November 11, 2020 • 25 mins
Today we’re interrupting our scheduled plan to take a look at the QAnon movements wild reactions to the US Election. Some are losing faith, some are doubling down, but they’re all panicking.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Q and On is the world's largest online political conspiracy movement.
Followers believe someone code named Q is provided them with
secret information from inside the White House. No one really
knows the real identity of Q, though we aim to
change that. I'm Jake Hanrahan and this is Q Clearance,
a podcast series aimed unmasking the true identity of Q.
(00:24):
This is brought to you by I R Radio and
CO Data Media. At the end of the last episode,
I said, we'll be taking a deep dive into the
Watkins family next. The people currently run a h chan.
But then the roller coaster US election happened, and as
(00:45):
we know by now, Joe Biden has one Trump is
claiming he cheated and he won't leave, and the whole
world is sat on the edge of their seat watching.
For regular Trump supporters, the election has been a disaster,
but for Q and On it's been even worse. It's
been a day of historic reckoning. None of them saw coming.
(01:06):
So instead, in this episode, we're going to be looking
at the extreme reaction Q and On's have had to
Biden winning the election. It will give you an idea
just how indoctrinated with Qu's plan many of them are
will also be speaking to someone who has believed in
Q but is now having second thoughts on who's actually
behind it all. So within the Q and On universe,
(01:30):
there's a big mix of different reactions to the election
right now. I've been looking over a lot of them
in the last few days, and they range from complete
hysteria and shock to a kind of calm just follow
the planned delusion. Some have realized Q is fake, whilst
others have only doubled down on their beliefs. It's been
(01:51):
wild online, but it's also getting a bit sketchy away
from the keyboard, because one Q and On follower maybe
to turn outside a polling station with a rifle and
a handgun. We'll get onto that in a minute, but
first let's look at the last time Q himself posted.
(02:12):
So the last Q drop was November three, the day
of the election. In the Q drop, it's mostly just
a quote from Abraham Lincoln. It reads as following quote,
This nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people, by the people, for
the people shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln,
(02:34):
November eighteen sixty three. Together we win Q end quote now, naturally,
it sounds as if Q was very confident that Trump
was about to be re elected in that last drop.
That would fit in with the Q and On plan
that's been touted for three years now, and according to
all Q and On before the election, it would be
(02:56):
a Trump landslide. They were absolutely certain of that from
the videos, all the messages that I watched. They effectively
knew in their bones that it would be a big
Trump victory. When he lost, they first took on Trump's
line that the Democrats were cheating, it was unfair, and
then they began to absorb the catastrophe for them, at
(03:17):
least into part of queues plan. To give you an
idea of the ups and downs for the Q and
On followers this last week, and to expand on that
a little bit more, let me read you some of
the stuff they've been saying online. Here, a user called
Carry asks why is Q so silent, because obviously Q
(03:39):
hasn't posted any drops since November three, And then one
user confidently reassures Carry, saying because he's busy taking part
in the plan. Have faith. Here's another user, he says,
the quicker. They call it the quicker. We can expose it,
do not fear if they call for Biden trust the
plan and then as dorm emoji. And then a reply
(04:02):
to this says, Joe has to win dark to light.
So this whole dark to light idea is that Biden, now,
this is what they're saying, has to get in for
the dark to take place, and then for the light
of Q and on and Trump to sweep in and
put everything right. Here's another post. This guy is really
starting to lose faith, he says, So you're ready to
(04:24):
give up and just admit that this is now Venezuela.
We've been duped by the whole que thing. By the way,
the reference to Venezuela is because they somehow believe that
hardcore neoliberal democrats are the same as communists. It's very weird.
But yeah, So they're trying to say that the US
is now becoming Venezuela because Democrats have taken over. To
(04:45):
this guy, users respond, we are at the peak of
the seventeen Intelligence Plan. Keep calm, it's all under control.
The original poster says, I'm thinking we've been played. Someone
else replies, no, we are now watching this movie National Treasure.
Think Lemon's enjoy the show, and then the original poster says,
(05:08):
I don't even know what that means. Man, Yeah, neither
do I mate. This guy is clearly deflated and he's
come to the realization that the Plan Acques plan is
never gonna happen. This final message, though, for me, says
it all. It tells you about the huge crisis of
faith Q and ons are having right now. It's from
(05:30):
a user called Joe m. He says, day five of
the quote necessary Scare event is here. I am in
the unexpected place of having to talk patriots off the
ledge who were rock solid until November three. Even as
I celebrate Trump's win while marveling at the surprise twist
and the greatest story told in two thousand years, there
(05:51):
are still many who were so shocked at seeing the
world's president elect Biden that they've forgotten everything they have learned. Well,
I haven't. I read every queue drop in real time.
I watched the deltas, the extreme shifts in standard deviation,
and the hundreds of undeniable proofs that are told of
a military grade plan that was so sophisticated it would
(06:13):
make your head spin. And tell me that again, Um,
I am comfortable and at peace because I know how
to stick to the constants. Biden and the deep state
machine behind him are going to be brought down before January.
