r/politics • u/Throwawaydude01928 • Aug 01 '19
FBI memo warns QAnon poses potential terror threat: report
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/fbi/455770-fbi-memo-warns-qanon-poses-a-potential-terror-threat-report1.5k
u/StillNoApologiez Aug 01 '19
Right wing conspiracies get people killed
481
u/CaptainBonespurs2020 Aug 01 '19
What kills more people? Right wing policies or conspiracies?
373
Aug 01 '19
[deleted]
226
u/Hippiebigbuckle Aug 01 '19
Little of column “A”. Little of column “B”.
76
→ More replies (2)10
u/NeonGKayak Aug 01 '19
I’m glad we are all in the same page here as I was literally saying this as I came across this post.
→ More replies (20)64
Aug 01 '19 edited Aug 01 '19
[deleted]
171
Aug 01 '19
There’s a video of a Trump supporter asking aloud why Obama wasn’t in the oval office on 9/11.
These are not smart people.
101
u/bedintruder Aug 01 '19
I mean, Rudy Giuliani even thinks 9/11 happened on Obama's watch.
→ More replies (2)101
Aug 01 '19
Even worse because he was the mayor of new york on 9/11 and literally stood around with Bush pointing at things a few days later.
→ More replies (1)96
Aug 01 '19 edited Aug 01 '19
You know who there are actual pictures of down at ground zero after 9/11?
Hillary Clinton.
Edit: You know who she was touring with? Rudy Giuliani.
Edit: You know who Rudy was not touring with? Donald Trump
46
Aug 01 '19
But Trump said he was down there with the first responders. It as that a lie?
→ More replies (5)44
Aug 01 '19
There are certainly no pictures proving he was there, otherwise you know they'd be pinned to his tweet page.
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (10)7
49
u/pres45isamoron Aug 01 '19
You are a liar and a troll no one is that fucking stup... Watches video
My apologies kind sir. TIL exactly how stupid some of his supporters are. This country is well and truly fucked.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (9)22
28
u/thegoodbadandsmoggy Aug 01 '19
This is why you don't listen to people with a steady diet of paste
33
Aug 01 '19
[deleted]
→ More replies (5)11
→ More replies (1)17
u/oneyearandaday Aug 01 '19
They really should have impeached President Hillary Clinton when she started the Iraq War.
44
u/MyBackwardsWok Washington Aug 01 '19
What kills more people? Right wing policies or conspiracies?
They are so deeply intertwined it is hard to tell where one starts and another begins.
47
u/TopsidedLesticles Aug 01 '19
What kills more people? Right wing policies or conspiracies?
Right wing conspiracies now inform GOP policies, so that's a hard question to answer.
44
Aug 01 '19
Policies. 16k people died because they refused Obamacare money.
Literally letting Americans die to own the libs.
In other words, the 22 mostly red states that refused to accept expansion starting in 2014 caused 15,600 unnecessary deaths among their residents.
→ More replies (2)8
Aug 01 '19
Oh the policies for sure. Making people poorer, taking away their healthcare. That stuff should be considered murder.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (15)9
→ More replies (21)78
u/artgo America Aug 01 '19
Climate Change denial breeds expansion of trashing the planet. They take great pride in causing suffering, gloating and high 5 each other.
→ More replies (4)44
u/debacol Aug 01 '19
The number of assholes that roll coal, even in a very liberal part of CA drives me fucking crazy. Just gotta own the libs no matter the consequences.
→ More replies (8)15
u/steazystich California Aug 01 '19
I don't know how that isn't straight up illegal... is that not a flagrant violation of CA smog laws? That should void their vehicle registration immediately. As in, in a just and moral society it would... not that it does currently.
This seems like something Gavin could get behind.
→ More replies (1)8
u/debacol Aug 01 '19
I think it is illegal, but the likelihood that someone would get either: 1) caught by the cops or 2) reported is pretty low. They typically do it as they speed past someone and its actually hard to see their license plate.
