(video game-style
music playing)
♪
(Ron Watkins laughs)
Man:
Anywhere you want to sit.
I know it's hard to get
beer off tatami floors, but
-Man: No, no. Please.
-(laughs)
Man: Feel, you know,
make yourself at home.
Totally.
I got five emails
this morning.
"New York Times,"
BBC, NPR, Fox.
Now for me,
those are the enemy.
What are these people
accusing you of?
-Have you heard of QAnon?
-Man: Yes.
-What do you know
about QAnon?
-Man: Um
A type of movement
that's shrouded in secrecy.
And I have heard of it,
but I
Yeah, I have no idea
what it is.
Ron Watkins:
I see.
-This is how the story goes.
-Mm-hmm.
I believe one of Donald Trump's
most trusted people
who has a Q-level
security clearance
is dropping,
like, these
little tidbits of information
anonymously online.
Filmmaker:
So this is the second QDrop.
It really sets the stage
for everything else.
Man:
"Mockingbird. HRC detained.
"Not arrested yet.
"Where is Huma? Follow Huma.
"This has nothing to do
with Russia yet.
"What is military
intelligence?
"Why go around
the three-letter agencies?
God bless fellow patriots."
This information
was dropped anonymously
by someone with
a pseudonym QAnon.
-This is QAnon?
-Watkins: Yeah.
He rarely states
specific facts with a period.
Filmmaker:
Basically, this is
the very beginning of these
drops that have
captivated the minds of
-Watkins: Millions.
-Filmmaker: Millions. Yeah.
And people are attacking me
to get this shut down.
(laughs)
Because I provide
a place for him to
to talk.
Or her.
Or whatever it is.
I'm not, uh,
going out of my way
to host QAnon.
QAnon's just another user
of my website.
QAnon picked your website.
Watkins:
Correct. Because every
other website banned him.
Reddit banned him.
4chan banned him.
What about 8chan?
Is there 8--
Isn't there--
Yeah, that's my website.
We have not banned it.
You're 8chan?
Yeah. (laughs)
I'm your neighbor.
(laughs)
Wow!
Yeah. You--
Are you a user?
-No, but I I know it.
-(laughs)
What, what do you think?
Like, I've been your neighbor
for two years now.
What, what'd you think I did?
I thought you were
a Chinese translator.
(both laugh)
Watkins:
Everybody likes free speech.
But there's a tipping point
for everybody.
When is free speech
too much?
(heavy banging)
(glass shattering)
(crowd yelling)
Filmmaker:
The storming of the Capitol.
The storm.
It was an event
that Q had promised
its followers
for nearly three years.
The persona behind
this movement,
an anonymous figure
known only as Q,
had somehow risen
from the darkest reaches
of the internet,
to the seat of the Capitol.
And while a shocked nation
searched for answers,
to me, it seemed like
an inevitable conclusion
to an absurd and almost
unbelievable story.
Crowd (chanting):
Lock her up! Lock her up!
Filmmaker:
A story of how a website
changed the world.
All with the help
of a single letter.
Crowd (chanting):
Lock her up!
And we're gonna win big.
You just watch.
(intense orchestral
music playing)
♪
♪
Man (over computer):
Have you ever wondered
why we go to w*r?
Or why you never seem to be
able to get out of debt?
Why there is poverty,
division, and crime?
What if I told you there
was a reason for it all?
What if I told you
it was done on purpose?
What if I told you
that those
who are corrupting the world,
poisoning our food
Jamie Buteau:
Q. The media's
trying to label it
as a conspiracy theory.
It's interesting how
they use that.
-Mm-hmm.
-You know,
the conspiracy word.
How they relate conspiracy
with Trump's audience.
You know?
Conspiring against what?
What is it?
Anybody ever ask
that question?
What did we conspire against?
The deep state?
What, what is it?
What are we after?
We just want information.
Uh, what are we a threat to?
We're a threat to
the organizations that
control the information.
That's all it is.
Narrator:
Good patriots
in the US military
and their global partners
asked Trump
to run for President
so they could take back
control of America
legitimately
without alarming
the public.
Trump was a good choice,
obviously,
because he overcame
the voter fraud and won.
But he was a patriot,
and he was loved
and admired by the public.
Even when he won,
the cabal still had no idea
what he was a part of,
and the sophisticated plan
that was about to unfold
against them.
Filmmaker: The plan.
Now, in the normal world,
the word plan,
it wouldn't have had
any special meaning to me.
But in the Q universe,
it takes on a totally
different meaning.
Because whenever
I hear "plan,"
I think, "Trust the plan."
And when I see the number 17,
I think Q.
When I see an owl,
I think Molach.
The Nike slogan,
"Just Do It. Q."
I can't hear the name Clinton
without thinking body count,
and it doesn't matter
if you trust the plan
or want to unravel it.
QAnon creeps
into your thoughts.
It changes the lens
through which you see
the world.
Maybe that was Q's
true purpose:
to lure in people
with a question,
then slowly change
how they think.
-Reporter 1: So what is Q?
-Reporter 2: What is QAnon?
-I am Q.
-(audience laughing)
Filmmaker:
Q's method of reaching
the masses
seemed like something
pulled from the pages
of a sci-fi novel.
They wore shirts and signs
emblazoned
with only the letter Q.
Filmmaker:
An anonymous character
who shares cryptic messages
through an online forum
in order to reveal
a secret plan
and save the world
from the evil global cabal.
You think Hillary Clinton's
a, a pedophile?
-Worse.
-What's worse than
a pedophile?
Uh, human sacrifice.
Child sacrifice.
Um, newborn babies.
Filmmaker:
QAnon also told its followers
to question everything.
It was part interactive game,
part religion,
part political movement.
Newscaster:
More traction after
some famous faces.
Roseanne Barr,
Curt Schilling
the former major leaguer.
Filmmaker:
Followers shared a desire
for revolution.
That all of the ills
of the world
were on the brink
of being cured.
You could even get
inside access to this plan.
You could even help.
We voted for Obama
each time.
-Twice. Yeah.
-Twice.
I bought into the media.
The first Black President.
Sure, let's check it out.
Let's give him a shot.
That's all I felt.
We always voted Democrat.
Like, we were in
a Democrat state.
Jamie Buteau:
We had a very busy lifestyle.
We never really researched.
And now,
with Q, our eyes are open.
That's why they call it
"The Great Awakening,"
'cause we're like, holy crap.
There was a lot of stuff
going on, and--
It was only our fault
for not paying attention.
Filmmaker:
Jenn and Jamie had been
red-pilled in 2018.
This concept of red-pilling
comes from that scene
in "The Matrix"
where Keanu Reeves' character
chooses to take the red pill,
which reveals
a hidden reality.
Morpheus:
All I'm offering is the truth.
Nothing more.
Filmmaker:
This is how followers
see Q,
as the ultimate red pill.
Jenn Buteau:
That's one thing
about Q.
He's positive.
He's patriotic.
Whoever Q is, they want
everybody to come together.
They want you to do
your own individual research.
Jamie Buteau: The media,
everything, everybody's
just lying to you.
We know the corruption
is bad.
We just didn't realize
how bad it was.
Q gives us an insight.
Filmmaker:
Millions of people
were following
this supposed government
insider's every message,
also known as QDrops,
waiting for the moment
that justice would be served.
From October of 2017,
and continuing through
the 2020 election,
Q wrote nearly 5,000 drops.
Sometimes there would be
more than 10 drops
in a single day.
Sometimes 10 days would go by
without a single message.
Q's drops are numbered
in sequence,
interpreted by followers,
then translated into memes
and fired like a*mo
across the b*ttlefield
of the internet
before eventually landing
on your grandma's
Facebook page.
And on more
than one occasion,
they found their way to
the President's Twitter feed,
the Resolute Desk
of the internet.
We don't believe Q is
just one specific person.
We believe it's a team
of what some people say
is military people.
Filmmaker:
Back in October of 2017,
before Q got started,
President Trump
met with a number of
military officials
and foreign dignitaries,
as a President
often will do.
But it's what he said
in the press conference after
that caught
people's attention.
(Donald Trump speaking)
Man:
Tell us, sir.
Filmmaker:
Now, Trump likes
to troll the media,
and admittedly,
this was a pretty f*cking
weird thing to say.
Even for Trump.
But once Q started posting,
the anticipation of the storm
became a key part
of the Q lore:
Waiting for the moment
that martial law
would be triggered;
the evil global cabal
rounded up;
and for the
military tribunals
that would follow.
Jamie Buteau:
Some of these politicians
are gonna be
arrested and swooped up, and--
Jenn Buteau:
I'm still waiting
for all the arrests.
There's over 55,000, I think,
sealed indictments right now.
I think are all probably
people that have stuff
to do with trafficking.
Drugs.
People, I think there's
just gonna be this big bust
that goes down
for a whole bunch of stuff.
What the storm involves
is elite military units,
uh, going in, arresting
specific individuals.
It's not to be used
against the people long-term.
It's just, it's to
temporarily restore order.
(woman speaking)
Filmmaker:
Q understood how to turn
attacks into ammunition.
The more that
mainstream media
tried to debunk QAnon
Yeah, unfortunately,
a lot more people
believe in this than
you think they do.
Filmmaker:
the more they became
a part of the
conspiracy against it.
And eventually,
it was estimated that
tens of millions
believed in Q.
But the campaign
to derail QAnon
started gaining steam
in 2018
when Reddit,
a popular internet forum,
banned QAnon.
And that's when
I picked up a camera.
I'd spent much
of the last decade
talking to audiences about
why digital privacy mattered.
And now it seemed that
QAnon was on the frontlines
of a new debate:
just how free speech online
should actually be.
And even though
I don't believe that
Hillary Clinton eats babies,
I also wasn't convinced
that silencing Q's followers
was the right idea, either.
Q derives its power
from anonymity.
The faceless anon
could be anyone
in the minds
of its followers.
A flawless patriot
mobilizing an army
without fear of repercussion.
So, I set out to
chart Q's origins,
and meet the players
in order to understand
the underlying motives,
and to build
a list of suspects.
It seemed unmasking Q
might bring an end
to what in 2018
was still mostly a game.
So we don't really have
a list of plausible Qs
at this point.
Things we think we know
about this guy,
he's probably military.
High IQ.
Probably high psychopathy.
Operating alone.
Definitely a homebody.
And, like, it reads
almost like you're,
you're looking at
some kind of secret memo.
It really feels like
somebody who has
probably their whole life
wanted the spotlight
shined on them.
This is the moment
they always knew would come,
and now it's here.
But to understand QAnon,
you have to start at
the place where Q posts:
8chan.
8chan is one of many
imageboard websites.
An imageboard is essentially
an internet forum
where folks can share images
and discuss different topics.
On 8chan, there are
hundreds of boards,
and each topic gets
its own board.
They've got it all here:
diaper porn, white supremacy,
the occult.
They've also got
video games and Christianity.
Seriously. "Christians"
is in their top ten boards.
And "Islam" isn't far behind.
If it's legal within
the bounds of US law,
it's legal on 8chan.
And everybody
who posts there is anonymous.
And that's why users
call themselves anons,
or anonymous users.