Trump will show he won almost every state, if not all,
and Patriots are going to keep on all caps lock here, winning, winning, winning,
(06:38):
That is a mathematical certainty. More caps lock, stay strong,
and let's finish this so you can see this guy
is extremely certain. Let's see what happens on a January.
That's when he thinks Trump was sweeping and take everybody out.
Now many of them are desperate, clearly. And whilst that's
(06:58):
kind of funny, can a doing the horrific vitriol and
calls to violence from Q and ons over the last
three years, It must actually be quite terrifying for them.
It's essentially for them discovering that the cult you were
following is just that a cult. Either that or people
think that Q is somehow being attacked and defeated. These ideas,
(07:22):
like I said, they're kind of funny, but actually they
can create seriously dangerous consequences. Something we've got a glimpse
of this last week on November five, two armed men
with a Q and on sticker on their Humvy, were
arrested near the Philadelphia Convention Center, where an ongoing vote
(07:42):
count was taking place. The police have been given a
tip off that they were on their way to the
convention Center for what. We don't know yet. Many speculate
that it could have been a planned attack, but again
we're not actually sure yet. The men have been charged
with carrying a concealed firearm without a license and carrying
(08:03):
a firearm on public streets or public property. At least
one of the men, a man named Antonio LaMotta, is
confirmed from his online history to be an ardem Q
and ON supporter. Before that, he was a big support
of the Anonymous Movement, a much less dangerous quasi hacker
group you might remember from the old days of four
(08:24):
chant Now. When police apprehended Lama, he had a nine
millimeter Barretta in his holster. The other man arrested, a
man named Joshua Massius, was found with a forty caliber
Barretta inside his jacket. Inside the Humvey, and assault rifle
and ammunition were found. Police also found a Q and
(08:47):
ON hat. Now, an attack was possibly averted here. We
won't know until police investigations are completed and I'm not
going to speculate on what these guys were actually lee
up to. I've seen Q and say that they were
just going to defend democracy by standing outside this center,
but again, no one actually knows yet. I'm sure we'll
(09:08):
find out eventually. Now, due to this recent chaos in
the Q and on world, especially the attack, especially the
seeming breakdowns of some of them online, I wanted to
have a genuine Q and On follower onto the show
to at least hear their side of things. And now
I know you've been thinking, Jake, are you mad? And look,
(09:28):
I don't believe in giving credence to outlandish conspiracy theories.
Absolutely not. That's why I'm making this whole series to say,
this is why Q and On is a scam, and
here's who's behind it. But I do think we'd all
benefit from having a semi normal conversation about all of
this chaos and anger that is sprouting from Q and
on and the election right now. Now, I don't necessarily
(09:56):
believe in my platform in so I reached out to
some of the big gets que and On accounts out there.
I was hoping to have some kind of debate with
him as I just said, and I don't know. Maybe
I'm naive, but I thought it was possible. Turns out
not one of them even replied to me, let alone
even agreed to come on to q clearance. At least
(10:16):
a few of them, I know, definitely saw my messages
as well, so they can't say, oh, we didn't know
about it. They saw it. So instead I managed to
speak to a guy who's more of a q and
On follower rather than one of the big names in
the movement. He's a young guy from Texas. His name
is Brett, and he's been interested in que and On
from the start. But he said to me that he's
(10:38):
now having some serious doubts. He seems to be jumping
back and forth between is Trump gonna swoop in? And
obviously qun On was a hoax. I don't think he
quite knows what he thinks yet, but he's definitely on
shaky ground when it comes to his que and On beliefs. Now,
Whilst I feel that Brett was a bit lost in
his ideology and leaning too heavily into conspiracy theories, of course,
(11:01):
I don't think Brett is a bad guy. He didn't
seem like a bad guy. I just think sadly he's
gotten caught up in the Q and on a universe
a little bit too much. In fact, he even said
himself that some of them were kind of acting authoritarian
when he questioned anything. I'm going to just let this
conversation one for a bit, as I think it's quite
illuminating to hear from a Q and on follower firsthand.
