QAnon, The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius
Credit Al Drago for The New York Times
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Last week Roseanne Barr — who, with the hit reboot of her show, has become one of the most prominent Donald Trump supporters in the country — tweeted that the president has freed hundreds of children a month from sexual bondage. “He has broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere,” she wrote. (The tweet has since been deleted.)
Barr’s tweet, puzzling to the casual observer, was a reference to QAnon , an expansive, complicated pro-Trump conspiracy theory. The theory is fascinating as an artifact of our current political derangement, but more than that, it’s profoundly revealing about the lengths to which some Trump supporters will go to convince themselves that his presidency is going well.
As Paris Martineau explained in New York Magazine, QAnon was born last October , when someone claiming to have “Q” level security clearance started a cryptic thread on 4chan, the online message board and troll playground. It was titled, “The Calm Before the Storm,” a phrase Trump had recently used. Q posted hints, some in the form of questions, ostensibly meant to help clued-in Trump supporters understand what was really going on in Washington beneath the facade of chaos and incompetence. (“What is military intelligence? Why go around the 3 letter agencies?”)
From these clues, a sprawling community on message boards, YouTube videos and Twitter accounts has elaborated an enormous, ever-mutating fantasy narrative about the Trump presidency. In the QAnon reality, Trump only pretended to collude with Russia in order to create a pretext for the hiring of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, who is actually working with Trump to take down an inconceivably evil and powerful network of coup-plotters and child sex traffickers that includes Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros.
“QAnon points out that this is the beginning of the end for the Clintons,” said Jerome Corsi — a prominent proponent of the lie that Obama was born in Kenya — on a YouTube broadcast in January . He warned that the world would be forced to contend with “films of innocent children pleading for their lives while people are butchering them.” Once that happens, presumably, Trump will be revealed as a master of 12-dimensional chess who successfully distracted smirking elites with his buffoonery while he was quietly saving the world.
Posts on other websites, as well as YouTube videos, Twitter accounts and even a book , have taken the theory in countless directions, encompassing characters from the model Chrissy Teigen to disgraced politician Anthony Weiner . The creativity poured into QAnon is striking; it’s like something between a sprawling work of crowdsourced postmodern fiction and an immersive role-playing game.
But for many people, QAnon is very real. Barr has tried to make contact with Q on Twitter. InfoWars, the website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — who has a close relationship with Trump confidant Roger Stone — has consistently promoted it . Last month, Cheryl Sullenger, senior vice president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, posted an article on the group’s website about an “intel drop” from Q revealing a White House plan to end Planned Parenthood. Sean Hannity retweeted a post with the #QAnon hashtag.
Some elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory — secret elites, kidnapped children — are classic, even archetypical. “In all Western culture, you can argue that all conspiracy theories, no matter how diverse, come from the idea of the Jews abducting children,” Chip Berlet, the co-author of “Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort,” told me. Stories about globalists stealing children for sex aren’t that far removed from stories about Jews stealing children to use their blood making matzo.
One twist, however, makes QAnon unusual. Conspiracy theories are usually about evil cabals manipulating world events. QAnon, by contrast, is a conspiracy theory in which the good guys — in this case, Trump and his allies — are in charge. It’s a dream of power rather than a bitter alibi for victimhood. It seems designed to cope with the cognitive dissonance caused by the gap between Trump as his faithful followers like to imagine him, and Trump as he is.
On Thursday, the usually even-keeled Mike Allen published a piece in Axios titled, “The case for extreme worry,” about how those close to Trump are panicked by his erraticism . The president’s whims and resentments have led to stock market convulsions and may soon result in painful tariffs that affect American farmers, an important part of his base. Mueller’s special counsel investigation continues to close in. Republicans have lost special election seats in red-leaning areas all over the country. But QAnon offers assurance that everything is under control.
Barr, for example, retweeted a QAnon post arguing that conservative criticism of the omnibus spending bill , legislation many on the right deplored, was shortsighted. In releasing funds to the military, it said, the bill would set off a climactic series of events: “Swamp drain begins, military seizes TRILLIONS in cabal assets, returning them to the people.” An inspector general report would then reveal the establishment’s unspeakable crimes, after which “the strings will be cut from the propaganda machine and people will stop falling for the garbage MSM,” or mainstream media. Trump, and those who believe in him, would be vindicated.