Those who run the site
consider it to be
the ultimate expression
of free speech,
and it's the website
that Q calls home.
It was originally created
by Fredrick Brennan
when he was 19 years old.
Q is extremely genius
in how he is able to
keep putting out these
breadcrumbs, as he calls them--
or as the users call them--
and keep everybody engaged.
Filmmaker:
Fred lives in
the Philippines,
and has a rare
genetic disorder
called brittle bone disease.
In 2018, I reached out
to him over Twitter.
He seemed hesitant at first.
Though once we started
talking on Skype,
the conversation
went on for hours.
Q is whoever
you want it to be.
You know what I mean?
I've talked to different
Q believers.
On one day they'll think
it's Steve Bannon,
on another day
they'll think it's, um,
sometimes they'll even
think it's me.
I have this one guy
who asks me all the time,
"Are you Q?
Are you Q?"
And he won't believe it
if I say no.
Filmmaker:
Fred also played a role
within the Q narrative.
You see, one day
a mysterious giant blue Q
appeared in his apartment
in Manila.
This was apparently
a gift from Q,
as referenced in
one of the drops.
Even my little thing
of receiving the Q,
if, if you will debate
with a Q believer
why Q is real,
my post with the Q
ironically is one of
the reasons that Q exists now.
I have the Q,
if you want to see it.
May, do you wanna go get that?
Go get the blue Q.
Filmmaker:
Now being Q'ed
was one of the most
integral mechanics
of QAnon.
Q had somehow taken
the banality of a re-tweet,
and elevated the meaning
to be part of a higher plan,
or purpose,
connected to Trump.
There was a sense that Q
was always watching,
always making moves.
It was a powerful notion,
and it transformed followers
into true believers.
Colin Skow:
I asked a friend,
"Who else do you know
who's going to the rally?"
And she said, "Well,
I think Joy is going."
Uh, she became famous
for wearing that
MAGA dress to the Emmys.
So I offered to pick Joy up
at the airport
and bring her over.
We were invited VIP.
We went in front of
the VIP line.
I was the second or third
person in the door.
This is the Q.
This is wood.
This is not cardboard.
Jenn Buteau:
And we were right,
pretty much in the center,
a couple rows back
right in front of
President Trump.
Trump came out,
and, yeah, first he pointed
straight to me.
I instantly understood
the communication.
I whipped out my phone.
My son Jordan, he turned
around to me and goes,
"I think President Trump
just pointed to it.
To, to me."
He looks at me,
and he gives me
a little finger wag.
Fairly subtle.
Yeah, it just sort of happened.
I-- it wasn't planned.
Jenn Buteau:
And someone said,
"Q's looking for
whoever had a cutout."
Jamie Buteau:
"Q's looking for you!"
So then, people behind me
started shouting,
"Hey! Guy in the red shirt,
you just made Q."
Q found me within
six minutes.
Which means that he had
eyes on the rally somehow.
They knew my name.
Yo, Q don't
reach out to anybody.
He just puts you in his drops.
Jenn Buteau:
And he said, "VIPs,
thank you, patriots."
-He was right with us.
-(both laugh)
Build the wall!
Build the wall!
And he was chanting with us.
-It was funny. (laughs)
-(Jenn Buteau laughs)
I think Q is something
that could only happen
in our current day
where there are just
so many people
distrusting of all of
the mainstream sources.
So, the fact that
people are speaking out,
and that the holes
in the system are so clear
that it only takes
a five-minute YouTube video
to get people on your side,
that's the real problem.
Hello, world!
Jordan Sather
reporting for duty.
Hi. Thanks for joining me.
This is the video
I have been wanting to make
forever!
Filmmaker:
And since Q's messages
were hard to understand,
followers would
turn to YouTubers,
or QTubers--
people who spent every day
analyzing Q's drops
to tell them
what it all meant.
Obviously,
today is a big day.
Liz Crokin:
Yes, this is the real deal,
guys. This is it.
Guys, we have to be
very careful about
what's about to happen.
The absolute biggest
mindfuck for truthers
that we've ever seen.
I would just say,
you know what, sit back.
Hey, pop some popcorn.
I mean, sh*t's gonna
hit the fan.
Filmmaker:
YouTube directed
"normies" to Q,
its algorithms
the mathematical equivalent
of a digital sociopath,
with just one goal
keeping your attention.
Craig James:
You have so much more
than you know. So much.
Satanic pedophile leaks.
Looks like he's having
a relationship with a minor.
Deceptive and manipulative.
It looks suspicious.
Oh, my God. This is so sick.
Again, thank you all
for supporting our patreon.
Please check out
some of my other videos.
Keep up the fight.
Um, you can follow me
on Twitter.
Also, hit the "like" button
if you guys like this content
and want to see me make more.
Well, I was turned on
to Q probably about
a month and a half
after it started.
I had seen on
different websites
and YouTube channels
a lot of people started
talking about this QAnon
phenomenon.
And, uh, I thought it was
a great topic for my channel.
What's interesting now
is that Q's talking more
about
Filmmaker:
Craig James is one of
the most popular QTubers.
When we first met,
he'd been living
and breathing Q for months,
and had built a career
around it.
James:
You know, I got
God above, right?
So the crosses,
I like to keep those
the highest.
'Cause, you know, God's first,
but then I got Trump
looking over our work.
That's his w*r face.
It's my favorite.
For home defense, obviously.
-(clatters)
-Oop.
Don't get that.
(laughs)
(firing)
Filmmaker:
How long has it been
since there's been a QDrop?
It's been 10 days.
I'm checking my phone
all day.
I'm checking the computer
all night.
So as soon as a Q post is up,
I'm doing a breakdown
video analysis of it.
