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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just getting conspiratorial

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Speaker 2: here on Stuff you should know the podcast.

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Speaker 1: That's right, the episode we wanted to do so much

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Speaker 1: that it sat in our folder for four.

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Speaker 2: Years I believe it was. Yeah, the very beginning of

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, I would say, probably.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, let's do it.

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Speaker 2: We are. I gotta say, it's gonna be nice to

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Speaker 2: see that removed from my desktop. It's just been sitting

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Speaker 2: there for so long.

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Speaker 3: Just staring at you. That que like a big blinky,

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Speaker 3: winky eyeball.

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Speaker 2: Yes with a one single eyelash attached. So we should

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Speaker 2: probably say at the outset to anybody tuning in that

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Speaker 2: who is like part of the q and No movement?

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Speaker 2: We're going to approach this as if everything the QAnon

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Speaker 2: movement believes is not true or made up, not from

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Speaker 2: the perspective of people who believe in the QAnon movement,

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Speaker 2: although we'll explain a lot of the same stuff. I

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Speaker 2: just don't want anybody to, you know, get five minutes

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Speaker 2: in and be like, what is this, you know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a fair CoA And yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean that's just the deal.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we're taking the anthropological stance.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, so let's dive in, shall we.

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Speaker 2: Well let's give a little bit of a definition for

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Speaker 2: the three people who've never heard of QAnon.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and also, what I'm hoping is is that there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of people like me who actually probably I

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Speaker 1: probably knew more about it than some people even, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of people probably just sort of knew a

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Speaker 1: little bit or know a little bit about what this

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Speaker 1: thing was slash is m M, but you know, didn't

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Speaker 1: really know much about it, and it's just good to

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Speaker 1: know about stuff. So hopefully that'll brighten some corners of

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Speaker 1: your life as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and one thing I kept running into while researching

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Speaker 2: this is that there's a lot of families that have

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Speaker 2: been torn apart, families, friendships, sure, because people will go

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Speaker 2: down the QAnon rabbit hole, and the friends and family

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Speaker 2: that are like, that's not true get left behind because

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Speaker 2: they haven't woken up yet. So yeah, I can really

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Speaker 2: mess things up. So possibly there's some people listening to

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Speaker 2: this who have lost friends or family that might be

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Speaker 2: a little wiser to it might be able to try

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Speaker 2: to get their friend or family member back afterwards. Who knows.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And the final CoA I guess is that some

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Speaker 1: of this stuff is so outlandish that it's hard to

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Speaker 1: not laugh.

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Speaker 3: But it's not funny at all.

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Speaker 1: It's dangerous and scary and sad. So if I might

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Speaker 1: laugh at something or giggle, it's not that I don't

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Speaker 1: take it seriously. That it's a serious kind of thing

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Speaker 1: that's happened.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it kind of like not even kind of. It

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Speaker 2: very much trapes us into the territory of high camp,

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Speaker 2: but is not at all being ironic or campy. It's

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Speaker 2: just just approach this as like everything we're gonna say

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Speaker 2: is believed seriously by people in the QAnon movement. And

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Speaker 2: then sorry, CoA Number five, we're probably going to get

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Speaker 2: a lot wrong. This is an incredibly expansive, ever evolving

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Speaker 2: movement conspiracy theory that you know, we're not We're going

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Speaker 2: to walk right past some stuff where we might misspeak

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Speaker 2: here there, but hopefully the general contours and outlines we're

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Speaker 2: going to we're going to get to be able to

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Speaker 2: get across.

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Speaker 3: Correctly all right onward.

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Speaker 2: So this whole thing The q Andon movement is a

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Speaker 2: online conspiracy theory that essentially the world is run by

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Speaker 2: a cabal of global elites, mostly liberals, Hollywood typesment high

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Speaker 2: government officials, and that they do all sorts of nefarious things,

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Speaker 2: which we'll get into in a second. But one of

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Speaker 2: the things to understand about this first is that a

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Speaker 2: lot of it is rooted in some really old existing

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Speaker 2: conspiracy theories, in particular a lot of anti Semitic ones

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Speaker 2: that have been around for centuries. In particular, the blood

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Speaker 2: libel is one that Jews for like a thousand years essentially,

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Speaker 2: maybe longer, have been persecuted, executed, massacred because of rumors

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Speaker 2: that they steal Christian babies and kill them and use

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Speaker 2: their blood to make leaven bread or unleavened bread for Passover,

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Speaker 2: and that stuff gets around and people get all up

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Speaker 2: in arms and scared about their kids being kidnapped, and

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Speaker 2: then the next thing you know, Jewish people are dead

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Speaker 2: because of this blood libel. That's part of it. And

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Speaker 2: although Jewish people are targeted in some quarters, you don't

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Speaker 2: have to be anti Semitic to be a queue not

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Speaker 2: member necessarily, right.

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Speaker 1: Other things that it echoes from the past are something

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Speaker 1: called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was

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Speaker 1: in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Another anti Semitic conspiracy,

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Speaker 1: basically the tired trope that there's a global Jewish cabal

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Speaker 1: kind of running the world, running the banking system, plotting

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Speaker 1: to overthrow the gentile governments of the world. We mentioned

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Speaker 1: Henry Ford and our Henry Ford podcast was a believer

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Speaker 1: in this kind of thing. And versions of this, versions

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Speaker 1: of the Blood Libel have been sort of wrapped up,

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Speaker 1: given a new, brand new shine coat of wax, and

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Speaker 1: was trotted out as QAnon, which is and you know,

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Speaker 1: Dave helped us with this many years ago, and thankfully

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Speaker 1: Dave didn't quit his job and he's still around to

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Speaker 1: help us out more.

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Speaker 3: But it's a catch all.

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Speaker 1: This conspiracy that you said is very vast, very wide ranging,

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Speaker 1: but mostly has to do with these power or full

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Speaker 1: liberal elites that are some are pedophiles, some are Satan worshippers.

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Speaker 1: Some they claim literally eat children. And we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the Clintons, of course, and we're talking about Tom Hanks

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Speaker 1: and Oprah Winfrey and George Soros and Ellen DeGeneres and

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Speaker 1: even the Dali Lama.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and Pope Francis. So anybody who's even remotely left

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Speaker 2: leaning who holds power in the world, especially in the

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Speaker 2: government or you know, pop culture, they are probably a

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Speaker 2: part of this secret cabal. And it checks all the

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Speaker 2: boxes for pearl clutching. They run the world, They worship Satan,

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Speaker 2: their pedophiles, and their cannibals. Can you think of a

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Speaker 2: worse group of people than that. I can't think of

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Speaker 2: any other thing you could throw at the at the

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Speaker 2: wall to see what would stick. Like, that's as bad

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Speaker 2: as anything gets. So the idea behind QAnon? What else

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Speaker 2: could I've been trying to think? Give me something.

