January 17, 2020 • 64 mins
What if the stories and narratives you hear in the average mainstream media reporting aren't the entire truth? What if there's something else going on, a secret war between a shadowy cabal and a small group of brave, outnumbered good guys fighting back against their insidious plans for world domination? This is, according to QAnon proponents, a true story. Join Ben, Matt and Noel as they dive into the origins of this uber-theory, the fact and fiction surrounding it, as well as the implications involved.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, welcome
(00:25):
back to the show. My name is Matt, my name
is No. They call me Ben. We are joined as
always with our super producer Paul Mission controlled decade. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here, and that makes this
stuff they don't want you to know. This is the
first episode we are recording in what the calendars called
twenty twenty. So if you're listening to this, congratulations, you've
(00:48):
made it at least to January of that month. Good,
good for you. Wait to go. You did a thing.
We all did it. We're all here. We are here
in some shape reform. I'm already enjoying the heck out
of Yeah. Yeah, well mainly I don't know, just personal choice.
I decided I wasn't going to drink at all in January,
to think people do the dry January and Dryanuary. Yeah.
(01:11):
And I've gotten so much done in six days, it's crazy.
I redecorated my whole house. I've been working on music again,
I've I've been just you know, being more present with
my kid. Not that I'm some kind of crazy alcoholic,
but it's easy to forget about the things that actually
make you happy. When maybe work is a little stressful,
you decide you'd rather just like have a couple of
drinks with friends instead. I've been like doing you know,
(01:34):
playing board games and stuff. And it's great. Now friends
come over to my house and we play nerd games together.
That's amazing. Noll And I'm so proud of you for
not letting the current news cycle cause you to go
back to the drink. I don't know what you're talking about.
I also chosen to give up watching television, giving up
with the news. Please enlighten me. Oh nothing, just something
to do with this country that we've talked about on
(01:56):
this show numerous times that is surrounded on all sides
by uh, people that may want to um invade for
various reasons. Um and you know there's just almost a
hot war between our country and that country. US invade us. Matt, No, No, anyway, Ben,
how you doing good? You good with a whole Iran
situation with the reason is to congratulations to everyone for
(02:19):
making it to January of twenty It's because we are
very much in a what what it feels like, a
day by day, week by week um estimate of the future,
which may change, uh precipitously. Of course. It's often said,
at least by me, that the world is ending for
someone somewhere every day. Uh. But you know Australia is
(02:39):
burning down, the ocean is ceridification that you warned me
about years ago, Matt, That's that's definitely in play. I
I have also, I have also not gone completely dry,
but have a drinking a lot less, just because I
feel like I need to be aware and alert at
all times. Relaxation feels very twenty nine. Oh man, I
(03:01):
feel that, I swear to God. The news cycles is
starting to feel like that movie Children of Men, you know,
like it's very much like a near future dystopia thing
that we're starting to fall into a little bit. I'm
not being super hyperbolic about that. It really if you
just take a minute, listen to the radio, watch TV.
Everything's on fire. It's crazy. Well, let me tell you this,
(03:24):
and I agree, let me tell you this just here,
I'll share this in the room, and I'm this is
the first time I'm talking about this, uh, and I'm
speaking to you person who called um Ben Noel Paul.
We got a really really wonderful series of calls on
our our hotline over like right after the New year,
(03:45):
occurred from a gentleman who told of how he he
knew he had to quit heroin and the only way
he was going to do it was to get a
trusted friend and lock himself in a place for were,
you know, weeks on end. And while he was doing that,
he found our podcast. And he said, because the time
(04:08):
goes by so excruciatingly slowly during those times, getting to
have our podcast gave him a place to It gave
him a group of people essentially with whom to commune
without having any kind of fear of falling back, right, Um,
And he said he's and he ended up getting through
the entire show and he just thanked us on the
(04:30):
phone for for just existing and for talking. Congratulations, man,
We're glad you're here. Right. Isn't that amazing? It's incredible.
He actually had reached out on Instagram or something to said, yeah,
and but this is an update. That's that's that's new. Um, well,
we'll really really wonderful. We'll share it together. It's just
(04:51):
just so everyone knows he was listening to this first
time we've actually hung out altogether in a while. Um,
but we just want to put that out there. The world,
as scary as it seems, as bad as the news seems,
as crazy as the stuff we're about to talk about is,
in the end, we have each other, no right, right,
And that's why I wasn't choking when I said my
(05:13):
twenty is off to a really nice start. I'm feeling
pretty positive about things overall, despite the news cycle and
how you know, eminently weird things are getting. I mean,
at the end of the day, all we have our friends,
are loved ones, are families, and the little things that
we have to occupy our minds with to keep from
going completely insane. So this is the first episode we're
(05:35):
recording in twenty hopefully not the last. But you know,
you know how the nature of life is, It's like
a La Musk recently said it it's a video game
where the graphics are amazing, the tutorials are too long.
The problem with life is that we're all working live right,
There's no no one really in charge, There's not really
(05:56):
a plan or is there, because today we are diving
into one of the strangest, most controversial conspiracy stories of
the odds, which I mean the recent adds, tens and
so on. This is something that many of our fellow
listeners have written to us about or communicated interest in
(06:16):
to us via some platform or another. As as always,
we want to explore these ideas with um with with
an emphasis on critical thinking and an emphasis on the
facts versus rumors, etcetera, etcetera. If you this is your
first rodeo, you'll see what we mean very quickly. Uh
(06:38):
and again, hopefully it's not your last rodeo. You've heard
the name before, You may have even accidentally or purposely
found yourself embroiled in a conversation about this thing. But
what exactly is que A Non? Why has it become
a focal point for a certain genre of conspiracy literature,
(06:59):
and most importanly, what sort of claims do q A
Non supporters make? If you are someone like like many
of us listening, who enjoys a bit of googling while
you're while you're listening to the podcast, uh, take note
that q ANN is spelled capital Q capital A n
O n Anyhow, here are the facts. So to begin
(07:22):
this story, we have to jump back to twenty seventeen
October of that year, and we have to uh go
to a place called four chan, a message board, and
within that there is a channel called poll p o
l Politics. And on that date October, there is a person,
(07:44):
a user ostensibly anonymous that had the name Q Clearance Patriot.
And this user started popping up on that slash p
o l uh that message board and hope buddy, Oh yeah,
we're not even gonna get to the messag. Yeah, let's
just let's explain some of this. Yeah, let's take a
(08:04):
step back. So fur Chan, okay, you you've heard about it. Yeah,
it's like the armpit of the internet more more or less.
Well okay, okay, it was once like not as bad
as it has become, but it has certainly gained a
reputation for becoming a place where people can anonymously spout
pretty much whatever they want, as they say in Star Wars,
a hive of scum and villany. That's what it's been
(08:25):
accused of being. The mainstream media. It's I would just
put out there and we're gonna talk about this. It
is one of the places that the Internet provides where
you can literally say whatever you want anonymously. Right right.
One of my old colleagues called it uh one of
the best arguments against free speech in the modern era.
(08:48):
Four Chan is, as you said, about, an anonymous English
language website or image board. It was created in two
thousand and three by a guy named Christopher Pool, going
under the name moot m o O T. You can hear.
You can hear a pretty great summation of the origin
evolution of four chan on our Pure podcast Text Stuff
(09:10):
by Jonathan Strickland, so it won't get too into the
weeds here. Four Chune was originally, as of two thousand three,
supposed to be a digital space wherein anonymous posters could
talk about anime and post images related to anime, but
it expanded it admission creep as many things do, and
(09:30):
today it's home to message boards on any number of
topics video games, music, politics, sports, etcetera, etcetera, including some
patently disturbing content. The thing about four chan is, unlike
a lot of similar message boards, you cannot really register
(09:51):
you post anonymously. Threads with recent replies get bumped to
the top of the board, and then old threads that
get less and less attention or automatically to he did
as new ones appear. It's also huge, it's big. Quick
question for you guys, being a bit of a four
Chan new by man, know a decent amount of about it,
but I've never really interacted with it. Is what makes
(10:11):
it different from say Reddit, like, is it just less
moderated or is it a little more of a free
for all? There are there are moderators on four Chan,
but Reddit requires if you want to post on Reddit,
you have to have a registered name. There you go.
So it's the anonymity that really sets it apart, right,
got it? So back to its size, It's true, it's
(10:33):
it's massive. Each month from the site receives twenty two
to twenty seven million unique visitors, and every day um
users generate around eight hundred thousand new posts UM And
much like Reddit, you have groups with abbreviations like forward
slash po l forward slash which is the politically incorrect group,
(10:54):
and that was starting. I would just have to say
I I incorrectly called it politics because in my brain
I just I'm in Reddit world. So apologies, but it's
still means the same. Yeah, I know, I just know.
I don't don't hurt us. Okay, continue that again. I don't.
I don't think that. I think that's a good point, Matt,
because I do feel like read it versus Fortune four
chan is inherently a little more fringe e then then
(11:17):
read it. It's it seems to me just as an outsider,
but correct me if I'm wrong. The fringe doth exist everywhere.
That's very true. It seems like it's a little more
nurtured by the fact that you're able to post anonymously
for sure. Um. It was essentially a reboot of four
Chance Newsboard um new slash new which had been deleted
(11:37):
in January because of flagrant racism of a specific type
as well, which was, you know, white supremacist type, uh
far far right wing kind of racism. So let's put
that info to this side just for now. All you
(11:58):
need to remember this poll exists as troubled history. It's
been repeatedly cited as a hub for racism, sexism, neo
Nazi ideology and so on, you mean, politically incorrect stuff, guys. Right,
And let's let's also remember that q or q ann
as we explore the evolution here also became known as
(12:21):
the Storm or the Great Awakening, and the reason why is,
oddly enough, it is clearly traceable to a single incident
in involving and what many people thought to be an
off hand, sort of throwaway remark by the current president
(12:42):
of the United States. So let's just go back. October
is when Q clearance patriot shows up. Correct? O now, Uh,
twenty three days prior to that, on October five, President Trump. Uh,
he made some comments while he was hanging out in
(13:03):
front of a bunch of reporters there. Yeah, they're taking
a publicity photo with a ton of high level military officials.
They had a special gathering. They were taking this photo
and they're all standing around several people, you know, it's
mostly photographers, but several are running video and there is
video of this you can watch right now. Uh. This
is a quote from President Trump. Do you guys know
(13:25):
what this represents? Maybe it's the calm before the storm?
What what storm? Mr President on Roan or isis? Or
or what what's the storm? Um, We've got the worlds
As a continuing the quote, we've got the world's great
military people in this room. I will tell you that
we're gonna have a great meeting. Thank you all for coming.
What storm, Mr President, you'll find out now just think
(13:50):
about that. That's all it was, but it was in
it occurs. It's a little longer than that. We're paraphrasing here,
but that is. Those are the exact quotes. This maybe
is the calm before the storm. And oh, you'll find
out when he's asked what it is. Um, it was
a very vague statement, and here's the deal that we
need to kind of note here. So in the context
(14:13):
in October early October, there were a lot of rumors
floating around. There were people talking um in Washington, d c.
Quite extensively about whether or not the Iran nuclear Deal,
which was negotiated by President Trump's predecessor, President Obama, was
on the table as possibly being changed or altered or
(14:33):
pulled out of or there was there were rumors that
something was going to change there with regards to Iran. Right, Yeah, yeah,
that perhaps the the administration at the time would uh
de certified or pull out of the nuclear deal. Yes,
and he's he's in a room full of the top
(14:54):
military officials who would be concerned about that, and or
you know, have something to say. Also, to be fair,
something like you'll find out is you know, it's not
a declaration of policy at all. He's kind of fond
of making those little wink wink, nudge nudge kind of statements.
