HBO, examines the Trump-centric conspiracy theory/movement—
The six-part docuseries, premiering March 21 on HBO, examines the Trump-centric conspiracy theory/movement—and makes a convincing case for exactly who is posing as Q.
Updated Mar. 16, 2021 7:33AM ET / Published Mar. 16, 2021 5:00AM ET
A mishmash of abject nonsense about global elite cabals, deep state operatives, and pedophilic child-sex traffickers who consume babies’ fear for its rejuvenating power, QAnon’s belief system is so absurd that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so popular—and thus so dangerous.
Shot over the past three years, Cullen Hoback’s excellent Q: Into the Storm (March 21 on HBO) is a complex story about free speech, social media, anti-establishment fury, white nationalist intolerance, crackpot fantasy, and anarchist villainy, all of which contributed to the rise of the infamous conspiracy theory, which during Donald Trump’s presidency took hold of factions of the GOP, and helped fuel the insurrectionist January 6 Capitol riots. Part on-the-ground journalistic exposé, part sociological study of corrosive internet culture, and part whodunit, the six-part affair shines a spotlight on one of the darkest corners of contemporary American life.
[Spoilers Follow]
What it locates in that gloom, among other things, is the apparent identity of Q himself: Ron Watkins.
Hoback’s docuseries focuses on a collection of out-there individuals, beginning—in the premiere’s opening scene—with Watkins, the administrator of 8chan, an everything-goes message board that was owned by his father Jim Watkins, and hosted on servers located (as Jim himself was) in Manila. Jim made money via a pig farm, local retail shops, and by hosting websites in places like the Philippines, where they weren’t beholden to other nations’ laws. One of those platforms was 8chan (now 8kun), which Jim purchased from Fredrick Brennan, a smart, talkative young disabled man who created the site when he was 19 years old before selling it to Jim, who promptly hired Fredrick as its maiden administrator and relocated him to Manila.
8chan was an image board where anonymous users could indulge in unbridled free speech, including memes, photos, and diatribes about white nationalism, sexism, racism, and any other ugly or deviant thing that’s technically permitted by the First Amendment. It was there that, following a brief stint on 4chan (its more moderated ancestor), Q took up permanent residence. Claiming to be a military insider with “Q-level clearance” who was supposedly close to Trump, Q made regular posts (known as “QDrops”) that were full of coded warnings and premonitions about the coming “storm” that would unmask the deep state, and lead to the arrest, trial, and execution of alleged liberal criminals. Adherents began going on “digs” (i.e. research and analysis) to decipher the meanings of these messages, and then re-posting their conjecture in an effort to crowdsource further answers. As Q: Into the Storm defines it, QAnon (the “anon” is short for “anonymous,” in reference to both Q and those who frequented such boards) was “part interactive game, part religion, part political movement.”
In its early going, the series depicts a few die-hard supporters while providing a handy primer on QAnon’s operation and terminology, including “red pill” (a Matrix-inspired phrase meant to imply someone's eyes being opened to the truth) and and its White Squall mantra, “Where we go one, we go all.”
“To them, Q was a veritable omniscient deity; Crokin claims that Q is so magical, she’d now believe anything, including that the Earth is flat.”
In lucid fashion, Hoback’s docuseries explicates the evolution of this radical, incel-filled corner of the online universe, tracing a clear line from Gamergate (an attack on female video gamers and journalists by a hostile misogynistic mob), to Pizzagate (a 2016 conspiracy about Hilary Clinton and John Podesta trafficking children in the non-existent basement of Washington, D.C.’s Comet Ping Pong pizzeria), to QAnon, which was the culmination of this milieu’s disgusting, prejudiced, paranoid, conspiracy-minded ideas and elements.
Q: Into the Storm is awash in wild players, weird terminology, and unhinged crazines
his wide-ranging investigation ... illustrates how modern society is at the mercy of shadowy manipulators using the internet to turn their destructive lies into reality.
share