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Speaker 3: Else, maybe Philadelphia sports fans.

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Speaker 2: Oh, now we're gonna get some hate mail, man, And.

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Speaker 3: That's where the hate mail is gonna come from. So

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Speaker 3: I'm just getting brotherly love.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, and batteries. So the whole thing, though, is

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Speaker 2: that these people who are Satanic, pedophile cannibals, thank you.

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Speaker 2: People new to the podcasts are gonna be like, what's

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Speaker 2: wrong with that one guy?

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Speaker 3: It's hard to even get that sentence out.

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Speaker 2: It is thanks man, that they run the world. They

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Speaker 2: run things, and it all happens below the surface. Everything

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Speaker 2: that normies like you and I and probably most of

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Speaker 2: the people listening to this podcast believe is true. Is brainwashed.

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Speaker 2: We've been brainwashed by the mainstream media to be given

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Speaker 2: this line that things are the way they seem, when

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Speaker 2: in reality, things are not at all the way they seem.

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Speaker 2: There's a Satanic worshiping cult running the world, and they're

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Speaker 2: doing all sorts of terrible things. Those of us who

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Speaker 2: don't believe in QAnon just haven't awakened to this idea

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Speaker 2: yet of what's actually reality.

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Speaker 1: Right, So that's one part. Those are the bad guys.

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Speaker 1: The good guys, or rather the good guy is former

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Speaker 1: president and twenty twenty four candidate Donald Trump, who, according

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Speaker 1: to QAnon and the theory, was picked, handpicked by the

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Speaker 1: leaders of the US military to fight these evil forces,

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Speaker 1: and everything that he does and tries to do is

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Speaker 1: in service of that mission. Anything working against him, even

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Speaker 1: within his own party, as part of the deep state plot,

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Speaker 1: and they are all awaiting what's known or what they

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Speaker 1: call the storm, which is when Trump reveals who he

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Speaker 1: is and what he has done to fight these evil forces,

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Speaker 1: declares martial law, and everyone that has been a part

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Speaker 1: of that secret cabal is rounded up by the military

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Speaker 1: and tried and convicted and killed, at which time that

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Speaker 1: the Great Awakening will occur, in which Trump and the

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Speaker 1: QAnon supporters are a lot of his heroes around the world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and this will bring about the founding of a

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Speaker 2: right wing authoritarian regime that Trump will lead. This is again,

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Speaker 2: this is what they believe is going on. So when

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump became president, for some reason, he had to

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Speaker 2: play along with this great charade that the liberal leftist

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Speaker 2: Satanists were producing, rather than I don't know, just being

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Speaker 2: overt about what his mission was. So that means that

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Speaker 2: since he had to play along, he had to leave

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Speaker 2: little like he had to give little winks and nods

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Speaker 2: and leave what are called bread crumbs, which are little

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Speaker 2: bits of information or little clues that the QAnon community dissects, discusses,

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Speaker 2: argues over. And what that's called is baking. They take

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Speaker 2: the breadcrumbs and they bake it, and when they finally

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Speaker 2: come to some sort of consensus or somebody comes up

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Speaker 2: with the best craziest interpretation of it, that becomes basically

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Speaker 2: the QAnon canon, and that spreads throughout social media, and

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Speaker 2: then the QAnon movement just gets that much more solidified

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Speaker 2: that much more extensive, and because of these tweets on

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Speaker 2: social media, some people say, well, what the heck is

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Speaker 2: everybody talking about, and we'll go look this stuff up

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Speaker 2: and very often fall down the rabbit rabbit hole and

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Speaker 2: become q andon members themselves.

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Speaker 3: That's right, So are we done?

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Speaker 2: Yep? That was it. That's everything you need to know

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Speaker 2: about QAnon. Everybody.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's just read six ads and go home.

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Speaker 2: There's two more things I wanted to add about this

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Speaker 2: global Satanist pedophile cannibal elite that's running the world secretly.

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Speaker 2: They are also suspected by some to be actual lizard people,

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Speaker 2: which is a direct ripoff of the the mini series

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Speaker 2: from the early eighties. And then, secondly, the reason that

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Speaker 2: they sacrifice the kids that they sexually abuse is because

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Speaker 2: they're after they're adrenochrome, which.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is this is pretty fun.

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Speaker 2: Metabolis. Adrenochrome is metabolized adrenaline. It's oxidized adrenaline, and according

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Speaker 2: to QAnon, it's like the elixir of life. So these

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Speaker 2: Satanists are sacrificing kids to get their adrenochrome and drinking it,

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Speaker 2: and they're they're staying forever young and vital. And there's

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Speaker 2: a few things wrong with this one. It seems to

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Speaker 2: be based on a misinterpretation of what adrenochrome does and

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Speaker 2: where you get it, based on fear and loathing in

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Speaker 2: Las Vegas, because Hunter Thompson has basically a throwaway intimation

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Speaker 2: that the adrenochrome that he does and goes on a

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Speaker 2: crazy trip over it can only be gotten from the

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Speaker 2: adrenal gland of a live human.

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Speaker 1: Right, that's right, And that is not true. It's synthesized

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Speaker 1: in a lab. You can it's it's available. That is

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Speaker 1: not true at all. So none of that is true.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so I think we'd laid the foundation pretty well,

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Speaker 2: Like that's essentially the greatest broad strokes of what people

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Speaker 2: in QAnon believe is going on in reality.

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Speaker 3: That's right. Should we take a break?

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Speaker 2: I think so.

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Speaker 1: All right, we'll come back and we'll talk about pizza

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Speaker 1: right after this. All right, we promised talk of pizza.

