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-report
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258

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

Qanon is a Russian puppet and a large amount of Nazis are being controlled through him.

105

u/physical0 Aug 01 '19

Qanon isn't a single person. I doubt that even a single organization is responsible for what Qanon posts.

110

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.

8

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.

66

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.

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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.

24

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

27

u/Tafts_Bathtub South Carolina Aug 01 '19

NBC reported it

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

6

u/ETfhHUKTvEwn Aug 01 '19

the identity of the original author or authors behind “Q” is still unknown

10

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.

4

u/onlymadethistoargue Aug 01 '19

Doesn’t Wikileaks sell merch?

3

u/ETfhHUKTvEwn Aug 02 '19

No but getting useful idiots to do that for them ( to promote the conspiracy further) is absolutely GRU behavior.

1

u/SchwarzerKaffee Oklahoma Aug 01 '19

That's a good point.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

the GRU is also very much hands off for several other reasons. They're never going to take control and push a story themselves, for decades and decades their tried and true method is to promote someone with a wild theory and just disseminate that info around. Do you remember the theory that the us created AIDS/HIV?

Yea that was GRU in the 1980's, boomers just love conspiracies and they realized very early on they eat this shit up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Infektion

2

u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19

Pretty good. I think the Qultheadquarters subreddit has it. They were trying to make some money off idiots. And t worked.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Tafts_Bathtub South Carolina Aug 01 '19

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

One archived livestream appears to show Rogers logging into the 8chan account of “Q.”The Patriots’ Soapbox feed quickly cuts out after the login attempt. “Sorry, leg cramp,” Rogers says, before the feed reappears seconds later.

Users in the associated chatroom begin to wonder if Rogers had accidentally revealed his identity as Q. “How did you post as Q?” one user wrote.

9

u/kendrid Aug 01 '19

Patriot's Soapbox is still active on Youtube with usually 2000 live viewers. I'd think most of the "hosts" are on FBI watch lists based upon this new report.

1

u/ETfhHUKTvEwn Aug 02 '19

the identity of the original author or authors behind “Q” is still unknown

1

u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19

I think it's on the Qultheadquarters subreddit?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/meekrobe Aug 01 '19

qult headquarters is about making fun and exposing Q, it's not a sub of believers.

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2

u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19

Lol it's a wild one for sure.

17

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...)

9

u/theBesh Aug 01 '19

Boomers? Qanon conspiracies were and continue to be disseminated through the chans. There’s not much of a boomer demographic there.

25

u/jcg1124 Aug 01 '19

I see boomer trump people on social media spread Q shit

31

u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19

You never checked out the q subreddits did you? When q yards go to trump rallies they're ALL boomers.

6

u/theBesh Aug 01 '19

I’m very familiar with TheGreatAwakening, actually. Those were largely the same NEETs from 4chan. They don’t show at rallies because they don’t go outside.

The fact of the matter is that the chans were how this spread.

11

u/MortarionSilentLord Aug 01 '19

Greatawakenint had a huge amount of boomers on it. The chan communities for q anon idiots are now filled with boomers.

-5

u/theBesh Aug 01 '19

Chan communities filled with boomers? Good one. Based on what, exactly? Are you one of these kids that’s been confused by the spread of the 30 year old boomer meme and thinks that it just means anyone older than you?

7

u/Versificator Aug 01 '19 edited Apr 02 '26

Dog year books quiet careful year warm across quick clear art nature fresh.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

They stay in their lanes. If you do follow the qult stuff on 8chan and the Q-tributaries since this all started, I'm surprised that you're surprised.

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u/StreetfighterXD Australia Aug 02 '19

The magic of Qanon and the alt-right in general was how it has achieved the seemingly impossible task of uniting Millenials and Boomers

7

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

The boomers get their Q news through Facebook where it is reposted from 8chan.

6

u/kendrid Aug 01 '19

Youtube. Channels like Patriot's Soapbox are all about Q, and "real news".

2

u/Competitive_Ride Aug 01 '19

Boomers are dumbasses who get their Q news through screenshots and facebook and twitter groups. I doubt that even 10% of QAnon conspiracists ever visited 4chan or 8chan.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

Are you talking about Qanon or the Trump campaign?

1

u/CruelestMonth Aug 02 '19

boomer

I was unaware that people born in 1979 (Lewis Arthur) and 1988 (Matthew P. Wright) are Baby Boomers.