(11:26):
So have a listen to this. Um so, So maybe firstly,
just explained to me when you first heard about Q,
and I guess your initial reaction to it probably late
twent seventeen, if I were to guess, I feel like
I remember hearing about it like online, like this person
(11:46):
Q is doing drops or whatever as a secret government whatever,
and it's a secret to military coup or something. I
was skeptical at first, of course, as everyone should be,
and then I kind of looked into it, and I
had an app on my phone that gives you the
Q drops, and towards the beginning I believed it more
(12:10):
just because it seemed more legit, like I think it
was on four chan at that time. It seemed a
little more legit. And then as times went on, like
the drops got a little bit more confusing and not
as like clear cut. So when when you first saw
que and you started reading the drops, what was it
(12:31):
that made you think like, wow, okay, maybe this is legit. Well, first,
the like the proofs of like how it's how it
was always kind of like with a Trump tweet. So
it would be like the Trump tweet, and then like
either right before or right after or almost right on,
it would be a Q drop. So that would be
kind of like my, oh, that's kind of interesting because
(12:55):
you know they could be in the same room, like
here type the tweet boom at the same time. Let's
just there is second because I think it's worth pointing
out that this can actually be done with bots. You
can set up a bot to put the posts out
at the same time as a Trump tweet, or simply
it can be a coincidence. There are hundreds of Q drops,
(13:16):
and a few of them line up with just after,
just before, on the same time as Trump tweets. Trump
tweets very regularly. Que drops came very regularly. It's not
that big of a stretch that these two things would
happen to coincide. Anyway, Let's move on with the interview.
So that's when I was kind of like it could
(13:37):
be yeah, Um, and when the thing that I always
wanted though, right, so the first ever Q drop, right
like Q said, We're going to arrest Hillary Clinton and
then it didn't happen. I mean, what, how would you
explain that in your head? If you know what I mean,
I can't. Honestly, I still don't understand why within like
(13:59):
a couple of years that she and a bunch of
people have been haven't been arrested or at least tried.
I think she went to court a few months ago,
but nothing really came out of that. So it's it
just feels like more of a Trump propaganda thing to
me now that it's more just to keep his most
(14:19):
like really fanatic loyal people kind of calm down or
docile would be the word I would use to not
you know, maybe be as violent as they might be
in the future or might be planning. Because I really
as as someone who lives in Texas and around a
(14:42):
lot of guns, Like literally, um, what you just heard
then was Brett turning around on picking up on a
soult rifle to show me on the webcom as we
spoke on Zoom. There's a lot of people that really
want a silver war right now and and probably might
come to that actually, so it could be just the
(15:04):
thing to start uh civil war. Honestly, you think like
you could provoke something like that. Yeah, yeah, how come
you know, there's just been so much like propaganda from
every other country, like China. China does the same thing.
They they make everyone scared two and they telling each
other for doing the wrong thing if the the CCP
(15:27):
doesn't want you to do, you know, talking about the
government with the like Muslim camps and stuff. It's it's
kind of the same thing because once you once you
start questioning like C then like Q supporters are like,
why are you questioning the plan? You should be trusting
the plan or you know a cute you know, blah blah,
And then it's like it's kind of turning into almost
(15:49):
like a religion in a way, like a cult. Yeah,
coult that too. Yeah, it's like they've become authoritarian, right
because if you say, hang on, this is kind of weird,
then they go quite easy. Like in seeing people at
like Trump rallies and stuff wearing like Q shirts and
like bring up Q signs and stuff, and Trump like
port pointing to it. It's also kind of weird because
(16:09):
it's like he's kind of reaffirming that that it might
be a thing, but like, you don't, no one really knows.
All you can do is take the straws and try
to connect them. So when you thought it, like you know,
a question and what kind of things would you say
to that to the community. There's a channel called Edge
of Wonder. I think they got banned off YouTube a
(16:29):
few weeks ago and is from Robin Ben and they
they made a lot of videos on like q Q
drops and stuff, and that also got me like really
kind of like, oh, this could be really a thing,
and they kind of aligned everything up. But since they've
gotten banned, they have their own platform, and it's like,
I don't want to pay for once you start trying
(16:52):
to sell people on stuff and trying to make money
like monetarily, it's weird if it's sketchy for me, because
it's like you might just be doing this for money
to get these fanatic people or like possibly schizophrenic or
mental illness people to like you know, like pay their
hard earned money to like keep falling into the trap
(17:13):
that or believing that something might happen. Hillary Clinton's gonna
get taken down, the whole corrupt government gonna get swiped out.
But right if it was like a grift, almost, yeah,
I would have I would have been probably more full
force if like Hillary got arrested, you know, just more movement,
like actually draining the swamp. Within a decent amount of time,
(17:36):
nothing has happened. Actually, Like if you look at what
Q has said, I don't know, maybe you've seen well
I haven't seen anything actually come true of you, mm hmmm,
not that I can remember. Like during like the coronavirus
and stuff. That's when like the crackdown was or supposedly starting,
so that like I remember this when it started, They're like, oh,
(17:57):
this is gonna give him enough time for long. Werest
meant to go in and start resting people and start
taking things down. And it's like, really, nothing really happened.
What point did you start doubting Q thinking might be
not probably like pretty soon after the election, and like,
really nothing happened where I was like, something big has
(18:18):
to happen eventually, Like I don't know, maybe it's all
a part of the plan. Maybe they waited till election
and it's all part of the plan for them to
like let the Democrats try and steal the election and
use that as like their way to like show like
how you know, fraudulent these people are. But it's again
(18:38):
like maybe that's the propaganda speaking and it's just like
it's kind of like believing God instead of trying to
comprehend that maybe maybe there isn't a God, or maybe
it's a different type of God or right. Well, but
in the sense of Q, it's like the equivalent would be, well, actually,
maybe Q is just someone winding us up. Yeah, that too.
