7 ms·

QAnon is one of the most fascinating things happening on the internet. Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and more people.

QAnon is one of the most fascinating things happening on the internet. Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and more people. It's worth examining because it sheds light on how the less obviously false narratives most of the rest of us invest in are spun. Since it's so crazy, the mechanisms are more clear. Since it still works on many people, the mechanisms aren't that different. I don't know who Q is (other than clearly not who they claim to be) or what their objective is, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

facetube 8y ago
It's just cold reading over IP. A tried and true con-man technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure
- api 8y ago
  Cold reading performed as a con is infinitely more effective if the cold reader actually has done homework or is able to somehow influence events. Con men do in fact do this-- a good con does a lot of homework before approaching a "mark" and may try to orchestrate events as well using shills. I've heard this called "hot reading" as opposed to cold reading. If Q actually were a pro-Trump psyop (not out of the question given how Internet-savvy his campaign was) then Q may actually have some inside information, resulting in some very effective cold reading. This could also be the case if Q is someone else's psyop (Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, organized crime, etc.) and has a line into its employer's intelligence apparatus. I realize this may also verge on conspiracy theory, but looking around the world at nations as diverse as Russia, China, and Turkey, and now at the USA I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. The world will soon be a mafia state of sorts ruled over by a superclass of amoral gangsters who use state of the art surveillance technology and psychological warfare techniques to manage the population. It will be a "velvet glove, iron fist" system like Singapore where the need to actually "disappear" people is significantly mitigated by the clever deployment of psyops to head off any substantial resistance before it's an issue. William Gibson was a prophet. It never ceases to amaze me how perfectly he nailed the zeitgeist of the 21st century. This is the criminal age. I also can't help but factor in the rapid development of the space industry. History does tend to rhyme. During the last "age of discovery" a major motive for people leaving Europe was to escape an extremely corrupt and decadent oligarchy. Maybe people will flee to Mars to escape the modern version of bawdy oligarchs in powdered wigs and merkins. Who knows... maybe corruption and social meltdown is some kind of built-in developmental phase in our species that works to drive us outward in another burst of colonization. If I were an alien watching I'd be scared to death and debating the wisdom of just hitting Earth with a kinetic weapon before it's too late.
  - cvwright 8y ago
    > I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. You realize you sound a lot like this QAnon guy yourself now, right?
    - api 8y ago
      Maybe so, but I just call it like I see it. That's part of what makes his narrative compelling. A good con lies strategically but also peppers the story with truth. The thing I find alarming is that nobody looks good. The whole thing looks like crooks vs crooks, and I don't just mean in the USA.
  - facetube 8y ago
    IIRC a major part of cold reading is asking leading questions, building rapport, and generally relying on your mark to inadvertently leak information to you during this process. Like, the "Q" prediction of a "liquidity event"? That's vague enough so as to be applicable to almost anything post-hoc. Dropping "clues", requiring audience participation and effort, claiming you see the truth but can't quite see the truth 100% clearly without the help of your mark? That's cold reading, man. If I had to put money on a psyop though, it'd be an anti-Trump op, not a pro-Trump op. The Qanon Choose Your Own Adventure™ scam has tarpitted so many Trumpists into days and days of conspiratorial nonsense that their advocacy is ceasing to be effective.
    - api 8y ago
      That's a good point... many of those things are just vague enough to fit any narrative. Maybe it's just some basement dweller getting their lulz by taking the fashy "autist" chan crowd for a ride.
      - facetube 8y ago
        It's 4chan, I promise you
carry_bit 8y ago
> Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and more people. Simple explanation: it's not so obviously false. If you believe in the supernatural, what is basically a supernatural proxy war taking place in the background isn't so unbelievable.
80386 8y ago
> Since it still works on many people, the mechanisms aren't that different. Audience participation doesn't seem too common. Q's genre is the detective story, not the straightforward thriller.
ryanmarsh 8y ago
Ive followed Q pretty closely for the last few months. How are we determining falsehood when most of what Q does is ask questions and insinuate things that are (by his own admission) to come true in the future “FUTURE PROVES PAST”? Are there examples of blatant falsehood you can point me too? I am fascinated by this and would love to read any good analysis you’ve found. I’ve found so much written about it to be lacking in specificity and original sources.
sergiotapia 8y ago
>Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and more people. Literally posts things that happen VERBATIM days later. "obviously false narrative"? Hardly. https://i.imgur.com/mEb9p0Q.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mEb9p0Q.jpg
- mwfunk 8y ago
  Ew.
- api 8y ago
  I think this provides strong evidence that Q is Trump propaganda.
  - risotto_groupon 8y ago
    It hardly seems like the academic, probing, research oriented state sponsored kind though. It feels more like the half-baked but polished-seeming "Cloverfield 4" ad campaign kind.
    - api 8y ago
      That may well be more effective.
      - risotto_groupon 8y ago
        I suppose, if you want your puppet state to last as long as a movie release...
  - ColanR 8y ago
    Only if Trump propaganda could choose their own headline on an Israeli newspaper.
perpetualmaniac 8y ago
Q's strength comes from one feature: the groups ability to predict future events. In fact, they have a slogan: "Future proves past." Meaning that as events unfold, the things that intel that has been dropped in the past proves to be correct. This is something new: an intelligence agency is talking to the public for the very first time about how the world really works. I used to think the US operated as a democracy, but now I have the opinion that it is an cryptocracy, ruled by elite secret societies. Democracy is staged, public opinion is managed via propaganda masquerading as news, war is an elaborate hoax which launders money from citizen to elite cryptocratic elite. ...and this system is imploding as Trump and the American military dismantle the global deepstate. Welcome to Qanon, the internet's most fascinating real time conspiracy - unfolding right before our eyes. See the intel drops here: https://qanonposts.com/ https://qanonposts.com/

