What is QAnon? What You Need to Know About the Conspiracy in 2021
Intro
QAnon, you might have heard about it. But even if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard some of its claims.
And you probably have a lot of questions.
Do QAnon followers really believe that child-eating satanic cults control our lives? And Donald Trump is the savior of humankind? Where did it come from? How did it become so popular?
What the hell is going on?
Like most people, before writing this guide, I mostly considered QAnon a joke. But learning about its origins and watching events unfold in real-time as I was writing, it all started to make a lot more sense.
QAnon’s rise from internet obscurity to a global phenomenon is a complicated, surreal, and troubling tale of a world plagued by anger, division, lies, and loneliness.
Hopefully, by the time you finish reading, you’ll understand QAnon (and its appeal) a little better. And in doing so, you’ll be prepared for the next chapter in this wild, crazy story.
What is QAnon?
In a nutshell, QAnon is a conspiracy cult that started on 4chan (an anonymous imageboard) and quickly spread into mainstream politics and culture.
QAnon followers believe:
A secret global cabal of Satan-worshipping politicians, celebrities, billionaires, and Catholic church leaders control the world. They traffick children to engage in ritualistic pedophilia and eat the children to harvest a life-extending chemical, adrenochrome, from their blood.
According to QAnon, Donald Trump is aware of all this and has been secretly waging a complex battle against the cabal and their collaborators in the US government – known as the ‘Deep State.’
When he’s successful, thousands of cabal members will be rounded up and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. Mass unrest will break out across the US, which the National Guard will brutally suppress. Eventually peace will prevail.
Over the years, QAnon has grown more complex, weaving in threads from older conspiracy theories and co-opting current events (i.e., Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest, Coronavirus, 5G conspiracies). An increasing number of public figures have been exposed as villains and cabal leaders, from George Soros and Bill Gates to model Chrissy Teigen and Pope Francis.
It’s also grown more Biblical and apocalyptic. Many in QAnon now believe that God chose Donald Trump to lead the struggle, along with his ‘digital soldiers’ (a term for QAnon followers).
After Trump overthrows the evil cabal, God will deliver salvation to the human race, and there will be utopia on Earth for all eternity.
All of this has been exposed by an anonymous figure calling himself Q.
Who is Q?
The mystery behind Q’s identity is key to the conspiracy.
Theories about Q’s identity can be divided into two categories: what his followers believe and what investigators have concluded.
Quick note: by all accounts Q, or the person behind Q, is generally accepted to be a man.
What QAnon Followers Believe
While theories abound, here are the most commonly held.
1) Q is a high-level Trump admin official working in the White House.
The original ‘Q’ account on anonymous imageboard 4chan went by the name of ‘Q Clearance Patriot.’ Aside from making predictions based on access to classified information, the account provided numerous ‘proofs’ of authenticity.
However, none of the predictions ever came true and most of the ‘proof’ was publicly accessible (or easily fabricated) information.
‘Q Clearance’ is a real ‘Top Secret’ security designation in the US government. However, it comes from the US Department of Energy and has no connection to the White House or national security.
Now that Donald Trump is no longer president, Q’s status is unclear.
2) Q is a group of people close to Trump
Q often refers to himself in the first person as ‘we,’ and his posts frequently change in style, sentence structure, and syntax.
As a result, many followers believe QAnon is now the combined effort of a small team, perhaps recruited by the original Q.
While there’s no evidence to suggest they had any access to classified information while Trump was in office – or to Trump’s White House – plenty of evidence suggests numerous people are behind Q’s posts (explained below).
3) Q was hijacked. It’s no longer the same person/people.
Early in the saga, Q claimed his 4chan account had been infiltrated and moved to a new platform, 8chan (now rebranded as 8kun).
The idea that somebody hijacked Q’s identity and is now posing as Q is popular. It explains a lot of inconsistencies in the whole conspiracy theory.
Alex Jones has promoted this idea, claiming in 2018 to have spoken directly with the ‘people’ behind QAnon and stating:
“I was on the phone this morning talking to some folks who were… involved in QAnon. They say ‘Hey, that’s been taken over, we’re unable to even post anymore, that’s not us anymore.’ I’ve talked to QAnon… they are saying QAnon is no longer QAnon.”
4) Donald Trump is Q
As the messianic savior at the heart of QAnon, it makes sense that Trump could be Q all along, hiding his identity in yet another ingenious plot.
There’s a lot of reasons this makes no sense. Let’s list a few: Trump doesn’t use a computer; he has issues with basic spelling and grammar; he couldn’t do it on his own and keep it a secret; he’s no longer president.
What Investigators, Journalists, and Researchers Have Concluded
We may never know the original Q’s identity. Imageboards like 8kun go to great lengths to hide their users’ identities.
However, plenty of evidence suggests that the Q persona was quickly taken over by a small group of men who saw QAnon as an opportunity to amass great influence and power.
Most experts on QAnon, including 8chan’s founder Frederick Brennan, believe the Q’s account is controlled by 8kun’s American owners: Jim Watkins (a former internet pornographer based in the Philippines), and his son, Ron.
Jim Watkins, owner of 8kun (formerly 8chan)
Like everything in QAnon, the Watkins’ takeover of Q is an incredibly complicated story.
However, evidence can be summed up as follows:
Users on imageboards can never change their account passwords, which are also incredibly easy to hack. Once an account’s password is revealed, anyone can hack and post from that account.
