I praise @dappergander (and point people to their Patreon) A LOT. I should probably explain why!
Gander is the best analyst of any Q-watcher, and it's not especially close. At my *best*, I'm abouuuut... oh, 75% as good as one of Gander's more middlin' pieces.
And I ain't bad!
But Gander is BETTER. Let's go to the tapes to show you what I mean.
A month ago, Gander wrote a piece about the canonization process -- that is, the way anons built up a list of posts that they thought were by Q.
I've poked at the canonization process a LITTLE bit -- I try to keep my research roughly chronological, but this is such an obviously important subject that I've taken little nibbles here and there, trying to understand it.
So I speak with some authority, I hope, when I say:
The screenshot just upthread is a very, VERY smooth distillation of info that takes a lot of time to gather, organize, and present.
Reading it, you'd never know that. You'd also never know how much work lies behind this clear, simple prose. But take it from me: it's a *lot.*
Gander's explanations of the "factions" or types of QAnon believers are also must-reads & explain a lot about the movement.
Bottom line: Gander understands QAnon culture like few others, and can explain this complicated, twisty subject so naturally I envy it.
Gander is *great*!
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It's not that no one NOTICED the posts -- we know because another anon started a thread titled "To Q Clearance Patriot" to discuss them (this was after the lost drops were posted and before the canonical drops went up).
Also: while writing that tweet, I was delighted to find out that @ArkadyMartine is a Byzantinist.
Partly 'cause it means I might someday get to see her gloss on one of my favorite historical figures, Basil I.
Partly 'cause I hope she and @HNTurtledove are pals.
But mostly...
Her close study of how the Byzantine empire worked has clearly informed her *fictional* empire, and helped her build a world where -- and this is really the heart of her achievement -- the culture she spends most of her time writing about *works like an empire does*.
It's easy, of course, to sneer at QAnon people when they say stupid things.
And some of them ARE remarkably uninformed about how the world works.
Here's the thing, though: *everyone* is vulnerable to the same kind of thinking they engage in, even professors.
So you or I might think, "Ah, I could never be THAT ignorant!" -- and sure, maybe you couldn't. Maybe you DO know more about life than PatrQT1717 or whatever.
But you are *absolutely* capable of being wrong and then doubling down, & doing it again and again. That's very human.
I have a book called "The Osiris Complex" that... well, the author is a psychiatrist, and he THINKS it's about how he was able to see the truth of Satanic Ritual Abuse and (what was then called) Multiple Personality Disorder.
(Also: ping @abbieasr -- get the book, it's so good)
According to this anon, writing roughly 8 months before Q's first appearance, the CIA was waging a shadow war against President Trump on behalf of "globalists," to "protect the Pizzagate ring."
But Trump was fighting back with help from anons and the online far right in general.
Trump's victories included:
"- FBI has finished Flynns investigation and found nothing wrong.
- Pizzagate still going strong, new findings on Podesta...
- Hundreds of Child Sex Rings being dismantled by the FBI the past 2 weeks
- Soros under financial investigation," aaaaand...
I've kept out of the Great State Debate until now, but COME ON.
Hilary's position was: "that MIGHT be a Nazi symbol. But you know what's DEFINITELY true? Yesterday. US Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at an event staged by Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes™. Today, CPAC let him speak anyway."
And people responded to THAT by calling her a Nazi?
Hey, y'all, instead of debating the stage, we really COULD be talking about actual literal undeniable fascist shit happening right across the street from CPAC.
Here are some choice quotes from Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes™:
After the El Paso shooting, Fuentes said: "The easiest way for Mexicans to not get shot and killed in Walmart is for them to not fucking be here."
This is MTG as she truly is: a serial fabulist, deeply insecure--the type of person who described herself as a "Public figure" in a bio *long* before she really was one
And deeply, deeply into conspiracy theories before she got into Q.
Once she *was* following Q, she was DEEP into the lore. I've talked a bit lately about the centrality of Obama / North Korea in Q's early storyline.
Here she is writing in 6/2018. This is a committed follower.
But QAnon isn't the most notable thing about Taylor-Greene. Fascism is.
Her desire to simply reshape reality to fit the claims of one man -- godlike, infallible -- who guides the Nation & its People as their only true representative -- is the ONLY thing missing from this piece.