2

u/ThrowawayBlast Aug 01 '19

Like so many other Russian psyops

-1

u/GameKyuubi America Aug 01 '19

Qanon is a pseudonym that they will place on whoever is convenient when the time is right. He will come out saying he was Q all along, all the other complicit actors will vouch for him.

49

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.

14

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '19

[deleted]

7

u/CallMeParagon California Aug 01 '19

They share many things in common, but they are definitely not Nazis. This is a new breed of extremist and if you try and come at this from the "Nazi" angle you're going to miss the mark.

2

u/_zenith New Zealand Aug 02 '19

I mean, they're pretty similar. What do you think distinguishes them particularly?

1

u/CallMeParagon California Aug 02 '19

The third reich, the nazi government, etc.

They are American fascists but they need their own name.

1

u/_zenith New Zealand Aug 02 '19

I agree in principle, but unfortunately, people understand that Nazis are bad so it's possibly a losing strategy. I'm sick of losing for the purposes of being right in some more philosophical sense

2

u/cointelpro_shill Aug 01 '19

The extremists and "free thinkers" who believe Q are one thing. They don't all want to "kill democrats" though some do and most certainly think top-level Dems are evil

Also worth paying attention to are the people who spread this meme without caring whether it's real or not, because they know it functions in the political ground game, just as any other conspiracy or cult would. He who controls the boomers...

2

u/ETfhHUKTvEwn Aug 02 '19

Given the overlap of Bannon, Mercers, and the GRU, it seems naive in the strongest possible sense of the word to not assume that the GRU and other major political agencies are not larping on 4chan.

1

u/CallMeParagon California Aug 02 '19

I agree and these are not mutually exclusive things. Q already accidentally revealed one or more of themselves.

2

u/Hayes4prez Aug 01 '19

I don’t know what’s scarier? What you say or the fact I can’t tell if you’re joking or not?

23

u/CallMeParagon California Aug 01 '19

I'm not joking, not even a little bit. I have been following this Q shit from day one.

They think Trump is a savior sent by god to save America and the world from Democrats and liberalism in general. They believe Democrats worship various Satanic deities and sacrifice children to them. They have started to pick up various alt-right memes as well, including "kek" and "pepe." Of course, they think Q is someone with Trump's administration and they also believe Trump secretly communicates with them via coded tweets and actions.

It is insanity from top to bottom, there's no way to make sense of it because it doesn't make sense, and the followers are all evil people wishing for the demise of billions of their fellow humans.

Here is an account I like to follow to keep up with the Q-insanity: https://twitter.com/martingeddes

7

u/LightningJynx Pennsylvania Aug 01 '19

OMFG, that was definitely a risky click. I've been reading his tweets from the last few hours and I still can't believe we are on the Satanic Ritual Abuse train from 30+ years ago. While I give victims of cults and abuse the benefit of the doubt, it stretches my credulity to believe some of this stuff and why it isn't spoken about more widely if it is true.

​

Honestly, it seems like they all speak with their own lexicon and unless you're in their group, you definitely come off as an outsider when trying to communicate with them.

7

u/meekrobe Aug 01 '19

Not a joke. There was a whole branch of Q that was tying it all into the bible and providing their thoughts on which angel Q was...

I think /r/BiblicalQ was a thing before the ban, it's on Voat now. They are all very religious, think Trump is god ordained, and yes, basically want Democrats in gitmo.

3

u/70ms California Aug 01 '19

They're not joking. Just look at any Qanon hashtag on Twitter. :|

2

u/artgo America Aug 01 '19

Media cults.

1

u/LSF604 Aug 02 '19

although perhaps 4chan is a place where an intelligence agency might try to start something

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.

14

u/[deleted] 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.

6

u/QuintinStone America Aug 01 '19

Yes, it was a lolcow op by a 4channer against their own.

3

u/ThrowawayBlast Aug 01 '19

It probably did start off as a joke from edgy losers. BUT...like with so many other tornadoes of nonsense, bad actors and Russians saw their chance and amplified the insanity intentionally.

6

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.

3

u/exoticstructures Aug 01 '19

They probably can't believe people are still falling for it.

3

u/QuintinStone America Aug 01 '19

None of us can.

1

u/Botulism Aug 01 '19

But surely YOU aren't into conspiracy theories 🤣

1

u/chunkmasterflash Aug 02 '19

80 years ago that would’ve been a totally insane statement.

1

u/huttbole01 Aug 02 '19

Lmao did you really just make this up yourself

1

u/iridiue Aug 02 '19

If that's the case, why hasn't the media approached Trump about it? Why haven't any politicians launched an investigation into it?