You don’t create a wild fantasy about your leader being a covert genius unless you understand that to most people, he looks like something quite different. You don’t need an occult story about how your side is secretly winning if it’s actually winning. Publicly, many right-wing politicians and pundits disdain the Mueller investigation and pretend to believe that Trump’s ties to Russia are negligible. But among part of the Trump base, the effort to explain them away appears to be creating psychic strain.
“You cannot possibly imagine the size of this,” said a Q dispatch last month. “Trust the plan. Trust there are more good than bad.” Q almost certainly doesn’t know any state secrets, but he, she, or they understand that some fervent Trump supporters require more reassurance than they’re willing to admit. Their desperate conviction that they will be proven right about Trump betrays a secret fear that they will be proven wrong.
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There is an element of Trump supporters who willfully disconnect themselves from reality. The cult leader himself doesn't mind because they fill his rally stadiums and internet forums.
Donald Trump is the mad hater in this malevolent Alice in Wonderland world.
These are seriously dumb people.
No QUestion about it /s. IMO QAnon is a modern day version of the KKK. The QKu QKlux QKlan...
"LOCK HER UP - OFF WITH HER HEAD", We're through a looking glass and down a rabbit hole...
The Orange King of Vulgaria and his Ukrainian Queen sit upon solid gold thrones. See: Crappers
Cower in fear of The Tyrant? We're told in the Bible that olde King Herod went mad at the end, too...
Herod's paranoia got worse after "The Massacre of the Innocents" and ended up killing his own kids.
Plainly, the kind of man that harms children and breaks up families is a danger to those close to him.
It's no wonder Eric locks his bedroom door and has to have a night light on in order for him to sleep.
I find it "amusing" to try to distinguish among NT's wingnuts, those who are perps and those who are vics.
I found it interesting what ex-FBI chief Comey said about Trump.
“I don’t buy this stuff about him being mentally incompetent or early stages of dementia. He strikes me as a person of above-average intelligence”
That's a good question, isn't it?
Is Trump's crazy behavior a mask?
Is Trump the Manchurian Candidate ?
Trump cannot and will not ever sustain a good approval rating. He has to do or say something insane every few days, and thus will always drag down his popularity. It is his nature. Not a bug, but a feature.
People like you argue that Trump is popular, and has the American people behind him. There is no evidence to support that.
He didn't say, "YOU", did he? No.
"Once that happens, presumably, Trump will be revealed as a master of 12-dimensional chess who successfully distracted smirking elites with his buffoonery while he was quietly saving the world."
Even they have to admit his actions are that of a buffoon.
"You don’t create a wild fantasy about your leader being a covert genius unless you understand that to most people, he looks like something quite different. You don’t need an occult story about how your side is secretly winning if it’s actually winning."
Exactly. They wouldn't have to invent conspiracy theories or imagine hidden greatness if it was actually apparent.
"Their desperate conviction that they will be proven right about Trump betrays a secret fear that they will be proven wrong."
Desperation is a stinky cologne, and you don't get much more unpleasantly fragrant than a rabid Trump supporter.
It seems the natural course to take. Supporting someone who has absolutely no integrity or moral compass will eventually drive certain people to lunacy. Creating an alternate reality is one way the brain protects itself.
Now, now, PJ...
Calm down..............
You're being reasonable again, and that simply is not acceptable behavior on this site.
You must gin up some anger, PJ!
The huge level of cognitive dissonance required to be in the gop today must make most goppers krazy...
or warped and morally crippled
Everyone knows the far left is toothless but the gop is desperately trying to insist they are a great danger...
Apparently, the gop needs to create a demon to justify their own build up towards the violence they desire.
The QKu QKlux QKlan used to hide behind hoods or bed sheets but now hide behind a computer screen...
They've been itching for a race war for years but that is unpopular so they made up ANTIFA to demonize...
Are the Brownshirts Coming?
Read through the Q stuff. Some of it may have been a coincidence... a very interesting coincidence. They detailed a meeting with NK well before it actually happened or before it was reported as going to happen. I'm calling a sham, but who the hell knows anymore. Crazier things have been true.
If i remember the basics of it... trump was approached by military intelligence. They detailed a network of politicians who have positioned themselves and their pawns in areas that would leave them untouchable and FBI and other alphabet agencies were involved on some level. They got Trump to agree to run and help him win so they had someone on the inside to help clean up. One of the points that led to this was the number of sealed indictments across the US currently. Supposedly higher than ever by a large margin.
They pointed to things like a budget item that was for protection for witnesses...and something about military tribunals used.
Not saying i believe it. That is just some of the stuff Q followers have said. Elaborate hoax IMO .. most likely.
Just throw enough garbage at the wall. Some will stick...