In the dark corners of the internet, a conspiracy theory has been fermenting — and now, after acolytes of the theory made a big showing at Trump's Tuesday night rally in Tampa, it's breaking into the mainstream.

Meet QAnon, a set of conspiracy theories based around an anonymous internet user (who goes by Q) who posts cryptic predictions about Trump's impending takedown of the deep state and massive pedophile networks.

Here's what's going on.

The Deep State Is Real, It's Full Of Pedophiles, And Trump Is In The Process Of Taking The Whole Thing Down

Reporter Will Sommer was one of the first journalists to key in on the growing significance of QAnon and he's written multiple explainers of the movement. Here's how he sums up the conspiracy's main tenets:

QAnon believers are convinced that the world is run by a nefarious deep state cabal of Democrats, celebrities, and intelligence community figures (many of whom, they claim, are pedophiles). Trump is about to take them all down, in their telling, often with sealed indictments that are hidden from the public. Hence [Roseanne] Barr's tweets about massive pedophile networks.

[Medium]

QAnon is also adept at flipping things that look bad for Trump into things that are in fact, good for Trump:

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.

[The New York Times]

Q Communicates To His Followers Through Cryptic 'Crumbs'

As any good conspiracist does, Q communicates through vague, cryptic clues, known as "crumbs." Here, via Will Sommer, is a good example of Q's posts — some vague assertions about Hillary Clinton being "detained" but somehow not "arrested" and Russia becoming involved at some point?

Mockingbird

HRC detained, not arrested (yet).

Where is Huma? Follow Huma.

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

..

Do you believe HRC, Soros, Obamama etc have more power than Trump?

Fantasy.

Whoever controls the office of the Presidecy controls this great land.

…

Why did Soros donate all his money recently?

Why would he place all his funds in a RC?

Mockingbird 10.30.17

God bless fellow Patriots.

[Medium]

It means nothing, but it's the kind of thing that lets the mind run wild if you're predisposed to believe that the Clintons, George Soros and the Deep State are out to topple Trump.



If It Wasn't Already Clear, This Stuff Is All Made Up

Much in the manner of prophets of the apocalypse and certain anti-Trump tweeters, Q likes to set down firm predictions that are almost uniformly wrong. Take this Q post from last November 1st that Paris Martineau dug up in her QAnon explainer at Select All:

Q Clearance Patriot My fellow Americans, over the course of the next several days you will undoubtedly realize that we are taking back our great country (the land of the free) from the evil tyrants that wish to do us harm and destroy the last remaining refuge of shining light. On POTUS' order, we have initiated certain fail-safes that shall safeguard the public from the primary fallout which is slated to occur 11.3 upon the arrest announcement of Mr. Podesta (actionable 11.4). Confirmation (to the public) of what is occurring will then be revealed and will not be openly accepted. Public riots are being organized in serious numbers in an effort to prevent the arrest and capture of more senior public officials.

[Select All]

These things did not happen.



QAnon-ers Are Leveraging YouTube's Algorithm To Spread Their Theories

Ben Collins, another reporter who has been tracking the rise of QAnon for a while, has tracked how QAnon has used YouTube's all too easily gamed algorithm to push insane theories about various entities, including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg:

This is what happens when you search Tom Hanks on YouTube today. Last week, Qanon folks decided he was a pedophile. If you were to search YouTube today, you'd believe it. pic.twitter.com/OQfL97YOWz — Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 30, 2018

Add Steven Spielberg to the group of celebrities whose search results on YouTube prioritize baseless pedophilia accusations first. Three of the top five results are QAnon conspiracy theorists calling him a pedophile. Pandemic levels of bullshit unchecked on YouTube today. pic.twitter.com/KG8Vlo7z8T — Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 30, 2018

[NBC News]

The Conspiracy Has Started Edging Into The Mainstream

Celebrities like Curt Schilling and Roseanne Barr have publicly identified themselves as QAnon believers, while QAnon believers have started showing up at Trump rallies in greater numbers:

What Tuesday's rally in Tampa made apparent is that devotees of these falsehoods — some of which are specific to faith in the president, others garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones — don't just exist in the far reaches of the Web. Believers in "QAnon," as the conspiracy theory is known, were front and center at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall, where Trump came to stump for Republican candidates. As the president spoke, a sign rose from the audience. "We are Q," it read. Another poster displayed text arranged in a "Q" pattern: "Where we go one we go all."

[The Washington Post]





If you're into podcasts, Reply All dug into QAnon in early June: