Speaker 1: Q and On is now the most prolific online conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory of the twenty one century. None of their predictions
Speaker 1: came true. Q has vanished and the storm never came,
Speaker 1: but Q and On is still alive. I'm Jake Hanrahan,
Speaker 1: and this is Series two of Q Clearance, a podcast
Speaker 1: shedding light on the ongoing Q and on conspiracy theory.
Speaker 1: This is a production of Kudatar Media and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Today we'll be taking a look inside the fairly recent
Speaker 1: Q and On Conference, a five hundred dollar a ticket
Speaker 1: gathering for the Q and On true believers in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1: This took place over the weekend of May twenty nine,
Speaker 1: so Memorial Weekend if you're an American. The conference's official
Speaker 1: name was, awkwardly the Full Golden Country Patriot Roundup. It
Speaker 1: hosted some major Q and On big wigs, including the
Speaker 1: following people. Louie Gomert, a Republican attorney and former judge
Speaker 1: serving as the US representative for Texas' first congressional district.
Speaker 1: Allen West, a retired U S Army lieutenant colonel, politician
Speaker 1: and former member of the US Congress, And of course,
Speaker 1: Mike Flynn, a retired U s Army lieutenant general and
Speaker 1: a former national security adviser to Donald Trump. He lasted
Speaker 1: just twenty two days in that role before he was
Speaker 1: forced to resign after he lied about his potential ties
Speaker 1: to Russia. He was later given a pardon by Donald
Speaker 1: Trump himself. Now we've mentioned him before, but Flynn has
Speaker 1: been one of the most prominent big noises pledging unconditional
Speaker 1: allegiance to Trump and Q and on. At this stage,
Speaker 1: I'm starting to think for him, at least, it's not
Speaker 1: even a grift. I think he's genuinely lost the plot
Speaker 1: a little bit. Anyway, as you can see from the
Speaker 1: three people I just mentioned, Q and on is very
Speaker 1: much still alive and well, even within the realm of
Speaker 1: semi influential people, even if they are disgraced in the mainstream.
Speaker 1: Now it does sound kind of funny, but this Q
Speaker 1: and on conference was taken very seriously by all participants,
Speaker 1: as you can probably imagine, true to their authoritarian Q
Speaker 1: and on ideals. Several journalists were kicked out of the event,
Speaker 1: including reporters from Vice and The Daily Beast. One journalist
Speaker 1: who did manage to infiltrate the Q and On conference
Speaker 1: was Stephen Monicelli. He's a freelance reporter and researcher covering extremism,
Speaker 1: particularly in the U S. He's going to give us
Speaker 1: the bizarre inside scoop of what went down at the
Speaker 1: so called the Full Golden Country Patriot Roundup a K A,
Speaker 1: Q and ON Conference one. So there was this thing recently, right,
Speaker 1: this this Q Q and on conference conference whatever it
Speaker 1: was called. You went to it, Um, maybe maybe just
Speaker 1: explain for us, like what was it? What was the
Speaker 1: point of this thing? It was hosted and organized by
Speaker 1: a husband and wife team. They go by Q and
Speaker 1: On John and Q Queen Amy, And in the run
Speaker 1: up to this they tried to explicitly deny the nature
Speaker 1: of the event and its relationship to the Q and
Speaker 1: Q and ON movement. There's some good local coverage here
Speaker 1: in a paper that I write for occasionally called The
Speaker 1: Dallas Observer, where they detailed this. Uh and of course
Speaker 1: that's absurd given now only you know the blatant handles
Speaker 1: that the organizers used in telegram, but also the featuring
Speaker 1: of things like the acronym that stands for where we
Speaker 1: go one we go all, which is something that was
Speaker 1: cribbed from a movie called the squall, and it's really
Speaker 1: only something that people who are deep in this movement
Speaker 1: would recognize or understand or use. Yes, you did hear
Speaker 1: that right. A couple calling themselves Q and On John
Speaker 1: and Q Queen Amy using the tag where we go
Speaker 1: one we go all set up this Q and on
Speaker 1: conference and at first try to say, no, it's not
Speaker 1: a Q and on conference. I swear to god, they
Speaker 1: invited all the top Q and on big wigs. Of course,
Speaker 1: as we know because ARMM was on the inside, it
Speaker 1: very much was a Q and on conference. Don't get
Speaker 1: that confused. Listen on to any sort of baseline observer
Speaker 1: that had a little bit of knowledge about what this
Speaker 1: movement is. It was. It was blatantly a Q and
Speaker 1: on conference, regardless of what they called it, right, And
Speaker 1: they were trying to stop like Q and on researchers
Speaker 1: or anti q and on researchers. I guess um going.
