Q: Into the Storm

[RunningMn9]

I didn’t see any obvious discussion of this series on HBO looking into the origins and impact of QAnon, but I just finished watching it, and holy crap.

The stuff in the background is almost comically stupid, and yet no matter what, everyone in the foreground is just completely and utterly wrapped in delusion.

How am I sharing a country with these people? Good Lord.

[Smoove_B]

Pants on head insane

[Jaymann]

I didn’t see any obvious discussion of this series on HBO looking into the origins and impact of QAnon, but I just finished watching it, and holy crap.

The stuff in the background is almost comically stupid, and yet no matter what, everyone in the foreground is just completely and utterly wrapped in delusion.

How am I sharing a country with these people? Good Lord.

Easy, you are not sharing a reality with these Neanderthals.

[RunningMn9]

Yeah, I mean I guess I understand that. The delusion has created an alternate reality for these people.

The idea that these people genuinely believe that the world is run by a satanic pedo cannibal cabal (a highlight in the series is MTG not even knowing how to pronounce cabal).

And the lady that just says right out that you could tell her anything, and she’d believe you. World is flat? Sure, she’ll believe it. She claims to have exposed people for raping and eating babies. Who? What evidence is there on that?

That particular dunce is still super into PizzaGate.

[malchior]

What luck that this guy happened to be pointing cameras at these people as it all disintegrated. He did a service for history at least. Future people will have no doubt what went wrong here.

[RunningMn9]

What luck that this guy happened to be pointing cameras at these people as it all disintegrated. He did a service for history at least. Future people will have no doubt what went wrong here.

I think the interviews with the 8Chan dudes started back in 2018, and they go up to through the Jan 6 insurrection, which they were filming for the docuseries (for those that don’t know).

I am not sure if it was a follow up where the 8Chan guy comes real close to admitting that he was Q.

[malchior]

I am not sure if it was a follow up where the 8Chan guy comes real close to admitting that he was Q.

That wasn't clear to me either.

I do believe in the theory that he took over Q. The OrthAnalytics analysis that was referenced in the series is really interesting. This analysis was performed by a private company so they haven't shared 'source code' of the analysis to have it verified. However, people picked up on it at the time and started debating it at the time. The unsupervised analysis makes sense to me. I'm 90%+ sure I could recreate the analysis if I was bored enough to care to try. There are tons of 'off the shelf' python libraries to do it.

Still it makes sense that Ron Watkins could have taken the account over since he had the keys to the kingdom. He also easily could have laid the false trail to Bannon. It also could have been a real trail and Ron Watkins was rubbing Bannon's nose in it. He seems like the type to do that.

[Enough]

Reply All came to pretty similar conclusions.

[dbt1949]

After the Capitol insurrection I'll believe about anything about these people. 40% of the country is absolutely mad.

[hitbyambulance]

i saw a fragment of this. looked like a documentary on the shortcomings of the education system and pervasiveness of mental illness in America to me...

[gilraen]

They could have gotten Jim Caviezel to play himself!

[RunningMn9]

Yikes.

[Kurth]

I’m three episodes into this. So much craziness, but I think one of the things that gets me most is the crazy views held by the Watkins re free speech and the First Amendment: They keep insisting that 8-Chan is important and necessary because people need a forum where they can say their peace without any consequences.

Give me a break! Please repeat after me, Ron, consequence-free speech is not what the First Amendment protects!!!

[malchior]

I’m three episodes into this. So much craziness, but I think one of the things that gets me most is the crazy views held by the Watkins re free speech and the First Amendment: They keep insisting that 8-Chan is important and necessary because people need a forum where they can say their peace without any consequences.

Give me a break! Please repeat after me, Ron, consequence-free speech is not what the First Amendment protects!!!

I took it a slightly different way. My impression was that Ron and Jim believe in freedom of speech without any filters. I don't think they said anything about zero consequences but I might be remembering wrong. Instead, this was the early appearance of the current right-wing talking point that social networks censor voices that don't believe in the liberal orthodoxy. These guys were essentially Trumpers who pretended to be apolitical. More they are so aligned with major misinformation campaigns that in the end, if it came out that they were being run out of Russia it'd be entirely unsurprising to me.

[Daehawk]

Am I the only one uncomfortable with even having this thread on our board?

[Smoove_B]

Why?

[Daehawk]

Knowing it could come up in an internet search and the Q folk finding us.Eww. Somehow having a Q anything thread lessens us. Unless its James Bond The taint.

[Defiant]

Well, some people might get the wrong impression and judge us for it?

[Defiant]

Somehow having a Q anything thread lessens us. Unless its James Bond

[Smoove_B]

Knowing it could come up in an internet search and the Q folk finding us.Eww. Somehow having a Q anything thread lessens us. Unless its James Bond The taint.

I mean, if they want to join and join us in the discussion about how insane they are, I guess we can deal with it then?

[malchior]

Apropos pro I just went to a store a little while ago. There is a group of three on the corner of the property yelling at people that Trump won 2021. They are decked out in hand made T-Shirts with that message. They engaged me as I walked into the store and I wasn't biting. That's how I'd treat a Qdiot if they showed up. There is no reasonable discussion with them...so why bother?

[Holman]

Somehow having a Q anything thread lessens us.

Actually, we have two of them...

[hepcat]

I started watching this last week but stopped because I felt it was too outlandish to be real. I need to go back and finish it now.

[YellowKing]

I know a lot of people who have watched the first couple of episodes and then quit, which is a shame. It really turns from "haha can you believe these crazies?" to a riveting journalistic mystery as it goes on.

[Kurth]

I know a lot of people who have watched the first couple of episodes and then quit, which is a shame. It really turns from "haha can you believe these crazies?" to a riveting journalistic mystery as it goes on.

Agreed. A really solid and non-sensational look at Q and the Q movement.

For me, the "WHAT??" moment came in the last episode when it was revealed that

Spoiler:

Ron Watkins was the "expert" behind the theories that the Dominion voting machines were hacked to switch votes. I didn't see that one coming, and I guess I hadn't paid enough attention while it was happening to recognize his name as attached to that craziness.