facetube 8y ago

It's just cold reading over IP. A tried and true con-man technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#Basic_procedure

api 8y ago
Cold reading performed as a con is infinitely more effective if the cold reader actually has done homework or is able to somehow influence events. Con men do in fact do this-- a good con does a lot of homework before approaching a "mark" and may try to orchestrate events as well using shills. I've heard this called "hot reading" as opposed to cold reading. If Q actually were a pro-Trump psyop (not out of the question given how Internet-savvy his campaign was) then Q may actually have some inside information, resulting in some very effective cold reading. This could also be the case if Q is someone else's psyop (Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, organized crime, etc.) and has a line into its employer's intelligence apparatus. I realize this may also verge on conspiracy theory, but looking around the world at nations as diverse as Russia, China, and Turkey, and now at the USA I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. The world will soon be a mafia state of sorts ruled over by a superclass of amoral gangsters who use state of the art surveillance technology and psychological warfare techniques to manage the population. It will be a "velvet glove, iron fist" system like Singapore where the need to actually "disappear" people is significantly mitigated by the clever deployment of psyops to head off any substantial resistance before it's an issue. William Gibson was a prophet. It never ceases to amaze me how perfectly he nailed the zeitgeist of the 21st century. This is the criminal age. I also can't help but factor in the rapid development of the space industry. History does tend to rhyme. During the last "age of discovery" a major motive for people leaving Europe was to escape an extremely corrupt and decadent oligarchy. Maybe people will flee to Mars to escape the modern version of bawdy oligarchs in powdered wigs and merkins. Who knows... maybe corruption and social meltdown is some kind of built-in developmental phase in our species that works to drive us outward in another burst of colonization. If I were an alien watching I'd be scared to death and debating the wisdom of just hitting Earth with a kinetic weapon before it's too late.
- cvwright 8y ago
  > I feel we are in the final stages of what amounts to a global elite deviant takeover. You realize you sound a lot like this QAnon guy yourself now, right?
  - api 8y ago
    Maybe so, but I just call it like I see it. That's part of what makes his narrative compelling. A good con lies strategically but also peppers the story with truth. The thing I find alarming is that nobody looks good. The whole thing looks like crooks vs crooks, and I don't just mean in the USA.
- facetube 8y ago
  IIRC a major part of cold reading is asking leading questions, building rapport, and generally relying on your mark to inadvertently leak information to you during this process. Like, the "Q" prediction of a "liquidity event"? That's vague enough so as to be applicable to almost anything post-hoc. Dropping "clues", requiring audience participation and effort, claiming you see the truth but can't quite see the truth 100% clearly without the help of your mark? That's cold reading, man. If I had to put money on a psyop though, it'd be an anti-Trump op, not a pro-Trump op. The Qanon Choose Your Own Adventure™ scam has tarpitted so many Trumpists into days and days of conspiratorial nonsense that their advocacy is ceasing to be effective.
  - api 8y ago
    That's a good point... many of those things are just vague enough to fit any narrative. Maybe it's just some basement dweller getting their lulz by taking the fashy "autist" chan crowd for a ride.
    - facetube 8y ago
      It's 4chan, I promise you

carry_bit 8y ago

> Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and more people. Simple explanation: it's not so obviously false. If you believe in the supernatural, what is basically a supernatural proxy war taking place in the background isn't so unbelievable.

80386 8y ago

> Since it still works on many people, the mechanisms aren't that different. Audience participation doesn't seem too common. Q's genre is the detective story, not the straightforward thriller.

ryanmarsh 8y ago

Ive followed Q pretty closely for the last few months. How are we determining falsehood when most of what Q does is ask questions and insinuate things that are (by his own admission) to come true in the future “FUTURE PROVES PAST”? Are there examples of blatant falsehood you can point me too? I am fascinated by this and would love to read any good analysis you’ve found. I’ve found so much written about it to be lacking in specificity and original sources.

sergiotapia 8y ago

>Spinning an obviously false narrative that somehow still ropes in more and more people. Literally posts things that happen VERBATIM days later. "obviously false narrative"? Hardly. https://i.imgur.com/mEb9p0Q.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mEb9p0Q.jpg

mwfunk 8y ago
Ew.
api 8y ago
I think this provides strong evidence that Q is Trump propaganda.
- risotto_groupon 8y ago
  It hardly seems like the academic, probing, research oriented state sponsored kind though. It feels more like the half-baked but polished-seeming "Cloverfield 4" ad campaign kind.
  - api 8y ago
    That may well be more effective.
    - risotto_groupon 8y ago
      I suppose, if you want your puppet state to last as long as a movie release...
- ColanR 8y ago
  Only if Trump propaganda could choose their own headline on an Israeli newspaper.

perpetualmaniac 8y ago

Q's strength comes from one feature: the groups ability to predict future events. In fact, they have a slogan: "Future proves past." Meaning that as events unfold, the things that intel that has been dropped in the past proves to be correct. This is something new: an intelligence agency is talking to the public for the very first time about how the world really works. I used to think the US operated as a democracy, but now I have the opinion that it is an cryptocracy, ruled by elite secret societies. Democracy is staged, public opinion is managed via propaganda masquerading as news, war is an elaborate hoax which launders money from citizen to elite cryptocratic elite. ...and this system is imploding as Trump and the American military dismantle the global deepstate. Welcome to Qanon, the internet's most fascinating real time conspiracy - unfolding right before our eyes. See the intel drops here: https://qanonposts.com/ https://qanonposts.com/