Thread by @thedextriarchy

I’d been giving HBO’s QAnon documentary the benefit of the doubt, despite some valid criticism of the trailer. Having spent my weekend watching it, I am now just baffled anyone would greenlight it as a six-hour series. theverge.com/22330129/hbo-q…

There’s plenty for disinfo researchers to criticize here, but my main issue is that I think this series actually physically sapped my life force. Like I’m not trying to dunk on this thing to be clever, I am legitimately mad I had to sit through it.

Into the Storm is two hours longer than the Snyder Cut and it’s largely YouTubers and 8channers complaining about each other and their media coverage while cooking dinner and showing off $5,000 watches.

The main draw is that the series gets a *ton* of access to the operators of 8chan, who are almost by definition very close to Q. But it comes off as taking everything they say at weirdly literal face value, when it’s very obvious these people like messing with journalists?

Obviously I can’t know what kind of research and verification went on behind the scenes, but it places a huge amount of weight on, say, the fact that people contradict themselves about how political they are.

If you want a documentary about the intersection of the internet and far-right politics, Arthur Jones’ Feels Good, Man is emotionally compelling, incisive, good-looking, and respectful of your limited time on this Earth. theverge.com/2020/2/5/21113…