It says, "Freedom of the press
is vital to retain.
"Trust the plan.
There are a lot more
good than bad."
Well, my channel
on YouTube has
166,000 subscribers
right now.
That's basically, you know,
looking at about two and a half
million views a month.
So, the reach is there.
We're reaching millions
of people.
Another guy that's
doing great work
on the Q posts
in my opinion would be,
uh, somebody like
Dustin Nemos.
He's got a pretty good
channel.
This is a new movie
from Disney, of all places.
And you guys know
how I feel about Disney.
It's filled with
pedophiles and abuse.
I'm just saying there it is.
You see it?
That big, beautiful,
brazen Q.
Right there on the chest
of this guy's shirt.
Dustin Nemos:
My channel has just grown
so much, it's unbelievable.
This Q thing, I mean,
it's exponential.
They even dropped
some of the, the metrics
on one of the boards.
And they went from early,
you know, a couple
dozen thousand
to over a million
in a few months.
It's just exponential growth.
But I can get on YouTube
and speak my piece.
I mean, I've been
trying to tell people
the truth all my life.
Why not go where someone
might actually listen,
instead of harassing
my family members.
Hi, everybody.
I'm gonna do a quick video
and update you guys
Nemos:
There's people out there
like Liz Crokin
who are just
completely experts in,
in breaking this down.
President Trump can't
just come out and say,
"Hey, guess what?
"The world's being run
by satanic pedophiles
"who r*pe and t*rture babies,
and like,
drink their blood.
Like"
Filmmaker:
Q asked questions,
and followers
conjured answers.
Almost any theory
was welcome.
The most predominant theory
was that a group
of global elites,
including Hollywood
celebrities,
prominent politicians,
and billionaires,
were running
a sex trafficking ring
and eating babies for
their rejuvenating powers.
Calling your enemy
a baby eater
is an age-old strategy.
Atrocity stories were used
during the Crusades
against Islam,
as British propaganda
against Germany
during World w*r I,
and against the Jewish people
since, well, forever.
For many Q followers,
believing in this movement
alienated them from
their friends, family,
and in some cases,
cost them their careers.
Crokin:
Well, I actually got
my first news job
when I was 16 or 17.
I've worked on two
presidential campaigns.
I've worked for many different
media companies.
I worked for
the Tribune company
and I ran their gossip column
for seven years.
I had people in the
mainstream media tell me,
"We will not cover
the child sex trafficking."
I found it appalling.
So I left the mainstream media,
but I was also
blacklisted and censored
from other organizations,
so I rely completely
on donations.
I don't make enough money
to pay all of my bills.
They're all frauds.
They're all puppets.
They are all tools
that are used by
and manipulated by
the deep state
to distract.
To distract from what
is really going on
in Hollywood.
And that is the r*pe,
t*rture, trafficking,
and sacrificing of children.
Crokin:
Literally nothing
would surprise me.
So, you know, if you tell me
that aliens are real,
and the Earth's flat,
or it's-- whatever.
Filmmaker:
Wait. The Earth's flat
wouldn't surprise you?
-No.
-Really?
There, there is nothing that--
I expose people that
literally r*pe and eat babies.
To me, if that
is able to exist in this world,
I think anything is possible.
After Q dropped
his first drop,
I just immediately knew
that this was legit.
I just knew it intuitively.
I started researching
some of the things
that Q was posting,
and everything resonated
with me,
and everything added up.
So, yeah, so I lost
a ton of friends
from high school.
I've had strained relationships
with family members.
I became targeted,
so I have been
followed and harassed
ever since I went public,
telling the truth
about Pizzagate.
Will Sommer:
So QAnon is almost
sort of a,
a mega-conspiracy theory
that absorbs so many
conspiracy theories,
both of our time
and decades ago.
We saw, in the run-up,
especially in the 2016 election
a lot of conspiracy theories
gaining steam,
uh, that have now
been folded into QAnon
and are sort of the,
the precursors to QAnon.
So for example, Pizzagate.
Pizzagate is something
that started with
the release of John Podesta's
hacked emails on WikiLeaks.
People started going through,
and they're seeing
these references to pizza.
And these are mostly
innocuous references,
but they're like,
"Wow. This guy's getting
a lot of pizza."
And so, someone
who's going through it,
and really is sort of looking
for nefarious explanations,
they see that John Podesta
is going to this
Comet Ping Pong place,
which is a pizzeria
in Washington.
These guys are just
screaming about how,
you know,
John Podesta,
Hillary Clinton,
they're raping children
in this dungeon.
And pizza is the code word for,
essentially,
a child you want to r*pe.
Filmmaker:
Q doesn't overtly mention
Pizzagate in the drops.
Jack Posobiec:
Right. And that's,
that's something that
I think a lot of researchers
get wrong about it.
They always say that
one grew out of the other,
and maybe, but only in the,
the methodology.
Uh, getting people
to pay attention to you
because of, uh, codes.
That kind of thing.
Sommer:
In Jack Posobiec's case,
he was relatively
little-known,
but he was in the DC area,
and so he went
to Comet Ping Pong
and live-streamed himself,
sort of like,
"Okay, I'm going into this
child r*pe dungeon."
And I decided
that I wanted to go
for some pizza.
Jack Posobiec actually
took this weird route
where he claimed that he went
to Comet Ping Pong
to debunk Pizzagate.
Which is, if you play back
the footage from that night
is absolutely not
what was going on.
We're gonna go in
and we're gonna
infiltrate Comet Pizza.
Posobiec:
I thought, why don't
I just show people
that it's a regular restaurant.
I was making fun of people
who believe in
this type of stuff.