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Speaker 1: That's because you can't talk about q and on without

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Speaker 1: mentioning a bit of a precursor to QAnon, which was Pizzagate,

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Speaker 1: that is to say, in twenty sixteen, and this is

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Speaker 1: we should say that the first QAnon sort of activity,

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Speaker 1: which are called q andon drops started in twenty seventeen

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Speaker 1: kind of what like October. And this is in twenty

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Speaker 1: sixteen when the Democratic Convention servers were hacked and emails

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Speaker 1: were published on Wiki leaks, and one of them kind

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Speaker 1: of rose to the top, which was an email from

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Speaker 1: John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton's twenty sixteen campaign chairman,

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Speaker 1: in which he put forth, Hey, there's this pizza place

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Speaker 1: called Comet Ping Pong in the DC area here, and

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Speaker 1: we should hold a fundraiser there. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: he said this in the email, but the fact is

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Speaker 1: that his brother was a regular there and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is probably a good place to do that. They

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Speaker 1: got pretty good pizza, they got a bunch of ping

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Speaker 1: pong tables. It's a good place for people to meet up.

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Speaker 1: And that was found in I guess exposed, which is

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Speaker 1: kind of a funny way to say it on four Chan,

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Speaker 1: where people started saying, oh, well, that is the HQ.

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Speaker 1: Basically that's ground zero for where this elite cabal is

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Speaker 1: meeting and they are sacrificing children in the basement of

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Speaker 1: that place. There is no basement to that place, but

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Speaker 1: who cares about that? That was what was put forth

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Speaker 1: on four Chan and hashtag pizzagate started spreading like wildfire.

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Speaker 2: Surprisingly, yeah, and the fact that there is no basement means,

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Speaker 2: according to like qann thinking, that means that it's hidden.

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Speaker 2: And even if we don't have any proof it's there,

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Speaker 2: because the fact that it's being used by this secret

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Speaker 2: cabal and it's hidden is proof that it's there. Right,

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Speaker 2: That's the kind of circular thinking that keeps these things going,

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Speaker 2: and in Pizzagate in particular with Comet ping Pong, within

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Speaker 2: a month October twenty ninth was the first post about

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Speaker 2: how this is this is one of the home bases

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Speaker 2: of this child sex trafficking that this cabal engaged in

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Speaker 2: October twenty ninth was the first post. By December fourth,

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Speaker 2: a little over a month later, a man so riled

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Speaker 2: up by the idea that Comet ping Pong was a

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Speaker 2: hub of child sex trafficking drove a few hundred miles

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Speaker 2: from North Carolina to DC and showed up with at

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Speaker 2: comment Ping Pong with the AR fifteen and shot up

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Speaker 2: a door to get the door open.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 1: He also had a handgun on his side. Nobody was hurt.

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Speaker 1: People got out of there, very quickly. He kind of

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Speaker 1: wandered around the place alone for about twenty minutes. I

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Speaker 1: couldn't get in that door shot it up, told authorities

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Speaker 1: that he was self investigating Hillary Clinton's pedophile.

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Speaker 3: Ring, and that was that. He went to jail. Is

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Speaker 3: now out of jail.

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Speaker 1: I think he went for a few years, interestingly sentenced

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Speaker 1: by Kintaji Jackson Brown who now sits on the Supreme Court.

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Speaker 1: Oh really, side note, huh, Yeah, but that was it basically,

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Speaker 1: But you know, that was Pizzagate, and it was a

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Speaker 1: precursor to what would follow in October twenty seventeen when

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Speaker 1: Q first, I guess revealed himself but not really.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so I think. Yeah. The first drop was

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Speaker 2: October twentieth seventeen on four Chan, which is an image

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Speaker 2: board which is like you post images and then people

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Speaker 2: comment on them and conversations breakout, and in particular, four

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Speaker 2: Chan was known as like one of the really dark

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Speaker 2: recesses of the Internet. And on this image board a

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Speaker 2: guy named Q Clearance Patriot, and the first post read

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Speaker 2: open your eyes many in our government worship Satan. That

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Speaker 2: was the first Q drop that ever came out. In

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Speaker 2: October twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 3: That's right. And Q clearance.

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Speaker 1: You know what QAnon means is Q clearance is a

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Speaker 1: top secret clearance utilized by the Department of Energy, specifically

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Speaker 1: meaning you have access to nuclear the nuclear weapons program.

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Speaker 1: And the anon comes from just a sort of a

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Speaker 1: regular thing that would be people on four Chan who

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Speaker 1: claim to be like part of the FBI, like FBI,

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Speaker 1: non ciaann like whitstler blowing kind of thing. So q

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Speaker 1: anon became the name and claimed to be a intelligence officer,

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Speaker 1: a very high ranking person within the US government who

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Speaker 1: had direct evidence of this satanic pedophile cult and very

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Speaker 1: clear approvable knowledge that Donald Trump was on a secret

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Speaker 1: mission from the US military to reverse all this.

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Speaker 2: Right, and so between October twenty seventeen and sometime in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty, the Q drops amounted to I guess more

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Speaker 2: than five thousand, and they were really really cryptic. They

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Speaker 2: were not like, hey, this is going on comet ping

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Speaker 2: Pong is actually a hub of child sex trafficking. They

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Speaker 2: were very cryptic, and so that just lent themselves to

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Speaker 2: be dissected and discussed and thought about and interpreted and misinterpreted.

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Speaker 2: And so there's an example of one from September twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: This would be shortly after the whole thing started, and

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Speaker 2: it said panic in dc LL talking equals truth revealed,

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Speaker 2: Tarmac bc LL talking equals truth revealed Comy HRC email case.

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Speaker 2: And it goes on and on and it mentions Hussein,

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Speaker 2: which is how Q always referred to Barack Obama.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for shortening this, by the way, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And it just it keeps going on. But the last

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Speaker 2: line is Faiza brings down the house? When do bird sing?

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Speaker 2: And what the what the focus was on was the

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Speaker 2: at the time, the Hillary Clinton email server scandal that

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Speaker 2: Loretta Lynch was the Attorney General at the time, and

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Speaker 2: she met on a tarmac and in private with yeah, yes,

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Speaker 2: with Bill Clinton on a plane and it was a

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Speaker 2: huge scandal and everybody's like, what were they talking about

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Speaker 2: really and all that. So that's what this Q thing reference.

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Speaker 2: So that was the kind of stuff that they would say,

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Speaker 2: like like using just people's initials, just really cryptic, short

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Speaker 2: staccato statements or questions and like that was it. It

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Speaker 2: would they would just go away, and then people would

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Speaker 2: just go crazy trying to figure out what it meant that's.