And actually like there's you know, something bigger at play
(15:16):
than than is on the surface. It's you know what
it is. It's a statement that makes you come back
after the commercial break. Does that make sense? Like it
totally speaks to his his production brain. I mean, yeah,
he's definitely you know, from his experience working on in television,
he's got he knows how to he knows how to
(15:37):
have a cliffhanger. It's also a bit of a it's
also a bit of a way to end a conversation.
You know, we have to I have to go, but
I have a pretty busy schedule. Just to be absolutely fair,
and this this gained uh, some some weight, some gravity
(15:58):
online in a more serious version of co fefe. You know.
So it does represent a theme that we see pretty often,
which is it made people uncertain to the point you
guys are making there was a cliffhanger, but there wasn't
really a follow up, at least on the President's end
(16:19):
at that point, and and and the the connection we're
about to draw as well could be entirely coincidental. This
want to put that out there right now. So in
this case, that quotation, that single that single dialogue seems
to have not just bread speculation, but inspired what is
(16:39):
nowadays referred to an Internet shorthand as Q or Q
and on, so what exactly is Q? And on saying here,
Mr President, what is and saying you'll find out after
a word from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy.
(17:02):
So once the quote is out there, Q Clearance Patriot. Uh.
The nickname, by the way, is is a reference to
Q level security clearance, which is a real thing in
the Department of Energy. It's the equivalent of top secret away.
Q Clearance Patriot begins posting, uh, And we have we
have the text of the first post made by the
(17:24):
entity claiming to be Q Clearance Patriot. We can read
it to you. We want to note that it may
feel a little bit obtuse. In G in the following
message stands for National Guard and h r C stands
for Hillary Rodham Clinton HRC extradition already in motion effective
yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run.
(17:46):
Passport approved to be flagged effective ten thirty at twelve
oh one am. Expect massive riots organized and defiance and
others fleeing the US to occur. U S, M S
will conduct the operation while MG activated proof check locate
an MG member and asked if activated for duty ten
thirty across most major cities. I don't think we explained MS. Yeah,
(18:10):
U S Marines. So the idea here is that Hillary
Clinton is going to be extradited and that somewhere yeah,
and then multiple countries are girding up their security to
prevent this person from getting successfully to another country or
(18:31):
an on extradition treaty country, that the passport will be
flagged rendered invalid. That's what that means. That there will
be massive riots that are heavily implied to be planned,
you know, kind of astroturfed riots, so not the actual
people rising up, and that others which would people would
later say, we're other democratic UM and democratic politicians leaders
(18:56):
so on, that they would be fleeing the US, and
that Marines would conduct this um this mass arrest or
this culing starry within Clinton, and that the National Guard
will be activated to be uh, kind of like the
backup the reserves. So what's the implication here? The implication
is that a lot of high level democrats are about
(19:17):
to be rounded up and arrest and arrested and potentially
indicted for what, well, for the many crimes though for
the many, many crimes. That's that's the implication. But this
is just the first post. This is the first of
what would later be called breadcrumbs. And the thing is
that Q would claim access the secret information and followed
(19:40):
up with another post a few a few hours later,
just hours later, and because he's again he's this is
on he's warning about ten twenties posting on T rights right,
which will see as a pattern, and so Q in
his next post writes a little bit more co aparently,
(20:01):
but the languages replete with what appeared to be coded phrases.
So Q was saying that Clinton has already been detained
by authorities and that Donald Trump was aware of this,
knew that criminal rogue elements, including Clinton, had to be arrested.
And then he also references several other people popular and
conspiracy theories, such as the billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Uh,
(20:26):
you know, regardless of what you feel about the specifics
of the allegations about against George Soros, and we all
agree billionaire philanthropists are potentially supervillains just in general they
have the capacity to be so. So, uh, do you
want to read an example of one of these posts? Yeah,
(20:48):
just to give us a little more and then we
can This one's a little juicier too. Yeah. So this
is again made on October. Uh, here he goes? You ready,
mocking Bird HRC detained, not arrested yet? Where is Huma?
Follow Huma? And that, of course is Huma Aberdeen that
(21:09):
we've talked about before in this show, with the emails
in particular, and as well as with reference to Anthony Weiner,
her former husband. I want to say, uh, here we go,
let's continue. This has nothing to do with Russia yet.
Why does Potas surround himself with generals? What is military intelligence?
What is military intelligence? Guys? Okay, let's continue. Why go
(21:32):
around the three letter agencies? This reads like a very
strange poem. Yes, what Supreme Court case allows for the
use of m I versus Congressional assembled and approved agencies?
Who has the ultimate authority over our branches of military
without approval? Conditions unless ninety plus in wartime conditions? What
is the military code? Where is a W being held?
(21:55):
Why a W is that Anthony Weiner? No? Is that
Andrew problem? But who knows? Right? Potas will not go
on TV to address nation. Podas must isolate himself to
prevent negative optics. Potas knew removing critical rogue elements as
a first step was essential to free and pass legislation.
(22:19):
Who has access to everything classified? Do you believe HRC Soros, Obama, etcetera?
Have more power than Trump? Fantasy? Whoever controls the Office
of the Presidents, He controls this great land. They never
believed for a moment they Democrats and Republicans would lose control.
This is not r v D battle. Why did Soros
donate all his money recently? Why would he place all
(22:41):
his funds in a r C R C anyone rent control? Now?
I'm just kidding, I do is mocking Bird ten thirty seventeen?
God bless fellow patriots? Is that a Hunger Games reference? That? Oh? Yeah?
So what's mocking this is? This is? First off, this
is a pure sugar rush, right for some people on fortune?
(23:05):
This is candy. Now. I also I was reading this
when it came out, and I got so into I thought,
you know, I don't care if it's real, because we'll
get to it. There's a problem, there's a problem with identity,
you know. And it's like this, even if it's just mimetic. Uh.
You know, people who have enough knowledge of the reference
(23:26):
points here can begin to dive down the rabbit hole.
So for people who already deep into the world of conspiracy,
especially those trending towards the far right, fringe stuff it's called,
they were elated. Uh. And probably no small part terrified
Operation mocking Bird. You're asked about the Well, it's a
(23:47):
reference to a real life CIA program to blackmail journalists
and control propaganda narratives, and that that thing actually happened.
And it is true that the laws preventing the legal
dissemination of of US propaganda in the domestic sphere have
been rescinded. Yeah, it's free reigin baby, what a time. Uh.
(24:11):
And this this also references, like you said, Matt, it
references the idea that Huma Aberdeen, the former Clinton stafford,
was secretly working for the Muslim Brotherhood, which has the
nicest way to says, it has not been proven true. Yeah,
(24:32):
and well a just referencing Whoma is kind of one
of those triggers at that time, at least in two
seventeen and a little prior to that. Um, a trigger word.
That's like, again, it's just this, like you said, this
is candy Ben, where all of these little things, these
little references just can send you down a rabbit hole.
A single one of them could. And this is basically
(24:53):
arming you with a handful of skittles. You're so right
about that reference. But okay, and here's the deal with
a post like this. It's not just a single post.
It exists within, you know, this ecosystem of everybody else
being able to ask a question like and again you're
kind of answering all of these questions because this is
(25:15):
all questions, almost almost nine questions that are being raised
here in this post. But like leading questions kind of
too right. Well yeah, but it's also it's just it's
it's fairly odd but intriguing, right. Um. But what happened
was this started a movement, right Yeah, so Q the
(25:39):
poster right is different from the group to a NOD,
which is the supporters of this idea later grew into
what would be known as the Storm or the Great Awakening,
and this this grew from fertile soil. Remember this follows
on the heels of things like Pizza Gate, where in Uh,
(26:01):
where various folks were arguing, based on some emails, that
there was a secret caball of child abusers, a child
abuse ring that was connected to Hillary Clinton, that was
operating out of a basement in a pizza chain. Problem
being the actual pizza restaurant does not have a basement,
(26:25):
but just the same. A believer of that particular conspiracy theory,
a guy by the name of Edgar Madison Welch went
into this pizza place, a very popular political pizza hangout
UM and supposed child sex dungeon. Uh. He went in
there and and shot the place up. He didn't like
kill anybody, but he shut the lock off of a
(26:47):
I believe it was a door that was meant to
lead down into the secret basement, but there was no
evidence of of this ever uncovered. Yeah, went to a
closet actually where a damaged the computer. It is interesting
how we don't have to get into it too deeply,
but Pizza Gate, the way it evolved, we were looking
at it very closely as it was evolving, and for
(27:10):
it to focus on that one pizza restaurant that we're
not naming here, by the way, we know the name
of it, we're not naming it here just in case,
just for whatever reason. Uh, people feel that you how
you may feel. Um, but it was odd that these
emails that were all you know, leaked from it was
(27:31):
from the Hillary Clinton email breach and leak that came out. Um,
most of the people on those chains were Democrats, not
all of them, but most of them, or high level
officials or assistance to high level officials. UM. And the
stuff that was construed or misconstrued or you know, taken
(27:54):
from those emails, there was some odd stuff in there.
And I would be the first to say there was
definitely some odd stuff in there. Um. But you can
see it's such a good example of how you get
a little bit of information or maybe a tiny peek
into a window or a flashlights view in the darkness,
and that's all you see, and then you're assuming what
(28:16):
is on the other side that you can't see. Um.
That's we're kind of going down that path already with
just what Q and On has said, With what Q
clearance patriotis and we all already see the emphasis on
creating connective tissue, on on discerning and following and then
ultimately predicting a pattern and order of operations. But before
(28:42):
we get to that, you know, this is nested like
Matroska dolls here. But before we get to that, there's
a problem of identity. Remember how earlier we noted the
strong anonymity on four Chan. Q was aware of this
and so attempted to provide proof of his or her
or their aims. They posted images you can see online
(29:02):
that some creditors, especially on the Our Conspiracy subredit believed
confirmed Q was physically present on Air Force one and
thus was receiving this information from none other than the
current commander in chief. And some followers started to argue
about the true identity of Q. You would see all
(29:26):
kinds of um, all kinds of allegations. Probably the most
out there were that first Donald Trump or Trump Junior
were themselves Q, or that JFK Jr. Faked his death
to get away from the Deep State and is himself
Q to tell the truth about the Deep State. But
(29:50):
now that we've set up all of this background and
told you how this story began, what the origin point was,
and you can see a little bit about the explosive growth.
We have to ask ourselves what what is q A
non saying? What are the claims? Will tell you after
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, maybe a
(30:17):
little bit of movie voice. In a world controlled by cannibals,
Satan worshippers, elite child abusers, only one man has that
I don't know, I'm falling off. Only one person. There's
an obi wan who is the only hope in this story,
(30:39):
and it's it is President Trump in this In this narrative,
the fact that that Trump was formerly a Democrat and
then later a Republican is seen as proof that he
belongs to neither party, who are of course both painted
his puppets on the hands of a global and Trump
(31:01):
is fighting an internal war, according again to q and On,
and has to be protected by the military because the
Secret Service, the FBI, the CIA, the rest of the
alphabet soup has all been compromised, and yeah, all compromised,
and um, largely it's difficult to move those powers, like
(31:23):
the individuals that have power in those institutions right right,
even though you've seen him cycle through several Sure, yeah, yeah,
and you've seen the narrative change too, but he's saying,
yes that the the alphabet super intelligence agencies, they're all
uh Serocian for lack of a better word. And then
going back to this question which you asked, No about
(31:44):
the format, because cues postings often do take that cryptic
question format, and so people who follow this Q and
honors following this will say that each question is some
sort of hint or a clue or a riddle containing
some hidden truth about the the real nature of global governance,
(32:06):
and that astute minds can divine the meaning behind these postings.