Speaker 1: I know several journalists were school it out. You managed
Speaker 1: to get in right? How did you? How did you
Speaker 1: do that? Right? So, uh, this happened in my own backyard. Basically,
Speaker 1: I'm based here in Dallas, and I hadn't really initially
Speaker 1: planned on going Uh. It wasn't something that I thought
Speaker 1: it was necessary for me to attend. But I saw
Speaker 1: that Travis view. Uh, when one of the hosts of
Speaker 1: the Q Anonymous podcast had posted an email where he
Speaker 1: had been explicitly rejected based on his coverage, and you know,
Speaker 1: they basically said, you're not nice enough to people here,
Speaker 1: so we're going to refund your ticket. Uh So when
Speaker 1: I saw that, I thought to myself, oh, okay, well
Speaker 1: this should be interesting. I might as well go. Initially,
Speaker 1: I tried to go to Transparent Round. I had pitched
Speaker 1: to a publication that's national here that I write for
Speaker 1: pretty regularly, and they said, okay, well, why don't you
Speaker 1: try to get a press pass um. I foolishly tried
Speaker 1: to do that. Of course, they rejected it within an hour.
Speaker 1: They just looked at who I was affiliated with and
Speaker 1: decided that, you know, no, sorry, we're all full of
Speaker 1: course that was a lie. So here you see the
Speaker 1: Q and On's, the people that apparently love unfettered freedom
Speaker 1: and absolute free speech, decided that they didn't want journalists
Speaker 1: that were unkind to them in their conference. They even
Speaker 1: pretended that there weren't enough tickets. So Stephen did what
Speaker 1: he could, he basically had to go underground to the
Speaker 1: Q and On conference and they were still selling tickets
Speaker 1: for the general admission, and so I asked them, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, can I buy a ticket and will you
Speaker 1: let me in? And they basically said, nope, that's not
Speaker 1: going to happen. Better luck next time. So a local
Speaker 1: source ended up buying a ticket on my behalf so
Speaker 1: none of my information would be linked to the ticket purchase,
Speaker 1: and they picked it up for me so I, you know,
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to show my I d and the event
Speaker 1: that I had to, and then they just passed it
Speaker 1: along and I went inside. I just kind of dressed
Speaker 1: the part. I shaved my beard, and I gave myself
Speaker 1: a pretty basic white person's pseudonym, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a backstory so that if
Speaker 1: anybody asked me who I was or what I did,
Speaker 1: that I'd be able to chat my way through it.
Speaker 1: And I had enough baseline knowledge of you know, the
Speaker 1: speakers and some of the sayings of the movement to
Speaker 1: be able to blend in and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: respond whenever people chatted with me, while mostly trying to
Speaker 1: just kick it back to them to better understand why
Speaker 1: they were there and you know what they were thinking.
Speaker 1: Um so you were there on the cover, you got
Speaker 1: to see it. I'm tell us what what did you
Speaker 1: actually see this? What was you know, very clearly a
Speaker 1: Q and on conference, I would describe the overall atmosphere
Speaker 1: is not unlike going to really sort of fervent fire
Speaker 1: and Brimstone Church. But I guess, you know, maybe the
Speaker 1: pastor would be someone like Tucker Carlson. So that was
Speaker 1: just the general tone and tenor of the event, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people were, you know, getting really amped
Speaker 1: up about the speakers. There were dozens of them over
Speaker 1: the course of the three days where they had speakers.
Speaker 1: Uh and that was the bulk of the event, right,
Speaker 1: you know, just people sitting in a room listening to speakers. Uh.
Speaker 1: So a lot of that was captured on live streams
Speaker 1: and that's accessible to folks that weren't there. But a
Speaker 1: lot of the really interesting and I think importantly contextual
Speaker 1: stuff happened around those events that were not live streamed.
Speaker 1: So there was an auction, for example, where they're saying
Speaker 1: it was going to some veterans charities, which a bit
Speaker 1: ironic at an event where they're openly promoting a military
Speaker 1: coup where people were spending thousands of dollars on really
Speaker 1: kitchy memorabilia that was either Q and On themed or
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War themed, where they were you know, sort of
Speaker 1: lionizing these folks like Flynn and Sydney Powell, uh by
Speaker 1: featuring them in these you know, often like photoshops portraits
Speaker 1: of revolutionary era war paintings and portraits where they would
Speaker 1: you know, put their faces over like George Washington and
Speaker 1: describe them as these fighters that are fighting the you know,
Speaker 1: early battles and shooting the first shots in this revolutionary war.
Speaker 1: So that atmosphere was you know, kind of like a party.
Speaker 1: They were all really into it. H some someone spent
Speaker 1: six thousand, five hundred dollars on our shoddily made quilt
Speaker 1: that had a big Q on it, nearly seven grand.