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Speaker 1: Right, and really like get into the deciphering. I think

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Speaker 1: that was part of the oh geez. I don't even

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Speaker 1: know if fun is the word to use, but maybe

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Speaker 1: they were having fun. But part of the whole experience,

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Speaker 1: I guess is the best way to say it, is

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Speaker 1: deciphering these message messages, chatting with each other on what

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Speaker 1: everything means, what these initials are, who everyone is, and

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Speaker 1: just to get that kind of robust conversation going on

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Speaker 1: these dark corners of the web, initially dark corners, and

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Speaker 1: eventually the mainstream social media of the World Wide Web.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like I said, four chan is considered one

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Speaker 2: of the darker backwaters of the web, and then it

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Speaker 2: moved on to eight chan, which became eight kun or

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Speaker 2: eight kun, and it just kept getting darker and darker

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Speaker 2: and darker the places these Q drops were happening. But

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Speaker 2: then eventually, like I said earlier, people would start tweeting

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Speaker 2: about this stuff, and all of a sudden it spread

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Speaker 2: out from the darker parts of the web to the

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Speaker 2: more mainstream parts of the web, and then the actual

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Speaker 2: mainstream media started reporting on it. So this thing spread

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Speaker 2: far and wide, and the more far and wide its spread,

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Speaker 2: the more believable the whole thing became you know, like

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Speaker 2: you'd see it everywhere and people were talking about it seriously,

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Speaker 2: so it was kind of easy to fall down a

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Speaker 2: rabbit hole the further along this whole thing went, just

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Speaker 2: because there was more and more information to be found

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Speaker 2: down those rabbit holes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, as scary as it is, all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden and you're at home for the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: you have a lot of more time on your hands.

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Speaker 1: You're or maybe you know, lost your job or something

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Speaker 1: which would have been awful, and have more time on

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Speaker 1: your hands, and all of a sudden, you're reading things

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Speaker 1: like you don't know what four chan is or eight

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Speaker 1: chan maybe, or how to get there, And all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, you see something on Facebook or Instagram or

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Speaker 1: one of the close to seventy million tweets referencing QAnon

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Speaker 1: related hashtags and.

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Speaker 3: Phrases over a three year period.

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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, you're thinking like, oh, well, this

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Speaker 1: is this is if I'm seeing on Facebook, which is

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Speaker 1: where I also see pictures of my kid's soccer team.

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Speaker 3: So that makes it.

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Speaker 1: Bona fide and believable, which is in itself kind of

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Speaker 1: sad that that's as far as it goes research wise,

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Speaker 1: and people digging into that kind of the truth.

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Speaker 3: Of the matter. But that's what happened.

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Speaker 2: Well. People also went to the trouble of essentially compiling books,

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Speaker 2: creating lengthy documentaries all supporting these QAnon theories and explaining

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Speaker 2: them and busting them out, sometimes grabbing actual, verifiable, real

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Speaker 2: world examples and interpreting them differently and putting the whole

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Speaker 2: thing together. And so the fact that there's a documentary

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Speaker 2: on this legitimizes it to a lot of people too,

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Speaker 2: So there was it just became legitimized weirdly in some

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Speaker 2: really weird, questionable ways. And again, all of this, the

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Speaker 2: entire thing was in service to the idea that Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump was secretly fighting this cabal and he would bring

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Speaker 2: about the storm one day and people like Nancy Pelosi

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Speaker 2: would be executed live on TV. And people were really

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Speaker 2: psyched about that idea.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know, I mentioned the pandemic because that's when

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Speaker 1: the biggest spike and QAnon activity took place. In March

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which is

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Speaker 1: a think tank, did some investigating about just like spikes

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Speaker 1: and activity and stuff, and March of twenty twenty is

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Speaker 1: when it really really took off, of course, when unique

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Speaker 1: Facebook users jumped one hundred and sixty one percent from

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Speaker 1: year over year basically, and Twitter discussion of q and

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Speaker 1: on increased what was at one hundred and thirty nine

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Speaker 1: percent over the month as well, So that's where it

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Speaker 1: started and really got going there.

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Speaker 2: So when you are on social media and you see

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Speaker 2: there's hashtags like WWG onega where we go one, we

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Speaker 2: go all, but there's a bunch of them. One in

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Speaker 2: particular was kind of hijacked from a legitimate anti child

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Speaker 2: trafficking group. It's hashtag saved the Children. And the reason

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Speaker 2: that it was hijacked was because this is part of

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Speaker 2: the mission of QAnon is to stop sex trafficking of children, right,

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Speaker 2: which is great, but that is one way that a

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Speaker 2: lot of people were kind of innocently brought into the

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Speaker 2: QAnon sphere. They were looking up save the children hashtags

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Speaker 2: because they were concerned about sex trafficking, and they ended

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Speaker 2: up on some tweets or on Facebook accounts of people

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Speaker 2: who are like, now that you're here, let us explain

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Speaker 2: who's actually doing the sex trafficking. It's Nancy Pelosi and

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Speaker 2: Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and that's the rabbit hole

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Speaker 2: that they started to fall down through hashtags like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, And it even got so far as

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Speaker 1: the online retailer Wayfair. I guess one of the rumors

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Speaker 1: that got going on q via QAnon was that if

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Speaker 1: you were cabinet shopping on Wayfair, then that was a

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Speaker 1: secret sort of portal into children shopping. Instead of cabinets,

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Speaker 1: it was actual children. And the other thing we didn't

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Speaker 1: mention about Pizzagate is that when John Podesta and his

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Speaker 1: email was talking about cheese pizza, it was really child pornography.

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Speaker 1: So it's like things like that were getting twisted around

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Speaker 1: and served to a willing audience.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that whole thing, like ten thousand dollars cabinets with

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Speaker 2: female names that just got translated into well, Wayfair's a

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Speaker 2: sex trafficking site. And one of the first posts I saw,

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Speaker 2: the person led it with my spidey sense is tingling,

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Speaker 2: and that's how it just took off. Somebody's spidy sense

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Speaker 2: was tingling. There was a weird price for a cabinet

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Speaker 2: and a girl's name, and that's all it took. So

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Speaker 2: that's how that stuff spreads, It's how it takes root

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Speaker 2: and that's just the thinking that people have with Q nine.

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Speaker 2: There's all the clues are everywhere, and nothing is what

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Speaker 2: it seems.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.

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Speaker 1: So we mentioned how presidential candidate Donald Trump was the

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Speaker 1: supposed savior for all this sex trafficking and everything that's

434
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: going on, and this became clear.

435
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 3: If you ever, you know, saw.

436
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 1: Donald Trump rallies then or now still, I'm sure you

437
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: would see like Q posters and Q T shirts and

438
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: Q flags and stuff like that. To be sure, we're

439
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: not saying that Donald Trump was like, hey, everybody, I am.

