QAnon began as a conspiracy theory on image boards like 4chan that claimed global elites were involved in child sex trafficking and cannibalism. It grew out of earlier conspiracies like Pizzagate. An anonymous user called "Q" began posting on 8chan in 2017, pushing the conspiracy further. Over time, QAnon expanded its claims and gained many followers, some of whom took part in the January 6th Capitol riot. Though Q stopped posting, the conspiracy's influence has continued spreading.

1. JRN 450 - QAnon
• This is how it started
...

2. JRN 450 - QAnon
• … Is this how it ends?

3. • “This” is QAnon, a conspiracy
theory that has gained millions of
adherents including dozens who
stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan.
6, 2021.
• The FBI described it in a footnote
to an indictment of one of the
insurrectionists:
JRN 450 - QAnon

4. JRN 450 - QAnon

5. JRN 450 - QAnon
• UFOs, Bigfoot, the Kennedy assassination, a
fake moon landing, chemtrails, and a
whole lot of other conspiracies - did I
mention black helicopters? - became
widespread in post-war America,
continuing a pattern that began in the 19th
century and persists as the 21st century
deepens.

6. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Historian Richard
Hofstadter wrote a
magazine essay in 1964
about conspiracies in
politics, arguing that
the “use of paranoid
modes of expression by
more or less normal
people that makes the
phenomenon
significant.”

7. JRN 450 - QAnon
• That more or less
describes QAnon
adherents, normies
including a member of
Congress who believe
that globalists eat
children and that the
2020 election was
stolen.

8. JRN 450 - QAnon
• And QAnon’s roots may
be weirder than its
beliefs. It perfectly
aligns with global and
technological trends,
starting with
disaffected Japanese
youth in the 1980s.

9. JRN 450 -
QAnon
• In the early 1980s, a
counterculture
emerged that featured
youth – later known as
otaku - who craved
anime as an escape
from what they saw as
the dreary life of a
Japanese worker.

10. JRN 450 - QAnon
• In the late 1990s after
Japan’s economy
collapsed, the otaku
gathered on an all-
text anonymous
message board called
2channel. But things
turned nasty as users
posted threats.

11. JRN 450 -
QAnon
• In 2003, American
Christopher Poole
launched a image
board called 4chan
where American
youths raised on
Japanese pop culture –
think Nintendo – could
post images and
messages.

12. JRN 450 -
QAnon
• Users flocked to 4chan
to post memes,
attracting a new
generation of users
who craved anonymity
on top of the now-
aging original otaku
crowd.

13. JRN 450 -
QAnon
• But like 2channel
before it, 4chan’s
anonymous posts
eventually made it a
platform for trolls –
and far right
adherents who posted
angry messages and
memes – and
conspiracy theories.

14. JRN 450 - QAnon
• One included the
Pizzagate conspiracy
theory that led Edgar
Maddison Welch to shoot
up Comet Ping Pong Pizza
in Washington, DC, on Dec.
4, 2016, because he
thought Democrats were
abusing children there.

15. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Welch went down the rabbit hole of Pizzagate because he believed
disinformation flowing online after a November 2016 Wikileaks
dump of hacked emails from Democratic National Committee Chair
John Podesta, including one email from 2008.
• On 4chan, the initials CP meant child pornography – the same
initial as Comet Pizza. A conspiracy was born.

16. Disinformation- QAnon
• The email was from Comet’s owner, James Alefantis, who asked
Podesta if the Democratic Party would like to host a fundraiser at
his pizza place.

17. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Per the trajectory of
hoaxes that start on
4chan, the fable
percolated to Twitter &
Facebook, who amplified
the hoax by reaching
hundreds of millions of
users.

18. Disinformation - QAnon
• Alefantis was targeted by
pranksters and fringe
conspiracy theorists on
4chan who checked
Alefantis’ Instagram feed
that had images of
children and modern art
from the restaurant walls.

19. Disinformation - QAnon
• The connection with the
Alt-Right emerged when a
Reddit user took the
kernel of the 4chan fable
and composed a long
document of “evidence”
and posted it on a pro-
Trump section of Reddit.

20. JRN 450 - QAnon
• The users invented a story
of a child sex ring
involving Hillary Clinton.
• Per the trajectory of
disinformation, the fable
percolated to Twitter &
Facebook.

21. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Alt-Right adherents and
some Trump supporters
threatened Alefantis to
the point where he locked
his social media feeds.
• Some users demonstrated
outside the restaurant.

22. JRN 450 - QAnon
• The source for “new” information on Pizzagate that advanced the
spread of the conspiracy was a self-described, high-level
government analyst who went by the online name FBIAnon.

23. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Alex Jones of Infowars and
others on the Alt-Right
amplified the Pizzagate
disinformation based on
information posted on
4chan and Reddit.

24. JRN 450 - QAnon
• The fable went viral and variants of it, like a real virus, spread,
too, through Alt-Right and extremist posts on 4chan, Reddit,
Twitter and Facebook, among others.
• Welch acted on that information and traveled from his home in
North Carolina to Washington.

25. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Welch’s arrest seemed to stop disinformation flowing through the
Pizzagate conspiracy, but the conspiracy created a foundation on
which another one could be hatched.
• And that would be QAnon, which took the conspiracy to a level
unimagined before the emergence of social media.

26. JRN 450 - QAnon
“The big difference
between 2016 and
Pizzagate and QAnon
[now] isn’t the themes …
it’s the scale. Four years
later it has reached so
many more people.” –
Joan Donovan, research
director of the Shorenstein
Center at Harvard.

27. JRN 450 - QAnon
• An anonymous poster who went by the name of QAnon – Q is the
highest security clearance for the Department of Energy – soon
gained traction, too, building on the conspiracy of child-trafficking
Democrats and global elites.

28. JRN 450 - QAnon

29. JRN 450 - QAnon
• The post is about an extradition of Hillary Clinton for her role in
Pizzagate.
• That provides the link between the two conspiracies.
• FBIAnon, meanwhile, is replaced with QAnon as the source.

30. JRN 450 - QAnon
• That’s the first known Anon drop on 4chan.
• It appeared on Oct. 28, 2017, on the /pol/ sub board of the site,
according to a study conducted by Edward Tian of Bellingcat.
• It’s the first of some 5,000 posts, or drops, by QAnon on 4chan.

31. JRN 450 - QAnon
• In November, Q posts 223 times, making the first reference to the
“Great Awakening” on Nov. 4, 2017.
• In both November and December, Q adds Obama, McCain and
others to the cabal that is killing children.
• The conspiracy is being built on Pizzagate with celebrities.

32. JRN 450 - QAnon
• In January 2018, Q posts that Trump is communicating with
adherents through coded messages on Twitter.
• Q adherents, however, felt the 4chan board had been infiltrated
and moved their messaging to 8chan.

33. JRN 450 - QAnon
• For much of 2018, Q focuses on the deep state and its role in the
cult.
• On April 3, the first reference to WWG1WGA, the acronym for the
slogan “Where we go one, we go all” appears, becoming a slogan
for Q adherents who share it widely.

34. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Q seeds charges of electoral fraud in the run up to the 2018
midterms, claiming that Democrats completed blank ballots,
destroyed legal ballots cast for Republicans and organized
voting by non-citizens.
• From October to December 2018, the phrase electoral fraud
dominates Q postings.

35. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Q adds Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg to list of
Satanic cultists in early 2019.
• Later in 2019, Q accuses Planned Parenthood of supporting
abortions to provide fetuses for the cult to consume.

36. JRN 450 - QAnon
• The next seventeen posts in October position Trump as the hero
who will expose the cabal, which is now based on a Satanic ritual
of the execution of children to drink their blood.
• A post in late October includes the first QAnon reference to
antifa.

37. JRN 450 - QAnon
• In the first six months of 2020, Q posts focused on deep-state
conspiracies and plans by Democrats to commit election fraud.
• On Aug. 20, Trump acknowledged QAnon, stating “they like me
very much.”
• In late, October, Q posted “are you ready to take back control of
the country?”

38. JRN 450 - QAnon
• In the first six months of 2020, Q posts focus on deep-state
conspiracies and plans by Democrats to commit election fraud.
• On Aug. 20, Trump acknowledges QAnon, stating “they like me
very much.”
• In late, October, Q posts “are you ready to take back control of
the country?”

39. JRN 450 - QAnon

40. JRN 450 - QAnon
By that time, QAnon had
secured millions of
adherents who hijacked the
expression Save Our
Children, showing its
antecedent in the original
Pizzagate conspiracy.

41. JRN 450 - QAnon
• On Jan. 6, 2021, the
disinformation-fed QAnon
conspiracy moved from the
digital space to the U.S.
Capitol.
• Five people died.

42. JRN 450 - QAnon
• Q then remained silent
until June 23, 2022.
• “Shall we play a game
once more” – Q read the
post on
8kun/qresearch/board

43. JRN 450 - QAnon
• That was followed by
two more messages: “It
had to be done this
way,” Q replied to a
question asking why they
had disappeared. “Are
you ready to serve your
country again?
Remember your oath.”

44. JRN 450 - QAnon
• “The various false claims embraced by QAnon adherents – that a
secret cabal is manipulating world events, that Covid-19 is a
“hoax” and that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump – have
branched into the mainstream over the past year, fueling political
polarization and sowing distrust in our democratic institutions,”
wrote the Anti-Defamation League in 2022 after Q allegedly
resurfaced.

45. JRN 450 - QAnon
• The mainstream is an appropriate description.
• Former president Donald J. Trump has been promoting QAnon
positions on his Truth Social account. As recently as September
2022, the former president superimposed the letter Q over his
face in a montage of video clips.