The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making?
ctc.usma.edu
ctc.usma.edu
Similar example of practices: https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2020/07/ghostwr...
The above relies on a fair bit of identity building as well, so Q's source/breeding in more anon platforms helps all the better. Intense stuff.
Leaves me mere speculation: I believe Q was initially conceived in case Trump had lost the election. It was to be a group of useful idiots/unwitting agents protesting about the "rigged" election, maybe even riled up to the point of taking up arms. Then when Trump won it was repurposed to sow disinformation about child sacrifice and child porn rings by the elite democrats. 9/11 saw the same thing: Massive efforts by Russia and Middle Eastern countries to seed inside job conspiracy theories. With the result that many Americans now believe 9/11 was an inside job, and can't really trust their government anymore (social cohesion damaged).
I believe some of these unwitting agents are so impressionable and gullible, that they can be made to act as "manchurian candidates", doing the bidding of foreign intelligence agencies (spreading propaganda, muddying the waters with disinformation and conspiracy, picking up a gun and going out to free children from a basement of a pizza parlor). I believe these intel agencies are able to infiltrate grassroots movements and subvert their ideals to be hostile to their host countries. I believe these agencies are able to create fake online realities, where unwitting agents are made to be believe they are part of something big, and everyone agrees with them, while they are psychologically manipulated.
When would've that been? The first "drop" by Q happened on October 28, 2017.
4Chan has been very involved with these intelligence ARGs since after Project Chanology. Pedowood morphed into Pizzagate. "Seth Rich murder" was pushed hard on 4Chan, to detract from the fact that the Russians hacked the democrats. And it works: Instead of being insulted and angry that a foreign nation state so polutes the brains of your country and riles up the population to the level of riots and extreme polarization, some like to think that Hillary had Seth Rich assassinated for leaking. With so much smoke, who knows what to think? All the while you see artificial KONY2012-style meme campaigns accusing Mueller of being a deep state fixer, synced on Twitter, Facebook, and 4chan.
Yeah this happened, per Mueller. Very large BLM Facebook group that organized rallies is an example.
I previously thought most of the psyops efforts were lower level IRA trolling, per what was in un-redacted Mueller.
Digging into some of the private sector threat intel reports around semi-attributed campaigns (see the link), there's evidence that more deliberate operations are occurring.
Most of those complex campaigns I read seemed focused on border states between Great Powers, and CONUS campaigns focused on sowing nonsense, chaos and mucking up comms channels. But I guess it's no large feat, beyond boldness, to employ something with more structured narrative inside the CONUS digital sphere of influence.
I mean "of course this is a thing that happens," but it's still a seriously interesting read on paper, it could easily be employed in the US, and it's pretty bold to do.
All totally crazy conspiracy theories are created by "them" to discredit the real conspiracies.
One time, however, I was browsing Twitter, particularly a political thread. It was relatively level-headed (at least as far as social media politics goes) until I saw one reply. Everything about this account was a perfect caricature of what I despised. From the profile pic, to what they retweeted. It was stuff that was genuinely disgusting and most people would be appaled by it.
Their profile said they were a writer at "some website" and I decided to check it out. The site itself was rather boring with multiple articles that really didn't make sense and seemed more like SEO blogspam content, so out of curiosity I did a whois on the domain. The site was originally registered a month prior. The Twitter account was the same age. I realized that this probably wasn't a real person and that I had been successfully baited into being pissed off. Can't say who or what is projecting it, but looking back a lot of accounts I've seen in the replies of Twitter threads are probably the same story.
I had an idea to collect a database of similar accounts, since they seem pretty easy go find, just so I could play around with the data, but ended up not doing anything.
Follows, per that campaign doc I linked. It's interesting how complex it's getting!
That threat intel report was dropped, I went to the website to scope out some of the "authors" that were attributed and saw their articles. I went back a day later and the authors' posts and profiles were down.
What also stood out to me was that website direct linked to some more substantial websites like Zerohedge. Zerohedge has long been iffy, but it still gets read by professionals for the financial analysis it includes. It has a good rep in this area per some historical research it produced.
Just in terms of tight network links, Zerohedge leads to Drudge leads to Fox, which. That's fascinating to me. Your description of that website sounds a lot like campaign's base website for its "authors."
Why is everyone so vigilant to call it "dangerous"? Why not flat earth and chem trails? Why all the attention for this one thing?
It is spawning a fair bit of violence.