440
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 3: That guy, by the way, and.

441
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 1: Literally got involved in this when he was asked though

442
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: directly over the years, specifically in August of twenty twenty,

443
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,119
Speaker 1: they asked him point blank, you know, are you courting

444
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: these QAnon followers? He said he didn't know anything about it,

445
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,679
Speaker 1: and then quote, I heard that, but I heard that

446
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: these are people that love our country. I understand they

447
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,439
Speaker 1: like me very much, and it's gaining a popular larity.

448
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:03,880
Speaker 1: When they followed up with a question about him being

449
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 1: the savior from child sex traffickers, he you know, that's

450
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: when I feel like he probably had a choice to

451
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 1: directly say, like this is a ludicrous conspiracy. But he said,

452
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 1: you know, is that supposed to be a bad thing.

453
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 1: If I can help save the world from problems, I'm

454
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: willing to do it. And the QAnon crowd ate this

455
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: stuff up and they thought it was, you know, him

456
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: sort of secretly saying that he is on their side.

457
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 1: When he would wear a pink tie, which is a

458
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 1: color associated with the movement, they would say, that's him

459
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 1: signaling to us another little breadcrumb that he's leaving for us.

460
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 3: Stuff like that.

461
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 2: Yeah. There's also a very famous press conference a speech

462
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 2: he did in the White House in twenty seventeen where

463
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 2: he used two hands to drink from a bottle of

464
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,080
Speaker 2: Fiji water and he did it twice during this speech

465
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 2: and people like remember that. Yeah, people made fun of

466
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 2: him for it, like what's wrong with you? How do

467
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,399
Speaker 2: you not know how to drink out of a bottle

468
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,680
Speaker 2: of water? But the qan On support were like, yes,

469
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,440
Speaker 2: that a breadcrumb. Yes, the q and On supporters are like, yep,

470
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 2: Fiji is a huge hub for sex trafficking. It's a

471
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 2: destination and a hub, and he's pointing it out to us.

472
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 2: He's letting us know he knows what's going on. That's

473
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 2: what it was translated to. And that's one of the

474
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 2: explanations that a lot of people gave for why it

475
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,560
Speaker 2: started to take off. Is it came along when Donald

476
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:25,120
Speaker 2: Trump was early in his presidency and was getting pummeled

477
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 2: from every which way. So this was kind of a

478
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:31,479
Speaker 2: way to transform that, to transform the weird awkwardness into

479
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 2: this is what's really going on, He's actually sending us signals.

480
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:36,160
Speaker 3: Yeah.

481
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, Trump started to sort of openly

482
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,560
Speaker 1: post q and on theories, where before he danced it

483
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,360
Speaker 1: around a little more. After he had founded his own

484
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: social media gathering place, I guess, Truth Social, where he

485
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,640
Speaker 1: started using q and on words to refer to himself

486
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: like he was a martyr. He literally reposted a Q

487
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 1: draw up. They played a q and on song WWG

488
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: one WGA at one of his rallies, and.

489
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 3: Over the years.

490
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: Between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four, here's the

491
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: stat I was looking for. Trump reposted q andon content

492
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 1: more than eight hundred times on truth Social, so he

493
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: definitely amplified the message. I guess we could say in

494
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 1: the kindest.

495
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 2: Way, Yeah, I did the math. That's a q andon

496
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 2: repost every one point three six days, so that's a lot,

497
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 2: and that's a complete turnaround. I read somewhere Chuck that

498
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 2: at some of his rallies in twenty nineteen, he was

499
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 2: trying to distance himself from q and On so much

500
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,479
Speaker 2: that there were people who went to his rallies who

501
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 2: reported that the Secret Service as they were going through

502
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 2: the metal detector was like, turn your shirt on inside

503
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 2: out because they were wearing a q Andon shirt. They're like,

504
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,400
Speaker 2: we don't want to see those at the rallies anymore

505
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 2: because it's just such bad there's such a bad name

506
00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 2: associated with it that Trump didn't even want to be

507
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:02,680
Speaker 2: associated with it. But then something happened in twenty twenty two.

508
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 2: It's almost like he stopped and actually listened to what

509
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 2: they were saying at QAnon and he was like, oh, okay,

510
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 2: I really do like that, and he fully embraced it,

511
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 2: like you said, yeah.

512
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: But here's the thing is, when you're dealing with a

513
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: false conspiracy like this that's based on the idea of

514
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 1: a deep state and secrets, there's no turning it around.

515
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 3: You can't prove it wrong.

516
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: Even if he came out and fully denounced it, which

517
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 1: he never did.

518
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 3: They would then just say, you know.

519
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: That he's got to do that because it's all part

520
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: of the big secret. So it's one of those sad

521
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: cases where it's born out of paranoia and untruth such

522
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: that you can't you can't truthify it, like no amount

523
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: of truth will get the most ardent believers to think

524
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: that they're not right.

525
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 2: No, for sure. And one of the things that I

526
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:00,479
Speaker 2: saw also that explained it, in addition to like paranoia, anger,

527
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, as you kind of hit upon

528
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 2: it earlier when you were questioning, like is it fun?

529
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 2: And I think it definitely is fun for a lot

530
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 2: of people because it's I saw it described as hazardous

531
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 2: participatory civics, so like the people in their way are

532
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 2: participating in the machinations, the secret machinations of the government.

533
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 2: So I think it is thrilling and fun in a

534
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 2: lot of ways too. I don't think it's one hundred

535
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 2: percent negative or angry or ragy. I think that for

536
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 2: people in the q Andon movement there's a lot of

537
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 2: positivity to it too. And I think there's one other

538
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 2: thing to mention about QAnon people here, Chuck, especially the influencers,

539
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 2: they are well aware that their beliefs look totally crazy

540
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 2: to people in the mainstream, people like you and me

541
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 2: who just believe things are the way they seem they are.

542
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 2: But to them, we just haven't woken up to reality yet.

543
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 2: So there's not like there's not like just a total

544
00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 2: loss of perspective and self reflection. It's just been inverted

545
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,840
Speaker 2: in a way like you're the one that's deluded, not me.

546
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 1: That's right, all right, So I think we should take

547
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,040
Speaker 1: another break. We'll come back in a second and talk

548
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 1: about who this q person might be and stop your

549
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: emailing because Hazardous Participatory Civics is the best band name

550
00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: that we've ever had. We'll be right back.

