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 is the final episode of Q Clearance, And with that,
Speaker 1: I want to try and recap on everything we've learned
Speaker 1: to better understand where Q and On might be headed now.
Speaker 1: So first I want to focus on December of this year,
Speaker 1: the upcoming December in a few months. If Q doesn't
Speaker 1: return before then, that will be a full twelve months
Speaker 1: without a Q drop. This is something I keep coming
Speaker 1: back to because I think it's actually quite a big
Speaker 1: signifier of how Q and On has mutated. They don't
Speaker 1: even have a leader telling them what to do now,
Speaker 1: but they're still moving forward now. One thing I was
Speaker 1: quite wrong about in the last series was that I
Speaker 1: suspected the Q and On movement would begin to crumble
Speaker 1: rapidly once Q stopped posting the drops. I thought without
Speaker 1: their leader, the followers would all start dropping like flights.
Speaker 1: Whilst this was initially true to some degree at the beginning,
Speaker 1: the collapse of the original Q and on routine has actually,
Speaker 1: in the long term lead to a strengthened resurgence in
Speaker 1: the movement and what I think can be best described
Speaker 1: now as Q and on two point oh, that is
Speaker 1: the new iteration of Q and on. Now, with this
Speaker 1: new iteration, I think one thing is very clear after
Speaker 1: looking into it for a while. Out of sight does
Speaker 1: not mean out of mind when it comes to Q
Speaker 1: and on. Just because the movement was chased off of
Speaker 1: mainstream social media and because it vantaged from the news,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's followers disappeared. Sure, plenty of them did
Speaker 1: throw in the towel, and they eventually realized they've been tricked. However,
Speaker 1: what remained was the most hardcore of the hardcore, and
Speaker 1: if the telegram channels or anything to go by, it
Speaker 1: is still talking hundreds of thousands of people. This, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, is where Q and On truly becomes its
Speaker 1: most dangerous, when it mutated from a ridiculous conspiracy based
Speaker 1: internet movement to something more akin to a decentralized extremist cult.
Speaker 1: That's how I would personally label Q and On two
Speaker 1: point oh if I had to simplify it. Now, there
Speaker 1: is a lot more to we know. We've explored this
Speaker 1: with Q clearance, but again, to put a bow in it,
Speaker 1: it is basically a gigantic conspiracy theory cult. Things have
Speaker 1: gone a lot darker too. With the evolution of Q
Speaker 1: and On two point oh has come a new accepted
Speaker 1: extremism within the movement that was previously taboo to acknowledge
Speaker 1: out loud within Q and On circles. Yes, many of
Speaker 1: the theories Q and On is built upon borrow heavily
Speaker 1: from anti Semitic conspiracies. Yes, there's deep undertones of racism
Speaker 1: in the Q and On rehetoric at times, but the
Speaker 1: original form of Q and On at least pretended to
Speaker 1: shun racism and anti Semitism. I'm not saying that's a
Speaker 1: good thing, it's just the way it was. Now though,
Speaker 1: within Q and On two point oh there is a
Speaker 1: split and within the factions that that has created. Racism
Speaker 1: and outright neo Nazism is often accepted and even promoted.
Speaker 1: It if you subscribe to the right Q and on
Speaker 1: telegram channels you can basically view each Q and on
Speaker 1: offshoot in real time. It's clear that whilst it's growing
Speaker 1: stronger in some ways, the movement is shattered into different
Speaker 1: webs of ideology, all under the same insane Q and
Speaker 1: On umbrella. It seems that without Q, without Trump, where
Speaker 1: we go, one we go? All is now just words.
Speaker 1: There is no real unity amongst the Q and Ons.
Speaker 1: Now there are different camps of thought within the movement.
Speaker 1: You have Q and on is now who subscribe to
Speaker 1: the ideas of ghost Ezra. He is a Q and
Speaker 1: On neo Nazi that's been slowly playing his followers with Hitler.