I don't know anything about this Q stuff (I don't even know what they believe), and I'm certainly not endorsing it, but your link does not support your claim.
We now know that Harvey Weinstein, who is just a media exec, was able to kill stories for years about him sexual abusing actresses. Is is crazy to think that a intelligence agencies could kill stories about one of their honeypots?
No, though it's misguided to presume that this factually occurred merely because one is capable of imagining such a scenario.
It's more dangerous than chemtrails or flat Earth because it paints a lot of real people as dangerous enemies of the US.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/511633-trump-cal...
Yes, she only one the Republican primary, but it is very likely she will win the general election.
She denounced her previous claims on Aug 13th, 2020.
154 people died in that portion of the 9/11 attacks, including many children, as can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIWT4f_3gDk&feature=emb_titl...
The ~4 minute video is well worth your time.
I would encourage you to ask yourself what government position/s she is qualified for, given her recent beliefs about the deaths of those people.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/qanon-congressional-...
"q anon is a conspiracy theory incubator it's not like the other conspiracy theories out there it's not like pizzagate alone it's not like the epstein stuff alone it's an incubator for all these conspiracies so they all feed off of each other so even if you try to knock down one there's others to hold it up if you look at the vast amount of anti-vaxxers who just recently got into q anon around march and april of this year it's like a whole separate movement that was gigantic and huge and dangerous in its own right
basically combined with q anon to form something even more dangerous and you're going to see it with more of these separate conspiracy theory movements down the line and that's really what makes q anon so honestly horrific i mean you have conspiracy theorists who don't even they're not even on the same page percentage of q9 people believe uh uh rapper kennedy jfk is still alive or whatever and then another percentage thinks that's bullshit but it doesn't matter because they all come together for the prime reason that hell this is all stuff that's going to help trump and we believe in the main thing that all these different forces are coming together to stop trump but he's going to take them all down the"
Also a longer interview https://youtu.be/lf3xlx9K0DI
I see nothing about flat earth or chem trails.
[1]https://www.businessinsider.com/17-cell-towers-have-been-van...
[2]https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21276912/5g-conspiracy-the...
https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/new-zealands-...
I first heard about QAnon when I heard about the Cosmos Pizzeria accusations of hosting a basement full of children that were being "sacrificed to satan" and then canabalistically eaten by democrat elites in DC. Don't think that's harmless well what about the guy that shot up the place in an attempt to free those children from the nonexistent basement. Seems pretty dangerous to me.
That's why it's dangerous. It has penetrated to the mainstream of the party in control of 2 out of 3 branches of US govt, as well as the entire military.
1. https://www.axios.com/trump-qanon-refuses-to-answer-question...
I believe there's also a fair bit of package-deals. If you believe in one thing, you trust people more who also believe in that thing ("they see the world as it really is"). If they also believe in something else, that's a strong vote for that other thing.
...and the post got flagged!
The topic abhors rationality. It's a wedge in political discourse, because it is seemingly immoral to take the middle ground.
https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-am...
with examples from 1797 onward.
"In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among [redacted], who have now demonstrated in the [redacted] movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority."
Like QAnon, the people behind c19study are very careful to hide their true identities. I find it plausible that they're marketing the same basic stuff to different audiences, c19 to people who fall for stuff that sounds like science that isn't.
Of course, there's another explanation for the overlap, that people who are susceptible to conspiracy theories promoted by anonymous instigators are likely to buy into both. This hypothesis is consistent with them being completely separate, just using similar tactics.
I have a pretty good idea who the coder is behind the c19 site. If you're a reporter who would find this useful, or somebody who is better than me at tracking this stuff down, feel free to get in touch. (Note: other people, including Brian Krebs, have had a crack at this)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kevin-clinesmith-former-fbi-la...
Q first mentioned Clinesmith in August 2018.
So it raises a question of why the huge pushback and dedication of resources from the media, when, they could just be reporting on it instead of trying to discredit it. Sounds like whatever is going to happen is going to happen regardless so we'll all just wait and see.
We essentially have some teenager on 4chan trolling an entire audience of probably hundreds of thousands of individuals. They now believe Trump is our savior and the deep state wants to take him down. There are violent undertones to the entire conspiracy and I do worry they are going to turn into terrorists.
Anyways I thought it was kind of dumb and tolling, got a laugh and went on with my day. I think 2-3 days later I see QAnon being talked about on Fox News and CNN. My exact thought was "some guy in his basement must be thrilled that his shitpost on 4Chan landed on national TV".