And partially, that's on me,
because I didn't understand
that the IQ of the internet
is below the average.
So, a lot of people have been
going into that back room.
So, secret, secret door
to get into the bathroom.
See that?
He's walking around
the restaurant being
like, "Whoa!
"Some creepy stuff
in here, guys.
Like, I think
we're being watched."
You see the, the,
the face on the wall
over there?
Filmmaker:
I mean, it did end up
sort of fanning the flames.
Right? Like, more people
believed in it after your--
Inadvertently, yeah.
Comet Ping Pong owner:
I understand that to you,
this is maybe like a game.
But considering that I,
myself, and my staff
receive death threats
Posobiec:
And I tried to
explain to them, I said,
"Guys, I'm not,
I'm not trying
to push this thing.
I'm actually trying to,
uh, you know, go in
the other direction."
And they said, "Well,
we don't care. We just,
we just want you to go."
Wow.
Wow. Wow.
Wow.
And then going on Infowars
and detailing your experience,
you know, traveling
to the pizza place.
Just being like,
"I don't know, man.
It was really weird."
That's not debunking.
Reporter:
Pizzagate.
It has been
trending on Twitter.
Certainly some
weird stuff there.
We'll see if that
trend continues.
The culmination of that
comes in December
when a man from North Carolina
comes up and fires some shots.
Claims he's there
to rescue children.
Newscaster:
28-year-old
Edgar Maddison Welch
was inspired by a lie
spread online.
QAnon is almost
a more palatable way
to look at something
like Pizzagate,
because Pizzagate
is so disprovable.
Okay, in the basement
of Comet Ping Pong,
they're saying
there's a r*pe dungeon.
Well, Comet Ping Pong
doesn't have a basement.
Right, okay. So, oh, well.
But QAnon is much vaguer.
You can always say,
"Well, your interpretation
of QAnon is wrong,
but that doesn't mean
that QAnon itself
is wrong or fake."
What is QAnon?
Where did it come from?
Filmmaker:
But Jack did try
to debunk Q,
even pretending that
he knew who started it,
claiming that Q was a LARP.
Now, LARP stands for
live-action role-play,
which usually refers
to people dressing up
like wizards
and elves to live out
a collective fantasy.
In this case,
calling Q a LARP
implied that Q
was just some a-hole
pretending to be
a secret government insider.
And Q didn't like that
so much,
going so far as to
call Jack out in a drop,
and in doing so,
sending the Q army after him.
This digital army
worked in unison,
attacking targets
with harassment campaigns,
or cheering allies,
usually by posting a meme,
or simply scrawling,
"Q sent me."
It, it makes it very hard
to report or deal with them,
because, you know,
you both know that
there's a good chance
they're lying to you
about anything.
And that they're
also collecting what
you're saying to them,
and it--
either recording it, or,
you know, I mean, I've,
I've asked people for comment,
and then, like,
20 minutes later,
they've posted my phone number
and the email and everything
to their fans, and yeah.
Crokin:
The Q army would be us.
So, people like me.
Everyone that follows Q
is part of the Q army.
Filmmaker:
Q would often repeat itself,
using key words and phrases
that found their way
onto mugs, T-shirts, hats,
and the occasional baby.
We have
"calm before the storm,"
"Red October,"
"This is not a game,"
"Godfather III,"
"trust the plan,"
"dark to light,"
"Alice and Wonderland,"
"future proves past,"
"panic in DC,"
"The Great Awakening,"
"the storm,"
"Do you believe
in coincidences?"
And topping the charts,
"Where we go one,
we go all."
"Where we go one, we go all."
"Where we go one,
we go all."
Filmmaker:
It's a reference to
a largely forgotten
'90s flick
called "White Squall."
You told us
where we go one,
we go all.
Well, we believed you.
Filmmaker:
Q understands
that repetition
is a useful
psychological tactic
when trying to
mobilize people
behind a common cause.
It's also a clue
that leads us to
a much bigger question:
who Q actually is.
Now, when considering
possible suspects,
false positives
are everywhere.
And just looking
at Q's digital trail,
I can make a case
for any number of people
behind the operation.
Hell, I could even
make a case for myself.
I mean, you-you can really
find, kind of, find yourself
falling down a hole,
uh, in terms of trying
to find out who Q is.
Obviously, the, the one
QAnon people think is,
that they think it's
someone close to Trump.
So they think it's, uh,
Donald Trump, Jr.
Maybe it's Michael Flynn.
Filmmaker:
Do you think that Flynn
is in on it?
Flynn seems to be
aware of it, for sure.
He, he's signing things,
"Where we go one,
we go all."
You know,
that's a Q expression.
Q has said that
less than 10 people
in the world
can identify me.
But there are
several theories.
There's a guy named
Vincent Fusca
who's been filmed
at several Trump rallies.
Anne Armstrong:
I think it's Vincent Fusca,
who's actually JFK, Jr.,
'cause if you look at
his grave
in Arlington Cemetery
from above,
it's this huge Q.
He didn't die.
He was already
Trump's best friend,
and they've been working
together all along.
Q is a real insider
with real inside information.
It's not one person,
that's for sure.
It's a group of people.
James:
There's always been
the thought that, like,
Q is maybe a team.
But I've kind of suspected
it might be, like,
one person who's, like,
an aide or something.
I think it's safe to say
that like
Roger Stone and Q
sort of speak to the same
cut of the conservative base.
Sommer:
You can't rule out some
foreign influence operation,
although I don't think
there's a ton of evidence
pointing in that direction
right now.
Woman:
I was thinking
more like Steve Miller
or Dan Scavino.
So what you're saying is,
you are not Q?
No, I'm not.