For me, it's almost like a puzzle game that if
you can answer one of the questions, then you can
and then you answer to the next one, and then
you realize how those are connected, and then it just
goes down right, But like there's no rhymer reason to it.
(32:31):
I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'm being obtused here. Uh.
Actually that's the word you used, Ben, I think quite
astutely when you're talking about the way that some of
these posts read, um and I think I said some
of them came off as leading questions. Some of them do, like,
for example, who has ultimate authority over our branches of military,
who approves conditions unless ninety plus in wartime conditions. I mean,
(32:52):
that's sort of trying to push you to think a thing.
And some of them are super open ended. So if
there's a puzzle here, where's the solution? It seems like
a lot of projection going on. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
It's they're they're called breadcrumbs because they're thought to be
these tidbits of information, right, and they're forming a trail.
That picture, you know, one of my favorite always sunny
(33:16):
in Philadelphia moments when Charlie Day is obsessed with the
discovery of Pepe Lopez, remember, and he's standing there and
he's like chain smoking and pointing to his conspiracy board.
I think you're absolutely right here in that. It reminds
me a little bit of people who claim to have
interpreted Nostradamus. You know, there's a bit of tea leaf
(33:40):
reading that comes into this, you know, those without without
verification or more explicit statements by Q itself. Even assuming
that we could prove to is q uh, you can
make those initials mean anything you want. Sure our it
could be rent control, it could also be right. It
(34:03):
could also it could be robo cow, you know, yeah,
straight up could be straight up robook. I don't know
why I went over the cop to cow. I'm very
well aware of the robocopes. Well, but I'm saying, I
see exactly what you're saying. And this kind of writing,
and what it does is it allows the interpreter, so
(34:27):
an end user, somebody who reads it who is loud
and influential enough to then say this is what that means,
and then that person almost gets more power or is
able to translate it in a way that then a
massive amount of people believes it has been translated. Yes,
And there's another aspect here, which I think if we're
(34:51):
thinking critically, we have to be even more skeptical about
at this point. There's another aspect wherein some uh, some
people who purport to believe in the cue it on
stuff will say that they're not just they're not just
correctly interpreting the statements they find on four Chan related forums.
They're also interpreting the actions of the president, the physical
(35:13):
individual and his own actions that would seem innocuous to
mainstream media. There's this one, for instance, There's this one
moment in a meeting where he is sitting next to
the Vice president, and I believe it, takes a bottle
of Fiji water, drinks it, and then puts it on
the floor. Right. So there were people arguing that this
(35:38):
was not just someone handling a water bottle, that this
was a non verbal signal that he was planning to
take down a child abuse ring in guess where the
Bahamas close. They're both on the planet Fiji and uh.
And when we get to that level subjectivity, it's it's
(36:02):
tough to prove anything, you know. And that's that's the
devilish part about that, because barring a statement from the
actual president saying yeah, that's why I did it, or no,
I just put the water there, uh, you know, there's
there's no proof. And then also even if people could
just choose to say the guy is line or he's assembling.
(36:25):
I had said a thing before the first break of
the idea of Trump's offhanded statements about the storm the
coming storm, that that could well have been a complete
coincidence as related to this movement. But I think it's
the other way around. Actually, I think this movement hopped
on that innocuous ish statements and then created this notion
of the coming reckoning or whatever I believe. We talked
(36:49):
about these high level officials that were corralled and round
rounded up secretly, and supposedly they've all been fitted with
ankle monitors, um because they're already under indictment secretly. But
we have what we can't let anyone know that. It's
we gotta look like as business as usual, Like no,
(37:11):
who's gonna stand for that? I don't you know what
I mean? Like the whole We will get more into it,
but it's it's a very flamic thing, the whole narrative
behind this. There's a lot of a lot of pieces
that would have to fall into place just so perfectly
that just don't make sense in a logistical way. Yeah,
it's not as unreasonable as a flat earth movement, for example,
(37:32):
for an extreme example. But it's difficult to discern how
all of this could be true at once. And that's
the that's one of the structural problems here if we're
being objective. But according to q and On, the US
government has been controlled for decades and decades, maybe more
than a century, by a very close knit group of
powerful deep state actors, and they are only part of
(37:54):
a larger picture. The world, according to Q, is controlled
by a global ring of nibalistic, demon worshiping child abusers,
a group that is responsible for everything from the assassination
of JFK to the rise of terrorist groups like ISIS,
to the escalation the continual frequency of domestic mass shootings.
(38:16):
And Furthermore, they argue that every single president elected since JFK,
pay attention to that one Democrat or Republican has been
a puppet for this cabal, with one notable exception, Donald J. Trump. Yes,
give give the man a cigar, but yeah, we're not
(38:37):
supposed to smoke cigars. Are you just d it? I
never got it. It always felt to Freudian for me.
It's like Will Smith, Welcome to Miami. I guess you're right.
Um No, we shouldn't teach us the ways. I mainly
just break mine open and put other things into them.
(38:59):
What just kidding, I'm not kidding. I don't know. I
don't care anymore. What I do care about is that
this is all pretty intensely bonkers, but also fascinating, because,
like you said, Ben, there's so much um tea leaf
reading that goes into this and the way these narratives
have been generated by users, not by Q him or herself.
(39:22):
That was just kind of the red meat, you know,
for the masses to then just go ape over, you know,
and just like swarm over the stuff and create what
do what the Internet does best, which is generate bonkers
conspiracy theories or or memes or just you know, baseless claims,
which is what most of this, if not all of
(39:43):
this absolutely seems to be. Well that's the problem too,
So to continue with this, the the idea is that
the president, President Trump has been working behind the scenes
to expose the deep seat and it carefully orchestrated fashion,
and all will soon be revealed. Ultimately he will send
(40:05):
the guilty parties to the quasi black site known as
Guantanamo Bay. And if you ask the true believers, proof
of this is all around you. If you ask the
true believers, then the idea is not whether or not
there's proof, but it's why you a nonbeliever, insist on
having your head in the sand. You can't see it, right,
(40:27):
because of course, like we've got some examples like the
Mueller Report, right, it turns out Robert Mueller and Donald
Trump are secretly close colleagues there, behind the scenes, allies,
and that the Mueller Report, while ostensibly investigating Russian interference
in the US election, in reality what it was a
(40:50):
reality was an investigation into this deep state, and that
Donald Trump had to had to performatively uh cozy up
to the Russian state because that gave Muller the ability
to investigate the real problem, which was the deep state
in the US abroad, which is responsible for everything from
(41:12):
Pizza Gate to the seen mass shooting in Vegas. Yeah.
Well then you bring in the even more recent stuff
with the old Ukraine call with some quid pro quo
and the whistleblowers who came forward and made everyone aware
of that, to the impeachment proceedings that have been going
on went on um to really to the supporters of
(41:36):
Q and On, these are just ways for the deep
state essentially to fight back against the power that Trump has.
It just to sty me a little bit his efforts
to reveal all of the truths eventually that he's going
to reveal, Right, and this is where we get to
the the idea of revelation, the problem with proof. So, first,
(41:57):
many claims made by Q and On had an expiration date.
This is something that this is something that leads to
the downfall of a lot of apocalyptic belief systems right
where you know, we see it tail as old as time.
There's a charismatic cult leader. And I'm not saying this
is what Q is, and I'm not saying it's a cult.
(42:17):
But in the case of cults, there's a charismatic leader
who says, due to some divine revelation or another, I
know that the world will end on November third, six.
Get to a cave be we will be like the
sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, strike down the unworthy,
you know what I mean. And then sure enough, the
(42:39):
next day comes and the world keeps spinning on its
merry Mary Sinister way. So what happens here is that
many of the claims made by Q and on later
turned out to be demonstrablief false. John Podesta was not
indicted on November three of seventeen, whom Aberdeen was not
(43:00):
indicted on November six to two thousand seventeen. That we're
aware of, that we're aware of unless they're wearing those
secret ankle bracelets. Uh, And then what if they actually
were wearing ankle bracelets. Guys, I'm gonna feel so silly,
because I genuinely feel like it's silly. Feel it. It's
(43:21):
not possible, but I've been surprised before. I'm gonna be
honest and this, you know, I don't want to say
too much personal stuff, but this reminds me of something.
There is a religious aspect to this fervance to it,
and this reminds me of you know, hearing about I'm
not like to say which religions, but hearing about specific
(43:41):
religions with very specific requirements for behavior. Not just the
like don't be ad dick stuff the most religions do,
but but like very specific religions. And I always used
to wonder. I used to think, you know, what if
that's the one that's true. What if you die and
it turns out that it's just this one specific thing,
(44:02):
like it's mythrayism the whole time, that's what it was.
And uh, And I always thought, you know, if I
get to the afterlife, I feel like I'm gonna be
one of those people's little Larry David about him like,
all right, fine, you got me, But just to be fair,
your pr stinks and those are weirdly specific rules, so
weird in fact, that I don't think I'd be comfortable
(44:24):
hanging out with the rest of your gang on the
other side of the gate because I like polyesters. It's
pretty loviticous we're talking about, which is a great read.
I would recommend it to anyone out there. But you see,
you see what I'm saying like this, The problem here
is if you're applying critical thinking, you're The problem here
(44:46):
is in the becificity of the claims, right, because they
can be disproven. And this is something that Q and
On notices and responds to, right. Q and N one
has said that these false predictions are necessary because disinformation
(45:07):
is necessary. So maybe they're saying, we know that the
bad guys, the deep state is also reading this, so
we need to get them off the trail the same way,
for instance, that um in in statecraft, if you have
a compromised source, like a compromise spy source, a compromise
communication channel, or a compromise computer network, you never shut
(45:30):
it down. Ideally, you go to a redundancy channel, right,
You go to a backup channel, and you keep that
other stuff running and you just fill it with crap. Yeah,
exactly and it's incredible. Sorry, I just loved the idea
and then you just fill it with crap. That's true,
that's seriously what you do. That's beautiful. So now we
(45:53):
know that this the specificity in terms of the calendar claims.
It ended up shooting this concept in the foot for
a lot of people, and previous believers became somewhat disillusion
But we also know that due to the vague nature
of those postings and the sort of zen cone one
(46:14):
liner questions, uh, people who are proponents of this began saying, well,
we can explain some of the things that appear to
be incorrect by our interpretation, are understanding our realization of
what they're actually saying in these statements, And now it
(46:34):
leads us to an ugly truth Like it may sound
like we're it may sound like we are for some
folks being harsh on the concept of Q and on,
but the fact is that the stuff that has been
presented as proof and as indeed been presented as the
strongest indication of proof or sand to the story has
(46:56):
just hasn't held up to scrutiny at this point. Now,
if it's raw, if it turns out that there are
people who are wearing ankle monitor bracelets and and are
inklets or whatever and are just playing a role in
in public life until the the I don't know, the
(47:17):
pendulum swings or the hammer falls, and they all go
to Guantanamo. If that is true, then it has been
It is being pulled off immaculately. Well, it would be
one of the most successful examples of cooperation in the
recent history of our species. You're welcome, right right, but
(47:37):
doing all this behind the scenes, guys, but you're finally
gonna let everyone know it was you, hu that it
was not me. Oh right, classic Q move. But I
want to talk about how the reason why it feels
unbelievable to a lot of people, um, and I would
say somewhat to myself, is because it's trying, or it's attempting,
(47:58):
or it has been made to be an uber conspiracy,
like the reason behind everything. Right, all of the things
that are bad that are happening that we're noticing out
there are all a part of this one thing. Yeah,
that's yeah. Did it just is it like that poem
where you know, the reach must exceed the grasp else
(48:19):
what's to heaven for? Yeah? It went it. Maybe it
went too big because if we look at the structure
of of the argument, it did attempt to and does
attempt to incorporate more and more things because it is crowdsourced.
You know, there are there are people who are getting
(48:40):
their own hobby horse in the Q and On conversation, right,
and then they're they're pushing that and that may actually
contradict things that other people are saying, although they are
supposed to be on the same team. Uh In your
former supporters have reacted to this by saying Q itself
is compromised and also fairly persuasive argument that Twitter bots
(49:01):
or other bots out of Russia, I got ahold of
the information and mainstreamed it to Twitter, and the president
himself does seem to be at times tacitly supporting aspects
of the theory is retweeted accounts or statements or statements
from accounts that are have linked to Q. And you
know there of course, here we just have to talk
about a lot of a lot of people pointing out
(49:22):
that at rallies, at political events in the background, you
will see quite often Q and On posters or or
things that are written that appear to be in support
of the q and on theory that is just. And
it appears that from an optics standpoint, um, President Trump
hasn't worked to get that out of his you know,
(49:44):
political events. But again, how would one actually do that? There?
There are a lot of things there. There's a lot
in there, and just I'm so sorry. I want to
keep going here really quickly because as someone and I'm
gonna speak openly here, as someone who has dismissed this,
at least to a certain extent, um, I have to
(50:08):
acknowledge that the problems, the major problems that are outlined
by q Anon whoever this person is, um or whoever,
whoever you know, whether or not they're compromised or whatever,
the major problems that are outlined there, I know for
a fact are real. Give me an example, um, the
(50:28):
anyone running in this country for a Democratic or a
Republican in part of the two party system, running for president,
let's say, or high level positions and Senate Um, they
work on either side of that aisle with the same,
many times the exact same money powers that help them
(50:48):
get there. We also know that giant corporations contribute equal
amounts to both parties. They're hedging their bets depending on
who who wins. You know, they want to be on
the right side of whoever is in power. I want
to go back to something here. There's something else that
I think the mainstream media is missing in the story
(51:08):
of Q and On and it is. This is so busy,
you know, harping on the things that are easily dismissable,
easily disprovable, But they're not hitting the primary question, which
is why I think you're getting out here, Matt. It's this,
there is There is no question that the world of
politics operates in two distinct spheres. First, what you the
(51:32):
public are sold in. Second, what happens behind the curtain.
We've talked about this on the show before. It's pretty
obvious there tends to be more to the story than
the official narrative states, especially in high stakes situations like
state level politics. Do you think diplomats of countries who
hate each other are not getting together on on phone
calls and going like, hey man, you know the other
(51:53):
guy was kind of unreasonable, but let's see what we
can work on with this together. Yes, And then do
you know, do you think they're not going in public
statements and going like you know, uh, death to disco
or whatever, and then calling the people who run the
disco and saying, hey, man, you know it's a it's
kind of rough here, like could you give me a
little let's see what we can work out. You know,
there's negotiation there. And the problem here is that they
(52:19):
were also ignoring the fact that something like a deep
state does exist. It's just not as monolithic as some
theories would have us believe. Like, is there a group
of just one, one small group of people that runs
the world. Probably not. Are there dozens of groups of
very powerful people in institutions who feel like they should
(52:41):
run the world. Absolutely, corporations right, private equity institutions, you
know what I mean, very insulated ruling families of one
nation or another. These are the things that operate like
the deep states that are talked about here. A deep
is there's a bonology to evil, right, So so follow
(53:04):
the money, right, follow the money, or follow unelected civil
servants who have tremendous power and have their hands on
the levers of government and may have their own political agendas.
Now I'm not saying they're all automatically evil. I'm saying
that if you listen to this, you can't gain elect
them and and it's very difficult for them to get fired.
(53:25):
The notion of evil in the situation is kind of
a misnomer. I think it's maybe it's greed or it's
just kind of control, but it's not necessarily inherently evil
by its very nature. It's not trying to rape and
pillage and have to throw in there. A lot of
this theory has to do with child sex abuse and
(53:45):
other abuse that's in there and other young adults, and
we have found recently, no no, last year, that that
stuff is very much real, and powerful people, very specific
like aberrant, you know, click of powerful people that believe
they deserve whatever it is that they want, and they're
creepy fetishes or whatever they feel like they are owed.
(54:08):
The ones that we've identified, we've identified. But I don't
think that. I think the notion that all powerful people
are inherently like pedophilic sex fiends is absolutely not Yeah, no,
absolutely that is not true. That is not true. But
like this show does, and as we explore every time,
sometimes it is true. The UK, the Franklin scandal, the
(54:29):
Epstein scandal, Belgium, it's just four yeah. So so this
is true, but it's also it's it is you know,
it works really well as red meat to motivate people
because it's something that it's something that no decent human
being would somehow justify, you know what I mean. Anybody
(54:50):
who supported that is a bad person and also one
other thing. So so the truth is disturbing, right this,
This didn't come from nothing. There are people that you
will never meet, that you will never elect, who control
more aspects of your life and the globe than any
one person or one institution should. However, without solid proof,
(55:14):
we also can't blame critics who say that Q itself
was just an Internet roll stringing people along for the lulls.
You remember, lulls met the lows. I got so many lows,
oh man, and I did most everything for them. So
so there we are. This is the story of Q
(55:35):
and on so far, just a high level look, and
you can read more about it in depth, including specific
claims which, as we said, lead in all sorts of directions.
The idea that Angela Merkel is the daughter of Adolph Hitler,
that Kim Jong n was was put in place by
the CIA to start a war if it was needed,
(55:57):
that his genetics didn't even factor into it, right, right,
And you can see you can see all these things.
This is a crossover events. This is also even linking
to the Titanic, to the old idea that JP Morgan
sunk it so we can form the FED Reserve. Because
it sounds a little bit like somebody took our show,
(56:18):
blasted it out into all these various things, and then
just connected them all back together a little bit, doesn't it.
Paul was Q all along. We were talking at the
top of the show about famous ques Uh and I
didn't know this is this is the thing that you
you you hit me to the queue as a clearance level.
(56:38):
Does that mean it's like the number of clearances as
Q is chronologically in the alphabet. Are there that many?
Or is it just like there's like a clearance SEE
clearance and then Q clearances. It just sounds dope, there's
an L clearance like Q clearance is just the d
o es equivalent of what we would call top secret
out of their places. But just to be clear, we
(56:59):
don't know who Q is. If it's one person, if
it's some kind of weird copy pasta thing like I mean,
and we have and and you know, just to the
veracity of these claims in these posts. To me, it
sounds mostly like gobbledegook um. Is the way that it's
formatted indicative of some kind of you know, real brief.
(57:21):
Is that the way a brief like this would be disseminated,
we have do we have any reason to believe that
there's any veracity to these claims that people are just
going so gaga over? So The interesting thing about that
is there are plenty of people who do believe that
they have cracked the case, and they believe it based
on what they see. Is there uh psychological their their
(57:42):
ability to divine or decipher the psychology behind the statement.
But to be completely honest, no one, none of the
true believers uh unanimously agree on the identity. I think
it's interesting too when you see reporting about this um
the folks are referred to as followers, which really does
(58:03):
give it like almost this cult like status, which makes
sense because it's based on what essentially amounts to some
sort of weird mystical political scripture. Like I said at
the top of the show, it reminds it sounds like
a weird poem because the way it's written is almost
like a riddle or like some kind of strange incantation.
Almost it does have this very odd religious quality to it. Yeah,
(58:28):
there's a doomsday aspect, I think. And at this point
we have to mention that this is ongoing. You can
visit any number of sites now and you can hear
the the current debate because despite the fact that numerous
predictions have proven to be untrue, uh, the people do
(58:50):
continue to support this belief uh. And people do continue
to argue that there that the things that may appear
to be missteps in policy are purposeful and happening for
some reason that will be revealed at a later date
which has been predicted numerous times, has never been the
correct date, but apparently may come to pass as how
(59:12):
predictions go. And then it's always like that, I will say,
in terms of like, how is this going to continue
to linger? I think largely it may um because of
the fact that the President keeps retweeting some of these sources.
You know, folks with screen names like jan bought three five,
(59:33):
four two two, the kinds of screen names that are
typically associated with these you know, Russian bots that are
disseminating all this misinformation. And we've talked about this off air.
Whether the president I'm sorry it was debport zero three
seven zero seven six, Whether or not the president is
purposefully trying to disseminate this too, criticize his rivals at
(59:54):
any cost, whether or not that cost is pushing dangerous
potentially dange yours misinformation out to his what seventy million followers,
or whether he thinks it's cute funny. He does that
often and he'll think something's just kind of a funny joke,
or you know, puts egg on the face of one
of his political rivals. I don't know which one it is.
(01:00:17):
But the fact is that over the holiday weekend he
retweeted q and on sources um something like twenty five times,
and then kept retweeting responses to his retweets from other
q and on accounts. That's that's the thing, though, to
a twitter like, once you get once you get hooked in,
I'm slapping my arm with two fingers in the impression
(01:00:38):
of like addicts. Once you get hooked into the tweets
and the retweets, you just start retweeting. It's so easy.
It's a slippery, slippery slope. Be careful, do you guys?
Think he still does his own tweets, Yes, like just
he's got a device. He he refused, He's not supposed to,
but I believe he refused to give it up. Yeah. Recently,
recently the President notified, uh notified Congress via social media
(01:01:01):
that he that his tweets uh and declarations on social
media did count as official policy declarations or informing Congress.
You can read that. I don't think that tweet will
be deleted by the time this comes out, but don't
let the conversation. And here, folks, we want to hear
from you. What's your opinion. Is there a Q and
(01:01:24):
On prediction that did come true? Uh? And if so,
what we'd like to hear about it. We'd like to
hear about it from you. You can find us and
your fellow listeners on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, where
or some derivation of conspiracy stuff or conspiracy stuff show.
We highly recommend our Facebook page. Here's where it gets crazy.
(01:01:46):
Uh and Uh, you know the memes alone, Oh, it's
gonna be rife within them after this episode. I can
only imagine. Um. You can head over to Amazon search
Q and on and find the dozens of titles that
are based on this this topic. If you wish to
read more, um, or just you know, consult your your
(01:02:08):
local slash po l slash which stands for politically incorrect.
And I know that now and I've learned my lesson
and it's okay and we're gonna be fine. Um. If
you don't want to do that stuff, you can find
me on Call of Duty Mobile where I'm std w
y t K. Wait there's a Call of Duty mobile,
Yes there is, and I would love to play around
(01:02:29):
the team Deathmatcher Domination with you. Uh totally into it, um,
loving it and I'm I'm pretty good at it. So
watch what else there is? There's a Mario Kart mobile
now it's pretty damn good. And there's also uh Tony
Hawks skate Jam yeah, which is like sort of like
a mobile version of pro skater Man. These mobile these
little devices just keep getting stronger and stronger. Well, I
(01:02:50):
believe Call of Duty maybe sponsoring this show soon. That'd
be cool. So watching boys from what I hear? What's
your weapon at choice? So you a groundsman? Are you
a snipeman? Snipes snipesterally? I am not a gamer. I
prefer a healthy assault rifle with a nice scope on it.
(01:03:11):
Got it. That's accurate and reliable. And if you don't
have call of duty, you can call us directly. We
have a phone number as well. Yes, the number is
one eight three three st d w y t K.
It's your duty. Yeah, we did it. Um. If you
don't want to do any of that stuff and you
(01:03:33):
want to reach out to us with anything, any common,
any idea that you've got for another episode, you can
write to us, send us a good old fashioned email.
We are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. Stuff
(01:04:04):
they don't want you to know is a production of
I heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, welcome
(00:25):
back to the show. My name is Matt, my name
is No. They call me Ben. We are joined as
always with our super producer Paul Mission controlled decade. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here, and that makes this
stuff they don't want you to know. This is the
first episode we are recording in what the calendars called
twenty twenty. So if you're listening to this, congratulations, you've
(00:48):
made it at least to January of that month. Good,
good for you. Wait to go. You did a thing.
We all did it. We're all here. We are here
in some shape reform. I'm already enjoying the heck out
of Yeah. Yeah, well mainly I don't know, just personal choice.
I decided I wasn't going to drink at all in January,
to think people do the dry January and Dryanuary. Yeah.
(01:11):
And I've gotten so much done in six days, it's crazy.
I redecorated my whole house. I've been working on music again,
I've I've been just you know, being more present with
my kid. Not that I'm some kind of crazy alcoholic,
but it's easy to forget about the things that actually
make you happy. When maybe work is a little stressful,
you decide you'd rather just like have a couple of
drinks with friends instead. I've been like doing you know,
(01:34):
playing board games and stuff. And it's great. Now friends
come over to my house and we play nerd games together.
That's amazing. Noll And I'm so proud of you for
not letting the current news cycle cause you to go
back to the drink. I don't know what you're talking about.
I also chosen to give up watching television, giving up
with the news. Please enlighten me. Oh nothing, just something
to do with this country that we've talked about on
(01:56):
this show numerous times that is surrounded on all sides
by uh, people that may want to um invade for
various reasons. Um and you know there's just almost a
hot war between our country and that country. US invade us. Matt, No, No, anyway, Ben,
how you doing good? You good with a whole Iran
situation with the reason is to congratulations to everyone for
(02:19):
making it to January of twenty It's because we are
very much in a what what it feels like, a
day by day, week by week um estimate of the future,
which may change, uh precipitously. Of course. It's often said,
at least by me, that the world is ending for
someone somewhere every day. Uh. But you know Australia is
(02:39):
burning down, the ocean is ceridification that you warned me
about years ago, Matt, That's that's definitely in play. I
I have also, I have also not gone completely dry,
but have a drinking a lot less, just because I
feel like I need to be aware and alert at
all times. Relaxation feels very twenty nine. Oh man, I
(03:01):
feel that, I swear to God. The news cycles is
starting to feel like that movie Children of Men, you know,
like it's very much like a near future dystopia thing
that we're starting to fall into a little bit. I'm
not being super hyperbolic about that. It really if you
just take a minute, listen to the radio, watch TV.
Everything's on fire. It's crazy. Well, let me tell you this,
(03:24):
and I agree, let me tell you this just here,
I'll share this in the room, and I'm this is
the first time I'm talking about this, uh, and I'm
speaking to you person who called um Ben Noel Paul.
We got a really really wonderful series of calls on
our our hotline over like right after the New year,
(03:45):
occurred from a gentleman who told of how he he
knew he had to quit heroin and the only way
he was going to do it was to get a
trusted friend and lock himself in a place for were,
you know, weeks on end. And while he was doing that,
he found our podcast. And he said, because the time
(04:08):
goes by so excruciatingly slowly during those times, getting to
have our podcast gave him a place to It gave
him a group of people essentially with whom to commune
without having any kind of fear of falling back, right, Um,
And he said he's and he ended up getting through
the entire show and he just thanked us on the
(04:30):
phone for for just existing and for talking. Congratulations, man,
We're glad you're here. Right. Isn't that amazing? It's incredible.
He actually had reached out on Instagram or something to said, yeah,
and but this is an update. That's that's that's new. Um, well,
we'll really really wonderful. We'll share it together. It's just
(04:51):
just so everyone knows he was listening to this first
time we've actually hung out altogether in a while. Um,
but we just want to put that out there. The world,
as scary as it seems, as bad as the news seems,
as crazy as the stuff we're about to talk about is,
in the end, we have each other, no right, right,
And that's why I wasn't choking when I said my
(05:13):
twenty is off to a really nice start. I'm feeling
pretty positive about things overall, despite the news cycle and
how you know, eminently weird things are getting. I mean,
at the end of the day, all we have our friends,
are loved ones, are families, and the little things that
we have to occupy our minds with to keep from
going completely insane. So this is the first episode we're
(05:35):
recording in twenty hopefully not the last. But you know,
you know how the nature of life is, It's like
a La Musk recently said it it's a video game
where the graphics are amazing, the tutorials are too long.
The problem with life is that we're all working live right,
There's no no one really in charge, There's not really
(05:56):
a plan or is there, because today we are diving
into one of the strangest, most controversial conspiracy stories of
the odds, which I mean the recent adds, tens and
so on. This is something that many of our fellow
listeners have written to us about or communicated interest in
(06:16):
to us via some platform or another. As as always,
we want to explore these ideas with um with with
an emphasis on critical thinking and an emphasis on the
facts versus rumors, etcetera, etcetera. If you this is your
first rodeo, you'll see what we mean very quickly. Uh
(06:38):
and again, hopefully it's not your last rodeo. You've heard
the name before, You may have even accidentally or purposely
found yourself embroiled in a conversation about this thing. But
what exactly is que A Non? Why has it become
a focal point for a certain genre of conspiracy literature,
(06:59):
and most importanly, what sort of claims do q A
Non supporters make? If you are someone like like many
of us listening, who enjoys a bit of googling while
you're while you're listening to the podcast, uh, take note
that q ANN is spelled capital Q capital A n
O n Anyhow, here are the facts. So to begin
(07:22):
this story, we have to jump back to twenty seventeen
October of that year, and we have to uh go
to a place called four chan, a message board, and
within that there is a channel called poll p o
l Politics. And on that date October, there is a person,
(07:44):
a user ostensibly anonymous that had the name Q Clearance Patriot.
And this user started popping up on that slash p
o l uh that message board and hope buddy, Oh yeah,
we're not even gonna get to the messag. Yeah, let's
just let's explain some of this. Yeah, let's take a
(08:04):
step back. So fur Chan, okay, you you've heard about it. Yeah,
it's like the armpit of the internet more more or less.
Well okay, okay, it was once like not as bad
as it has become, but it has certainly gained a
reputation for becoming a place where people can anonymously spout
pretty much whatever they want, as they say in Star Wars,
a hive of scum and villany. That's what it's been
(08:25):
accused of being. The mainstream media. It's I would just
put out there and we're gonna talk about this. It
is one of the places that the Internet provides where
you can literally say whatever you want anonymously. Right right.
One of my old colleagues called it uh one of
the best arguments against free speech in the modern era.
(08:48):
Four Chan is, as you said, about, an anonymous English
language website or image board. It was created in two
thousand and three by a guy named Christopher Pool, going
under the name moot m o O T. You can hear.
You can hear a pretty great summation of the origin
evolution of four chan on our Pure podcast Text Stuff
(09:10):
by Jonathan Strickland, so it won't get too into the
weeds here. Four Chune was originally, as of two thousand three,
supposed to be a digital space wherein anonymous posters could
talk about anime and post images related to anime, but
it expanded it admission creep as many things do, and
(09:30):
today it's home to message boards on any number of
topics video games, music, politics, sports, etcetera, etcetera, including some
patently disturbing content. The thing about four chan is, unlike
a lot of similar message boards, you cannot really register
(09:51):
you post anonymously. Threads with recent replies get bumped to
the top of the board, and then old threads that
get less and less attention or automatically to he did
as new ones appear. It's also huge, it's big. Quick
question for you guys, being a bit of a four
Chan new by man, know a decent amount of about it,
but I've never really interacted with it. Is what makes
(10:11):
it different from say Reddit, like, is it just less
moderated or is it a little more of a free
for all? There are there are moderators on four Chan,
but Reddit requires if you want to post on Reddit,
you have to have a registered name. There you go.
So it's the anonymity that really sets it apart, right,
got it? So back to its size, It's true, it's
(10:33):
it's massive. Each month from the site receives twenty two
to twenty seven million unique visitors, and every day um
users generate around eight hundred thousand new posts UM And
much like Reddit, you have groups with abbreviations like forward
slash po l forward slash which is the politically incorrect group,
(10:54):
and that was starting. I would just have to say
I I incorrectly called it politics because in my brain
I just I'm in Reddit world. So apologies, but it's
still means the same. Yeah, I know, I just know.
I don't don't hurt us. Okay, continue that again. I don't.
I don't think that. I think that's a good point, Matt,
because I do feel like read it versus Fortune four
chan is inherently a little more fringe e then then
(11:17):
read it. It's it seems to me just as an outsider,
but correct me if I'm wrong. The fringe doth exist everywhere.
That's very true. It seems like it's a little more
nurtured by the fact that you're able to post anonymously
for sure. Um. It was essentially a reboot of four
Chance Newsboard um new slash new which had been deleted
(11:37):
in January because of flagrant racism of a specific type
as well, which was, you know, white supremacist type, uh
far far right wing kind of racism. So let's put
that info to this side just for now. All you
(11:58):
need to remember this poll exists as troubled history. It's
been repeatedly cited as a hub for racism, sexism, neo
Nazi ideology and so on, you mean, politically incorrect stuff, guys. Right,
And let's let's also remember that q or q ann
as we explore the evolution here also became known as
(12:21):
the Storm or the Great Awakening, and the reason why is,
oddly enough, it is clearly traceable to a single incident
in involving and what many people thought to be an
off hand, sort of throwaway remark by the current president
(12:42):
of the United States. So let's just go back. October
is when Q clearance patriot shows up. Correct? O now, Uh,
twenty three days prior to that, on October five, President Trump. Uh,
he made some comments while he was hanging out in
(13:03):
front of a bunch of reporters there. Yeah, they're taking
a publicity photo with a ton of high level military officials.
They had a special gathering. They were taking this photo
and they're all standing around several people, you know, it's
mostly photographers, but several are running video and there is
video of this you can watch right now. Uh. This
is a quote from President Trump. Do you guys know
(13:25):
what this represents? Maybe it's the calm before the storm?
What what storm? Mr President on Roan or isis? Or
or what what's the storm? Um, We've got the worlds
As a continuing the quote, we've got the world's great
military people in this room. I will tell you that
we're gonna have a great meeting. Thank you all for coming.
What storm, Mr President, you'll find out now just think
(13:50):
about that. That's all it was, but it was in
it occurs. It's a little longer than that. We're paraphrasing here,
but that is. Those are the exact quotes. This maybe
is the calm before the storm. And oh, you'll find
out when he's asked what it is. Um, it was
a very vague statement, and here's the deal that we
need to kind of note here. So in the context
(14:13):
in October early October, there were a lot of rumors
floating around. There were people talking um in Washington, d c.
Quite extensively about whether or not the Iran nuclear Deal,
which was negotiated by President Trump's predecessor, President Obama, was
on the table as possibly being changed or altered or
(14:33):
pulled out of or there was there were rumors that
something was going to change there with regards to Iran. Right, Yeah, yeah,
that perhaps the the administration at the time would uh
de certified or pull out of the nuclear deal. Yes,
and he's he's in a room full of the top
(14:54):
military officials who would be concerned about that, and or
you know, have something to say. Also, to be fair,
something like you'll find out is you know, it's not
a declaration of policy at all. He's kind of fond
of making those little wink wink, nudge nudge kind of statements.
