QAnon: One Conspiracy, All Conspiracies

Wednesday, January 6, 2021, will be recorded in the history of the United States as the day a group of people, participants in a march supporting President Donald Trump, stormed Congress in a manner so easy it looked as if a paintball team had captured the enemy base.

The paradigmatic figure of the takeover was the self-proclaimed Q-Shaman, a guy dressed in a horned helmet who looked like he had stepped out of a cheap mid-twentieth-century movie portrayal of a Viking, or from a meeting of the Water Buffaloes, the lodge attended by Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble (apologies to centennials for the paleo-reference). That day and the next, with the topic on nearly every front page of American newspapers, the normie public began to delve into QAnon, the most efficient(?) conspiracy theory of recent years, which ended up building a kind of movement behind it.

Q-Shaman is merely a paradigmatic example of the current state of affairs within the pro-Trump sector: a mix of conspiracy theories with what I would dare describe as extreme "LARPing." For those who do not come from the geek, nerd, or chan catacombs, the term "LARPing" is unfamiliar. Well, the acronym LARP stands for "Live Action Role Playing." LARPing is a common practice among people who, for example, recreate medieval fairs. Groups of people who get together on a weekend to simulate living in the Middle Ages and behave accordingly.

In this sense, Q-Shaman and the rest of those who participated in the so-called "assault on the Capitol" are not only followers (at least some of them) of the QAnon conspiracy theory, but they also dared to play the role of the old American revolutionaries. With the small detail that it was just that: a role-playing game. However, the consequences of that performance range from the death of a protester at the hands of police (wearing a QAnon t-shirt), to the singular fact that the entire political spectrum, including Nancy Pelosi (a symbol of the Democratic Party establishment), closed ranks against Donald Trump in defense of the constitutional order.

But what is QAnon?

QAnon is a conspiracy theory born out of the imageboards 4chan and 8chan. It originated on the former and then permanently moved to the latter. It is worth noting that 8chan is owned by Jim Watkins, a former helicopter mechanic in the U.S. Army turned tech entrepreneur, whose main declared economic activity is pig farming in the Philippines, a country that declared him an "undesirable alien" in January 2020. The site was blocked from Google searches and had its service denied by CloudFlare after the New Zealand massacre perpetrated by Brenton Tarrant, a white terrorist who subscribed to another conspiracy theory about the "great replacement," which broadly holds that the replacement of the "white and native" population of European countries is underway, mainly by Muslim migrants of Arab origin, as a result of the policies of a "replacist elite." After the site went down and "Q" stopped posting, Watkins relaunched it under the name 8kun, and after that, "Q" posts resumed. When summoned by the U.S. Congress to testify about his responsibility for the content posted on 8kun, Watkins showed up wearing a pin with the letter Q.

In chan parlance, the word "anon" is used to refer to any user, since all posts are anonymous. The letter Q is the first letter of the word "Question," but the person or people behind QAnon never gave any reason for using that letter. Their followers assume that behind "Q" is someone with the highest security clearance in the state who reveals what is happening inside.

Perhaps the most significant incident that can be cited as a precursor to QAnon is the case known as "Pizzagate." On December 4, 2016, a few months after Trump won the presidency, Edgar Maddison Welch entered the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington D.C. with a loaded AR-15, believing it housed a pedophilia ring coordinated by Hillary Clinton. Although he pointed his weapon at an employee, he did not injure anyone, after which he was arrested by the police. The theory that the pizzeria was the nerve center of a pedophilia ring had become a kind of meme and/or joke within 4chan channels as a result of Clinton's emails revealed by Wikileaks during the presidential campaign, in which the pizzeria's name was mentioned repeatedly.

From there, the QAnon monster took the baton and became one of the most important pillars for shoring up the relationship between Donald Trump and his electoral base. In broad terms, as can be seen in the videos of Q-Shaman (whose real name is Jake Angelini) uploaded to the video on demand platform Rumble under the pseudonym YellowstoneWolfAZ, QAnon followers maintain the existence of a group called "the cabal," composed of beings from other dimensions and outer space, whose purpose is the domination of the human species. This group would allegedly be made up of government agents, businessmen, and military members, in what is known as the "deep state," who have infiltrated government structures and from there carry out their plans. These interdimensional beings are said to have a network of underground bases where they keep kidnapped children, obtained through human trafficking and/or child prostitution rings in which politicians, media owners, and Hollywood actors/producers are allegedly involved.

This secret elite would allegedly use a series of technical and human resources to carry out their plans, such as vaccines developed with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which in reality would aim to install nanorobots, controlled through 5G installations, capable of controlling the minds of all those who have been vaccinated. This component of the theory intensified with the covid-19 pandemic. Other tools used by this group may include some variants of Freemasonry and communism, which, according to Q-Shaman and QAnon followers, is a form of black magic that serves to control, of course, the minds of human beings.