Steve Bannon would be
a high possibility for me.
He would be probably
one of my higher up
candidates.
Well, I think Q
is President Trump.
The verifications that
we've seen between
his Twitter account
and posts by Q,
where they're almost
dropping posts
at the same time.
This Q post came on
September 30th
at 14:53, 2:53 p.m.
So then you got
Donald J. Trump
tweeted at 2:56.
Three minutes after Q.
If you look at the very end,
"Stay tuned and watch!"
See that?
Sommer:
Well, when you, when you
start looking into it,
like, when I was trying
to figure out who
is behind QAnon,
it was sort of like, you know,
"I gotta follow the money."
Like, "Of course!"
Some of the first
promoters of QAnon,
uh, some of the first people
who took this from
internet 4chan thing
into something that
was more accessible
and easier to reach people.
These were people with
names like Pamphlet Anon.
He runs the site called
Patriots' Soapbox.
Coleman Rogers:
Good morning, afternoon,
evening around the world,
patriots.
It's top of the hour.
Christina Urso:
You're listening to
We the People,
Patriots' Soapbox
24-7 livestream.
Filmmaker:
Patriots' Soapbox
ran the earliest
and most successful chatroom
dedicated to Q,
before eventually starting
at 24-hour QAnon
YouTube channel.
Sommer: These are people
who are making money
off of QAnon
through their livestreams
that people donate to.
They would seem like
one of the major suspects.
-(thunder crashes)
-(rain pouring)
Filmmaker:
Like most anons,
the couple behind
Patriots' Soapbox
was deeply distrustful
of mainstream media.
To compound matters,
NBC had written an article
that suggested
Patriots' Soapbox
might be behind Q.
The article also revealed
their real names
to the world.
Rogers:
It was a big thing
-when we got doxxed.
-Urso: Yeah. Like, oh, yeah.
Our names weren't out there,
and if we had our way,
they still wouldn't be,
probably.
Urso:
One of the things that
made it so interesting
and mysterious was, like,
you didn't know
who was talking to you.
It could be anybody.
That's true.
When they thought
I was Don, Jr.,
-we got like--
-Urso: Oh, yeah. Right?
Rogers:
Oh, my gosh.
That was so funny.
I was the one
that latched on first.
One day I saw a post
on some mysterious insider,
and I immediately
started following
on 4chan.
Filmmaker:
So when did you decide to
quit your respective jobs or
whatever you were doing before
and go full-time on this?
-February.
-Rogers: Yeah.
February 15th was
my last day of work.
I had already thrown myself
into it full-time at that point.
Everybody that's here,
go ahead and
introduce yourself.
Caller 1:
Jane Anon LaBay
from Illinois.
Caller 2:
We're from the
Pacific Northwest.
Caller 3:
Freedom Anon from Arizona.
Caller 4:
Him Tex from Missouri.
Caller 5:
Warrior BYotch
from Wisconsin.
(callers overlapping)
Urso:
(laughs) Sorry, everybody.
I know it's hard.
There's a lot of us, uh,
tuning in tonight.
Rogers:
The impetus was trying
to provide a platform
that allowed people
to just speak their mind
with a bare minimum
of technological knowledge,
you know.
Filmmaker:
Was there a specific
age group?
Rogers:
Mainly boomers.
Retirees.
Many of the people I've
met here, this is more than
I could have ever imagined
my life to be.
Uh, somebody told Pam
this was a bad idea.
Yes, exactly right.
It was a bad idea
for the deep state.
-(laughing)
-It certainly wasn't
a bad idea for us.
-High five.
-Radio caller:
I have never watched
Despite all the hate
that boomers get
-Urso: I know.
-you know, they,
I think they have a,
they had a lot to offer,
and I
They were not being engaged.
We have a full book
of, like, letters
Rogers:
We get letters from
people who tell us
that we have, like,
saved them from depression
and death and suicide.
-It's weird.
-It's blows your mind.
I read these stupid
hit pieces they write
about, oh, you know,
my husband started
reading Q posts,
and now we don't talk,
-or whatever. It's like--
-And I fear for his
mental well-being.
And then there were
all these other weird people
that come out of, like, nowhere.
This Travis View guy,
it was where their whole, like,
persona is just, like,
attacking anybody that
covers the Q posts.
Filmmaker:
Like in any good game,
QAnons have opposition.
People who are just
as obsessed with Q,
only they devote their time
to debunking it.
Travis View:
When I created my account,
I thought I was going to, um,
use it to make snarky
comments occasionally.
Just sort of do it
with the safety of, uh,
anonymity as I've done
for years and years
and years.
I've always been
sort of a,
anonymous sh*t poster
through, through accounts
since I was, like, 14.
I was just sort of,
like, irritated with QAnon,
and I started making
these screenshots
about what they were doing
and what they're up to,
because it was pissing me off
that they were operating
in the shadows,
and they're believing
these crazy things,
and no one was talking about it.
And so I wanted to show people.
Jake Rockatansky:
Welcome, listeners,
to the 56th chapter
of the QAnon Anonymous
podcast.
As always, we are your hosts,
Jake Rockatansky
-Julian Feeld.
-And Travis View.
But before all that,
QAnon news.
'Cause we're like a,
a Brita water filter
for, like, all of, like,
the horrible sh*t
on the internet.
It's, you know,
bad for the world,
-good for the podcast.
-Yeah.
So we may just be seeing
the tip of the iceberg,
you know?
Yeah. Like they know
how crazy it sounds,
and so they won't
actually come out
and, and out themselves
that they believe in this sh*t.
But I think when we talk about
QAnon believers
versus nonbelievers,
I think that's actually
the wrong way to look at it.
