WEBVTT - Entering the QAnon Universe 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.640 Q and On is the world's largest online political conspiracy movement. 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.240 Followers believe someone code named Q is provided them with 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:12.000 secret information from inside the White House. No one really 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.920 knows the real identity of Q, though we aim to 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:20.000 change that. I'm Jake Hanrahan and this is Q Clearance, 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.919 a podcast series aimed unmasking the true identity of Q. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.760 This is brought to you by I R Radio and 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:33.200 Q Dayta Media. In this first episode, will be getting 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:35.600 to grips with what Q and On is for those 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.120 that don't know, looking into the history of this strange movement, 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.640 and hearing from some of the main researchers involved in 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:52.560 trying to dismantle Q and On. On juneen, a man 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.160 blocked a bridge near the Hoover Dam with a homemade 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.360 armored vehicle. Inside. The man held firearms and nine hundred 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.440 rounds about nisition So now in FBI custody tonight after 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.679 blocking traffic on the Hoover damn bypassed bridge with a truck, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.600 Arizona troopers say Right had a handgun and rifle inside 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.200 the truck and a note that read released the o 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.399 I G Report. According to police, he did this as 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.640 a protest, demanding that a report he'd heard about via 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:25.200 an online conspiracy be released to the public. This conspiracy 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:30.200 theory started in October. That's when someone calling themselves Q 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.480 Clearance Patriot first wrote a public message on the notorious 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.800 for Chan website. The original poster, now known as Q, 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.680 inferred that they were a US government insider with knowledge 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.840 that would expose a deep state conspiracy within American politics. 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.120 This spawned what is now the Q and On phenomena, 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.680 the conspiracy theory so complex that it's formed a cult 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.440 like following. Many of its followers think Q is associated 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.520 with Donald Trump and that he's cryptically community cating with 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.040 them via obscule image boards online. Hundreds of thousands of 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.480 people across the world believe in this now, and as 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.640 a result, Q and On has torn families apart, led 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.200 people to violence, and it's even infiltrating the highest levels 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:20.040 of government with disinformation. Now, more than seventy U S 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:24.000 congressional candidates of either shared or outright endorsed Q and 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.079 on material, and President Trump himself is even given availed 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.200 thumbs up to the movement. During the pandemic, the Q 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.080 and On movement has been appears to be getting a 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.480 lot of followers. Can you talk about what you think 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.120 about that and what you have to say to people 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.600 who are following this movement right now? Well, I don't 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.120 know much about the movement other than I understand they 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.920 like me very much, which I appreciate. But I don't 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.880 know much about the movement. It's difficult. That's the cross 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.000 of the theory. It is this belief that you are 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:59.040 secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:04.120 and cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.440 or I haven't. I haven't heard that. But is that 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.440 supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.160 If if I can help save the world from As 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.880 I've already mentioned, outside of what the conspiracy community is saying, 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.880 nobody quite knows the true identity of Q. We want 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.280 to change that with this series, so we'll be looking 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.640 into the many different theories surrounding this, such as the 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.120 idea that the Q account has changed hands, that it's 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.880 the left wing hoax, and that it's been a way 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.440 for online grifters simply to make money off of adverts 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.160 on the websites. We're going to get into the intricacies 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.720 of what Q and on is and isn't what the 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.760 followers believe in trying to wrap our heads around the 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.119 confusing Q map, and I'm going to try and attempt 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.280 to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Q and On. Now, 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.000 for me, this is something a little bit different because 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:00.120 primarily I'm what you might call a war report. I've 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.360 spent the last seven years working from various frontline battles 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:09.240 across the world. I've reported from Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Southeast Turkey, Palestine, 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.120 all over the place, and I currently run my own 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:17.040 grassroots conflict journalism platform called popular Front. But as one 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.960 as the war stuff, I've always been very online, spending 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.800 hours and hours on obscure message boards in Internet rabbit 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:29.320 holes and looking into the proliferation of conspiracy theories. I 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.600 know a bit, but I definitely need help with all 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.839 the Q and on stuff, so I've recruited Sarah Hightower 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.159 to assist with research. She's too shy to admit it 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.720 out in the open, but Sarah Hightower is one of 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:45.479 the best researchers of online extremism in America. She's completely 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.200 self taught, and in my opinion, understands Q and On 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.120 better than any of the academics and the welfared extremism 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.799 experts working as talking heads for TV news. She cares 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.400 deeply for the people caught up in this, and after 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.440 years recreationally online in some of the most fringe parts 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.920 of the Internet, Sarah effectively speaks the language fluently as 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.200 I do. She thinks it's incredibly important to shine a 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.080 light on who actually is behind Q and on, whoever 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.120 the hell it is. They've been lying to people, manipulating people, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.760 radicalizing people, and tearing families apart for like two years unchecked, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.640 So I think finding out who it is, who it was, 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.839 and who it has been is very important because there's 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.040 got to be some accountability. She's very eccentric, a bit 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.960 of a web and it's kind of weird, and I 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.040 don't say that in a bad way. I think that's 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:40.039 what makes her so good. Sarah has also seen firsthand 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.080 the effects of Q and On. Early on mid to 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.559 I had a friend of mine her parents stopped talking 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:48.880 to her in real life, so she reached out to 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:50.680 me and she said, Hey, do you think this Q 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:52.279 and on thing is occult? And I was like, what 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.600 are you talking about and she started explaining that like 0:05:55.960 --> 0:06:00.600 her parents had started reading these things called Q drops 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.080 because apparently someone in the government with like a special 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.479 clearance was sending these super secret messages. And she said 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.760 that her parents had stopped talking to her and that 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.360 her stepdad, I think, just spent all of his time 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.159 watching Q tubers. I was like, what is a Q tube? 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.279 And so that's how I learned about it, and then 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:21.920 I tried to help her with her family, and that's 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:23.720 when I was like, oh, this is this is actually 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.160 like a court called, isn't it? And it is so 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.640 clearly we're both critical of Q and on. Sarah thinks 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.000 it's some kind of cult. I think it's a bit 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.080 of a madness. But to give the listeners an idea 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.480 of what direction I'm taking with this investigation, it's worth 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.359 knowing now that I am not a supporter of Hillary Clinton. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.280 I am not a supporter of Donald Trump or any 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:51.320 of the others you've probably noticed British and whilst I'm 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.840 not a particular fan of any politicianal government, I don't 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.440 really have a dog in this race. I am not 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.880 a political but I'm just not are interested in the 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:06.360 shrill partisan politics that have seemingly taken over in the US. 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.160 That's what it looks like over here across the pond. 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.560 Of course, a lot of people say, what do you know, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.480 You're British? Forget about that, don't worry. This is about 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:18.400 the Q and On investigation. Why I am interested in 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.360 is how Q and on grew so huge so quickly, 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.440 and who's actually behind this. This podcast is not trying 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.440 to mark, demonize, or laugh at Q and On believers directly. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:32.880 What we are trying to do is lay out why 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.880 anyone that's involved in Q and On, is Q and 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.240 On curious or has a family member set adrift with 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:44.560 this conspiracy, why they should consider rethinking their positions that 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.119 and to simply report on our findings whilst looking into 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.040 the true identity of Q. We're not going to scream 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.840 at you, tell you're insane or glow, but we are 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.080 going to point out with evidence why we think Q 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.400 and On is a complete hoax. First things first, for 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.040 anyone who's out there still saying, what the funk even 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.080 his Q and On, let's tackle that bit to begin with. Now. Personally, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.960 I would describe T and on as the largest somewhat 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.040 decentralized online conspiracy community on Earth right now. As I 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.040 mentioned at the start, the followers believe that the Donald 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.960 Trump administration will bring upon a new political age where 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:29.000 Democrats are hanged for treason, leftists around it up and imprisoned, 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.160 and a political deep state trying to rule America from 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.880 within will be defeated by Trump and Q. They think 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.439 Q is a high level political operative within the circles 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.840 of the White House. They think that he's chosen image 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:47.479 boards such as four chan and h chan to secretly 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:53.000 relay information about the aforementioned plan to wreck the deep State. Now, 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:57.000 I know that sounds outlandish, but remember hundreds of thousands 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.760 of people across the world believe in this now, and 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.400 big political figures in America have been openly speaking about 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.559 que as if it's a normal thing. The messages that 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.679 Q posts are known as que drops and are often cryptic. 