551
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of people in the q andon

552
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 2: movement who've tried to guess who q is. One of

553
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:52,640
Speaker 2: the big candidates was the Trump's first national security advisor,

554
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 2: Michael Flynn, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, and we'll get to

555
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 2: him again in a minute. But if you don't believe

556
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 2: that QAnon's real, there's some really good candidates for who

557
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 2: posted these q andon drops, And crazy enough, it seems

558
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:11,760
Speaker 2: to have been two different people, and the second group

559
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 2: of people rested control of q andon away from the

560
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 2: guy who originally started it.

561
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this story gets a little confusing. Is there

562
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: a way we can simplify this a little bit?

563
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think I can. You want me to try, well, sure, well, let.

564
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,479
Speaker 1: Me set up the players first, and then you can

565
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: simplify what happened there. What everyone seems to think is

566
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: that the current Q even though and we'll get to

567
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 1: how much Q is around these days at all a

568
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 1: little bit later. But the last Q or whatever most

569
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 1: recent was a father and son team named James and

570
00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:53,960
Speaker 1: Ronald Watkins, internet entrepreneurs, Americans living in the Philippines, where

571
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:57,719
Speaker 1: they ran owned and ran eight chan, which was that

572
00:32:57,760 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 1: message board that originally hosted.

573
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 3: That Q account.

574
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,120
Speaker 1: The other guy that we need to mention here is

575
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 1: a guy named Frederick Brennan. He was the original creator

576
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: of eight chan, but left those boards when it became

577
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: clear that it was just a home for the worst

578
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 1: stuff on the Internet.

579
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 2: Yes, and he turned into the greatest critic and largest

580
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 2: source of information about who really is Q because he

581
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 2: knew the watkinses.

582
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 1: That's right, And now maybe if you can explain how

583
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:33,719
Speaker 1: it was the mantle was unwillingly passed.

584
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 2: Okay, so what people think is that the first guy

585
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 2: who actually was Q was a South African man named

586
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 2: Paul Ferber who was intensely interested and fascinated by American

587
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 2: politics and conspiracy theories. And they think that he's responsible

588
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:53,160
Speaker 2: for the first Q drop up to sometime in twenty eighteen,

589
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 2: that he was the original Q. The whole thing started

590
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 2: on four chan, but very quickly migrated to eight chan

591
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,960
Speaker 2: because of apparently Q's account got hacked and he had

592
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,719
Speaker 2: to create a new account, so he moved to the

593
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 2: more anonymous, more secure eight chan and started posting there.

594
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:11,240
Speaker 1: That's right, And he started posting on a message board

595
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:15,719
Speaker 1: called CBTs Calm before the storm, and he owned that

596
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:19,800
Speaker 1: sub board, Paul Ferber did, so that was his sub board.

597
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so that means that he could see who

598
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,359
Speaker 2: was posting it, could see like their actual metadata, right,

599
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 2: So he was the only person who could verify that

600
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:33,040
Speaker 2: Q was Q. Same thing when they transferred from four

601
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 2: chan to eight chan. He was the only person who

602
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,600
Speaker 2: could verify that this was actually the same guy, same

603
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 2: IP address. So believe me, everybody, it's the same Q.

604
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 2: So go ahead, Q essentially is what they were saying.

605
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, in twenty eighteen, Q

606
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 2: Paul Thurber said, hey, q'sq's account got hacked again, everybody,

607
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 2: so we're gonna have to start a new account. But then,

608
00:34:56,200 --> 00:35:00,319
Speaker 2: probably very much to Paul Therber's surprise, Q joined in

609
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 2: and said, actually, no, my account hasn't been hacked. Paul

610
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 2: Thurber's been compromised. So I'm going to start posting it

611
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:08,799
Speaker 2: a new board. This would be a board that Paul

612
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 2: Thurber had no authority or administrative duties over, but Jim

613
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,719
Speaker 2: and Ron Watkins did. So now they were the only

614
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 2: ones who could verify he Q was. And so they

615
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:23,240
Speaker 2: think that with that transition, and because they had administrative

616
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:28,240
Speaker 2: domain over eight chan, they took Q away from Paul

617
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 2: Thurber and started posting his Q themselves.

618
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,959
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to be clear, this was the second time

619
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,080
Speaker 1: that account had been hacked. I do want to mention

620
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 1: also that the first time it was hacked, they it

621
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 1: was found out that the password for Q originally was

622
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,680
Speaker 1: Matt Block, which I just think is hysterical one of the.

623
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 3: Few laughs were going to get here.

624
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the reason that the Watkinses wanted to sort

625
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 1: of wrestle that away was because at some point Thurber

626
00:35:55,920 --> 00:36:00,920
Speaker 1: started appearing on some right wing conspiracy like YouTube shows

627
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 1: and stuff like that YouTube programs, so it was getting

628
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: out there in a more mainstream way, and the Watkinsons

629
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,759
Speaker 1: were like, hey, this is you know, we can turn

630
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:16,880
Speaker 1: eight chan into a real conspiracy hotbed for the online

631
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,959
Speaker 1: right wing space, and so they saw an opportunity basically right.

632
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 2: So it gets way more intricate than that. Like Fred

633
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,839
Speaker 2: Brennan has really gone into great detail to dig up

634
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 2: a lot of evidence that all this happened, and we're

635
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 2: not going to go into it here, but suffice to

636
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 2: say that most people agree that he's probably right about this.

637
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 2: That it started out as Paul Ferber and then turned

638
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 2: to Ron Watkins, and the whole thing went until about

639
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:48,279
Speaker 2: June twenty twenty and then stopped, and those seemed to

640
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:51,759
Speaker 2: be the canonical Q drops, and then they picked up

641
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:55,439
Speaker 2: again in I think twenty twenty two, and as we'll see,

642
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 2: those kind of got ignored because the community had changed

643
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 2: so much in those eighteen months without Q dropping Q drops, right,

644
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 2: But in the meantime the movement had taken over. I

645
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 2: saw it described as it didn't need Q anymore. It

646
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 2: had become its own. What was I saw written as

647
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:18,840
Speaker 2: the world's first open source cult where anybody could add

648
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 2: or subtract, or debate or help create this again ever

649
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 2: evolving mythos of what was really going on in the

650
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,439
Speaker 2: world with Donald Trump at the center of the whole thing.

651
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,279
Speaker 2: And the problem with that is is that it made

652
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 2: it out of the darkest corners of the Internet to

653
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:38,359
Speaker 2: the mainstream Internet, to the mainstream media, and then into

654
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:43,480
Speaker 2: real life to where it very frequently Yeah, I think

655
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 2: you could use the word frequently disturbed individuals who had

656
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:51,000
Speaker 2: fallen down the QAnon hole acted out in real life violence.