(18:58):
It's like at that point you have to listen to
Ocams Razor and kind of be like, you know, something's
going on here, you know, there might be you know,
it's all I think it's all just the war for
people's minds at this point, I just want to go
back to what you said about Q. So, now, obviously,
like you just said, Biden has been elected. Um, the
(19:20):
Q and on people are saying, now that actually is
all part of the plan. Still, they're saying, oh, they
Q allowed Biden to be elected, because when the storm
comes and we finally kicked them out, it's going to
be an even even bigger shock to the liberals. What
do you think about that? I kind of really again,
(19:43):
I really wanted to happen because I really hate these
people these correct what I mean, come on, you think
that's you really think the qu is gonna come in
sweeping at the last minute. I don't know. It could
it could be all part of the plan, but it
could just be the propaganda making me believe that, you know,
right right, and just keeping like okay, you know, like
I'm just gonna accept this, but we're gonna keep going.
(20:05):
They're gonna keep going. They're gonna keep working on this.
And like people are now saying or like, um, there
was a post on there where like uh, they're explaining
how this is a whole sting operation, like they let
the Democrats steal steal the election, like in a very
obviously way with the ballots that are all tracked, they're
all like barcoded or whatever, and they're just gonna they're
(20:28):
all going in or like the National Guard is in
twelve states or something. Now it's like I don't know
how legit that is. I can't verify it myself. I mean,
i'd have to see a video or pictures or someone
like showing these National Guard people, but I don't know,
I doubt it they will have this right they're saying
it is if it's a fact that like the National
(20:51):
Guard already it's all put the plan, But like, what
is that based on. I've been you know, as a
podcast I'm doing, I've been constantly researching, cuing on stuff,
and you know, there is nothing. It's just people saying stuff,
which it kind of has been the whole time. You know,
it's like, well, where is the evidence exactly? And that's
what I want. I just want good hearted evidence of
(21:12):
something happening. And if that was Hillary Clinton getting arrested
or John Podesta or well, I mean Epstein got arrested,
we all know that ended up. And then now Maxwell
is That's the thing is no one really knows except
for the people that have the Q clear clearance. And
you're like maybe, in like the first couple of years,
(21:33):
I would be like, okay, you know, like I it's
it's something interesting, it's something to think about. But now
it's like I don't know anymore. Well, here's here's one thing. Like,
as we're touching on the kind of child abuse element,
which is obviously a big part of Q and on
This is something I've always wanted to ask, Like, you know,
someone has believed in Q or does his Q, and
(21:54):
I'm curious, Um, why why is it? Do you think? Then?
You know Q was completely again child trafficking, completely against
petophilia obviously, as any normal human being with a with
a soul should be. However, Q was posting on a
chan right, all of his jobs were on h chan. Well,
child pornography is shared on h chan. I mean why
(22:17):
would Q use that platform? That's a good point, Like
I there's no reason for it except for like, we're
just gonna use whatever board we want it. I mean,
they could have literally set up their own website, right,
If this guy's got a Q clearance, he should surely
be tech savvy and off to set up a website exactly.
(22:39):
It's like, just make your own website and then it
can be however secure you can have people posting I
don't know, from what I've seen, UM with a lot
of believers want it to be real, and I think
a lot of them know it isn't now, but they
wanted to be real and they can't quite let it go,
you know. Yeah, After speaking with Brett, I think it's
(23:00):
clear that he's not a hard core Q and On
supporter anymore. Even so, for three years of his life
he believed in some very far out conspiracy theories, and
in many ways he still does. But he has been
lucky enough to crawl out the other side of the
Q and On universe. For many, though, they're still clutching
(23:22):
on for dear life. As we heard at the start
of the episode, I think part of the grip of
Q and On is the followers trying to find some
kind of meaning, some kind of community that's bigger than
themselves in a world that otherwise doesn't make sense to them.
That and a pathological devotion to a reality TV businessman
(23:43):
turned US President and an anonymous leader called Q. Ultimately, though,
I think Trump is the cold leader by proxy and
Q is the spokesman. Whilst it's easy to laugh at
the Q and Ons, as admittedly I have many times,
it's also worth trying to understand how they all fell
(24:05):
for this for so long. Hopefully, in the last three
episodes of Q, Clearance will make that even easier for
people like Brett who are losing their faith in Q.
Next episode, as planned previously, will dig deep into the
(24:25):
Watkins family, showing how they stole the famous two channel website,
how they took over H and and why I think
they know more about Q than they're letting on. Q
Clearance is brought to you by I Heart Radio and
CO Day to our media, I'm Jake Hanrahan. You can
find me online at Jake Underscore Hand Rahan. That's h
(24:47):
a N A h A N. This episode was produced
by myself with fact checking by Sarah Hightower. The music
is by Sam Black and the soundlow was were mixed
by Thomas Griffin at Splicing Block m
Q and On is the world's largest online political conspiracy movement.