It's crazy how people have fallen for it. Because if you read the actual conspiracy theory of QAnon it's batshit insane. The world order is being taken over by the Obama's and Democrats and the only guy that can save us is that dude that used to be on The Apprentice.
Like how do people not read that and think that the story is just too perfect to be true. Like seriously: Obamas are bad, Democrats and Hillary wants to take over the world. But WAIT WAIT!!! DONALD J TRUMP of all people is going to save you from the evil Democrats!
How????? When did we get to CLONES?
Minus the part where Donald Trump is the literal Messiah, most of QAnon's beliefs have been mainstream among the American right wing for years. The only real difference in that regard is the shifting of the Overton window, so what used to be the subject of fringe rants on AM talk radio is now more or less accepted in the mainstream.
That's the most plausible explanation and I've explained it that way to several people already. Doesn't work though - you'll either be dismissed or discover later on that they've found a way of reconciling it with their already crackpot worldview.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/
> Conclusions. Whereas bots that spread malware and unsolicited content disseminated antivaccine messages, Russian trolls promoted discord. Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination.
Substitute any other absurd topic. By having any discussion at all, it legitimizes position.
Instead, think of the stereotypical 4chan user. Lonely, asocial, engaged in a meme subculture separate from the mainstream. It's this psychological social distance and lack of identification with the mainstream that is key. This personality type exists throughout American society. My claim is that these people take pure nonsense to heart because they have no firm foundation in reality. They are too plugged in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtjTRYrF8X4&list=PL18vrD9EPj...
and
are popular stops.
The media is often presenting a less-crazy image of QAnon than it actually is. It is growing in influence:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/11/qanon-facebo...
<tinfoil> ... which is largely KNO3. In the latest development in a conspiracy which has been running since the days of the Emperor Tiberius, it's been proven by five eyes that the crew of the MV Rhosus ordered a lot of takeout from Comet Ping Pong. </tinfoil>
Also, if you'd please stop posting unsubstantive comments generally, we'd be grateful.
Big issue with QAnon is that unlike normal standalone conspiracy theories, this one engulfs all other ones into a single plot.
This is nothing new, the shapeshifting lizard conspiracy already did this.
Replace QAnon's pedophile elite with one of:
- The Catholic Church
- Free Masons
- Rosicrutians
- Illuminati
- Jewish Bankers
- Satanist Elites
- Lizard People
- The CIA
- UN Globalists w/ Agenda 21
- And so on...
What makes a conspiracy theory really _stick_ is when it confounds a _kernel of truth_. The more convincing and defensible that kernel of truth is, the easier it is to build conjecture upon.
Ie, the CIA probably isn't directing world affairs, but they do certainly engage in political actions to disrupt the course of nations, and so many extrapolate their influence to extents we don't have evidence for.
QAnon's kernel of truth is the incredibly alluring and defensible idea that politicians cannot be trusted and many are not working in our best interest. From there... The sky's the limit.
The same people that push Qanon are also pushing anti mask, anti vaccine and etc conspiracies.
Ie, Lizard people come from the Hollow Earth and are conspiring with Planned Parenhood and UN Agenda 21 to depopulate the planet; this is a believed conspiracy you can find on conspiracy boards.
What makes QAnon different is that it's a movement that exists largely as a result of the sophistication of modern social networks and the ability of small groups of people to wield enormous platforms on them.
The Anti-Vax, Birther and Sandy Hook conspiracies were sort of the early progenitors of this medium: they took the conversations off the aged PHPbb boards and various sub-reddits and on to the social networks. QAnon is often _the same people_ simply continuing to talk with each other.
They've just been learning how to use the tools at their disposal, and have become proficient at it.
They're going to need to be more precise about the Pizzagate conspiracy, because the above wording very closely describes the Jeffrey Epstein case, which has been proven to be true.
These have much more public and institutional support than QAnon.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/18/trump-cam...
He condemned the neo-nazis at Charletsville. He never said they were very fine people.
It's a "conspiracy theory", not a "conspiracy".
>Like father like son.
Proverbs aren't arguments or evidence.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: I had to warn you about this just yesterday (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24145754). Not cool. Please fix.