Because these beliefs
have been festering
in American consciousness
way before.
Yeah, like,
that's the scary thing,
is that if 8chan went down,
Q never came back,
it would still be
just as strong, I think.
Filmmaker:
Now, Q didn't actually
start on 8chan.
Q started on 4chan,
its less infamous stepfather.
Both 4chan and 8chan
have very similar formats,
except 4chan is more
heavily moderated.
So one day,
Q decided to move on.
Sommer:
Q moves from 4chan
to 8chan
to CBTS, or
"Calm Before the Storm."
They move to a board
that is then, uh, controlled
by a QAnon true believer.
♪
(motorcycle engine revving)
Filmmaker:
When Q moved
from 4chan to 8chan,
for some reason,
Q chose Paul's board--
Paul Furber, also known
as Baruch The Scribe,
an anon living
in South Africa.
Now Furber was another
character named
in the NBC article
as a likely suspect for Q.
So I was surprised
he was willing to talk.
And more surprised still
that he accepted my offer
to come visit him
in Johannesburg.
Though we had communicated
over Skype,
I wasn't even sure
what he looked like.
And if Paul had started Q,
or knew who did,
then he would be
extremely well-versed
in the art of deception.
Paul Furber:
What you see is
what you get with me.
I'm gonna just
be honest, here.
No one has ever
caught me in a single lie
about this whole incident,
and I, I'll challenge
anyone who claims that,
because I decided
very early on that
I would tell the truth
about what happened
and what I'd thought
at the time.
Filmmaker:
Why did Q trust your board?
I would imagine
that I was vetted
in the background.
That people,
you know, after we got
ba-basically blown off
4chan like a,
a pile of leaves
in the wind
that Q had a look at 8chan
and saw there was CBTS board.
Q showed up on my board,
and, yeah, it was
a mixture of pure fear
and awesome responsibility
and excitement,
and awe kind of rolled
into one second.
I remember like telling
my wife at supper that
Q has posted on my board.
And she was like,
"Wow, so he has moved."
Maia Furber:
What I remember
about those days
was just the
-the intensity of it all.
-Yeah.
Because so much was happening,
so Paul would come out
and grab a coffee.
While the kettle was boiling,
he would tell us
what's been the latest with Q,
and then he'd disappear again.
Yeah, I mean,
I had to be reminded
that it was Christmas Eve.
-Do you remember that?
I mean--
-I do.
I was saying, no!
But, but, but, but Q
has just, like, posted,
"Merry Christmas, patriots."
I have to, I have to go
and run the board.
Yeah, so this,
this is pretty much
what my daily view
would look like
in the eye of the storm.
People could post
whatever they wanted.
There was a lot of research.
This is a local archive,
a backup of the whole board.
I used to take automatic
backups every hour.
Filmmaker:
Q would post its drops
on CBTS,
the first board on 8chan
devoted to researching Q.
When making a post,
Q would enter
a secret password.
That password would get
cryptographically scrambled,
resulting in something
called a tripcode.
It's essentially
a digital signature
that lets everyone know
the real Q was posting,
all while remaining
anonymous.
Q's drops would often include
leading questions and clues.
Anons would go on digs
scouring the internet
for answers,
and post what they found
on the board.
Specialized anons,
called bakers,
would then select
the best research
and theories that
came from the digs.
Furber:
Being a baker
is a terrible job.
It's like laying down
railway tracks
in front of an oncoming train,
because you have a thousand
monkeys inside a thread,
all throwing poo at you.
However,
in amongst that is
a piece of pure gold.
And you have to make sure
that you both see it
and get it into
the next thread.
Filmmaker:
The bakers made Q's job
a little easier.
Q could look at the curated
research and theories
and fold its favorite answers
into an ever-expanding
narrative.
Anons would then
thank the bakers,
usually with some porn.
Q is extremely intelligent
in how he drops his posts,
and then Trump says
something similar,
and then they
tie that all together
into proof Q exists.
Jamie Buteau:
Anybody, I'll show 'em
Q proofs. Say, look,
talk me out of it.
Tell me why this ain't real,
or tell me, you know,
prove it wrong.
Filmmaker:
QProofs--
evidence that Q
is close to Trump.
Or close to somebody
who is close to Trump.
Photos, random codes,
obtuse and sometimes
dated references.
They inspire the player
to research online.
To connect whatever dots
they may find,
and invent new theories.
Trump put this photo
on Twitter.
So you can see,
if you trace the thumbs,
they make a Q.
Twitter assigns a file name
of totally random
numbers and letters.
And the file name
just happens to
start with "Do it Q."
Q came up with things
that were so absolutely
outrageous.
Yeah, they still blow my mind.
Reporter:
Remarkable times
in Saudi Arabia.
There's been
an unprecedented
anti-corruption purge
Crokin:
Q basically predicted
the arrest of
dozens of members
of the Saudi royal family.
This is when I realized
that Q was the real deal.
Furber:
Uh, November the 10th,
I think it was,
Q posted a couple
of original photos
of Air Force One,
which we then tracked down
where it matched
the President's itinerary
exactly.
We keep it in tip-top shape.
We call it sometimes
tippy-top shape,
and it's a great,
great place.
Jamie Buteau:
I want somebody
to talk me out of
why Trump said tippy-top.
James:
And then he makes
this reference to
every dog has its day.
I guess officially
you would say
that John McCain
passed yesterday,
which was August 25th,
but what is today?
I mean,
I'm not making this up.
It is the national dog day.
There's the, uh, uh,
January 13th DEFCON1
-(alarm blaring)
-Hawaii m*ssile proof.