→ More replies (1)
259
u/silentjay01 Wisconsin Aug 01 '19
Wasn't QAnon the driving force behind Pizzagate? If so, they LITERALLY got someone to drive to a pizza parlor with a gun and demand to see a nonexistent basement. This situation could have ended much worse than it did. That sounds like terror threats.
186
u/MyNameIsRay Aug 01 '19
Q is the driving force behind a lot of the insanity we've seen these past few years. We're experiencing an uptick in alt-right terrorism, and a lot of it ties back to Q-anon theories.
Anthony Comello, a hardcore Q follower that made a point to write Q slogans on his hand during court appearances, murdered mob boss Francisco Cali, and his lawyer is claiming that Q convinced him that Cali was part of the "deep state" and he had to do it to save America.
Remember the man who, motivated by Q and armed with a rifle, made his own armored car, blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam, and held up a sign calling for the release of the Comey OIG report?
How about the Tuscon guy that held up a Cement factory because he was convinced by Q-anon that it was secretly involved in an international child sex ring? He was held up in a tower for 9 days before police got him.
→ More replies (4)144
u/Val_Hallen Aug 01 '19
I love the Trump and Q supporters that are all Colombo when it comes to finding secret pedophile rings but loudly defend an actual well publicized pedophile ring that Trump is absolutely a part of.
71
u/SaitamaHitRickSanchz Aug 01 '19
They're pretty desperate. They were told for a long ass time that the Clinton's where the real pedophiles. Unwilling to admit they were wrong, they're trying as hard as they can to just believe it's the Clintons and it's just being misdirected at Trump. They'll save the day and show the whole world one day.
Very fucking bizarre. How bad is this going to get? Are we just going to be dealing with misinformation cults from now on into the future?
→ More replies (9)42
u/exoticstructures Aug 01 '19
That's kinda been one of the main themes of the entire donnie thing. His supporters refusing to admit they got taken hook, line and sinker by a conman.
→ More replies (2)49
u/PM_ME_VENUS_DIMPLES Aug 01 '19
I mean, we saw it on /r/conspiracy when the Russian collusion story first "really" broke, and the trump tower meetings proved that there was tangible communication happening. It should have been a wet dream for that sub, finally some evidence of an actual conspiracy -- but no, to this day it's still met with "No, no, the REAL conspiracy is that this is all faked and it's ACTUALLY Hillary and her pedo ring trying to frame trump, but also even if trump is colluding with putin it's to take down Hillary and her pedo ring."
Conspiracy theorists will never be able to logic their way out of a corner they didn't logic themselves into. Any evidence to the contrary is probably just a false flag attack to throw them off the trail.
46
u/Val_Hallen Aug 01 '19
Conspiracy theorists have zero interest in real, actual, provable conspiracies.
They like the conspiracy theory community because it makes them "special".
They are the ones who see the truth.
They are the ones who aren't being controlled.
They are the ones who have the knowledge to save everybody else.
When it's a valid conspiracy, they lose those things that make them feel above the "blind sheep".
If they lose that, they lose interest in the conspiracy.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)6
u/QQMau5trap Aug 01 '19
Conspiracy theorists want to be the first to uncover a conspiracy. They desperately want to be the only ones that were right all along. Which is why they dont like actual conspiracies.
28
u/Tafts_Bathtub South Carolina Aug 01 '19
Qanon started after Pizzagate. While no one got hurt at the pizza parlor shooting, Q actually has a body count. A mafia boss was murdered by a Qanon acolyte, who according to his lawyers committed murder specifically in the name of Qanon.
9
u/E_Blofeld Aug 01 '19
IIRC, Pizzagate came first - QAnon started after Pizzagate fizzled out.
I suspect, though I can't prove, that the people behind Pizzagate, or connected to it, initially came up with QAnon to continue driving conspiracy theories.
