10/31/17, four years ago today, was another big day in the evolution of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Q made 9 drops, cementing some of the biggest concepts in the movement's mythology. A few highlights (??) of these drops are:
Drop 14: The first reference to QAnon hero Mike Flynn, along with a barrage of rhetorical questions hinting that Trump was "asked" to run for president by military officers, and that he "knows where the bodies are buried."
Drop 15: The claim that "Soros, Clintons, Obama, Putin, etc. are all controlled by 3 families (the 4th was removed post Trump's victory)." I have never figured out who these families are. Also, Q claims "11.3 - Podesta indicted" and "11.6 - Huma indicted" Maybe this year!
Drop 16: "Get the popcorn, Friday & Saturday will deliver on the MAGA promise." Whatever the "MAGA promise" was, nothing was delivered.
Drop 17: "Why does Obama travel in advance of POTUS to foreign locations?" A big accusation with no evidence.
Drop 18: Rhetorical questions about Nancy Pelosi's net worth and memory possibly going so she can get out of testifying, and John McCain faking his surgery.
Drop 19: Some pretty racist stuff about Democrats "controlling the black pop" and Maxine Watters having a big house.
Drops 20-24: more rhetorical questions about hidden rooms in the White House, a "former President [who] used the military to save the republic" and the CIA controlled by Trump himself.
In Drop 25, Q claims "Proof to begin 11.3" matching up with the "Antifa uprising" conspiracy theory going around the far right, and in the next drop uses the term "The only way is the military" - something you'd hear a lot with the 2020 stolen election conspiracy theory.
Drop 29: "The pedo networks are being dismantled. The child abductions for satanic rituals (ie Haiti and other 3rd world countries) are paused (not terminated until players in custody)." Big Pizzagate vibes here.
Drop 30: Q talks about secret devices in the WH that can hurt anyone without being detected and explains his rhetorical nature by claiming "I can hint and point but cannot give too many highly classified data points."
Drop 32: Q claims the arrests will be fast and brutal: "Maybe one day but it cannot go slow. The initial wave will be fast and meaningful. It will send a signal to others immediately and you’ll see the tide turn."
Last drop of the day: "I’m hopeful my time spent here was not wasted. Note few if any shills inside this thread. Reason for that. It’s being monitored, recorded, and analyzed and don’t want the clutter." It was 20 drops, not 9. The calendar on Qproofs is wrong, naturally.
So just a few days after the first drops, Q has nailed down some of its biggest tenets: Satan worship in government, sex trafficking, mass arrests, Mike Flynn, military tribunals, Democrats running for their lives. All Q needed was a name - and that's coming tomorrow.
I go into much more detail about the early drops, how 4chan anons reacted to them, and how Q was already rewriting his own story on the fly in THE STORM IS UPON US. I hope you'll check it out!
Anyone can celebrate the 4th anniversary of Q's first two drops, but today we celebrate the 4th anniversary of the day when Q really cemented itself as a conspiracy theory to watch. Q made 11 drops on 10/29/17, claiming among other things:
"Many in our govt worship Satan" and "the NG [was] called up across 12 cities."
"POTUS is 100% insulated - any discussion suggesting he’s even a target is false" and "Patriots are in control. Sit back and enjoy the show."
"John M never had surgery and that was a cover for a future out if needed against prosecution?"
"Obama also had an alias along with each of his cabinet members."
The first drops in what would become QAnon were posted 4 years ago today. But the social and psychological forces that made Q a worldwide movement stretch back decades and centuries. I spent three years chronicling it all for THE STORM IS UPON US.
I've written extensively about the movement for @dailydot, and the site has an entire set of stories to "commemorate" this important event in American paranoia.
My story is on how the movement transformed with the end of the Q drops, the ultimate failure of "The Storm," and the increasing absorption of mainstream conservatism by a blob of insane conspiracy theories.
This op-ed makes a persuasive case that "Havana Syndrome" is a mass psychogenic event. Any supposed "attack" based on secret technology and carried out among a narrow band of people without any real motive should be treated very skeptically.
There are definitely physical signs that some of the people afflicted by "Havana Syndrome" are going through something. But the technology proponents believe is causing it doesn't exist, and the motive behind the "attacks" doesn't make any sense.
It's classic conspiracy theory stuff - secret technology and obscure motives used as an explanation for something that doesn't make sense otherwise. This is how our brains process chaos, by using whatever is at our disposal to turn it into order.
So...Trump lent his name to a shell company that immediately went public on the strength of that name, to raise money for his new social platform, knowing that investors would short the stock because the platform will fail? Is that right?
I don't really understand the stonks thing, but to a layperson, that seems a lot like fraud. Right??
"Amazing. It's absolutely amazing. That under the right circumstances, a Producer could make more money with a flop than he could with a hit. Hmm... Yes, it's quite possible! If he were certain that the show would fail, a man could make a fortune!"
If this is legit, Ron Watkins filed to run in the Republican primary for the AZ1 district. That seat flipped to the Dems when it was redistricted, and hasn't had a Republican in it since. Also, Ron doesn't live in Arizona, or anywhere in the US.
I'm still very skeptical that this is a serious campaign and not a fundraising scam. This is also the seat that his conspiracy buddy Wendy Rogers ran for (and lost) in 2018. More will be revealed, I guess.
Also, a high profile run for Congress opens Ron up to a lot of questions he might not want to answer. We'll know more if he actually announces he's running.