But QAnon does not end here. Opposing the supposed existence of these interdimensional beings is a patriotic faction that seeks to subdue the internal enemies of the "deep state," put them on trial, and send them to Guantanamo. These agents of good are officials loyal to President Trump and members of the military who, at the same time, are developing three types of technology that would not only allow QAnon and its followers to defeat the cabal but also restore the environment, the monetary system, and economic prosperity. These three technologies consist of: an infinite energy reactor, a superconducting material, and anti-gravitational technology for "traveling faster than the speed of light." Additionally, the loyal factions would also be fighting to reinstate the gold standard (eliminated by Richard Nixon in 1973) and thereby build "heaven on Earth."

Jake Angelini (with a military background) claims he learned all of this by being a contractor for intelligence agencies he works closely with in a program to create super soldiers, of which he, of course, is a member. In that regard, he also claims that the movie Captain America was a psychological warfare operation to plant in the American public the idea of a patriotic super soldier who would fight to defend American interests.

Finally, Q-Shaman recommends his followers get used to reading between the lines, and warns that nothing is really what it seems, that you have to follow the white rabbit, the "breadcrumbs" like Hansel and Gretel, and trust in the master plan of the intelligence community and the "QAnon community," which consists of preparing the general population for the moment of the "great revelation" when all of this comes to light, the cabal is defeated, humanity and nature are redeemed, and the Constitution of the United States is vindicated.

Alternative facts for everyone

If all conspiracy theories share one thing, it is the simple fact of disbelieving empirical evidence or "facts." In this sense, a conspiracy theory involves a leap of faith: one must believe that reality is nothing but a veil hiding what is truly "real." Then, any fact, act, or gesture can be interpreted as a confirmation of the theory. This peculiarity was masterfully exploited during Trump's first campaign, and during certain moments of his presidency, when the 45th occupant of the White House made allusions to "draining the swamp." This is a coded term for the "deep state" and, if we stretch our imagination further, could refer to fighting reptiles, who are the characters of another conspiracy theory similar to QAnon, known as the "Reptilians" theory, which holds that Earth is governed by an alien species of humanoid reptiles who disguise themselves as humans to blend in.

Once someone takes the leap of faith of disbelieving reality, or "lifting the veil," then any explanation is possible. All you need is to arrange facts and interpretations in such a way that they form a web of meaning that supports the theory, regardless of any real evidence. Of course, conspiracy theory followers believe that evidence really exists (generally on websites or YouTube videos) and that it can be accessed through "reading between the lines."

QAnon, as a paradigmatic example of a conspiracy theory, allows its followers to square the circle: criticizing the unjust social structure generated by the current phase of capitalism without touching its ideological foundations. This theory ultimately explains that what really afflicts the U.S. government is a management problem in the form of an infiltration by its enemies. Thus, it holds that the foundations of government are untouchable, but that a radical defeat of mismanagement is needed to achieve a "just" state. However, all the problems described by the theory or identified as evils (unsanctioned pedophilia among government officials and Hollywood, the monetary system monopolized by banks, the destruction of the environment) are direct consequences of the economic and political model applied in the country for decades.

On one hand, although the governmental establishment repudiated the acts of January 6, there is a deeply American substrate in QAnon and its followers. First, the idea of a kind of final battle (in the form of a great revelation) has a strong apocalyptic sense tied to the tradition of evangelical Protestantism. On the other hand, the idea of "heaven on Earth" has strong millenarian resonances, which also come from Protestant ideology (more firmly rooted in biblical fundamentalism), and which consists of the idea that (depending on interpretation) between the second coming of Jesus and the Last Judgment there will be a reign of Jesus lasting exactly one thousand years. The idea of a millennium of love and peace among human beings is not new; it has accompanied Christianity almost since its origins. And also, as Norman Cohn points out in his book The Pursuit of the Millennium (2015), it is an ideology that on repeated occasions during the Middle Ages became political movements that, with varying success, challenged the social and political relations of their time. Something quite significant that Q-Shaman asserts in his explanatory video about the political theory of QAnon is that its main enemy is the "transhumanist agenda" pushed by corporations and government sectors.

Transhumanism is a technopolitical philosophy formulated in its most contemporary form by Oxford University professor Nick Bostrom, who defined it as a successor to Enlightenment ideals that pursues the elimination of both suffering and human biological limitations (such as death or the limit of the human brain's information-processing capacity) through the radical fusion of technology and the human body. While this is not the place to discuss it, transhumanism also seems to have certain millenarian inclinations within its tenets, such as the idea of eliminating suffering or scarcity through the introduction of radical technologies that are still in early stages of development. Transhumanism became popular through the internet thanks to its idea of "technological singularity," explained as a hypothetical future event in which one of the many technologies under development (nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, life extension) could cross a developmental threshold such that the human condition is forever altered and "advances to the next evolutionary step." An event that, in its structure, closely resembles the apocalypse of millenarianism.

