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The QAnon Conspiracy has been around for several years now. It did not take long for major media outlets to become convinced of the threat that Q presented. The first Q drops (or coded instructions) were published on October 27, 2017. Here is a good, succinct overview of Q and the movement.
Now there is an easy-to-read and understand book (Redwood Press; 1st edition (c) 2021) on the Conspiracy by two distinguished authors: Mia Bloom who is the International Security Fellow at New America, professor at Georgia State University, and member of the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group and Sophia Moskalenko who is a psychologist studying mass identity, inter-group conflict, and conspiracy theories, according to their bios. Both of these authors are well published in their fields.
In the very first pages of the book, they establish a little know fact with much more detail than I’ve come across in the past. Few people know that Q was set up like a game–the sort of game that has an addictive “hook” to it. Sort of like the Jem’Hadar with their Ketracel-white for those of you who are ST-DS9 fans. This is one reason that people keep coming back online until they become full blown disciples of Q themselves. The authors use plural forms of personal pronouns to descibe Q (e.g., “they”) and, in fact, recent research suggests that there are at least two different people who play the role of Q.
Q’s messages are called “Q drops” and they are the equivalent of breadcrumbs by which a follower can follow a trail. A drop might be a prophecy, or a comment. Q’s drops could be found on the “clearnet,” or that part of the web accessible by Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE and so on, and as late as this past January I was able to locate them, but it’s much more difficult at present to do so.
Other chapters in the book deal with the role of Q followers in the 1/62021 insurrection. Some of these followers are having their mail forwarded to them in jail. The last chapter is a FAQ chapter, dealing with questions such as why Q is so appealing to women. The authors answer this by noting the “Save the Children” cry among Q supporters who accuse democrats of enslaving children (think Comet Pizzeria), selling them to be sex slaves, and even harvesting their organs. This gives Q followers a certain sense of righteousness to their cause. They can trash democrats in the process of doing God’s work. It’s a perfect fit! I remember the days of John Todd in the late seventies. Todd accused prominent democrats (including George McGovern, the Democratic candidate for President in 1972) of sacrificing a baby on an altar to Satan. The bad guys are always democrats to conspiracy advocates. I had a high school senior in one of my classes once ask me out of the blue whether there would be any democrats in heaven? My response was it depended on whether a person had saving faith. Republicans don’t have a monopoly on this and believing in Q won’t get them to heaven.
That leads me to another point. The Q Conspiracy is especially problematic to the Church as Christians who are weak in the Word find themselves with no Scripture or intellectual skills to disciper, discern or refute the outrageous “drops” from Q. Because they’ve been prompted over and over to avoid the mainstream media (MSM), they have only very limited sources from which to get their news, and most of these are <alt> right sources that deal in unfounded rumors such as Islamist terrorist training camps located south of our border or people being held against their will in Mal-Mart stores.
One of the best things about this book is its readability. The technical terms and concepts are terra incognita to many of us. Often a book can be precisely accurate or it can be fun and entertaining, but not both. This book is, however. The average person can finish the book in an evening. And the bibliography has thirty-eight pages of sources for those who want to explore the topic (hopefully from a safe distance.)
Some Q news:
July 9, 2021
Q followers have gone “underground” as far as social media is concerned. This may be to avoid the scrutiny of law enforcement personnel investigating the insurrection of 1/6. You hardly encounter terms such as “the storm” or the “Great Awakening” anymore. Interestingly though, according to the AP, there seems to be a way Q followers identify themselves to each other online, using three asterisks (***). This is a reference to Michael Flynn, fired by both President Obama and President Trump (but then ultimately pardoned by Trump). While on active duty, Flynn was a three star general. In this video posted by CNN when President Trump was still in office, Flynn and his friends recite a popular Q message (“Where we go one, we go all.”) Whether that closing was included as a spoof or in earnest is a matter for you to decide for yourself.