Speaker 1: Wasn't such a bad guy bullshit for a while now.
Speaker 1: He's also on the wackiest end of the conspiracy spectrum,
Speaker 1: floating ideas of reptilians and bodied bubbles. His channel has
Speaker 1: over three hundred thousand subscribers. Then there's the q and
Speaker 1: Ons who subscribe to the more conventional q and On
Speaker 1: ideas of Praying medic. He's one of the original q
Speaker 1: and On personalities. Him and his followers are still pushing
Speaker 1: the idea that Trump is secretly in control. Praying Medic
Speaker 1: thinks Q will come back and take over blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: He's also trying his hardest to call out the racist
Speaker 1: Nazi Q and on camps that have emerged. Ironically enough,
Speaker 1: this has him throwing war on some of the most
Speaker 1: out there conspiracy theories that were actually once part of
Speaker 1: the original user generated Q and on canon. Recently, for example,
Speaker 1: he wrote the following, which looks to be a shot
Speaker 1: taken at ghost Ezra's camp quote why do they push
Speaker 1: fantastic claims? Certain accounts on social medi media share unbelievable
Speaker 1: claims with their followers. There appears to be a single
Speaker 1: overarching reason why they do it. These accounts often post
Speaker 1: legitimate news and information on current events for a period
Speaker 1: of time, but then they will suddenly share something out
Speaker 1: of the norm, like the idea that Hitler wasn't really
Speaker 1: such a bad guy, or that James Comey or Hillary
Speaker 1: Clinton have been secretly executed. If I were to tell
Speaker 1: you the moon was made of cheese, you may not
Speaker 1: believe me, but I could respond prove that it isn't
Speaker 1: made of cheese. To prove conclusively that the moon is
Speaker 1: not made of cheese, we would have to go there
Speaker 1: in person and inspect the surface of the moon. That
Speaker 1: isn't possible right anyway, end quote. It goes on like that.
Speaker 1: As you can see, their Praying Medic is basically calling
Speaker 1: out other Q and on groups who are becoming more
Speaker 1: extreme and spreading even more fantastic conspiracy theories. Imagine that
Speaker 1: some of the Q and on conspiracy theories in the
Speaker 1: new movement even too radical to out there for the
Speaker 1: originators of Q and On, It's kind of ironic when
Speaker 1: you think about it. Anyway, Praying Medic, despite being a
Speaker 1: start up Q and On influencer from day one, actually
Speaker 1: has less than half as many subscribers as ghost Ezra,
Speaker 1: with just over one and ten thousand. Then moving on,
Speaker 1: there's the q and On spirituality camp that believe the
Speaker 1: half baked and completely failed predictions of Q are actually
Speaker 1: some sort of prophecies from a different dimension. I swear
Speaker 1: to God this is what they believe. These lot mostly
Speaker 1: congregate on a channel called five D Full Disclosure. They
Speaker 1: only have thirty subscribers, but what they lack in membership
Speaker 1: they make up for in complete and total madness, trust me.