Speaker 1: Spent on a Q and On quilt, a blanket, a
Speaker 1: cube blanket, nearly seven grand. This is the sort of
Speaker 1: thing that was going on at the Q and On
Speaker 1: conference in terms of the ruffles, the money making, and frankly,
Speaker 1: if I may say, the grift, but what were people
Speaker 1: actually talking about. Stephen was listening in and talking to
Speaker 1: people genuinely trying to find out what is going on
Speaker 1: within the Q and on world right now. So sat
Speaker 1: down across a young man at lunch who he described,
Speaker 1: you know, he was there because he's a believer that
Speaker 1: there's some sort of international communist cabal or new world
Speaker 1: order that's pulling all the strings and if only we
Speaker 1: didn't have that, then we could be colonizing the Moon
Speaker 1: and Mars, and you know, we wouldn't have any war. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, he he would speculate that once there's this
Speaker 1: awakening and unmasking of these you know, big hidden conspiracies,
Speaker 1: that then we would have this period of tumultuousness and
Speaker 1: chaos which often sometimes people describe as the storm that
Speaker 1: would lead to you know, this sort of new brave world.
Speaker 1: Other folks were talking about, um, you know, how they
Speaker 1: think Christians should have total control over the government and
Speaker 1: they need to take it back. Uh. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of casual racism and oftentimes transphobia and other
Speaker 1: things like that, which you know are not unique to
Speaker 1: an event like this, but you know, they help us
Speaker 1: understand the mindsets of some of the folks that were there,
Speaker 1: and probably to just kind of sum up all the threads.
Speaker 1: There's many of them, but it's it's just kind of
Speaker 1: a mix of you know, things that were rooted in
Speaker 1: satanic panic. You know, this fear of eluciferian satanic pedophile cabal. Uh.
Speaker 1: These these you know, ideas of a hidden communist government
Speaker 1: or new world globalist order. Uh. There's you know, fear
Speaker 1: of some sort of national or international quote unquote deep state. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, people reacting very positively to jokes about hanging
Speaker 1: democratic politicians or you know, the open reference to an
Speaker 1: embrace of the idea of a military coup. Uh. Not
Speaker 1: everybody that I spoke with would suddenly start espousing all
Speaker 1: of these views was or even you know, even one
Speaker 1: of them. You know, people were drawn to this for
Speaker 1: a number of reasons, and all of them seem very
Speaker 1: kind and normal when you just kind of chit chat
Speaker 1: with them. But the more you maybe go down the
Speaker 1: road of why are you here, who are you responding to?
Speaker 1: The more it became clear that there's a set of
Speaker 1: foundational beliefs underlying this movement that you know, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're necessarily new, but they're novelly composed
Speaker 1: in this in this way where it attracts you know
Speaker 1: a lot of different people who ultimately seem like they're
Speaker 1: attracted to this because they're afraid of either social change
Speaker 1: or losing their you know, social position. Uh. They think,
Speaker 1: maybe you know, their values or culture is being lost
Speaker 1: or dying or being forced out of existence. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so as a result, these these narratives are really appealing
Speaker 1: to them because they give some explanation of who is
Speaker 1: doing this or who are causing these perceived albums, as
Speaker 1: opposed to any sort of systemic critique. Now, what Stephen
Speaker 1: is saying here, I think is quite important. It's giving
Speaker 1: you a small glimpse into the world of Q and
Speaker 1: On and why they believe what they believe in. Yes,
Speaker 1: I've said it before. It's very easy to laugh and
Speaker 1: sneer at them. What they believe in is frankly, absolutely ridiculous. However,
Speaker 1: there is a reason so many of these people are
Speaker 1: falling into the grasp of Q and On, even now
Speaker 1: after all of the predictions failed and Q completely vanished.
Speaker 1: Take this conference, for example, hundreds of people paying five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a ticket to talk to each other about
Speaker 1: why this secret Satanic cabal of politicians is soon going
Speaker 1: to be smited by a military coup and Trump will
Speaker 1: come back. Blah blah blah. This is why I think
Speaker 1: the information Stephen got whilst talking candidly to the Q
Speaker 1: and On people, it's very interesting. Each shows that when
Speaker 1: times change, some people simply cannot let go surprised. That's
Speaker 1: nothing new. We all knew this. But in the Internet age,
Speaker 1: in the time of constant updates, very short attention spans,
Speaker 1: and unrelenting conspiracy theories, the people that just cannot let
Speaker 1: the old times go, cannot look at themselves, cannot self criticize,
Speaker 1: seem to be falling in love with Q and On.
Speaker 1: I think that says a lot. It says it cannot
Speaker 1: be us, that's wrong, It's got to be everyone else.
Speaker 1: But instead of saying everyone else, they're also saying it's
Speaker 1: got to be one of the most insane, intricate, satanic,
Speaker 1: evil conspiracy theories you've ever heard of. You get the
Speaker 1: idea anyway, Stephen continues. Plenty of people on stage would
Speaker 1: say things like, oh, it doesn't necessarily matter who Q
Speaker 1: was or is. What it did was it awakened me,
Speaker 1: It opened by eyes, it uh taught me to how
Speaker 1: how to do my own research. Um. And so for
Speaker 1: the really true believer types, whether they're true believers there grifters,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it matters, they would you know,
Speaker 1: basically say that it's irrelevant that these things that maybe
Speaker 1: didn't happen, or that it's irrelevant that we you know,
Speaker 1: don't know who Q is. What matters is that they've
Speaker 1: created this movement and that they are continuing to fight
Speaker 1: for uh, you know, things like the return of the
Speaker 1: real president, which you know they mean Donald Trump. Um.
Speaker 1: The difficulty really though, is it is it is? It
Speaker 1: is a horizontal movement. So there's no singular ideology, there's
Speaker 1: no singular narrative. Um. We had everything from you know,
Speaker 1: people discussing how Q opened their eyes to you know,
Speaker 1: this idea of the deep state, to someone discussing how,
Speaker 1: you know, UFO technology is is being suppressed knowledge about
Speaker 1: UFO technology is being suppressed. There was a common you know,
Speaker 1: mentions of things like adren of chrome or gosh, chlorine dioxide.
Speaker 1: You know, all these things that have been debunked and
Speaker 1: don't really have any roots in reality, and yet they persist.
Speaker 1: So the fact that you know, Q has fallen into
Speaker 1: the background, you know that they're sort of leader figure
Speaker 1: has disappeared, it hasn't stopped some of the momentum, and
Speaker 1: I think it's it's led to these figures like Flynn
Speaker 1: and Sydney Powell and others to become the de facto
Speaker 1: leaders of the movement. People would describe Flynn as the
Speaker 1: General or you know, Sydney Pals the attorney general. Uh
Speaker 1: they are lionized as these revolutionary leaders. Uh Q is gone,
Speaker 1: but their influence remains and the town has been passed
Speaker 1: to these these other leaders, while these other you know,
Speaker 1: sort of adherents and promoters continue to find ways to
Speaker 1: keep the narrative going, regardless of how many ways these
Speaker 1: threads have frayed. Yeah, definitely man Um. In terms of
Speaker 1: Mike Flynn, Um, he was given some kind of talk, right,
Speaker 1: what was this guy going on about? He he at
Speaker 1: one point, you know, the most viral clip that's come
Speaker 1: out of this is he responded to a question about
Speaker 1: why can't what happened in me and mar happened here?
Speaker 1: And he answered in a way that suggested he thinks
Speaker 1: it should happen. And the cup basically correct correct a
Speaker 1: military coup based on these notions of a fraudulent election,
Speaker 1: which is basically what happened to me and mar I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that the election was fraudulent, but that's you know,
Speaker 1: the narrative that fueled this military coup. But yeah, he
Speaker 1: seemed to embrace some of that. He was peddling, you know,
Speaker 1: the typical ideas that there there is some force that
Speaker 1: is fighting against them, and that if you know, they
Speaker 1: stick to the plan, basically, you know, they'll keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: You heard that, right. Mike Flynn, a retired U. S
Speaker 1: Army lieutenant general who was the twenty five U S
Speaker 1: National Security adviser for Donald Trump, did not say, no,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't have an armed military coup in the US.
Speaker 1: This is what he actually said when again, someone said
Speaker 1: should we have a military backed coup in the States
Speaker 1: like they had in Miama? Recently? Trump one, Hey won,
Speaker 1: he won, he won the popular vote. He won the
Speaker 1: popular vote, and he won the other oral college volt
Speaker 1: and people think q and On is no longer a
Speaker 1: threat now. Mike Flynn later walked all of that back
Speaker 1: on social media, saying, no, I don't think there should
Speaker 1: be a coup, but they're in the fever pitch of
Speaker 1: the Q and on conference, hundreds of people there, they
Speaker 1: all paid a lot of money to get in, and
Speaker 1: they see this guy that they call the General and
Speaker 1: he says Trump won, he won fair and square. When
Speaker 1: someone asks him if there should be a US military coup,
Speaker 1: it hardly screams, let's remain peaceful. Q Clearance is brought
Speaker 1: to you by iHeart Radio and Kudata Media. I'm Jake Hanrahan.
Speaker 1: You can find me online at Jake Underscore and Rahan
Speaker 1: that's h A N A h A N. You can
Speaker 1: get Q Clearance merch at dark washed dot net. This
Speaker 1: episode was produced by myself, with fact checking and additional
Speaker 1: research by Sarah hit Out. The music is by Sound
Speaker 1: Black and the sound was mixed by Thomas Griffin at
Speaker 1: Splicing Block.