Qanon Debunked

As of 1/12/2020, the anonymous message board user known as QAnon has not made a post in over a month.

QAnon has essentially abandoned posting any predictions or insights just as the Trump administration comes to an end. President Donald Trump was a key character in the QAnon mythos, looked upon as a savior that would bring the evil deep state down once and for all.

QAnon seems to have concluded with an extremely poor track record. You can read a few of them in a previous post: Non-Comprehensive List of QDrops that have been Debunked.

Now that QAnon predictions have came up with nothing and has ceased posting what will happen to the movement? Will the followers admit that they have been duped and misguided?

Hopefully QAnon followers can now move on.

Below is a great video explaining the phycology behind the QAnon movement and some predictions on where it could go next.

A reporter finally asked President Donald Trump about the QAnon Movement and the President seemed to know very little about the happenings in Q world.

The question was posed as growing during the pandemic. The President replied that the movement is gaining popularity and that the followers don’t like seeing what is happening in places like Portland.

He then talks about Democratic run cities and sending federal troops in to solve ‘problems’.

This of course has little to do with the QAnon narrative of mass arrests of powerful people running a global cabal.

Luckily the reporter, asks a follow-up stating, “The crux of the theory is the belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind?”

The fact that this question was asked is amazing.

The President relied, “I haven’t heard that”. Seemingly flummoxed but recovering with a “Is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?”.

President trump then goes on a mini rant about coronavirus testing, open boards and liberal policies, but does not address the more salacious claims of satanic pedophilia.

This seems to be the first real response from President Donald Trump regarding QAnon. While the President seemed someone confused by the moment, he also praised them for loving America and supporting him.

Q has pushed the narrative that he is inside a small circle of influence within the White House and that a sometimes poster, Q+, is actually the President himself.

Did the President play off the movement, acting ill informed, or does he see them as useful pawns willing to believe easily falsifiable claimed?

For a non-comprehensive list of debunked QAnon claims follow here.

It’s nearly impossible to list all of the easily debunked QAnon posts. Q has adopted more ambiguous language recently. Telling followers to “Trust the Plan” or “Information Warfare” or “No Coincidences”.

With the fake military jargon and cheer-leading devotees its getting harder to see what Q is actually offering in terms of actual information dissemination to followers.

Below is a non-comprehensive list of some QDrops which are easily debunked

• The first and second Q posts state that Hillary Clinton will be arrested in 2017 and that her passport has been “flagged” if she tries to flee the country. This did not happen.

• QDrop number 15 states that Clinton loyalist, John Podesta and Huma Abedin will be arrest in November 2017. This did not happen.

• QDrop 29 states that Kim Jong-Un is not the true leader of North Korea and that the truth would drive people to riot. Over three years later, this does not happen.

• Q states in November 2017 that the arrest of Mr. Podesta will result in riots and the Emergency Broadcast System will be activated. This does not happen.

• Q drop 540 states that its a “BIG NEWS DAY” and that the news will lead to the end of the Democratic party. Two years later the Democratic party has actually gained seats in the legislative body.

• QDrop 576 states that the flood is coming. Emails, videos and pictures released by the NSA. This of course, does not happen.

• QDrop 598 and 615 state that Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter will be leaving Twitter. He remains the CEO in late 2020.

• QDrop 856 states that the Veterans Day parade on 11.11.18 will “never be forgotten”. The parade it’s self does not happen.

• Post 1014 states that Mark Zuckerberg will step downs and leave the United States. Over 2 years later and this has not happened

• Post 1043 states that a picture of President Barack Obama holding an AK-47 will surface and the internet will be shut down. This, of course, never happened.

• Post 1276 implicated singer John Legend with something, presumable child trafficking in Haiti. This is never substantiated .

• Drop 1332 Q asks followers to “Trust the Plan” and “Remain BRAVE” as President Obama goes down.

• Drop 1386 Q tells followers to watch NYC and CA. Nothing actually happens.

• Paul Ryan departs as speaker and Q states that “The Flood is coming”. Nothing actually happens.

• Q states a “week to remember” in June 2018. Do you remember the first week in June 2018?

• Post 1528 Q shares a poorly photoshopped graffiti was in Spain.

• In QDrop 1558 he states that Iran will have a Regime Change. It does not.

• Q states that “July 2018 -the month the world discovered the TRUTH”

There are many, many more QAnon predictions and statements that are easily proven false. The question remains, why would anyone follow this? How did it gain traction?

In a July 21st briefing regarding the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump fielded questions, including one regarding the status of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now in federal custody and charged with six federal crimes including enticement of minors and sex trafficking.

President Trump was specifically asked if Mrs. Maxwell would turn in powerful men. The President’s response could be categorized as bizarre.

The President stated, “I have not really been following it much, I just wish her well quite frankly. I have met her numerous times over the years especially as I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach, but I wish her well.”

The question also asked specifically about Prince Andrew to which the President responded, “I don’t know the situation with Prince Andrew”.

The easy answer would of course be,”I’m happy we have her in custody and I hope we are able to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.” However the President’s response was quite different.

As of July 2020, Qanon about Mrs. Maxwell on at least 10 occasions. Usually referring to the Clinton ties with Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine.

Q seems to allude to the idea that Ghislaine is actually more important to the puzzle than Jeffery Epstein, writing on July 2nd:

Qanon often acts as a surrogate for President Trump, fighting to save humanity and expose the elite as sex trafficking pedophiles, so why the well wishing? President Trump was more than just acquaintances with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein, he was a friend.