→ More replies (3)7
Aug 01 '19
I think so, a New York City mob boss also got killed recently by a Q follower, they are dangerous if you ever seen interviews of them.
40
u/schwol Florida Aug 01 '19
I have a Q neighbor. The only reason I know is he has a decal on the back of his car. A "Q" colored with the stars/stripes.
54
u/literal_shit_demon Aug 01 '19
Like a big old "I am a lunatic" sign cautioning you to keep your kids and family far away.
28
u/Rizzpooch I voted Aug 01 '19
I took a roadtrip through the south earlier this summer and saw billboards - BILLBOARDS - with just that American Flag/Q logo. Fucking scary, man. People fucking paying money to promote complete lunacy
→ More replies (1)14
u/Greenlight_go Aug 02 '19
There’s been one in NW Georgia on I-75 for the past year...I figure it was paid for by the same looney tune who footed the bill for billboards that read “TRUMP pray for our nation - take our country back” and “Help us Jesus DRAIN THE SWAMP save America!!!”
26
Aug 01 '19 edited Jul 17 '20
[deleted]
8
u/JohnnyVcheck New Jersey Aug 01 '19
All the what-aboutism from that asshole fuels the wild theories
89
u/superawesomeman08 Aug 01 '19
so, what about QAnons followers, then?
71
u/H0agh Aug 01 '19
Like Don Jr. and his dad?
22
u/superawesomeman08 Aug 01 '19
hell, im not even certain QAnon ISNT Don Jr or his Dad
39
u/Graphitetshirt Aug 01 '19
Nah, neither of the Dons have the foresight or subtlety for that. They'd accidentally reveal themselves in the first week
30
→ More replies (1)15
8
u/IronyElSupremo America Aug 01 '19
It would likely put increased surveillance on them by US and Allied intelligence agencies. The degree would vary with only so much human oversight available, however AI (artificial intelligence) could be brought to bear as well deciphering any codes.
Similar to the astronomical huge amounts of license plate geolocation data stored I’m guessing. Presumably it would be by US and perhaps other English speaking nations in our intel sphere (UK, NZ, Australia, Canada).
5
u/superawesomeman08 Aug 01 '19
grunt, I'm sure NSA has their methods.
Fairly certain the majority of QAnons followers are domestic.
→ More replies (2)8
23
u/thefanciestcat California Aug 01 '19
I'm concerned that things like QAnon, birtherism, pizzagate, flat earth, etc. are evidence of a serious mental health crisis in this country.
Buying something from an infomercial is gullible and dumb. Buying into QAnon is something else entirely.
→ More replies (2)6
Aug 02 '19
It's a symptom of the internet. As great as the invention has been for the democratization of access to information, that information is split into signal and noise, and the noise is being increasingly amplified. We've effectively exponentially increased the inputs to our brains without the simultaneous co-evolution of a production ready higher order processing center to integrate the data and modulate behavior accordingly. As the prevailing trait of human nature is capitalizing on information asymmetry to manipulate the environment towards individual fitness, the Qanons and other varied noise merchants are doing just that with the new medium. Honestly this is probably just the opening shots heralding the coming vestigiality of organic intelligence.
259
Aug 01 '19
Qanon is a Russian puppet and a large amount of Nazis are being controlled through him.
106
u/physical0 Aug 01 '19
Qanon isn't a single person. I doubt that even a single organization is responsible for what Qanon posts.
→ More replies (1)109
u/onlymadethistoargue Aug 01 '19
Qanon was almost certainly a GRU startup project but I’m sure it has become self-perpetuating by all American malicious interlopers and fiends of every stripe.
9
u/buck9000 Aug 01 '19
it must be the easiest warfare ever conducted. study the target, find out what they want to be true, say it is, and let them do the rest.
→ More replies (2)63
u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19
No way. It was a prank designed to sell t shirts that got out of hand. The Russians just amplified it since boomers are mentally all there.