And actually like there's you know, something bigger at play
(15:16):
than than is on the surface. It's you know what
it is. It's a statement that makes you come back
after the commercial break. Does that make sense? Like it
totally speaks to his his production brain. I mean, yeah,
he's definitely you know, from his experience working on in television,
he's got he knows how to he knows how to
(15:37):
have a cliffhanger. It's also a bit of a it's
also a bit of a way to end a conversation.
You know, we have to I have to go, but
I have a pretty busy schedule. Just to be absolutely fair,
and this this gained uh, some some weight, some gravity
(15:58):
online in a more serious version of co fefe. You know.
So it does represent a theme that we see pretty often,
which is it made people uncertain to the point you
guys are making there was a cliffhanger, but there wasn't
really a follow up, at least on the President's end
(16:19):
at that point, and and and the the connection we're
about to draw as well could be entirely coincidental. This
want to put that out there right now. So in
this case, that quotation, that single that single dialogue seems
to have not just bread speculation, but inspired what is
(16:39):
nowadays referred to an Internet shorthand as Q or Q
and on, so what exactly is Q? And on saying here,
Mr President, what is and saying you'll find out after
a word from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy.
(17:02):
So once the quote is out there, Q Clearance Patriot. Uh.
The nickname, by the way, is is a reference to
Q level security clearance, which is a real thing in
the Department of Energy. It's the equivalent of top secret away.
Q Clearance Patriot begins posting, uh, And we have we
have the text of the first post made by the
(17:24):
entity claiming to be Q Clearance Patriot. We can read
it to you. We want to note that it may
feel a little bit obtuse. In G in the following
message stands for National Guard and h r C stands
for Hillary Rodham Clinton HRC extradition already in motion effective
yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run.
(17:46):
Passport approved to be flagged effective ten thirty at twelve
oh one am. Expect massive riots organized and defiance and
others fleeing the US to occur. U S, M S
will conduct the operation while MG activated proof check locate
an MG member and asked if activated for duty ten
thirty across most major cities. I don't think we explained MS. Yeah,
(18:10):
U S Marines. So the idea here is that Hillary
Clinton is going to be extradited and that somewhere yeah,
and then multiple countries are girding up their security to
prevent this person from getting successfully to another country or
(18:31):
an on extradition treaty country, that the passport will be
flagged rendered invalid. That's what that means. That there will
be massive riots that are heavily implied to be planned,
you know, kind of astroturfed riots, so not the actual
people rising up, and that others which would people would
later say, we're other democratic UM and democratic politicians leaders
(18:56):
so on, that they would be fleeing the US, and
that Marines would conduct this um this mass arrest or
this culing starry within Clinton, and that the National Guard
will be activated to be uh, kind of like the
backup the reserves. So what's the implication here? The implication
is that a lot of high level democrats are about
(19:17):
to be rounded up and arrest and arrested and potentially
indicted for what, well, for the many crimes though for
the many, many crimes. That's that's the implication. But this
is just the first post. This is the first of
what would later be called breadcrumbs. And the thing is
that Q would claim access the secret information and followed
(19:40):
up with another post a few a few hours later,
just hours later, and because he's again he's this is
on he's warning about ten twenties posting on T rights right,
which will see as a pattern, and so Q in
his next post writes a little bit more co aparently,
(20:01):
but the languages replete with what appeared to be coded phrases.
So Q was saying that Clinton has already been detained
by authorities and that Donald Trump was aware of this,
knew that criminal rogue elements, including Clinton, had to be arrested.
And then he also references several other people popular and
conspiracy theories, such as the billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Uh,
(20:26):
you know, regardless of what you feel about the specifics
of the allegations about against George Soros, and we all
agree billionaire philanthropists are potentially supervillains just in general they
have the capacity to be so. So, uh, do you
want to read an example of one of these posts? Yeah,
(20:48):
just to give us a little more and then we
can This one's a little juicier too. Yeah. So this
is again made on October. Uh, here he goes? You ready,
mocking Bird HRC detained, not arrested yet? Where is Huma?
Follow Huma? And that, of course is Huma Aberdeen that
(21:09):
we've talked about before in this show, with the emails
in particular, and as well as with reference to Anthony Weiner,
her former husband. I want to say, uh, here we go,
let's continue. This has nothing to do with Russia yet.
Why does Potas surround himself with generals? What is military intelligence?
What is military intelligence? Guys? Okay, let's continue. Why go
(21:32):
around the three letter agencies? This reads like a very
strange poem. Yes, what Supreme Court case allows for the
use of m I versus Congressional assembled and approved agencies?
Who has the ultimate authority over our branches of military
without approval? Conditions unless ninety plus in wartime conditions? What
is the military code? Where is a W being held?
(21:55):
Why a W is that Anthony Weiner? No? Is that
Andrew problem? But who knows? Right? Potas will not go
on TV to address nation. Podas must isolate himself to
prevent negative optics. Potas knew removing critical rogue elements as
a first step was essential to free and pass legislation.
(22:19):
Who has access to everything classified? Do you believe HRC Soros, Obama, etcetera?
Have more power than Trump? Fantasy? Whoever controls the Office
of the Presidents, He controls this great land. They never
believed for a moment they Democrats and Republicans would lose control.
This is not r v D battle. Why did Soros
donate all his money recently? Why would he place all
(22:41):
his funds in a r C R C anyone rent control? Now?
I'm just kidding, I do is mocking Bird ten thirty seventeen?
God bless fellow patriots? Is that a Hunger Games reference? That? Oh? Yeah?
So what's mocking this is? This is? First off, this
is a pure sugar rush, right for some people on fortune?
(23:05):
This is candy. Now. I also I was reading this
when it came out, and I got so into I thought,
you know, I don't care if it's real, because we'll
get to it. There's a problem, there's a problem with identity,
you know. And it's like this, even if it's just mimetic. Uh.
You know, people who have enough knowledge of the reference
(23:26):
points here can begin to dive down the rabbit hole.
So for people who already deep into the world of conspiracy,
especially those trending towards the far right, fringe stuff it's called,
they were elated. Uh. And probably no small part terrified
Operation mocking Bird. You're asked about the Well, it's a
(23:47):
reference to a real life CIA program to blackmail journalists
and control propaganda narratives, and that that thing actually happened.
And it is true that the laws preventing the legal
dissemination of of US propaganda in the domestic sphere have
been rescinded. Yeah, it's free reigin baby, what a time. Uh.
(24:11):
And this this also references, like you said, Matt, it
references the idea that Huma Aberdeen, the former Clinton stafford,
was secretly working for the Muslim Brotherhood, which has the
nicest way to says, it has not been proven true. Yeah,
(24:32):
and well a just referencing Whoma is kind of one
of those triggers at that time, at least in two
seventeen and a little prior to that. Um, a trigger word.
That's like, again, it's just this, like you said, this
is candy Ben, where all of these little things, these
little references just can send you down a rabbit hole.
A single one of them could. And this is basically
(24:53):
arming you with a handful of skittles. You're so right
about that reference. But okay, and here's the deal with
a post like this. It's not just a single post.
It exists within, you know, this ecosystem of everybody else
being able to ask a question like and again you're
kind of answering all of these questions because this is
(25:15):
all questions, almost almost nine questions that are being raised
here in this post. But like leading questions kind of
too right. Well yeah, but it's also it's just it's
it's fairly odd but intriguing, right. Um. But what happened
was this started a movement, right Yeah, so Q the
(25:39):
poster right is different from the group to a NOD,
which is the supporters of this idea later grew into
what would be known as the Storm or the Great Awakening,
and this this grew from fertile soil. Remember this follows
on the heels of things like Pizza Gate, where in Uh,
(26:01):
where various folks were arguing, based on some emails, that
there was a secret caball of child abusers, a child
abuse ring that was connected to Hillary Clinton, that was
operating out of a basement in a pizza chain. Problem
being the actual pizza restaurant does not have a basement,
(26:25):
but just the same. A believer of that particular conspiracy theory,
a guy by the name of Edgar Madison Welch went
into this pizza place, a very popular political pizza hangout
UM and supposed child sex dungeon. Uh. He went in
there and and shot the place up. He didn't like
kill anybody, but he shut the lock off of a
(26:47):
I believe it was a door that was meant to
lead down into the secret basement, but there was no
evidence of of this ever uncovered. Yeah, went to a
closet actually where a damaged the computer. It is interesting
how we don't have to get into it too deeply,
but Pizza Gate, the way it evolved, we were looking
at it very closely as it was evolving, and for
(27:10):
it to focus on that one pizza restaurant that we're
not naming here, by the way, we know the name
of it, we're not naming it here just in case,
just for whatever reason. Uh, people feel that you how
you may feel. Um, but it was odd that these
emails that were all you know, leaked from it was
(27:31):
from the Hillary Clinton email breach and leak that came out. Um,
most of the people on those chains were Democrats, not
all of them, but most of them, or high level
officials or assistance to high level officials. UM. And the
stuff that was construed or misconstrued or you know, taken
(27:54):
from those emails, there was some odd stuff in there.
And I would be the first to say there was
definitely some odd stuff in there. Um. But you can
see it's such a good example of how you get
a little bit of information or maybe a tiny peek
into a window or a flashlights view in the darkness,
and that's all you see, and then you're assuming what
(28:16):
is on the other side that you can't see. Um.
That's we're kind of going down that path already with
just what Q and On has said, With what Q
clearance patriotis and we all already see the emphasis on
creating connective tissue, on on discerning and following and then
ultimately predicting a pattern and order of operations. But before
(28:42):
we get to that, you know, this is nested like
Matroska dolls here. But before we get to that, there's
a problem of identity. Remember how earlier we noted the
strong anonymity on four Chan. Q was aware of this
and so attempted to provide proof of his or her
or their aims. They posted images you can see online
(29:02):
that some creditors, especially on the Our Conspiracy subredit believed
confirmed Q was physically present on Air Force one and
thus was receiving this information from none other than the
current commander in chief. And some followers started to argue
about the true identity of Q. You would see all
(29:26):
kinds of um, all kinds of allegations. Probably the most
out there were that first Donald Trump or Trump Junior
were themselves Q, or that JFK Jr. Faked his death
to get away from the Deep State and is himself
Q to tell the truth about the Deep State. But
(29:50):
now that we've set up all of this background and
told you how this story began, what the origin point was,
and you can see a little bit about the explosive growth.
We have to ask ourselves what what is q A
non saying? What are the claims? Will tell you after
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, maybe a
(30:17):
little bit of movie voice. In a world controlled by cannibals,
Satan worshippers, elite child abusers, only one man has that
I don't know, I'm falling off. Only one person. There's
an obi wan who is the only hope in this story,
(30:39):
and it's it is President Trump in this In this narrative,
the fact that that Trump was formerly a Democrat and
then later a Republican is seen as proof that he
belongs to neither party, who are of course both painted
his puppets on the hands of a global and Trump
(31:01):
is fighting an internal war, according again to q and On,
and has to be protected by the military because the
Secret Service, the FBI, the CIA, the rest of the
alphabet soup has all been compromised, and yeah, all compromised,
and um, largely it's difficult to move those powers, like
(31:23):
the individuals that have power in those institutions right right,
even though you've seen him cycle through several Sure, yeah, yeah,
and you've seen the narrative change too, but he's saying,
yes that the the alphabet super intelligence agencies, they're all
uh Serocian for lack of a better word. And then
going back to this question which you asked, No about
(31:44):
the format, because cues postings often do take that cryptic
question format, and so people who follow this Q and
honors following this will say that each question is some
sort of hint or a clue or a riddle containing
some hidden truth about the the real nature of global governance,
(32:06):
and that astute minds can divine the meaning behind these postings.
