitter accounts, sometimes multiple times a day.[22][23]

Into 2020, the number of QAnon adherents was unclear, but they had a large presence on social media, particularly Twitter. In June 2020, Q exhorted followers to take a "digital soldiers oath", and many did, using the Twitter hashtag #TakeTheOath.[24] In July 2020, Twitter banned thousands of QAnon-affiliated accounts and changed its algorithms to reduce the theory's spread.[25] A Facebook internal analysis reported in August found millions of followers across thousands of groups and pages; Facebook acted to remove and restrict QAnon activity later that month.[26][27] Followers had also migrated to dedicated message boards such as EndChan and 8kun, where they organized to wage information warfare to influence the 2020 elections.[28]

Well, there you have it. QAnon is a group of mental wackjobs.

[Rev. Rye]

And it all started on 4chan, probably a troll on /pol/ just claiming to have top clearance for shits and giggles.

[Sal]

Remember kids, this is the price for larping to /pol/tards.

[Peebothuhlu]

At work.

The OP stuff is pretty much why I just stay on /tg/.

[purplepurpose]

Chaos already has infected our planet. Hopefully our God Emperer Trump and orbital bombardment from Space force, will exterminate those demons.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's a reboot of the protocols of the elders of zion, and it's not something that people are getting worked up on reddit over - it's something that right wing politicians are running on, and winning.

[Brian37]

I keep seeing atheists on Reddit getting upset over QAnon, so I have decided to look into what it is.

QAnon[a] (/ˌkjuːəˈnɒn/) is a far-right conspiracy theory[b] alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring is plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling them,[2] leading to a "day of reckoning" involving the mass arrest of journalists and politicians.[3] No part of the theory is based on fact.[4][5][6][7]

Although preceded by similar viral conspiracies such as Pizzagate,[8] the theory proper began with an October 2017 post on the anonymous imageboard 4chan by "Q", who was presumably an American individual[9] but most likely has become a group of people.[10][11] Q claimed to have access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States. NBC News found that three people took the original Q post and expanded it across multiple media platforms to build internet followings for profit. QAnon was preceded by several similar anonymous 4chan posters, such as FBIAnon, HLIAnon (High-Level Insider), CIAAnon, and WH Insider Anon.[12]

Q has accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking officials of being members of the cabal. Q also claimed that Trump feigned conspiracy with Russians to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the ring and preventing a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.[13][14][15] "Q" is a reference to the Q clearance used by the U.S. Department of Energy. QAnon believers commonly tag their social media posts with the hashtag #WWG1WGA, signifying the motto "Where We Go One, We Go All".

QAnon adherents began appearing at Trump reelection campaign rallies in August 2018.[16] TV and radio personality Michael "Lionel" Lebron, a promoter of the theory, was granted a photo opportunity with Trump in the Oval Office in August 2018.[17] Bill Mitchell, a broadcaster who promotes QAnon, attended a White House "social media summit" in July 2019.[18][19] At an August 2019 rally, a man warming up the crowd before Trump spoke used the QAnon motto "where we go one, we go all", later denying that it was a QAnon reference. This occurred hours after the publication of a report that the FBI had determined QAnon to be a potential source of domestic terrorism, the first time the agency had so rated a fringe conspiracy theory.[20][21] According to analysis conducted by Media Matters, as of August 2020, Trump had amplified QAnon messaging at least 216 times by retweeting or mentioning 129 QAnon-affiliated Twitter accounts, sometimes multiple times a day.[22][23]

Into 2020, the number of QAnon adherents was unclear, but they had a large presence on social media, particularly Twitter. In June 2020, Q exhorted followers to take a "digital soldiers oath", and many did, using the Twitter hashtag #TakeTheOath.[24] In July 2020, Twitter banned thousands of QAnon-affiliated accounts and changed its algorithms to reduce the theory's spread.[25] A Facebook internal analysis reported in August found millions of followers across thousands of groups and pages; Facebook acted to remove and restrict QAnon activity later that month.[26][27] Followers had also migrated to dedicated message boards such as EndChan and 8kun, where they organized to wage information warfare to influence the 2020 elections.[28]

Well, there you have it. QAnon is a group of mental wackjobs.

L Ron Hubbard started Scientology decades ago. Back when I was a kid in the 70s  bullshit like space aliens and crop circles were sold on bullshit shows like "In Search Of". And even today there are ads on TV for "psychics".

[Rev. Rye]

It's a reboot of the protocols of the elders of zion, and it's not something that people are getting worked up on reddit over - it's something that right wing politicians are running on, and winning.

Not quite. In terms of influence, certainly. But The Protocols of Zion was a semi-coherent conspiracy theory, even if a lot of that’s because it was plagiarized from an anti-Napoleon III tract, and the Okhrana just turned it into a manifesto of sorts and added a heaping spoonful of anti-Semitism into it. Qanon, as far as I can tell, is basically the result of people on 4chan (and also 8chan) Yes-anding each other trying to interpret the cryptic posts of a user who claims to have an absurdly high clearance in the US government, resulting in a convoluted monstrosity like this:

[The Grand Nudger]

Enjoy.

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.

QAnon purveys the fantasy that a secret Satan-worshiping cabal is taking over the world. Its members kidnap white children, keep them in secret prisons run by pedophiles, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from the essence in their blood. The cabal held the American Presidency under the Clintons and Obama, nearly took power again in 2016, and lurks in a “Deep State” financed by Jews, including George Soros, and in Jews who control the media. They want to disarm citizens and defund the police. They promote abortion, transgender rights, and homosexuality. They want open borders so brown illegal aliens can invade America and mongrelize the white race.

https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon...rebranded/

They're not nutjobs, and it's not stuck on reddit. It's a white identity party and they can win congressional seats. They're the people that the establishment right is terrified of getting primaried by.

[AniKoferBo]

I like how it says they will use the military to take over cities & everyone is supposed to be cool with it bc an imaginary internet friend told them not to worry. I don’t care who is in office. If you don’t have an issue with the military being used to occupy American cities, then you probably should take a step back & re-evaluate things.