Followers believe someone code named Q is provided them with
secret information from inside the White House. No one really
knows the real identity of Q, though we aim to
change that. I'm Jake Hanrahan and this is Q Clearance,
a podcast series aimed unmasking the true identity of Q.
(00:24):
This is brought to you by I R Radio and
CO Data Media. At the end of the last episode,
I said, we'll be taking a deep dive into the
Watkins family next. The people currently run a h chan.
But then the roller coaster US election happened, and as
(00:45):
we know by now, Joe Biden has one Trump is
claiming he cheated and he won't leave, and the whole
world is sat on the edge of their seat watching.
For regular Trump supporters, the election has been a disaster,
but for Q and On it's been even worse. It's
been a day of historic reckoning. None of them saw coming.
(01:06):
So instead, in this episode, we're going to be looking
at the extreme reaction Q and On's have had to
Biden winning the election. It will give you an idea
just how indoctrinated with Qu's plan many of them are
will also be speaking to someone who has believed in
Q but is now having second thoughts on who's actually
behind it all. So within the Q and On universe,
(01:30):
there's a big mix of different reactions to the election
right now. I've been looking over a lot of them
in the last few days, and they range from complete
hysteria and shock to a kind of calm just follow
the planned delusion. Some have realized Q is fake, whilst
others have only doubled down on their beliefs. It's been
(01:51):
wild online, but it's also getting a bit sketchy away
from the keyboard, because one Q and On follower maybe
to turn outside a polling station with a rifle and
a handgun. We'll get onto that in a minute, but
first let's look at the last time Q himself posted.
(02:12):
So the last Q drop was November three, the day
of the election. In the Q drop, it's mostly just
a quote from Abraham Lincoln. It reads as following quote,
This nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people, by the people, for
the people shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln,
(02:34):
November eighteen sixty three. Together we win Q end quote now, naturally,
it sounds as if Q was very confident that Trump
was about to be re elected in that last drop.
That would fit in with the Q and On plan
that's been touted for three years now, and according to
all Q and On before the election, it would be
(02:56):
a Trump landslide. They were absolutely certain of that from
the videos, all the messages that I watched. They effectively
knew in their bones that it would be a big
Trump victory. When he lost, they first took on Trump's
line that the Democrats were cheating, it was unfair, and
then they began to absorb the catastrophe for them, at
(03:17):
least into part of queues plan. To give you an
idea of the ups and downs for the Q and
On followers this last week, and to expand on that
a little bit more, let me read you some of
the stuff they've been saying online. Here, a user called
Carry asks why is Q so silent, because obviously Q
(03:39):
hasn't posted any drops since November three, And then one
user confidently reassures Carry, saying because he's busy taking part
in the plan. Have faith. Here's another user, he says,
the quicker. They call it the quicker. We can expose it,
do not fear if they call for Biden trust the
plan and then as dorm emoji. And then a reply
(04:02):
to this says, Joe has to win dark to light.
So this whole dark to light idea is that Biden, now,
this is what they're saying, has to get in for
the dark to take place, and then for the light
of Q and on and Trump to sweep in and
put everything right. Here's another post. This guy is really
starting to lose faith, he says, So you're ready to
(04:24):
give up and just admit that this is now Venezuela.
We've been duped by the whole que thing. By the way,
the reference to Venezuela is because they somehow believe that
hardcore neoliberal democrats are the same as communists. It's very weird.
But yeah, So they're trying to say that the US
is now becoming Venezuela because Democrats have taken over. To
(04:45):
this guy, users respond, we are at the peak of
the seventeen Intelligence Plan. Keep calm, it's all under control.
The original poster says, I'm thinking we've been played. Someone
else replies, no, we are now watching this movie National Treasure.
Think Lemon's enjoy the show, and then the original poster says,
(05:08):
I don't even know what that means. Man, Yeah, neither
do I mate. This guy is clearly deflated and he's
come to the realization that the Plan Acques plan is
never gonna happen. This final message, though, for me, says
it all. It tells you about the huge crisis of
faith Q and ons are having right now. It's from
(05:30):
a user called Joe m. He says, day five of
the quote necessary Scare event is here. I am in
the unexpected place of having to talk patriots off the
ledge who were rock solid until November three. Even as
I celebrate Trump's win while marveling at the surprise twist
and the greatest story told in two thousand years, there
(05:51):
are still many who were so shocked at seeing the
world's president elect Biden that they've forgotten everything they have learned. Well,
I haven't. I read every queue drop in real time.
I watched the deltas, the extreme shifts in standard deviation,
and the hundreds of undeniable proofs that are told of
a military grade plan that was so sophisticated it would
(06:13):
make your head spin. And tell me that again, Um,
I am comfortable and at peace because I know how
to stick to the constants. Biden and the deep state
machine behind him are going to be brought down before January.