It seems the comments by the President are counter to the Qanon narrative. It almost appears as if the President was trying to court her favor.

Ethan Zuckerman for the MIT Press wrote a fantastic synopsis of the Q phenomenon that is worth reading.

The post titled “QAnon and the Emergence of the Unreal” offered some fantastic insights into the QAnon movement. I recommend anyone interested in Q, both believers and non-believers alike read the article here.

One of my favorite sections Ethan digests how Q makes readers feel like participants. Its a powerful tool to make believers have a sense that they have a purpose.

Q’s literary style is one of relentless questioning, demanding that readers fill in the blanks left in the narrative:

Where is Huma? Follow Huma.

This has nothing to do w/ Russia (yet).

Why does Potus surround himself w/ generals?

What is military intelligence?

Why go around the 3 letter agencies? (Q:#2)

The “baking” of Q’s crumbs has led to a complex ecosystem that almost resembles Talmudic commentary, with some “researchers” competing to interpret Q’s pronouncements and tie them to breaking events in the news. Other researchers are numerologists, linking the “tripcodes” used in Q’s posts (tripcodes are a weak form of cryptographic signature designed to allow anonymous posters to link authorship of multiple posts) to thousands of books indexed by Google Books. Q’s devotees are incredibly prolific. The leading Q podcasts have published thousands of episodes, and the thousands of videos explaining QAnon routinely register hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.

Even with the overwhelming evidence pointing to Q simply being a fraud the movement continues to have thousands of followers. What will it take for believers to realize the truth?

Q was on a roll in late October 2017. After incorrectly predicting that Hillary Clinton would be indicted on October 20th, he gave specific dates that Huma Abedin and John Podesta to be indicted in early November. Q fails to mention what year these indictments will come down, so maybe he actually means November 2026?

However it appears that Q was wrong again.

The post is intriguing for reasons other than the failed prediction. Q says that “wizards and warlocks” is an “inside term”. Are we supposed to believe that high ranking intelligence officers walk around saying, “That George Soros, he is a Warlock!”? Bizarre.

QAnon has had many preditctions that have failed to materialize.

However believers held out hope that this Veteran’s day, the truth would finally come out. The evil cabal and deep state would finally be outted!

However Veterans Day came and went with nary a peep from with Q or mainline news announcing the indictments, arrests or evidence.

QAnon said in March that the Veteran’s day parade would be one to remember!

Sadly, the parade never even happened as the Pentagon estimated it would cost about $92 million.

 

After mid-term elections it looks like the Democrats will take a commanding majority in the house, while the Republicans will retain a slim majority and likely gain a few seats in the process.

However one Senate race took quite a while to finalize. The Senate seat vacated by Trump critic, Jeff Flake in Arizona, on election night looked like it was going to the Republican Martha McSally. However after a lengthy process, where early mail-in ballots are tallied, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema pulled ahead before the race was called in her favor.

The race was always seen as a close one going into the election. McSally and Sinema traded leads in polls in the months leading up to the race. According to RealClearPolitics, McSally had a slight lead of just 1 point in their aggregate polling prior to the election. A real toss-up to be sure!

Sinema won by just 1.7% of the vote as the race was as close as expected.

Meanwhile Arizona also had a gubernatorial election. The incumbent Governor, Republican Doug Ducey proved popular with Arizonans and the polling data showed that he would likely win a second term by a healthy margin, up 16% in the RealClearPolitics polling.

Governor Ducey and Senator Sinema was a fairly likely outcome, with Ducey expected to win by a large margin and the senate race was a toss-up.

While split tickets do not happen regularly, in this case it was not only possible but highly likely. Additionally, Sinema and Ducey share many of the same views and ran similarly styled campaigns.

That factual analysis didn’t stop QAnon from suggesting that the split ticket was actually evidence of voting fraud! Offering no evidence but the vote totals, on November 12th he posted the following:

I wonder when the Patriots will take action against this kind of fraud! If what QAnon said was real, there would be an army of lawyers from the Administration’s justice department to hold fraudsters accountable.

At this time the outcome stands. And the outcome was very similar to what polling was predicting.

 

Q has made many mentions of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Q certainly wants his followers to believe that Mr. Sessions is one on the good guys, simply bidding his time before he strikes!

On September 17th, 2018 Q said that Sessions has been activated!

So Sessions must be onto something big! Bringing down the cabal once and for all!

However, oddly, the POTUS has continued to bash Mr. Sessions and allude to the idea that appointing Mr. Sessions was in fact a mistake.

2 days after the “Activate ]SESSIONS[” message The President gave an interview in which he stated “I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad” 

This is seemingly at odds with what Q has been stating, so what is the truth? Probably that QAnon is a fabrication.

 

As time has passed without the “Storm”, followers of Q on message boards like reddit, seemed to grow anxious. Q was always alluding to something big right around the corner, but Hillary Clinton and co. were walking free!

In late June Q stated that July would be the month that the world discovered the Truth!

As the month came to a close, there were no arrests or news concerning members of the ‘cabal’. So on July 31st Q posted a picture of a partial Donald Trump signature with the hashtag 1776.

This is Donald confirming Q is on the inside!

However this would have to be a completely disappointing outcome for followers of Q. Many have examined this photo and said that the #1776 was actually photoshopped. However the bigger takeaway is that Q failed to deliver anything of note in the month where the world was going to discover the truth.