Speaker 1: Then around all of this there's the more conventional hard
Speaker 1: core conservative conspiracy apes that latch onto Mike Flynn and
Speaker 1: lynn Wood, the ladder of which seems to be mostly
Speaker 1: these days posting about God and how his Q and
Speaker 1: on mania has wrecked his family. It's all quite pathetic,
Speaker 1: to be honest. Still, Lynnwood has nearly nine hundred thousands subscribers,
Speaker 1: clearly has a lot of cloud in the Q and
Speaker 1: on community. Still there are other camps outside of these
Speaker 1: as well, but generally they all have some variations of
Speaker 1: these ideas. So now not only is Q and On
Speaker 1: in some kind of shadow war against the deep State,
Speaker 1: or at least they think they are, they're also at
Speaker 1: war with each other. Whilst these varying degrees of delusion
Speaker 1: sound funny to speak about, and I know I've been
Speaker 1: kind of laughing whilst looking into it, we must always
Speaker 1: remind ourselves that several people have already died as a
Speaker 1: direct influence of the frenzied madness that is Q and
Speaker 1: actually is not a game, and it's not funny. One
Speaker 1: of the saddest examples of death by Q and On is,
Speaker 1: of course, Ashley Babbitt. Actually bubb It was shot dead
Speaker 1: during the January six Capital Building riot by a police
Speaker 1: officer as she tried to climb a ledge whilst breaching,
Speaker 1: smashed in the security door. Actually, Babbitt laid there, bleeding
Speaker 1: on the ground, with a Make America Great Again flag
Speaker 1: draped around her shoulders. Bwad is up to Congress to
Speaker 1: confront dis egregious assault on our democracy. And after this,
Speaker 1: we're gonna walk down, and I'll be there with you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna walk down. We're gonna walk down to the capital,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna cheer on our brave senators and congress
Speaker 1: men and women. And we're probably not going to be
Speaker 1: cheering so much for some of them, because you'll never
Speaker 1: take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength,
Speaker 1: and you have to be strong. Actually, bubb It later
Speaker 1: died in hospital. She was just thirty five years old.
Speaker 1: Babb It was a true believer in q and On.
Speaker 1: Despite this, Whilst many initially saw her as a martyr,
Speaker 1: her status was quickly cast down when Q and On's
Speaker 1: claimed her death was in fact a false flag event
Speaker 1: designed to make them look bad. Bubb It was an
Speaker 1: Air Force veteran who served in Iraq. Q and Ons
Speaker 1: took this and ran with it, deciding she was in
Speaker 1: fact working for the kabal of pedophiles and deep state
Speaker 1: actors that they believe they're fighting against ironic clear enough,
Speaker 1: even after effectively dying for the cause of q and On, actually,
Speaker 1: Babbitt was turned into parts of the evil conspiracy she
Speaker 1: believed in. In total, five people lost their lives in
Speaker 1: the midst of the January sixth Capital Building riot, which,
Speaker 1: as we've already established, was massively connected to Q and On.
Speaker 1: Brian sick Nick, a member of the Capitol Police Force,
Speaker 1: died after being beaten by protesters and sprayed with mace.
Speaker 1: He was forty two years old. Kevin Greson, a former
Speaker 1: Obama support turned MAGA loyalist, died of a heart attack
Speaker 1: as protesters became more rowdy. It's believed he was on
Speaker 1: the phone to his wife as it happened. He was
Speaker 1: fifty five. Rosanne Boiland, a hard core Q and On believer,
Speaker 1: was crushed to death as other MAGA rioters tried to
Speaker 1: fight through a police line. She was just thirty four
Speaker 1: years old. Ben Phillips, a big time Trump loyalists who
Speaker 1: believed in some of the conspiracy theories of Q and On,
Speaker 1: died of a stroke after attending the riot. En route,
Speaker 1: he told the media. He believed it was the first
Speaker 1: day of the rest of our lives for the movement.
Speaker 1: He was fifty. Now some people have pointed out that
Speaker 1: the majority of people who lost their lives during the
Speaker 1: January sixth Capital Building riot were Q and On or
Speaker 1: MAGO loyalists, and that it doesn't matter. It does matter.
Speaker 1: Forget your political affiliations and pearl clutching for a moment
Speaker 1: and consider that these were all real people with lives, aspirations,
Speaker 1: and families. Sadly, for whatever reasons, they weren't wise enough
Speaker 1: to realize how unbelievably stupid Q and On his they
Speaker 1: were manipulated, roped in, and tricked by a bunch of
Speaker 1: sociopathic internet goons from h N online. Lots of people
Speaker 1: still think that's funny, but ultimately people are now dead
Speaker 1: due to a fake prediction that sprung up on an
Speaker 1: image board in October. From that to this, Q and
Speaker 1: On is not a partisan issue, as we've discussed, It's
Speaker 1: mutated into something much more extreme that can affect everyone.