For me, it's almost like a puzzle game that if
you can answer one of the questions, then you can
and then you answer to the next one, and then
you realize how those are connected, and then it just
goes down right, But like there's no rhymer reason to it.
(32:31):
I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'm being obtused here. Uh.
Actually that's the word you used, Ben, I think quite
astutely when you're talking about the way that some of
these posts read, um and I think I said some
of them came off as leading questions. Some of them do, like,
for example, who has ultimate authority over our branches of military,
who approves conditions unless ninety plus in wartime conditions. I mean,
(32:52):
that's sort of trying to push you to think a thing.
And some of them are super open ended. So if
there's a puzzle here, where's the solution? It seems like
a lot of projection going on. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
It's they're they're called breadcrumbs because they're thought to be
these tidbits of information, right, and they're forming a trail.
That picture, you know, one of my favorite always sunny
(33:16):
in Philadelphia moments when Charlie Day is obsessed with the
discovery of Pepe Lopez, remember, and he's standing there and
he's like chain smoking and pointing to his conspiracy board.
I think you're absolutely right here in that. It reminds
me a little bit of people who claim to have
interpreted Nostradamus. You know, there's a bit of tea leaf
(33:40):
reading that comes into this, you know, those without without
verification or more explicit statements by Q itself. Even assuming
that we could prove to is q uh, you can
make those initials mean anything you want. Sure our it
could be rent control, it could also be right. It
(34:03):
could also it could be robo cow, you know, yeah,
straight up could be straight up robook. I don't know
why I went over the cop to cow. I'm very
well aware of the robocopes. Well, but I'm saying, I
see exactly what you're saying. And this kind of writing,
and what it does is it allows the interpreter, so
(34:27):
an end user, somebody who reads it who is loud
and influential enough to then say this is what that means,
and then that person almost gets more power or is
able to translate it in a way that then a
massive amount of people believes it has been translated. Yes,
And there's another aspect here, which I think if we're
(34:51):
thinking critically, we have to be even more skeptical about
at this point. There's another aspect wherein some uh, some
people who purport to believe in the cue it on
stuff will say that they're not just they're not just
correctly interpreting the statements they find on four Chan related forums.
They're also interpreting the actions of the president, the physical
(35:13):
individual and his own actions that would seem innocuous to
mainstream media. There's this one, for instance, There's this one
moment in a meeting where he is sitting next to
the Vice president, and I believe it, takes a bottle
of Fiji water, drinks it, and then puts it on
the floor. Right. So there were people arguing that this
(35:38):
was not just someone handling a water bottle, that this
was a non verbal signal that he was planning to
take down a child abuse ring in guess where the
Bahamas close. They're both on the planet Fiji and uh.
And when we get to that level subjectivity, it's it's
(36:02):
tough to prove anything, you know. And that's that's the
devilish part about that, because barring a statement from the
actual president saying yeah, that's why I did it, or no,
I just put the water there, uh, you know, there's
there's no proof. And then also even if people could
just choose to say the guy is line or he's assembling.
(36:25):
I had said a thing before the first break of
the idea of Trump's offhanded statements about the storm the
coming storm, that that could well have been a complete
coincidence as related to this movement. But I think it's
the other way around. Actually, I think this movement hopped
on that innocuous ish statements and then created this notion
of the coming reckoning or whatever I believe. We talked
(36:49):
about these high level officials that were corralled and round
rounded up secretly, and supposedly they've all been fitted with
ankle monitors, um because they're already under indictment secretly. But
we have what we can't let anyone know that. It's
we gotta look like as business as usual, Like no,
(37:11):
who's gonna stand for that? I don't you know what
I mean? Like the whole We will get more into it,
but it's it's a very flamic thing, the whole narrative
behind this. There's a lot of a lot of pieces
that would have to fall into place just so perfectly
that just don't make sense in a logistical way. Yeah,
it's not as unreasonable as a flat earth movement, for example,
(37:32):
for an extreme example. But it's difficult to discern how
all of this could be true at once. And that's
the that's one of the structural problems here if we're
being objective. But according to q and On, the US
government has been controlled for decades and decades, maybe more
than a century, by a very close knit group of
powerful deep state actors, and they are only part of
(37:54):
a larger picture. The world, according to Q, is controlled
by a global ring of nibalistic, demon worshiping child abusers,
a group that is responsible for everything from the assassination
of JFK to the rise of terrorist groups like ISIS,
to the escalation the continual frequency of domestic mass shootings.
(38:16):
And Furthermore, they argue that every single president elected since JFK,
pay attention to that one Democrat or Republican has been
a puppet for this cabal, with one notable exception, Donald J. Trump. Yes,
give give the man a cigar, but yeah, we're not
(38:37):
supposed to smoke cigars. Are you just d it? I
never got it. It always felt to Freudian for me.
It's like Will Smith, Welcome to Miami. I guess you're right.
Um No, we shouldn't teach us the ways. I mainly
just break mine open and put other things into them.
(38:59):
What just kidding, I'm not kidding. I don't know. I
don't care anymore. What I do care about is that
this is all pretty intensely bonkers, but also fascinating, because,
like you said, Ben, there's so much um tea leaf
reading that goes into this and the way these narratives
have been generated by users, not by Q him or herself.
(39:22):
That was just kind of the red meat, you know,
for the masses to then just go ape over, you know,
and just like swarm over the stuff and create what
do what the Internet does best, which is generate bonkers
conspiracy theories or or memes or just you know, baseless claims,
which is what most of this, if not all of
(39:43):
this absolutely seems to be. Well that's the problem too,
So to continue with this, the the idea is that
the president, President Trump has been working behind the scenes
to expose the deep seat and it carefully orchestrated fashion,
and all will soon be revealed. Ultimately he will send
(40:05):
the guilty parties to the quasi black site known as
Guantanamo Bay. And if you ask the true believers, proof
of this is all around you. If you ask the
true believers, then the idea is not whether or not
there's proof, but it's why you a nonbeliever, insist on
having your head in the sand. You can't see it, right,
(40:27):
because of course, like we've got some examples like the
Mueller Report, right, it turns out Robert Mueller and Donald
Trump are secretly close colleagues there, behind the scenes, allies,
and that the Mueller Report, while ostensibly investigating Russian interference
in the US election, in reality what it was a
(40:50):
reality was an investigation into this deep state, and that
Donald Trump had to had to performatively uh cozy up
to the Russian state because that gave Muller the ability
to investigate the real problem, which was the deep state
in the US abroad, which is responsible for everything from
(41:12):
Pizza Gate to the seen mass shooting in Vegas. Yeah.
Well then you bring in the even more recent stuff
with the old Ukraine call with some quid pro quo
and the whistleblowers who came forward and made everyone aware
of that, to the impeachment proceedings that have been going
on went on um to really to the supporters of
(41:36):
Q and On, these are just ways for the deep
state essentially to fight back against the power that Trump has.
It just to sty me a little bit his efforts
to reveal all of the truths eventually that he's going
to reveal, Right, and this is where we get to
the the idea of revelation, the problem with proof. So, first,
(41:57):
many claims made by Q and On had an expiration date.
This is something that this is something that leads to
the downfall of a lot of apocalyptic belief systems right
where you know, we see it tail as old as time.
There's a charismatic cult leader. And I'm not saying this
is what Q is, and I'm not saying it's a cult.
(42:17):
But in the case of cults, there's a charismatic leader
who says, due to some divine revelation or another, I
know that the world will end on November third, six.
Get to a cave be we will be like the
sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, strike down the unworthy,
you know what I mean. And then sure enough, the
(42:39):
next day comes and the world keeps spinning on its
merry Mary Sinister way. So what happens here is that
many of the claims made by Q and on later
turned out to be demonstrablief false. John Podesta was not
indicted on November three of seventeen, whom Aberdeen was not
(43:00):
indicted on November six to two thousand seventeen. That we're
aware of, that we're aware of unless they're wearing those
secret ankle bracelets. Uh, And then what if they actually
were wearing ankle bracelets. Guys, I'm gonna feel so silly,
because I genuinely feel like it's silly. Feel it. It's
(43:21):
not possible, but I've been surprised before. I'm gonna be
honest and this, you know, I don't want to say
too much personal stuff, but this reminds me of something.
There is a religious aspect to this fervance to it,
and this reminds me of you know, hearing about I'm
not like to say which religions, but hearing about specific
(43:41):
religions with very specific requirements for behavior. Not just the
like don't be ad dick stuff the most religions do,
but but like very specific religions. And I always used
to wonder. I used to think, you know, what if
that's the one that's true. What if you die and
it turns out that it's just this one specific thing,
(44:02):
like it's mythrayism the whole time, that's what it was.
And uh, And I always thought, you know, if I
get to the afterlife, I feel like I'm gonna be
one of those people's little Larry David about him like,
all right, fine, you got me, But just to be fair,
your pr stinks and those are weirdly specific rules, so
weird in fact, that I don't think I'd be comfortable
(44:24):
hanging out with the rest of your gang on the
other side of the gate because I like polyesters. It's
pretty loviticous we're talking about, which is a great read.
I would recommend it to anyone out there. But you see,
you see what I'm saying like this, The problem here
is if you're applying critical thinking, you're The problem here
(44:46):
is in the becificity of the claims, right, because they
can be disproven. And this is something that Q and
On notices and responds to, right. Q and N one
has said that these false predictions are necessary because disinformation
(45:07):
is necessary. So maybe they're saying, we know that the
bad guys, the deep state is also reading this, so
we need to get them off the trail the same way,
for instance, that um in in statecraft, if you have
a compromised source, like a compromise spy source, a compromise
communication channel, or a compromise computer network, you never shut
(45:30):
it down. Ideally, you go to a redundancy channel, right,
You go to a backup channel, and you keep that
other stuff running and you just fill it with crap. Yeah,
exactly and it's incredible. Sorry, I just loved the idea
and then you just fill it with crap. That's true,
that's seriously what you do. That's beautiful. So now we
(45:53):
know that this the specificity in terms of the calendar claims.
It ended up shooting this concept in the foot for
a lot of people, and previous believers became somewhat disillusion
But we also know that due to the vague nature
of those postings and the sort of zen cone one
(46:14):
liner questions, uh, people who are proponents of this began saying, well,
we can explain some of the things that appear to
be incorrect by our interpretation, are understanding our realization of
what they're actually saying in these statements, And now it
(46:34):
leads us to an ugly truth Like it may sound
like we're it may sound like we are for some
folks being harsh on the concept of Q and on,
but the fact is that the stuff that has been
presented as proof and as indeed been presented as the
strongest indication of proof or sand to the story has
(46:56):
just hasn't held up to scrutiny at this point. Now,
if it's raw, if it turns out that there are
people who are wearing ankle monitor bracelets and and are
inklets or whatever and are just playing a role in
in public life until the the I don't know, the
(47:17):
pendulum swings or the hammer falls, and they all go
to Guantanamo. If that is true, then it has been
It is being pulled off immaculately. Well, it would be
one of the most successful examples of cooperation in the
recent history of our species. You're welcome, right right, but
(47:37):
doing all this behind the scenes, guys, but you're finally
gonna let everyone know it was you, hu that it
was not me. Oh right, classic Q move. But I
want to talk about how the reason why it feels
unbelievable to a lot of people, um, and I would
say somewhat to myself, is because it's trying, or it's attempting,
(47:58):
or it has been made to be an uber conspiracy,
like the reason behind everything. Right, all of the things
that are bad that are happening that we're noticing out
there are all a part of this one thing. Yeah,
that's yeah. Did it just is it like that poem
where you know, the reach must exceed the grasp else
(48:19):
what's to heaven for? Yeah? It went it. Maybe it
went too big because if we look at the structure
of of the argument, it did attempt to and does
attempt to incorporate more and more things because it is crowdsourced.