Trump will show he won almost every state, if not all,
and Patriots are going to keep on all caps lock here, winning, winning, winning,
(06:38):
That is a mathematical certainty. More caps lock, stay strong,
and let's finish this so you can see this guy
is extremely certain. Let's see what happens on a January.
That's when he thinks Trump was sweeping and take everybody out.
Now many of them are desperate, clearly. And whilst that's
(06:58):
kind of funny, can a doing the horrific vitriol and
calls to violence from Q and ons over the last
three years, It must actually be quite terrifying for them.
It's essentially for them discovering that the cult you were
following is just that a cult. Either that or people
think that Q is somehow being attacked and defeated. These ideas,
(07:22):
like I said, they're kind of funny, but actually they
can create seriously dangerous consequences. Something we've got a glimpse
of this last week on November five, two armed men
with a Q and on sticker on their Humvy, were
arrested near the Philadelphia Convention Center, where an ongoing vote
(07:42):
count was taking place. The police have been given a
tip off that they were on their way to the
convention Center for what. We don't know yet. Many speculate
that it could have been a planned attack, but again
we're not actually sure yet. The men have been charged
with carrying a concealed firearm without a license and carrying
(08:03):
a firearm on public streets or public property. At least
one of the men, a man named Antonio LaMotta, is
confirmed from his online history to be an ardem Q
and ON supporter. Before that, he was a big support
of the Anonymous Movement, a much less dangerous quasi hacker
group you might remember from the old days of four
(08:24):
chant Now. When police apprehended Lama, he had a nine
millimeter Barretta in his holster. The other man arrested, a
man named Joshua Massius, was found with a forty caliber
Barretta inside his jacket. Inside the Humvey, and assault rifle
and ammunition were found. Police also found a Q and
(08:47):
ON hat. Now, an attack was possibly averted here. We
won't know until police investigations are completed and I'm not
going to speculate on what these guys were actually lee
up to. I've seen Q and say that they were
just going to defend democracy by standing outside this center,
but again, no one actually knows yet. I'm sure we'll
(09:08):
find out eventually. Now, due to this recent chaos in
the Q and on world, especially the attack, especially the
seeming breakdowns of some of them online, I wanted to
have a genuine Q and On follower onto the show
to at least hear their side of things. And now
I know you've been thinking, Jake, are you mad? And look,
(09:28):
I don't believe in giving credence to outlandish conspiracy theories.
Absolutely not. That's why I'm making this whole series to say,
this is why Q and On is a scam, and
here's who's behind it. But I do think we'd all
benefit from having a semi normal conversation about all of
this chaos and anger that is sprouting from Q and
on and the election right now. Now, I don't necessarily
(09:56):
believe in my platform in so I reached out to
some of the big gets que and On accounts out there.
I was hoping to have some kind of debate with
him as I just said, and I don't know. Maybe
I'm naive, but I thought it was possible. Turns out
not one of them even replied to me, let alone
even agreed to come on to q clearance. At least
(10:16):
a few of them, I know, definitely saw my messages
as well, so they can't say, oh, we didn't know
about it. They saw it. So instead I managed to
speak to a guy who's more of a q and
On follower rather than one of the big names in
the movement. He's a young guy from Texas. His name
is Brett, and he's been interested in que and On
from the start. But he said to me that he's
(10:38):
now having some serious doubts. He seems to be jumping
back and forth between is Trump gonna swoop in? And
obviously qun On was a hoax. I don't think he
quite knows what he thinks yet, but he's definitely on
shaky ground when it comes to his que and On beliefs. Now,
Whilst I feel that Brett was a bit lost in
his ideology and leaning too heavily into conspiracy theories, of course,
(11:01):
I don't think Brett is a bad guy. He didn't
seem like a bad guy. I just think sadly he's
gotten caught up in the Q and on a universe
a little bit too much. In fact, he even said
himself that some of them were kind of acting authoritarian
when he questioned anything. I'm going to just let this
conversation one for a bit, as I think it's quite
illuminating to hear from a Q and on follower firsthand.
(11:26):
So have a listen to this. Um so, So maybe firstly,
just explained to me when you first heard about Q,
and I guess your initial reaction to it probably late
twent seventeen, if I were to guess, I feel like
I remember hearing about it like online, like this person
(11:46):
Q is doing drops or whatever as a secret government whatever,
and it's a secret to military coup or something. I
was skeptical at first, of course, as everyone should be,
and then I kind of looked into it, and I
had an app on my phone that gives you the
Q drops, and towards the beginning I believed it more
(12:10):
just because it seemed more legit, like I think it
was on four chan at that time. It seemed a
little more legit. And then as times went on, like
the drops got a little bit more confusing and not
as like clear cut. So when when you first saw
que and you started reading the drops, what was it
(12:31):
that made you think like, wow, okay, maybe this is legit. Well, first,
the like the proofs of like how it's how it
was always kind of like with a Trump tweet. So
it would be like the Trump tweet, and then like
either right before or right after or almost right on,
it would be a Q drop. So that would be
kind of like my, oh, that's kind of interesting because
(12:55):
you know they could be in the same room, like
here type the tweet boom at the same time. Let's
just there is second because I think it's worth pointing
out that this can actually be done with bots. You
can set up a bot to put the posts out
at the same time as a Trump tweet, or simply
it can be a coincidence. There are hundreds of Q drops,
(13:16):
and a few of them line up with just after,
just before, on the same time as Trump tweets. Trump
tweets very regularly. Que drops came very regularly. It's not
that big of a stretch that these two things would
happen to coincide. Anyway, Let's move on with the interview.