657
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,040
Speaker 2: Not just the comet ping pong guy from North Carolina.

658
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:58,040
Speaker 2: There's a whole slew of people who have engaged in

659
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 2: real world violence because of what they learned about from QAnon.

660
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.

661
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:06,359
Speaker 1: There was one case I remember hearing about this when

662
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen, this guy pled guilty to terrorism charges

663
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,399
Speaker 1: because he got an armored truck and blocked the road

664
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: crossing the Hoover Dam with two assault rifles and had

665
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:21,799
Speaker 1: a sign that said release the OIG report, which was

666
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,680
Speaker 1: referring to the quote unquote real Mueller report that QAnon

667
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 1: believers thought provided basically kind of exposed Hillary Clinton's criminal

668
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 1: activities because I mean, there were a lot of people

669
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: that they targeted, but the Clintons and especially Hillary were

670
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: obviously because she ran against Donald Trump, but she was

671
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:44,359
Speaker 1: kind of squarely in the crosshairs for them.

672
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:47,919
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was at the time people were chanting lock

673
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 2: her up, like she was very much in the crosshairs

674
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 2: for sure. And Obama still was too. He had just

675
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 2: finished being president after all when this whole thing started.

676
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,080
Speaker 2: One of the most puzzling acts of violence to me

677
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 2: in the real world based on QAnon was the assassination

678
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:08,600
Speaker 2: of a Gambino mafia boss named Francesco Frankie Boy Cali,

679
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 2: and he was killed by a Quanon supporter who believed

680
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:15,320
Speaker 2: he was an agent of the deep state, like a

681
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 2: high up agent of the deep state. I could not

682
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:22,600
Speaker 2: find anything about what that guy's rationalization was for that.

683
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,520
Speaker 2: But this is the first time since nineteen eighty five,

684
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 2: This is a twenty twenty one, I think, the first

685
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,359
Speaker 2: time since nineteen eighty five that a mafia boss had

686
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 2: been assassinated and it was by a QAnon adherent.

687
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, just really bizarre.

688
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 2: But if anybody knows why that guy killed him because

689
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 2: of that, like I would love to hear it.

690
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:43,720
Speaker 3: Yeah.

691
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: The other thing that I don't understand or not understand,

692
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 1: but I'm really curious about, is whoever Q is Watkinson's

693
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 1: or not? Like what was their endgame here? Like did

694
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: they really and do they really really believe this stuff?

695
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 3: Or is it Are they just bad.

696
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:07,839
Speaker 1: Actors who have a sick I don't know, not sense

697
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 1: of humor, but maybe sense of humor to try and

698
00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:15,520
Speaker 1: start something like this, or was it financially related or

699
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: do they really believe that it's just that's That's the

700
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: one thing I wish I could find out that we'll

701
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 1: probably never know.

702
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 2: I know, and I don't know, but I suspect that

703
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 2: they don't believe it. I mean, if they're posing as Q,

704
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think that they actually believe it,

705
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:34,320
Speaker 2: you know, well.

706
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:38,840
Speaker 1: Right, because they're not secret government higher ups that really

707
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,719
Speaker 1: have this information obviously, But I mean, do they really

708
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 1: believe Tom Hanks is killing and eating children?

709
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 2: No? I don't. I don't think so. Again, I don't

710
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:48,920
Speaker 2: know the people. I don't know enough about him to

711
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:52,440
Speaker 2: really definitively say, but just don't know. I don't think

712
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 2: that makes.

713
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:57,600
Speaker 1: It even more sad somehow that it is stretched from

714
00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:03,320
Speaker 1: the darkest reaches in the Internet to literal suburban parents

715
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: who had too much time on their hands between soccer pickups.

716
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:11,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, there is a really sad, disturbing act of violence

717
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 2: based on QAnon that happened in twenty twenty one where

718
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,799
Speaker 2: a man from California killed both of his children, a

719
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 2: baby and a toddler, with a spear gun because he

720
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 2: believed that they had gotten reptilian DNA from their mother.

721
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 2: Because remember, lizard people are walking among us. So he

722
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:32,400
Speaker 2: said that he knew what he was doing was wrong,

723
00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:34,480
Speaker 2: but it was the only way to save the world.

724
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 2: And it was because of QAnon. He murdered his two

725
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:43,560
Speaker 2: children because of QAnon. And like Paul Pelosi is another one.

726
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 2: He was beaten with a hammer by a guy who

727
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 2: was driven by q and on motivation. Like the idea,

728
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 2: I'm with you if the idea that these guys were

729
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 2: just doing it for lulls and because they were nihilistic

730
00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:01,439
Speaker 2: or even for money, and that it translated into real

731
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:05,720
Speaker 2: world violence like that is just it's abominable for sure.

732
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 3: That's right. Are we done?

733
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 2: No, We've got to give a little bit of an update. Okay, okay,

734
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 2: all right, well, I'll start. So there was a really

735
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 2: big problem because Trump was always in charge as part

736
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 2: of the QAnon mythos. No matter what was going on,

737
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 2: Trump was in control, is the way they said it. Well,

738
00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 2: Trump was obviously supposed to be re elected in twenty twenty,

739
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 2: but he wasn't. And so in following with tradition of

740
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 2: kind of prophetic cults, the people in QAnon just essentially

741
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,080
Speaker 2: were like, Okay, well, this is all just part of

742
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 2: the act. This is trust in the plan, and they

743
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 2: kind of rationalized it in all sorts of ways, and

744
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 2: that's kind of part and parcel for what they've been doing.

745
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:55,360
Speaker 2: Like the assassination attempt of Trump in Pennsylvania led to

746
00:42:55,400 --> 00:43:00,719
Speaker 2: a huge crisis initially among QAnon followers because because that

747
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:04,000
Speaker 2: clearly demonstrated Trump wasn't in control if he was getting

748
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:06,440
Speaker 2: shot at, and some people were like it was stage

749
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 2: and other people are like, no, no, no, we got it.

750
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 2: This is proof positive that Trump has been anointed by

751
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:15,360
Speaker 2: God to bring the storm to overthrow the Satanic cabal,

752
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,600
Speaker 2: because how else could he have not been shot in

753
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 2: the head by the assassin's bullet. And so I saw

754
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:23,839
Speaker 2: that some people who kind of left QAnon after Trump

755
00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 2: didn't get elected, came raging back into it after the

756
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 2: assassination attempt, and there were a lot of families that

757
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:32,439
Speaker 2: were like, Okay, good my friend or family members back

758
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 2: and then oh god, there they go again. After the

759
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:35,720
Speaker 2: assassination attempt.