You know, there are there are people who are getting
(48:40):
their own hobby horse in the Q and On conversation, right,
and then they're they're pushing that and that may actually
contradict things that other people are saying, although they are
supposed to be on the same team. Uh In your
former supporters have reacted to this by saying Q itself
is compromised and also fairly persuasive argument that Twitter bots
(49:01):
or other bots out of Russia, I got ahold of
the information and mainstreamed it to Twitter, and the president
himself does seem to be at times tacitly supporting aspects
of the theory is retweeted accounts or statements or statements
from accounts that are have linked to Q. And you
know there of course, here we just have to talk
about a lot of a lot of people pointing out
(49:22):
that at rallies, at political events in the background, you
will see quite often Q and On posters or or
things that are written that appear to be in support
of the q and on theory that is just. And
it appears that from an optics standpoint, um, President Trump
hasn't worked to get that out of his you know,
(49:44):
political events. But again, how would one actually do that? There?
There are a lot of things there. There's a lot
in there, and just I'm so sorry. I want to
keep going here really quickly because as someone and I'm
gonna speak openly here, as someone who has dismissed this,
at least to a certain extent, um, I have to
(50:08):
acknowledge that the problems, the major problems that are outlined
by q Anon whoever this person is, um or whoever,
whoever you know, whether or not they're compromised or whatever,
the major problems that are outlined there, I know for
a fact are real. Give me an example, um, the
(50:28):
anyone running in this country for a Democratic or a
Republican in part of the two party system, running for president,
let's say, or high level positions and Senate Um, they
work on either side of that aisle with the same,
many times the exact same money powers that help them
(50:48):
get there. We also know that giant corporations contribute equal
amounts to both parties. They're hedging their bets depending on
who who wins. You know, they want to be on
the right side of whoever is in power. I want
to go back to something here. There's something else that
I think the mainstream media is missing in the story
(51:08):
of Q and On and it is. This is so busy,
you know, harping on the things that are easily dismissable,
easily disprovable, But they're not hitting the primary question, which
is why I think you're getting out here, Matt. It's this,
there is There is no question that the world of
politics operates in two distinct spheres. First, what you the
(51:32):
public are sold in. Second, what happens behind the curtain.
We've talked about this on the show before. It's pretty
obvious there tends to be more to the story than
the official narrative states, especially in high stakes situations like
state level politics. Do you think diplomats of countries who
hate each other are not getting together on on phone
calls and going like, hey man, you know the other
(51:53):
guy was kind of unreasonable, but let's see what we
can work on with this together. Yes, And then do
you know, do you think they're not going in public
statements and going like you know, uh, death to disco
or whatever, and then calling the people who run the
disco and saying, hey, man, you know it's a it's
kind of rough here, like could you give me a
little let's see what we can work out. You know,
there's negotiation there. And the problem here is that they
(52:19):
were also ignoring the fact that something like a deep
state does exist. It's just not as monolithic as some
theories would have us believe. Like, is there a group
of just one, one small group of people that runs
the world. Probably not. Are there dozens of groups of
very powerful people in institutions who feel like they should
(52:41):
run the world. Absolutely, corporations right, private equity institutions, you
know what I mean, very insulated ruling families of one
nation or another. These are the things that operate like
the deep states that are talked about here. A deep
is there's a bonology to evil, right, So so follow
(53:04):
the money, right, follow the money, or follow unelected civil
servants who have tremendous power and have their hands on
the levers of government and may have their own political agendas.
Now I'm not saying they're all automatically evil. I'm saying
that if you listen to this, you can't gain elect
them and and it's very difficult for them to get fired.
(53:25):
The notion of evil in the situation is kind of
a misnomer. I think it's maybe it's greed or it's
just kind of control, but it's not necessarily inherently evil
by its very nature. It's not trying to rape and
pillage and have to throw in there. A lot of
this theory has to do with child sex abuse and
(53:45):
other abuse that's in there and other young adults, and
we have found recently, no no, last year, that that
stuff is very much real, and powerful people, very specific
like aberrant, you know, click of powerful people that believe
they deserve whatever it is that they want, and they're
creepy fetishes or whatever they feel like they are owed.
(54:08):
The ones that we've identified, we've identified. But I don't
think that. I think the notion that all powerful people
are inherently like pedophilic sex fiends is absolutely not Yeah, no,
absolutely that is not true. That is not true. But
like this show does, and as we explore every time,
sometimes it is true. The UK, the Franklin scandal, the
(54:29):
Epstein scandal, Belgium, it's just four yeah. So so this
is true, but it's also it's it is you know,
it works really well as red meat to motivate people
because it's something that it's something that no decent human
being would somehow justify, you know what I mean. Anybody
(54:50):
who supported that is a bad person and also one
other thing. So so the truth is disturbing, right this,
This didn't come from nothing. There are people that you
will never meet, that you will never elect, who control
more aspects of your life and the globe than any
one person or one institution should. However, without solid proof,
(55:14):
we also can't blame critics who say that Q itself
was just an Internet roll stringing people along for the lulls.
You remember, lulls met the lows. I got so many lows,
oh man, and I did most everything for them. So
so there we are. This is the story of Q
(55:35):
and on so far, just a high level look, and
you can read more about it in depth, including specific
claims which, as we said, lead in all sorts of directions.
The idea that Angela Merkel is the daughter of Adolph Hitler,
that Kim Jong n was was put in place by
the CIA to start a war if it was needed,
(55:57):
that his genetics didn't even factor into it, right, right,
And you can see you can see all these things.
This is a crossover events. This is also even linking
to the Titanic, to the old idea that JP Morgan
sunk it so we can form the FED Reserve. Because
it sounds a little bit like somebody took our show,
(56:18):
blasted it out into all these various things, and then
just connected them all back together a little bit, doesn't it.
Paul was Q all along. We were talking at the
top of the show about famous ques Uh and I
didn't know this is this is the thing that you
you you hit me to the queue as a clearance level.
(56:38):
Does that mean it's like the number of clearances as
Q is chronologically in the alphabet. Are there that many?
Or is it just like there's like a clearance SEE
clearance and then Q clearances. It just sounds dope, there's
an L clearance like Q clearance is just the d
o es equivalent of what we would call top secret
out of their places. But just to be clear, we
(56:59):
don't know who Q is. If it's one person, if
it's some kind of weird copy pasta thing like I mean,
and we have and and you know, just to the
veracity of these claims in these posts. To me, it
sounds mostly like gobbledegook um. Is the way that it's
formatted indicative of some kind of you know, real brief.
(57:21):
Is that the way a brief like this would be disseminated,
we have do we have any reason to believe that
there's any veracity to these claims that people are just
going so gaga over? So The interesting thing about that
is there are plenty of people who do believe that
they have cracked the case, and they believe it based
on what they see. Is there uh psychological their their
(57:42):
ability to divine or decipher the psychology behind the statement.
But to be completely honest, no one, none of the
true believers uh unanimously agree on the identity. I think
it's interesting too when you see reporting about this um
the folks are referred to as followers, which really does
(58:03):
give it like almost this cult like status, which makes
sense because it's based on what essentially amounts to some
sort of weird mystical political scripture. Like I said at
the top of the show, it reminds it sounds like
a weird poem because the way it's written is almost
like a riddle or like some kind of strange incantation.
Almost it does have this very odd religious quality to it. Yeah,
(58:28):
there's a doomsday aspect, I think. And at this point
we have to mention that this is ongoing. You can
visit any number of sites now and you can hear
the the current debate because despite the fact that numerous
predictions have proven to be untrue, uh, the people do
(58:50):
continue to support this belief uh. And people do continue
to argue that there that the things that may appear
to be missteps in policy are purposeful and happening for
some reason that will be revealed at a later date
which has been predicted numerous times, has never been the
correct date, but apparently may come to pass as how
(59:12):
predictions go. And then it's always like that, I will say,
in terms of like, how is this going to continue
to linger? I think largely it may um because of
the fact that the President keeps retweeting some of these sources.
You know, folks with screen names like jan bought three five,
(59:33):
four two two, the kinds of screen names that are
typically associated with these you know, Russian bots that are
disseminating all this misinformation. And we've talked about this off air.
Whether the president I'm sorry it was debport zero three
seven zero seven six, Whether or not the president is
purposefully trying to disseminate this too, criticize his rivals at
(59:54):
any cost, whether or not that cost is pushing dangerous
potentially dange yours misinformation out to his what seventy million followers,
or whether he thinks it's cute funny. He does that
often and he'll think something's just kind of a funny joke,
or you know, puts egg on the face of one
of his political rivals. I don't know which one it is.
(01:00:17):
But the fact is that over the holiday weekend he
retweeted q and on sources um something like twenty five times,
and then kept retweeting responses to his retweets from other
q and on accounts. That's that's the thing, though, to
a twitter like, once you get once you get hooked in,
I'm slapping my arm with two fingers in the impression
(01:00:38):
of like addicts. Once you get hooked into the tweets
and the retweets, you just start retweeting. It's so easy.
It's a slippery, slippery slope. Be careful, do you guys?
Think he still does his own tweets, Yes, like just
he's got a device. He he refused, He's not supposed to,
but I believe he refused to give it up. Yeah. Recently,
recently the President notified, uh notified Congress via social media
(01:01:01):
that he that his tweets uh and declarations on social
media did count as official policy declarations or informing Congress.
You can read that. I don't think that tweet will
be deleted by the time this comes out, but don't
let the conversation. And here, folks, we want to hear
from you. What's your opinion. Is there a Q and
(01:01:24):
On prediction that did come true? Uh? And if so,
what we'd like to hear about it. We'd like to
hear about it from you. You can find us and
your fellow listeners on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, where
or some derivation of conspiracy stuff or conspiracy stuff show.
We highly recommend our Facebook page. Here's where it gets crazy.
(01:01:46):
Uh and Uh, you know the memes alone, Oh, it's
gonna be rife within them after this episode. I can
only imagine. Um. You can head over to Amazon search
Q and on and find the dozens of titles that
are based on this this topic. If you wish to
read more, um, or just you know, consult your your
(01:02:08):
local slash po l slash which stands for politically incorrect.
And I know that now and I've learned my lesson
and it's okay and we're gonna be fine. Um. If
you don't want to do that stuff, you can find
me on Call of Duty Mobile where I'm std w
y t K. Wait there's a Call of Duty mobile,
Yes there is, and I would love to play around
(01:02:29):
the team Deathmatcher Domination with you. Uh totally into it, um,
loving it and I'm I'm pretty good at it. So
watch what else there is? There's a Mario Kart mobile
now it's pretty damn good. And there's also uh Tony
Hawks skate Jam yeah, which is like sort of like
a mobile version of pro skater Man. These mobile these
little devices just keep getting stronger and stronger. Well, I
(01:02:50):
believe Call of Duty maybe sponsoring this show soon. That'd
be cool. So watching boys from what I hear? What's
your weapon at choice? So you a groundsman? Are you
a snipeman? Snipes snipesterally? I am not a gamer. I
prefer a healthy assault rifle with a nice scope on it.
(01:03:11):
Got it. That's accurate and reliable. And if you don't
have call of duty, you can call us directly. We
have a phone number as well. Yes, the number is
one eight three three st d w y t K.
It's your duty. Yeah, we did it. Um. If you
don't want to do any of that stuff and you
(01:03:33):
want to reach out to us with anything, any common,
any idea that you've got for another episode, you can
write to us, send us a good old fashioned email.
We are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. Stuff
(01:04:04):
they don't want you to know is a production of
I heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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