So that's when I was kind of like it could
(13:37):
be yeah, Um, and when the thing that I always
wanted though, right, so the first ever Q drop, right
like Q said, We're going to arrest Hillary Clinton and
then it didn't happen. I mean, what, how would you
explain that in your head? If you know what I mean,
I can't. Honestly, I still don't understand why within like
(13:59):
a couple of years that she and a bunch of
people have been haven't been arrested or at least tried.
I think she went to court a few months ago,
but nothing really came out of that. So it's it
just feels like more of a Trump propaganda thing to
me now that it's more just to keep his most
(14:19):
like really fanatic loyal people kind of calm down or
docile would be the word I would use to not
you know, maybe be as violent as they might be
in the future or might be planning. Because I really
as as someone who lives in Texas and around a
(14:42):
lot of guns, Like literally, um, what you just heard
then was Brett turning around on picking up on a
soult rifle to show me on the webcom as we
spoke on Zoom. There's a lot of people that really
want a silver war right now and and probably might
come to that actually, so it could be just the
(15:04):
thing to start uh civil war. Honestly, you think like
you could provoke something like that. Yeah, yeah, how come
you know, there's just been so much like propaganda from
every other country, like China. China does the same thing.
They they make everyone scared two and they telling each
other for doing the wrong thing if the the CCP
(15:27):
doesn't want you to do, you know, talking about the
government with the like Muslim camps and stuff. It's it's
kind of the same thing because once you once you
start questioning like C then like Q supporters are like,
why are you questioning the plan? You should be trusting
the plan or you know a cute you know, blah blah,
And then it's like it's kind of turning into almost
(15:49):
like a religion in a way, like a cult. Yeah,
coult that too. Yeah, it's like they've become authoritarian, right
because if you say, hang on, this is kind of weird,
then they go quite easy. Like in seeing people at
like Trump rallies and stuff wearing like Q shirts and
like bring up Q signs and stuff, and Trump like
port pointing to it. It's also kind of weird because
(16:09):
it's like he's kind of reaffirming that that it might
be a thing, but like, you don't, no one really knows.
All you can do is take the straws and try
to connect them. So when you thought it, like you know,
a question and what kind of things would you say
to that to the community. There's a channel called Edge
of Wonder. I think they got banned off YouTube a
(16:29):
few weeks ago and is from Robin Ben and they
they made a lot of videos on like q Q
drops and stuff, and that also got me like really
kind of like, oh, this could be really a thing,
and they kind of aligned everything up. But since they've
gotten banned, they have their own platform, and it's like,
I don't want to pay for once you start trying
(16:52):
to sell people on stuff and trying to make money
like monetarily, it's weird if it's sketchy for me, because
it's like you might just be doing this for money
to get these fanatic people or like possibly schizophrenic or
mental illness people to like you know, like pay their
hard earned money to like keep falling into the trap
(17:13):
that or believing that something might happen. Hillary Clinton's gonna
get taken down, the whole corrupt government gonna get swiped out.
But right if it was like a grift, almost, yeah,
I would have I would have been probably more full
force if like Hillary got arrested, you know, just more movement,
like actually draining the swamp. Within a decent amount of time,
(17:36):
nothing has happened. Actually, Like if you look at what
Q has said, I don't know, maybe you've seen well
I haven't seen anything actually come true of you, mm hmmm,
not that I can remember. Like during like the coronavirus
and stuff. That's when like the crackdown was or supposedly starting,
so that like I remember this when it started, They're like, oh,
(17:57):
this is gonna give him enough time for long. Werest
meant to go in and start resting people and start
taking things down. And it's like, really, nothing really happened.
What point did you start doubting Q thinking might be
not probably like pretty soon after the election, and like,
really nothing happened where I was like, something big has
(18:18):
to happen eventually, Like I don't know, maybe it's all
a part of the plan. Maybe they waited till election
and it's all part of the plan for them to
like let the Democrats try and steal the election and
use that as like their way to like show like
how you know, fraudulent these people are. But it's again
(18:38):
like maybe that's the propaganda speaking and it's just like
it's kind of like believing God instead of trying to
comprehend that maybe maybe there isn't a God, or maybe
it's a different type of God or right. Well, but
in the sense of Q, it's like the equivalent would be, well, actually,
maybe Q is just someone winding us up. Yeah, that too.
