Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/10/terrifying-documentary-looks-at-qanon-origins.html
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If this is about the origins of the internet culture that gave rise to QAnon you still have to start with 4chan.
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The BBC had a pretty good multi-part podcast on the birth of QAnon.
I appreciated how they went all the way back to Clinton-era conspiracies.
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I imagine its mentioned later in the documentary.
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Trump is basically a meme given its final form.
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The Q tweet was actually done after the Trump tweet, and simply mimicked it — but the timecode on the tweet was altered, to make it look like Trump was taking his cues from Q.
Well, that’s terrifying that they were able to do this.
There is only one person in my extended family that went at least partially down these rabbit holes, but I’ve not really had a lot of contact with during the Trump years.
She’d otherwise in the past been a completely rational person, so it shocked me to an extent.
Would be curious to hear in this thread from people that have dealt with friends or family but have had more contact with said people and what happened exactly to make them go off the deep end with this nonsense.
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Photo manipulation has been around as long as photos. It’s not hard to fake a screenshot.
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If you covered it now, what’s going to be in the sequel / follow up?
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I know at least three people who have gone off the deep end not necessarily with Q but all in with TFG in general.
One went down the youtube rabbit hole. Spends his evenings into the late night consuming it.
Another went all in because of his church. (What ever happened to the division? F’n tax them already.)
The third is not a church guy or even an internet user at all. Maybe it was TV consumption, but I have no idea.
The thing is, it is not just one source and it is way too far widespread to be able to contain it now.
ETA: GOTV!!!
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My brother was a believer in the conspiracy theory that the Bush government blew up the Twin Towers, but he seems to have put it behind him and isn’t involved in any of the modern stuff.
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While Q started on 4chan, peak Q was on 8chan after the Watkins set themselves up as the gatekeepers of Q, so I’d expect that to be in the documentary, even if Variety left it out (but mentioned 2chan 
).
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A screenshot of a tweet is not a tweet, and altering a picture with photoshop is not a deepfake.
If that quote reflects the documentary, I’ll skip it
The Netflix documentaries I have watched so far were not very good anyway.
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I coached some kids in baseball whose dad is a structural engineer that emigrated to Canada after 911 because he ‘couldn’t stomach’ the official story of the twin towers. No idea how much of that is factual, but that’s what he says. The kids are great, excellent athletes. And he’s a generally decent guy, if a bit odd.
The father of one of my kid’s friends is a certifiable qnut loony who deluges me with conspiratorial nonsense anytime my current ‘break’ from him expires on facepalm. In person he’s a nice guy and takes my open mockery of his views in stride, but he seems to think he can bring me into the ‘truth’.
I think we all need to feel like we have a handle on what is happening in the world. With the collapse and abuse of many of the pillars of trustworthiness in 20th century life many people cast about and settle on something wacky.
The solution is not to reject all forms of authority, it is to work hard to make damn sure outfits like the legal system, FCC, CDC etc. are actually working in the best interests of the public - not lobbyists and cronies.
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I was thinking that the implication was that the actual timestamp was changed on Twitter. But your screenshot makes more sense… No one need vote for me, however… 
I fear you are correct.
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I thought I had already listened to this but I had not. Guess that’s Saturday afternoon taken care of - thank you
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Did Q have a Twitter account? I thought all the “official” Q posts were on 4chan then 8chan.
Faking the timestamp on a Q post on 8chan to be earlier than a Trump tweet would have been trivial for the Watkins.
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Looks like there are new episodes. Those last three I was unaware of.
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Maybe the timestamp that was altered was on the Q posts to 4chan? I seem to remember hearing something about that. It would be something that only a 4chan admin or programmer could do. I watched the Into the Storm documentary and it seemed like it pretty much covered the motivations and cons of most of the players.
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The BBC’s foreign correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse made an excellent deep dive series into QAnon and its origins on the fringes of the Internet such as 4Chan and 8Chan.
All the episodes are available on the Radio 4 website:
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