Abstract: The QAnon conspiracy theory, which emerged in 2017, has
quickly risen to prominence in the United States. A survey of cases
of individuals who have allegedly or apparently been radicalized to
criminal acts with a nexus to violence by QAnon, including one case
that saw a guilty plea on a terrorism charge, makes clear that QAnon
represents a public security threat with the potential in the future
to become a more impactful domestic terror threat.I understand how QAnon is driving some people nuts, but there are lots of theories that are driving people nuts. Many crimes are justified by different theories.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/us/pizzagate-attack-sente...
These people see a powerful satanic child raping cabal of power that run things from the shadows. Their champion is Donald Trump, if he were to lose this election it's not a reach to see an uptick in these sorts of attacks. Because, honestly, if this conspiracy were true, the only moral thing to do would be to oppose it.
Q didn't start posting for another year.
On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Tamera Luzzatto <tluzzatto@pewtrusts.org> wrote:
With enormous gratitude to Advance Man Extraordinaire Haber, I am popping up again to share our excitement about the Reprise of Our Gang’s visit to the farm in Lovettsville. And I thought I’d share a couple more notes:
We plan to heat the pool, so a swim is a possibility. Bonnie will be Uber Service to transport Ruby, Emerson, and Maeve Luzzatto (11, 9, and almost 7) so you’ll have some further entertainment, and they will be in that pool for sure. And with the forecast showing prospects of some sun, and a cooler temp of lower 60s, I suggest you bring sweaters of whatever attire will enable us to use our outdoor table with a pergola overhead so we dine al fresco (and ideally not al-CHILLo).
I am ccing Trudy to repeat the invite, and sending pining wishes-you-could-come to Rima, John P, and Laurie & Chris.
Con amore, Mrs. Farmer L"Trust the plan" is not something conspiracy theorists from the 80s and 90s said...
It is spawning a fair bit of violence.
The series of secret meetings, lies and changing narrative from so many in the admin that were later exposed as false tells its own story.
Whether it could be proved as collusion, conspiring or is another issue. There is plenty of 'there' there.
it asks people to go to (in a weird sort of way) first principles and start from there
*
Why is bitcoin so scary? Because it completely removes CENTRAL CONTROL
even more so - it removes the need to TRUST a central bank
*
QAnon is similar. If you read the precepts of it, it is written by someone who believes that the entire current mindset is INCULCATED and INDOCTRINATED by people through brainwashing in high school and college
Which is an especially effective way to position yourself because then people have to question
ARe my beliefs based on FIRST PRINCIPLES i.e.
If I start with a blank slate and build on that using non-disputable facts
would it lead to what the mass media is saying?
And then they see - OK, Mass Media is lying
Now, what is the truth
at this point it doesn't even amtter if QAnon is the truth or not
The victory is already won
one brainwashed person suddenly recognizes they are brainwashed
One thought that occurred to me is that it is not a post-hoc theory to explain events in the past, like for example, 9/11 trutherism, the Kennedy assassination, COINTELPRO abuses, or Roswell. Those are "classical" conspiracy theories, and they often touch on shady machinations of government and extra-governmental sources of power, but they focus on a major fact, event, or sequence of them in the past.
QAnon is predictive. It is not accurately predictive at all, but it is fundamentally present-and-future-oriented. People buying into it believe that they are in the midst of a vast conspiracy now, and expect things to transpire in the future based on that version of reality.
That could make adherents act differently today and tomorrow from how they would otherwise, expecting certain rewards later or to be regarded in a particular light "when the truth comes out", instead of merely feeling differently about actors from the past and believing they have uncovered some past truth.
Another aspect that I think plays a key role is the wink and nod support from those with power who know it helps maintain their grip on a certain segment of their voter base. The tacit support given by seriously empowered agents in our world is stunning and upsetting, but rarely if ever crosses a line to where they've really committed themselves.
Then, there's the crowd-driven nature of it. It's like someone harnessed the concept of "anonymous" from a few years ago and deftly weaponized it for a specific political purpose. Whatever is said by Q may not have been said by Q. It may have been said to throw someone off of the trail. Anyone could claim to be speaking as Q. No one knows where legitimacy flows from. It's a headless thing, but it can't stop talking -- who knows what it might say? Who might use it to speak?
It has clearly already radicalized a large number of people into rejecting many normal beliefs -- how far could it direct their actions at large, or at least those of individuals?
It is a seriously great con. But these aspects -- future-orientedness, tacit legitimization, and potentially zero control -- make it a seriously scary thing to have built into the political landscape of today's society.