(18:58):
It's like at that point you have to listen to
Ocams Razor and kind of be like, you know, something's
going on here, you know, there might be you know,
it's all I think it's all just the war for
people's minds at this point, I just want to go
back to what you said about Q. So, now, obviously,
like you just said, Biden has been elected. Um, the
(19:20):
Q and on people are saying, now that actually is
all part of the plan. Still, they're saying, oh, they
Q allowed Biden to be elected, because when the storm
comes and we finally kicked them out, it's going to
be an even even bigger shock to the liberals. What
do you think about that? I kind of really again,
(19:43):
I really wanted to happen because I really hate these
people these correct what I mean, come on, you think
that's you really think the qu is gonna come in
sweeping at the last minute. I don't know. It could
it could be all part of the plan, but it
could just be the propaganda making me believe that, you know,
right right, and just keeping like okay, you know, like
I'm just gonna accept this, but we're gonna keep going.
(20:05):
They're gonna keep going. They're gonna keep working on this.
And like people are now saying or like, um, there
was a post on there where like uh, they're explaining
how this is a whole sting operation, like they let
the Democrats steal steal the election, like in a very
obviously way with the ballots that are all tracked, they're
all like barcoded or whatever, and they're just gonna they're
(20:28):
all going in or like the National Guard is in
twelve states or something. Now it's like I don't know
how legit that is. I can't verify it myself. I mean,
i'd have to see a video or pictures or someone
like showing these National Guard people, but I don't know,
I doubt it they will have this right they're saying
it is if it's a fact that like the National
(20:51):
Guard already it's all put the plan, But like, what
is that based on. I've been you know, as a
podcast I'm doing, I've been constantly researching, cuing on stuff,
and you know, there is nothing. It's just people saying stuff,
which it kind of has been the whole time. You know,
it's like, well, where is the evidence exactly? And that's
what I want. I just want good hearted evidence of
(21:12):
something happening. And if that was Hillary Clinton getting arrested
or John Podesta or well, I mean Epstein got arrested,
we all know that ended up. And then now Maxwell
is That's the thing is no one really knows except
for the people that have the Q clear clearance. And
you're like maybe, in like the first couple of years,
(21:33):
I would be like, okay, you know, like I it's
it's something interesting, it's something to think about. But now
it's like I don't know anymore. Well, here's here's one thing. Like,
as we're touching on the kind of child abuse element,
which is obviously a big part of Q and on
This is something I've always wanted to ask, Like, you know,
someone has believed in Q or does his Q, and
(21:54):
I'm curious, Um, why why is it? Do you think? Then?
You know Q was completely again child trafficking, completely against
petophilia obviously, as any normal human being with a with
a soul should be. However, Q was posting on a
chan right, all of his jobs were on h chan. Well,
child pornography is shared on h chan. I mean why
(22:17):
would Q use that platform? That's a good point, Like
I there's no reason for it except for like, we're
just gonna use whatever board we want it. I mean,
they could have literally set up their own website, right,
If this guy's got a Q clearance, he should surely
be tech savvy and off to set up a website exactly.
(22:39):
It's like, just make your own website and then it
can be however secure you can have people posting I
don't know, from what I've seen, UM with a lot
of believers want it to be real, and I think
a lot of them know it isn't now, but they
wanted to be real and they can't quite let it go,
you know. Yeah, After speaking with Brett, I think it's
(23:00):
clear that he's not a hard core Q and On
supporter anymore. Even so, for three years of his life
he believed in some very far out conspiracy theories, and
in many ways he still does. But he has been
lucky enough to crawl out the other side of the
Q and On universe. For many, though, they're still clutching
(23:22):
on for dear life. As we heard at the start
of the episode, I think part of the grip of
Q and On is the followers trying to find some
kind of meaning, some kind of community that's bigger than
themselves in a world that otherwise doesn't make sense to them.
That and a pathological devotion to a reality TV businessman
(23:43):
turned US President and an anonymous leader called Q. Ultimately, though,
I think Trump is the cold leader by proxy and
Q is the spokesman. Whilst it's easy to laugh at
the Q and Ons, as admittedly I have many times,
it's also worth trying to understand how they all fell
(24:05):
for this for so long. Hopefully, in the last three
episodes of Q, Clearance will make that even easier for
people like Brett who are losing their faith in Q.
Next episode, as planned previously, will dig deep into the
(24:25):
Watkins family, showing how they stole the famous two channel website,
how they took over H and and why I think
they know more about Q than they're letting on. Q
Clearance is brought to you by I Heart Radio and
CO Day to our media, I'm Jake Hanrahan. You can
find me online at Jake Underscore Hand Rahan. That's h
(24:47):
a N A h A N. This episode was produced
by myself with fact checking by Sarah Hightower. The music
is by Sam Black and the soundlow was were mixed
by Thomas Griffin at Splicing Block m
Host
Jake Hanrahan
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