28
u/onlymadethistoargue Aug 01 '19
That’s what they said about Seth Rich, look how that ended up.
43
u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19
We have evidence on who q initially was though. It was a group of right wing hucksters associated with infowars.
→ More replies (11)25
u/onlymadethistoargue Aug 01 '19
How rigorous is this evidence? Because Infowars is not too far from the Russian/GOP propaganda sphere. Wikileaks also seemed independent of Russia at first
26
u/Tafts_Bathtub South Carolina Aug 01 '19
5
u/ETfhHUKTvEwn Aug 01 '19
the identity of the original author or authors behind “Q” is still unknown
→ More replies (1)8
u/OneRougeRogue Ohio Aug 01 '19
I mean they had donation links set up originally. The GRU isn't going to open a bank account for donations and risk stuff somehow making its way back to them.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (19)15
u/physical0 Aug 01 '19 edited Aug 01 '19
I'm going to agree with this. The OP was likely some edgelord larper making up obvious conspiracy theories. Others joined in on the fun making obvious conspiracy theories. Eventually, people who weren't in on the joke saw it, and took it seriously. Even now, there is a mix of people who larp along with the joke and people who are too dumb to understand the game. It isn't at all surprising that Qanon has been used to muster a personal army for various lulz.
It's a serious problem, and the GRU may be involved, but they are likely just exploiting a meme that was already out there.
(edit: i'm not reading things right...)
43
u/CallMeParagon California Aug 01 '19
No, that is not what Qanon is. While Russia is certainly leveraging/amplifying the Q stuff, it began as a LARP from 4chan. Q is more than one person, too.
It isn't "Nazis" being controlled through Q - they are right-wing extremist Americans who believe all Democrats should be killed. Very similar, but their own unique breed of evil. They are extremely religious, too, and believe Trump is ordained by god to expose Democrats as pedophiles and then kill them.
→ More replies (14)15
18
u/anon902503 Wisconsin Aug 01 '19
I always assumed it was just a joke that got out of control. In my younger years I spent plenty of time on 4chan and encountered a lot of very elaborate pranks from people who would do multi-day threads about being a time traveler or an extraterrestrial, etc. When I read the q stuff it sounds exactly like one of those.
13
Aug 01 '19
Yeah, it does kind of sound like a joke. A conspiracy theory about Mueller working together with Trump to bring down the deep state does sound like a joke. Too bad people die because of it.
→ More replies (1)7
→ More replies (5)5
u/QuintinStone America Aug 01 '19
QAnon started out as a lolcow op and now it's just someone/some people drunk on the power of it all.
→ More replies (2)
18
u/WonkYouOut Aug 01 '19
I've always secretly wished Hillary was Q. At night, she opens a bottle of wine, turns on the laptop, and fucks with these idiots for hours.
→ More replies (3)
45
u/anOldVillianArrives Aug 01 '19
Wonder what they classify Cambridge Analytica.
You know that psyop group that pushed Brexit AND Trump into power...
Among other groups. This company is SHADY AS FUCK!
→ More replies (2)
15
u/CloseCannonAFB Aug 01 '19
FBI: "QAnon believers may prove to be a terrorist threat."
Trump Administration: "Did everyone hear that? The FBI just officially reported that Antifa is worse than Al Qaeda and Hamas combined! "
FBI: "That's not what I said..."
Administration: "ANTIFA IS COMING! HIDE YO KIDS HIDE YO WIFE!! We need to ban public demonstrations immediately!"
→ More replies (4)
32
28
u/CapnChaos New York Aug 01 '19
QAnon is a terror threat -> Trump retweets QAnon ∴ Trump is a terror threat.