760
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, I read a really sad article about the guy

761
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:43,200
Speaker 1: who came into the pizza place about him getting out

762
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:46,240
Speaker 1: of prison and marrying his girlfriend and having a kid,

763
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 1: and it was you know, it's just sad, wreckless guy.

764
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I bet that's the kind of thing that

765
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:56,280
Speaker 2: kind of follows you around for life.

766
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I would imagine.

767
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:00,680
Speaker 2: One of the other things that happened post election, I

768
00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:03,280
Speaker 2: believe is Michael Flynn was a luminary. Remember, some people

769
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 2: thought he was Q and he was outed as saying

770
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:10,319
Speaker 2: privately that he thought the whole thing was total nonsense

771
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 2: and that he believed actually it was a CIA psyop

772
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:17,360
Speaker 2: to discredit the Right by making them look foolish and gullible.

773
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 2: So the whole the community is very much fractured, but

774
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 2: it's still very much alive. There was a poll that

775
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 2: found that in May of twenty twenty one, fifteen percent

776
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 2: of people believed Americans I should say, believed QAnon beliefs

777
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 2: in some form or fashion. You would think that it

778
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:38,960
Speaker 2: would have gone down since Trump didn't get re elected.

779
00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:43,879
Speaker 2: In fact, it rose by eight points in twenty twenty three,

780
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:47,640
Speaker 2: two years later. So the belief in QAnon just keeps

781
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 2: spreading and spreading and spreading and becomes more and more mainstream.

782
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:53,640
Speaker 2: And it's even as it does, it gets kind of

783
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:57,840
Speaker 2: divorced from QAnon and becomes just what people think about

784
00:44:57,880 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 2: things about reality.

785
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 1: Sorry, I checked out, and I was just thinking in

786
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:04,560
Speaker 1: my head, I was just hearing what a wonderful warl

787
00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 1: by Louis Armstrong, over and over.

788
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 2: That's a good. How am I not surprised that you

789
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:14,120
Speaker 2: do a great Louis Armstrong?

790
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 3: Oh he's easy.

791
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,600
Speaker 2: I would have guessed you did the izzy Hawaiian guys version.

792
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:20,319
Speaker 3: Oh that's a fun one too.

793
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 2: Or no, he did somewhere over the rainbow. I'm sorry, Yeah, yeah,

794
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 2: that's right.

795
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:24,800
Speaker 3: Somewhere over the rainbow.

796
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:26,879
Speaker 2: There's one o the things. Let's leave on a semi

797
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 2: positive note, Chuck. A couple of different places, I saw

798
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:32,960
Speaker 2: people who were interviewed who had lost a friend or

799
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:36,280
Speaker 2: family member or hung on to a friend or family

800
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:40,560
Speaker 2: member while they'd fallen down the Q rabbit hole, and

801
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 2: the fact that they'd gotten him back, universally was because

802
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 2: that person stuck with them, let him know they didn't

803
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 2: agree with them, but they loved them nonetheless, and as

804
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,960
Speaker 2: they put it, provided a soft landing place for the

805
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,319
Speaker 2: people when they finally were like, this isn't real. I

806
00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:00,799
Speaker 2: can't believe that I've believed this for so long. Had

807
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 2: they were there for them without any kind of judgment

808
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,400
Speaker 2: or cruelty or I told you so, And that helped

809
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:09,440
Speaker 2: allow the people to kind of get back on their

810
00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:12,160
Speaker 2: feet in a very gentle manner.

811
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:12,800
Speaker 3: Yeah.

812
00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:16,680
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of great websites and organizations that

813
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 1: have now had to help people through this stuff, and

814
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:23,879
Speaker 1: like how do you help your family members and things

815
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:26,719
Speaker 1: like that, like you were just talking about. Certainly one

816
00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 1: place you can start is the Anti Defamation League website,

817
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 1: but there are plenty plenty of places to go so

818
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 1: you don't just like argue with your family member and

819
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 1: tell them they're not using you know, rational thought with

820
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 1: stuff like this. You got you gotta you gotta try

821
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:44,319
Speaker 1: a different tack there, yep.

822
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's all sorts of advice all over the internet.

823
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,359
Speaker 2: So if you want to look go find it, uh,

824
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 2: and be careful what you do look for there, be

825
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:55,399
Speaker 2: careful of the hashtags you follow. And since I said that,

826
00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:57,439
Speaker 2: obviously it's time for listener mail.

827
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,319
Speaker 1: That's right, a quick not correction, but just enlightening because

828
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:05,200
Speaker 1: we've had a bunch of people write in already about

829
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 1: our glasses episode because we could not figure out why

830
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:12,319
Speaker 1: Livia titled her research four eyes bad.

831
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 3: And this is from just one of them. Is from Marty.

832
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,120
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, listen to the episode about glass as great

833
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 1: as usual. I've been wearing glasses for over forty years.

834
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 1: Regarding the phrase four eyes bad, I believe that as

835
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,160
Speaker 1: a joke reference to the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.

836
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 1: In the book, the animals use the phrase four legs good,

837
00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:33,760
Speaker 1: two legs bad as they rise against the humans.

838
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 3: That must be it. Love the show, longtime listener.

839
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 1: That is from Marty Mishka from Omaha, Nebraska, parentheses living

840
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:47,239
Speaker 1: in the Blue Dot, and I haven't read Animal Farm

841
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 1: in so long I completely forgot that, But I bet

842
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: you are right on the money because that's a very

843
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:53,319
Speaker 1: Livia kind of easter egg.

844
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a deep cut literary wise, So nice work, Libya,

845
00:47:58,640 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 2: and who is that Marty?

846
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:02,560
Speaker 3: That was Marty, But many people have written in and

847
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 3: we'll continue.

848
00:48:03,239 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 2: To Yeah, thanks a lot, Marty, and thanks a lot

849
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:07,600
Speaker 2: to everybody who's written in to let us know, help

850
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:09,760
Speaker 2: us figure that out. We love that kind of thing.

851
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 2: If you want to be somebody like that, you can

852
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 2: send us an email too, to stuff Podcasts at iHeartRadio

853
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,640
Speaker 2: dot com.

854
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

855
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:25,920
Speaker 1: For more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

856
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:27,880
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.