Q’s first 8chan account was hacked almost immediately after joining the platform. His password was revealed as ‘matlock.’ Throughout the entire QAnon saga, random people have hacked Q’s many accounts and posted on 8chan boards – including journalists covering the conspiracy. Q even accidentally posted his password more than once, which didn’t help.
8chan’s moderators and admins have been forced to constantly re-verified Q’s ‘true identity’ due to the hacks. As a result, since 2017, the people running 8chan (and later, 8kun) have had numerous opportunities to take over Q’s account and pose as him.
The first person suspected of doing so is Paul Furber, the moderator who ran Q’s fist 8chan board. Furber was the first true QAnon evangelist, promoting it on Alex Jones’ Infowars show and creating the first QAnon Reddit and Youtube channels.
In 2018, 8chan’s owners Jim and Ron Watkins took notice of QAnon’s rise – and it’s potential. Through a series of convoluted events, some staged by the Watkins’, they locked Furber out and took sole control of Q’s 8chan account.
The Watkins’ then changed Q’s account settings to make it more secure and ensure Q can never leave 8chan.
What Are Anonymous Imageboards?
Imageboards are a type of internet forum that started in Japan, where they remain a powerful cultural force. Imageboards are similar to real-life bulletin boards, as users post photos, images, and text covering a wide variety of topics.Users can create specialist boards that focus on a specific topic, which often become a form of anonymous community.
Imageboards use ‘tripcode’ software instead of traditional user registration to ensure user anonymity. Tripcodes are a form of digital signature taken from a user’s password that allows them to sign their posts without revealing their identity.
The anonymity imageboards provide is the main reason for their popularity – and their infamy.
English-language imageboards like 8chan, 8kun, and Endchan are notorious for hosting dangerous, fringe communities that have used the platforms to plan, encourage, and carry out violence, harassment, and murder.
Only the Watkins’ can confirm whether they control Q or not. But for further proof, consider the following:
Q’s writing style changed significantly once he came under their control.
When 8chan went offline in August 2019, Q didn’t post anything for months, not even on other platforms like 4chan.
When 8chan re-emerged as 8kun, Q started posting immediately and appeared to have special priority permissions only available to site administrators. Ron Watkins is the only site admin.
Machine learning analysis has suggested that two separate people are writing Q’s posts.
Ron Watkins left 8kun in November 2020. Q stopped posting on the site shortly after.
To learn the full story behind how Jim and Ron Watkins (potentially) took over Q and now control the entire conspiracy from behind the scenes, check out the Reply All podcast episode ‘A Country of Liars’.
10 Biggest QAnon Predictions (That Never Happened)
Q’s predictions are core to the entire belief system based around him.
In the early days of QAnon, they were quite explicit and easy to decode. As the years have dragged on, Q’s predictions have become more cryptic, vague, and difficult to interpret.
The most famous Q predictions have included the following:
October 2017: In his first post, Q stated that an arrest warrant had been issued for Hilary Clinton (HRC) and she would be arrested. Extradition orders were in place in case she tried to flee. Hilary Clinton has never been arrested.
November 2017: In the same post, Q predicted mass riots would break out in early November 2017, while cabal members tried to flee the US, and the US military would have to crackdown on the dissent. This event would be known as ‘The Storm.’ No such events occurred.
Dec. 2017: A report would be released revealing that Barack Obama is Satan. To date, no such report has emerged.
March 2018: The ‘Five Eyes’ security alliance between the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada ‘won’t be around much longer.’ All evidence suggests the alliance remains strong and continues to operate.
March 2018: The ‘Five Eyes’ security alliance between the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada ‘won’t be around much longer.’ All evidence suggests the alliance remains strong and continues to operate.
March 2018: A ‘smoking gun’ video proving all the various claims made against HRC would be released. It never happened.
Numerous occasions: Q repeatedly claimed US Senator John McCain would resign. McCain remained a senator until his death in August 2018.
Numerous occasions: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would resign and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would be forced out of his company. Both would subsequently attempt to flee the US. Both remain at their respective companies and continue to reside in the US.
January 2020: 45,000 sealed indictments would be released detailing all the evidence against the elite cabal. Mass arrests would follow, along with purges of the FBI, CIA, and all levels of government. The Storm and the Great Awakening would follow shortly after. No such indictments have ever been released, nor the mass arrests, or government purges.
October 2020: JFK Jr., who died in a plane crash in 1999, would re-emerge after 21 years in hiding, team up with Trump at a rally in Dallas and become his re-election running mate.
Trump was scheduled to appear in Wisconsin that day, with no rally planned in Dallas.
Numerous occasions: Donald Trump, as US president, would overthrow the elite puppet masters secretly ruling all human society and deliver salvation to all humankind. Trump lost his re-election campaign, having failed to deliver on Q’s promise, and left office on January 20th, 2021.
Why Do People Still Follow QAnon’s Predictions?
If Q’s predictions keep proving false, why do people still believe and follow?
A lot of research has been done on doomsday prophecies and cults, especially in the US. Studies show that while common sense suggests people would lose interest in Q’s predictions once enough didn’t come true, that rarely happens.
Instead, the most ardent followers double down and simply revise their original interpretations of the prophecies. The cryptic nature of Q’s posts makes this especially easy and rewarding.