This idea, both that of transhumanism and that of the technological singularity, has been strongly received in Silicon Valley. In this sense, we can speculate that QAnon is a kind of reaction (whether its followers know it or not) against the technological millenarianism made in Silicon Valley, but which ultimately champions a political millenarianism based in Washington, supposedly in favor of the Constitution and American patriotic values.

It is tempting to think of this dichotomy as the emergence of two completely opposed ideologies -- one created in the heat of the most cutting-edge academic trends and the other, against all possible evidence and in forgotten corners of the internet -- but with a common substrate: the struggle for the future.

A meme in the Capitol

First, as we anticipated, what the logic of "Q" puts at stake, or seeks to correct, is not capitalism, but its administrators; in that sense, what they are asking for is a change of management. Second, as outlandish as it may sound, a conspiracy theory functions as an explanation of the world. Beyond the delirious overtones QAnon may have, it presents a clear order: the patriots versus the cabal, good and evil, Captain America versus Hydra (in Captain America's fictional universe, Hydra is a spy network that, oh coincidence, infiltrated American intelligence). In an extremely complex world, a theory of these characteristics can serve as an anchor that gives meaning to something that seems to have none. And it is worth noting that the emergence of this theory in a context where it is nearly impossible for new generations of citizens to achieve the living standards of their parents and grandparents is not insignificant. It is no coincidence that the ultimate goal of QAnon's patriotic faction is to build "a paradise on Earth," an imaginary that can be found throughout the American political tradition. Third, the influence of memes in politics and their spread through mainstream social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube) and non-mainstream social networks (Gab, Reddit, and the chans: 4chan, 8kun, 9chan, and 16chan). If there is one thing we can say about the Trump administration, it is that it began, in part, thanks to memes (the effect of Pepe the Frog and the influence of 4chan on the campaign) and died, in part, by literally putting a meme in Congress. What is Q-Shaman if not the embodiment of the QAnon memeplex?

Lastly, you have to go back almost twenty years to find a precedent for this event that shook public opinion and generated a response from the entire national political spectrum of this magnitude. On September 11, 2001 (although the events are incomparable), the entire world felt how the U.S. government was literally unable to prevent two planes from crashing into the World Trade Center. It was undeniable, for all of us who watched the event live, to feel that we were witnessing a historical event and at the same time a tremendous affront to the most powerful military on the planet.

On January 6, 2021, as a wise Twitter user said, the most powerful country in the world could not prevent a guy dressed as Chewbacca and a few hundred rednecks from invading the "sacred temple" of democracy and American exceptionalism. Once again, a historical event that unfolded before our eyes and was broadcast to every screen in the world. It is worth remembering that, after the 2001 attack, the George W. Bush administration passed a series of laws that endowed the executive branch with powers to infringe on the individual rights of its citizens at levels that were completely unthinkable just a few years earlier. It is likely that the reaction will go in that direction. Ultimately, if there is one thing the Washington establishment understands, it is that under no circumstances can the government appear stupid. The emperor must not be seen parading naked.

Hours after this event, and by virtue of his participation in it, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook shut down Donald Trump's accounts on their platforms. A very significant event that signals where power is played out in the United States today: Silicon Valley and the information technology complex.

What comes next?

If we affirmed one thing in the first part of this article, it was the LARPer condition that QAnon followers and the other participants of the Capitol assault displayed. As can be seen, the only type of political participation from these sectors is, ultimately, performative. The assault was not coordinated, nor was it part of an insurrectional plan. It was merely the occupation of a space. Shortly after, the Senate continued its sessions as if nothing had happened. These are the advantages of LARPing: someone can dress up as a patriotic revolutionary without having to do any of the political tasks that entails (organizing, conspiring, seizing power).

That is why, perhaps, just as the 9/11 attacks were the moment of greatest exposure for Al Qaeda, it is possible that the "assault on the Capitol" was the culminating point of this low-intensity online militancy. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, I do not believe this is the beginning of a new wave of this type of political movement, but rather its culmination. At least in this form of appearance; it remains to be seen whether it will mutate into something else.

But, as we noted above, neither does QAnon explain Trump's entire electoral base, nor does it exhaust the explanations of how the entire chan galaxy works. Nor does it explain all forms of online radicalization or belief in different types of conspiracy theories. There are groups (some of which participated in the marches) such as those who mobilize under the MAGA [Make America Great Again] slogan, the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo, etc. And, of course, the straightforwardly Nazi users who swarm the political discussion channels on the chans.

Neither the most brilliant nor the most dangerous. QAnon is merely one more member of the large family of online radicalism, which sometimes surfaces and becomes "real."

This article was originally published in Nueva Sociedad (January 2021). It is reproduced here with the author's permission.