Speaker 1: The wreckage it leaves in its wake is felt all
Speaker 1: across the political spectrum. Now, I'm not saying Q and
Speaker 1: On is the next terror movement. I don't think calling
Speaker 1: January six rioters insurgents makes any sense, and I'm also
Speaker 1: not saying more Q and on violence is a definite. However,
Speaker 1: I do think that it's worth paying attention to the
Speaker 1: way it's evolved, and it should most definitely not be
Speaker 1: ignored just because it's no longer trending. So what can
Speaker 1: you do to help stop people falling into the trap
Speaker 1: of Q and on two point Oh? Honestly, I'm not
Speaker 1: even sure anymore. I'm sorry I don't have a better
Speaker 1: answer for you, but that's where it is. In the
Speaker 1: last series, we asked this question when Q and on
Speaker 1: was coming to the end of its first phase. Now,
Speaker 1: though without its leader, it's built autonomous cells with different ideas,
Speaker 1: that's much harder to tackle. All we can do is
Speaker 1: focus on the biggest issue currently. I think that is
Speaker 1: the fact fascist groups have purposely targeted Q and on
Speaker 1: channels as a means to infiltrate and convert already wide
Speaker 1: eyed conspiracy nuts that are there. It goes to Ezra's
Speaker 1: Mountain support base is anything to go by, They're clearly
Speaker 1: quite successful. Now I've seeing these Nazi supporters toying with
Speaker 1: Q and On supporters in real time on telegram. They
Speaker 1: don't steam him with swastickers and gas chambers at first.
Speaker 1: What they're often doing is taking on the role of
Speaker 1: a Q and On adherent and asking more and more
Speaker 1: extreme questions, linking everything back to racist myths and anti Semitism.
Speaker 1: They engage with the q and Ons and turn up
Speaker 1: slow boil until Hitler was right becomes an accepted point
Speaker 1: of view. Their methods are clever and very fucked up.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to stop someone believing in hateful
Speaker 1: political ideas, but I do know stopping those spreading them helps.
Speaker 1: I would say at this point, if people really want
Speaker 1: to help stop the spread of Q and On, they
Speaker 1: need to get active. That doesn't mean publishing a fifty
Speaker 1: tweet thread on why someone somewhere did something bad. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean laughing in the face of Q and On's.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean showing at them, screaming at them. What
Speaker 1: getting active could mean is participating in the many online
Speaker 1: investigations currently taking place to unmask the neo Nazis infiltrating
Speaker 1: Q and On circles. Perhaps, if you've got time, have
Speaker 1: a listen back to the series, listen to the guests
Speaker 1: and think, how could you help, Maybe reach out to
Speaker 1: a few of them. I'm sure they'd appreciate the help.
Speaker 1: As of now, Q and on remains a burning wildfire
Speaker 1: of hate, conspiracy theory, and cult like manipulation. As it stands,
Speaker 1: Q and on is yet to die out. Logic, common sense,
Speaker 1: the fall of Trump and online the platform NG hasn't
Speaker 1: killed it. Unfortunately. I think Q and on will be
Speaker 1: around in some form for years to come. Week due
Speaker 1: to convert it it stay one step ahead byre trying
Speaker 1: to understand it. This has been QUE Clearance. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. M m hm m hm. Q Clearance is
Speaker 1: brought to you by I Heart Radio and cou Data Media.
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Hanrahan. You can find me online at Jake
Speaker 1: Underscore hand Rahan. That's h A N A h A N.
Speaker 1: You can get Q Clearance merch at dark wash dot net.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by myself, with fact checking and
Speaker 1: additional research by Sarah A. High Tower. The music is
Speaker 1: by Sam Black and the sound was mixed by Thomas
Speaker 1: Griffin at Splicing Block.