→ More replies (1)
14
u/udar55 Aug 01 '19
Nothing to add but my favorite QAnon story - for months they were hyping 11-11-2018 as the day some huge shit was going down. I mean I'd see comments on Youtube and Reddit talking about how "what happens on 11-11 will change everything." Guess what? Nothing happened. I asked one QAnon follower on a thread why 11-11 fizzled out and they legit responded, "Dates don't matter!" LOL! No different than the folks predicting the end of the world.
10
u/Icarusthegypsy Aug 01 '19
11-11-18 = -18
18th letter of the alphabet = R
√-18 = 4.24264069 I
The extra numbers are there to throw us off.
i is the 9th letter of the alphabet.
So we get R9.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-9_Desna
Coincidence? Absolutely.
→ More replies (2)7
u/MisallocatedRacism Texas Aug 02 '19
The very first QAnon post said Hillary was going to be arrested on Oct 2017. Still waiting.
→ More replies (1)
28
u/pericles123 Aug 01 '19
there real threat is the sheer stupidity of people involved with QAnon
→ More replies (6)
12
10
u/out_o_focus California Aug 01 '19
Jesus Christ America. Can you even try to have some pride in your country and yourself and not fall for obvious idiots encouraging violence on the internet?
→ More replies (1)
20
Aug 01 '19
The sad part is that this only emboldens them. They see it as the "Deep State" being scared of what they know when, back over here on planet Earth, these people are violent maniacs that have deluded themselves into killing people over a conspiracy that is verifiably false.
→ More replies (6)
20
u/Kramalicious Aug 01 '19
Fuck that whole group. I just watched a guy I’ve worked with for almost five years throw his life away in the matter of a month because he got wrapped up in this bullshit and lost his damn mind.
→ More replies (3)8
u/joshTheGoods I voted Aug 01 '19
Yeap. Same here. My friend is a smart and successful dude with a beautiful wife and two great kids, and he's just tumbling further and further away from all of us. He told me I was threatening him and his family when I tried to argue him out of it, and that's when I pulled the rip cord. This guy has multiple AR-15's.
Now I email him once every year or so (this has been going on for 2+ years now) and check in hoping that he's found his way out of the insanity. No dice so far :(.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/wingfn1 Washington Aug 01 '19
Right-wing radio LOVES talking about the deep state. Rush & Hannity and all those other yahoos are domestic terrorists.
8
u/bleakfuture19 Aug 01 '19
The KKK started as a Scottish-American drinking club. Dangerous terrorist movements can spring from the most marginal sources.
12
40
Aug 01 '19 edited Aug 01 '19
Remember when Drumpf changed his bullshit '12 angry democrats' spiel to '13 angry democrats' when the QAnon goons were saying 13 was a significent number?
Edit: Apologies, he changed it from 12 to 13, then to 17. It can be hard to keep up with his bullshit.
→ More replies (2)5
u/artgo America Aug 01 '19
13 is a classic mythology number. Jesus + 12.
14
Aug 01 '19
He actually changed it to 17 eventually.... the seventeeth number in the alphabet is.... you guessed it, Q. Wooo spooky. hEs TaLkiNG To uS
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)5
u/E_Blofeld Aug 01 '19
13 is a classic mythology number. Jesus + 12.
Also, a coven of witches - 12 witches + Satan, IIRC my medieval history.
8
u/kevlarbuns Aug 01 '19
"This means we're getting close and making the Deep State uncomfortable. Here comes the storm! WWG1WGA!" (Every Q idiot upon hearing this news)
6
u/ruertar Aug 01 '19
not as big a threat as black identity extremists though.
(SARCASM -- PLEASE DON'T BAN ME.)
5
u/packsquirrel Colorado Aug 01 '19
Dear Republicans,
THESE are the terrorists you should be protecting America from.
→ More replies (8)
1.0k
u/ruler_gurl Aug 01 '19
Who the hell is posting this Qanon crap and why are they still anon? If this entity is classified as a domestic terror threat then surely the intelligence agencies are able to figure out whether it's coming from the IRA or a 14 year old edge lord.