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.040 They predict things that never happened and availed in this 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.760 strange speak of a misdirection. Now, it might sound a 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.640 bit outlandish and kind of strange, but all of this 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.880 was incubated in the world of online image boards. You 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.280 might have heard of them, the chance four chan, h 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.600 and etcetera. Let's scale back a bit to explain what 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.200 these actually are and how they became the battleground for 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:43.240 Q now, I would describe these image boards as, arguably, 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:47.440 for better or worse, the last bastions of the early 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.959 wild West version of the Internet that many of us 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.760 grew up with. I'm thirty years old. I spent a 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.320 lot of time as about fourteen fifteen, even younger on 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.440 the Internet before all the kind of rules came in, 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.719 before social media relatic over, and you know it was, 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.600 it was a much more fun time. Um. But if 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.240 you've never seen one of these image boards before, it's 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.520 kind of an anonymous Internet bulletin board where you can 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.280 chat as well, so users will post up topics based 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.440 on their own interests. Each post needs to be started 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.240 with an image. Replies create a thread which is eventually deleted. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.200 Nothing is archived on the actual image board itself. And 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:31.280 trust me, fortune is big and very influential on Internet culture, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.400 even if you've never heard of it before. With around 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.720 twenty two million unique visitors a month, four chan is 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.280 the most well known and most infamous image board. It 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.200 was first launched in October two thousand and three by 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:49.640 American programmer Christopher Pool, also known as Moot. Moot, ran 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.640 four channel for eleven years before stepping down to go 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.040 work for Google. Fortune began as a place to share 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.720 anime images, and it quickly built its own online culture, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.160 almost indecipherable to people not familiar with it. Many memes, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.800 internet raids, and historic online pranks were founded on the 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.320 boards of four Chan. In recent years, though, four Chan 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.280 became known as a place that incubated the new Old 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.520 Right in the US, it was linked with scandal after scandal, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:24.160 as school shooters, Nazi terrorists, and murderers all began posting 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.400 up on four Chan. Despite this, most of the boards 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.080 are actually completely harmless. For example, there's a board for origami, 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:35.080 there's a board for Pokemon, cooking the i y. It's 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:38.480 all there. It's not all bad. The oddity of the chance, though, 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.679 is that all these running tandem with boards that promote 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:47.439 far right agendas, sexual abuse and anime a porn. Now. 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.400 I know that sounds outlandish, but remember hundreds of thousands 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.319 of people across the world believe in this now, and 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.839 big political figures in America have been openly speaking about 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.479 que as if it's a normal thing. Trump's regular interaction 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.560 with Q and On followers on Twitter is another thing 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.200 that gives them belief that this is all real. For example, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.040 in July, he retweeted fourteen tweets from an account supporting 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.800 Q and On. Now, obviously Trump isn't going to look 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.600 at the bios and the accounts of the people he retweets. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.000 He probably should seem as he's the president, but he 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.920 isn't going to do that. Q and On followers don't 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:27.920 see it as a coincidence. They think it's him saying yeah, 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.400 I'm with you, and that adds more gravity to the 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:40.760 messages that Q puts out online. These messages that Q 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.840 posts are known as Q drops. They predict things that 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.880 never happen and availed in this strange speak of a misdirection. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:52.840 Q and Ons think this is all part of the plan, 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.840 though for d Chess at its most intelligent, oh when. 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.960 There's also a large helping of deep state pedophile theories 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.480 to Q and On, some of which are based in 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:08.640 the truth of Jeffrey Epstein's horrific elitist pedophile crimes, but 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:14.079 most of which are based on complete fantasy and rampant speculation. 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.640 For example, I was watching a prominent Q and on 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.719 YouTuber a while ago, and he said that him and 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.160 many other Q and on followers believe that there's literally 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:28.080 a video of Hillary Clinton executing a child, cutting off 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:32.640 the child's face and wearing it as a mask. Somehow 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.320 such a video is actually never been released to a 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.439 seen yet the Q and on's are adamant that it exists. 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.559 It's deeply disturbing stuff at times. Now, that's my basic 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.480 explanation of Q and on and the various facets to 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.960 what they believe. But let's hear from Travis view. Travis 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.559 is part of Q and on, Anonymous, a podcast that 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.520 spent years looking into Q and It's different ideas. I 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.760 was rabit as both a very sort of complex meta 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.600 conspiracy theory that kind of connects every other conspiracy theory 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.960 under its broad kind of umbrella. And also they kind 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.880 of a community of of people who believe in this 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:21.240 particular extremist worldview. I mean, the broad narrative adheres to 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.280 a lot of classic New World Order conspiracy theories. They 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.200 believe that the world controlled by this satanic cabal pedophiles 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:33.360 who hold all the lever's power, including entertainment media and politicians, 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.600 And they further believe that that that this cabal with 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.400 continued indefinitely, were not for the election of Donald Trump. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.760 They believe that Trump, uh, you know, knows all about 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.000 the cabal. In some instances, they believe that Trump has 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.600 been planning for decades to assume the presidency to help 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.000 take down take down this cabal. And they further believe 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.640 that you know, Trump is uh you know, with the 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:58.240 help of this high level group of military intelligence officials 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.920 known as Q Team, is send the outcoded messages about 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:06.320 the secret operation on these image boards. Travis has done 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.800 so much work in too q and On exposing the 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.720 many holes in their theories that he's actually become a 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.720 kind of enemy of the movement that often tweet about 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.240 him angrily and take the piss out of him and 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.880 his colleagues on YouTube videos all the rest of it. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.480 They don't like him now. Travis thinks that q and 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.280 on account has changed hands several times from its inception 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:30.760 on four Chan in two now. You know, even even 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.480 if we we are kind of shaky on the details 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.000 of who exactly was the original cue poster and who 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.200 is now the the author of the que raps, I 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.400 do not think it's the same person. The way that 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.520 Q and on followers determined what is and isn't a 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.160 que drop, as in, was it from que? Was it 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.920 someone pretending to be him is by using something called 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.400 a trip code. Will go deeper into that in a 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.480 later episode, but essentially, a trip code allows an anonymous 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:04.360 user to be semi identified online. Q and On's checked 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.520 the Q trip code and boom to them, they know 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.160 it's him. The Q and on trip code has changed 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.480 once or twice, and there's other people in the Q 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.760 team's sphere of influence that have different trip codes determining 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.280 their roles. For example, many Q and ons think another 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.840 poster called Q plus is Donald Trump himself. Yeah, they 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.800 really think that he's out there doing that. One and 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.040 on YouTuber called Craig Mason I watched has said it's 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.640 completely obvious that Q plus is Trump because he wants 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.840 kind of sort of made this Q and A plus 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.720 symbol in the air at one of his events whilst 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.320 pointing to someone in the crowd. Um, yeah, it's it's 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.200 weird that Travis of you is not convinced. I mean, yeah, 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.920 Trump does this thing at rallies where he points at 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.480 people where he points out a group of people by 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.240 waving his finger in the air. Uh, and and he 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.280 got So the QUA community got got the idea of um, 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:05.080 they that this is a secret signal to the Q 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.960 and that community. I mean, I don't see it. It 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.320 looks like a circle to me. Yeah, it looks more 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.800 like a circle. Yeah. Yeah, but but it Yeah, they 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.360 just got into the got into this. Uh, this this 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.080 idea that like basically every gesture, every sort of subtle 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.159 sign that Trump gives off is somehow validating to their 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.560 world view. So as you see. The thing about Q 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.120 and on that has helped some of the wild theories 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.480 grow is that it doesn't take a lot for believers 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:37.120 to see confirmation in the real world. So they'll see 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.160 a Q post and then often shoehorn in an offline 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.919 event such as a throwaway typo in a tweet or 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.800 a hand gesture from Trump to prove that Q is 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.560 who they claim it to be. After all, Q often 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.960 says there are no coincidences, so then the followers think, yeah, 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.080 that's not a coincidence that was meant for us. It's 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.520 kind of like if you look at panned war paper 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.080 long enough, you'll see a face in it. The face 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.439 isn't meant to be there, It isn't really there, but 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.600 somehow you can see it. It's the same kind of 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.040 thing you catch my drift. So this all ties back 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.320 into the image boards being the place where Q speaks. 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.120 They have a culture of mystery and far fetched ideas 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.520 that are often taken seriously. Even through a hail of 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.879 cynicism and people throwing insults at the original poster, people 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:28.960 do still often take a lot of what is going 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.639 out there seriously, even if it seems like everybody is 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.159 telling them to go funk themselves. Now, you might be 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.320 thinking that four chan hardly seems like a place where 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.920 you'd expect a highly intelligent White House insider to go 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.960 to to spread information that would ultimately help save America. 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:49.720 According to the two followers, at least, what's more unusual 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:54.480 is that q quickly immigrated to an even darker image board, 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.680 h Chan. H chan is like four chan's even more 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.840 fucked up evil isn't like for cha, and it had 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.919 a similar set up with the image board and what 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:08.560 have you, but it devolved into something even worse. Specifically, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.199 it became a place for anonymous users to discuss the 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:17.879 sharing of child abuse images pedophiles were actively posting on 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.760 h h and before it was removed from the Internet 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.440 by its web hosting provider. It's now called a coon, 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.480 but we'll get onto that in another episode. Will also 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.639 speak about the history of h chan and how it 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.640 became at the way it is, But first let's hear 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:39.399 from Hun's creator, Frederick Brennan. I had kind of always 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:44.240 been involved in the like alternate four chan universe. There's 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.400 all these small image boards that don't really get any 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:52.120 media attention or they're not really noticed outside, like very 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.280 kind of people that are into internet culture. You know, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:59.280 you have like seven chan, four chan, so you get 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.840 like all of these small sites. So, uh, I was 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:09.399 basically like a web developer, and my day job was 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.439 doing just freelance web development. And since I was already 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.320 so into image boards, I became kind of friends with 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.720 every image board admin. You know, at the time, I 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:22.600 don't want to toot my own horn, but they knew 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.080 that I was kind of a good programmer. Now, despite 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.200 what I told you about h and just before Frederick 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.719 started speaking there, keep in mind that Frederick Brennan didn't 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.040 create h h and for pedophiles, and he is no 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:40.399 longer in control of it. The Watkins family took the 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:44.560 image board over in. Watkins will be mentioned a lot 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.600 throughout this series later on, but for now keep that 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:52.440 name in your head. H and basically started after I 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.600 had a mushroom trip and uh, I just thought it 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:58.879 would be really cool to have like this site that 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:03.560 was like read it and watching and combined. But I 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.040 didn't have any visions in the beginning. I didn't think 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.360 it was ever going to be popular. So let's back 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:11.880 up a second and ask the question you all might 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.240 be wondering. Why the fuck would Q and on a 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.399 movement so determined to tear down a political deep state 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:24.040 with links to a supposed child sex trafficking cabal, except 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:27.439 that its leader drop his leaked info on a website 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.560 that allows pedos to communicate freely with each other. It 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.760 makes no sense. It would be like having an environmentalist 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.679 give a speech at a shell oil conference or something. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.080 But if you ask Q and On's they'll tell you 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.359 that it's all simply part of the plan, one of 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.760 their many mantras. And even though they wouldn't say this, 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.960 perhaps the plan from the outside at least looks simply 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:55.680 to be a way for them to achieve their political 0:21:55.840 --> 0:22:00.479 utopia by any means necessary. Any failed predict chin can 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.920 be explained away with the plan. A clear fake post 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.720 becomes a clever red herring with the plan. When Q 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:11.840 posted his first ever drop on four chan on October seventeen, 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.640 saying Hillary Clinton will be arrested between seven forty five 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.040 am to eight thirty a m e s t. On 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:23.959 Monday the morning on October thirteen, and it didn't happen. 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:26.920 That was all part of the plan. To Hillary was 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.800 not arrested, None of that happened. But to Q and On, 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:34.400 it doesn't matter. They can explain away anything in this sense. 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.639 As Sarah said earlier, Q and On has become cult 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:43.040 like in some way, like most conspiracy theories, and arguably 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.560 with most cults, there is a final end game for 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.360 Q and On. It's the so called plan that we've mentioned. 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.920 I asked Travis's view about this. I've never really seen 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:57.320 them explicitly point out what the plan is. Now. I 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:00.199 know they have the idea of getting everybody out and 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:04.520 trying everybody for treason and hanging them um, but that 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.080 is not a plan. That's like a goal, right, I mean, 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:09.439 is there any indication to what they actually think the 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:12.720 plan is? No, I no, No. This is the funniest part. 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:17.240 The plan that they're trusting is secret um so so, 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:19.800 so they don't know what the plan is, but there 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.200 they know they have to trust it because they think 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:24.879 it's in like I said, they think it's in Trump's hands. 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:28.199 They think it's in military intelligence hands. They don't know 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:30.639 what the plan is, but they they're very convinced that 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:34.119 there is a plan and it's going to result in, 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:38.200 like you said, the the executions that they want, the 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:41.400 the sort of return to the world that they want 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:44.080 to see, I mean love them really believe that there's 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.800 going to be utopia. They think there are hidden cures 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:49.960 to cancer and other diseases that will be revealed. They 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:53.200 think that this this fake law called the SARA is 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.000