Reporter:
That emergency alert that said
that there was an incoming
ballistic m*ssile to Hawaii
to seek shelter
and that it was not a drill
did send out
a sense of panic.
Furber:
When Q, for instance,
just tacks on
the Catholic version
of the Lord's Prayer
onto one of his posts,
and then three weeks later,
suddenly the Pope
wants to announce
that he wants to change
the Lord's Prayer,
and Q pops up the next day
and says,
"Did you see the news?"
This man knew
the mind of the Pope,
who lives in basically
one of the most
closely guarded buildings
in the world,
which is the Vatican.
How could he possibly
have known that?
Because he's a senior
mil-int guy
standing next to the President,
who has satellite tracking
that we could only dream of.
All Q does is that
Q throws out
a lot of nonsense,
and the claims that hit
are treated as psychic,
almost.
But the ones that fail,
eh, it was something else.
There's an explanation.
There's a rationalization,
so we can dismiss that.
All Q claims that appear
to be predictive
prove that Q is real,
and all ones that fail
can be dismissed
for one reason or another.
Trump does a video.
-Oh, yeah.
-Instead of saying
"you just watch,"
he said "Q just watch."
We're gonna win,
and we're gonna win big.
You just watch.
To me, this looks like
another proof of Q
that President Trump
would pick the number 17
to be his official
jersey number.
Seventeenth letter
of the alphabet is Q.
It says, "Can POTUS tweet
a misspelling with a Q?"
Trump tweeted this here.
I've seen so many good,
strong, solid reasons
to, to, to think that Q
is just mathematically
impossible to be
anything other than
a legitimate insider
working with Trump to
disclose what's happening.
James:
Everything he says ends up
coming true in some form
or fashion.
When he makes a prediction,
he'll say,
"This is gonna happen,"
and it does.
I've stopped believing
in coincidences.
I used to believe in them,
but I don't anymore.
Filmmaker:
Paul Furber,
Patriots' Soapbox,
and an aspiring journalist
named Tracy Beanz
ushered Q into
wide internet fame,
but it's arguable that Q
would have never broken into
the mainstream
without the help
of this guy.
It can be attacked
as a conspiracy theory
until you see
every single statement
that QAnon is making
can be proved to be true.
Filmmaker:
Jerome Corsi has
20-plus years of planting
wild conspiracy theories
into the mainstream.
A man whose name
should be a household word,
it's Dr. Jerome Corsi.
Filmmaker:
From the John Kerry
Swift Boat campaign of 2004,
that helped to derail
the Democrat's
Presidential bid,
to the Obama birther story
Jerome Corsi:
Sure, let's all believe
President Obama
was born in Hawaii,
like he says he is.
-Filmmaker: To you name it.
-Corsi: There's no evidence
that Hitler died.
What happened to him?
Filmmaker:
And when he was invited
on Patriots' Soapbox
to discuss Q,
he made an impression.
Furber:
You know, this grizzled
old veteran of chasing
the deep state was
telling us that, yeah,
that he, he rates Q,
and he thinks he's legit.
I'm a big fan
from way back when.
So we invited him
to come and chat.
Man:
Mr. Corsi, I'd like to
let you know how honored
it is to sit here and just
listen to your voice,
and, uh
James:
The one video that kind of
changed my perspective
was a Jerome Corsi video.
And it was Jerome Corsi
doing a full breakdown
of a QAnon post.
And I was just fascinated.
And the pen is a,
a Montblanc ink pen,
uh, that, uh, Trump
has used for a long time.
And so, when QAnon
showed a picture of the pen
and the desk and says,
"Look familiar?
Note the desk."
It, that's Camp David
over the weekend,
and that picture
had to have been taken
by somebody who was there
with President Trump.
Sommer:
'Cause he was, at the time,
the bureau chief
for Alex Jones' Infowars.
Uh, so, Dr. Corsi,
it's great to have you here.
I'm honored now to be
an official part of
Infowars and
Rogers:
Jones definitely brought
a lot of people
to the, uh, just the movement,
in general.
Honestly, if Alex hadn't
covered Q through Corsi,
I would have
never covered it.
I basically know from sources
who QAnon is.
A lot of what I saw QAnon say
was really good intel,
and is spot on
with other intel I had.
Everybody's jumping ship now,
I'm getting chills,
over to Make America
Great Again.
God, this is so incredible.
This is real.
This is happening.
Fredrick Brennan:
See, Alex Jones
and all of them,
the intellectual class,
the intelligentsia,
would watch that,
and they would think,
"Oh, the audience is laughing
along with us." Right?
But when Donald Trump
won the presidency,
it flipped the script,
because suddenly
this is not just jokes
on the internet.
This is not just
crazy people.
There's a real impact
from people moving away
from the mainstream.
And it doesn't really matter
what they're moving towards,
because even Bernie Sanders
was an example of
people moving away
from the mainstream
faster than the political
process in the United States
would have wanted them to.
-Man: Hi, Baruch.
-Furber: Um, it's terrifying.
It, the fact that the world
is run by Satan worshipers.
It's just, we've had
confirmation now
from this individual
who is obviously
one of President Trump's
right-hand men.
Filmmaker:
January 5th, 2018,
Paul is rolling high off of
his Infowars appearance.
He's planning
to write a book.
Then something happens
behind the scenes
that makes Paul suspicious
that Q was no longer real.
The board owner can see
a whole lot of things
that the normal user
can't see.
So I can click on a post
as the board owner
and I can see a scrambled
version of the IP address.
Filmmaker:
An IP address is kind of
like your phone number,
and if the person
on the other end
has a caller ID,
they know who you are.
Furber:
I had seen the ones
that Q had been posting from.
And this was nothing like--
This was not even close.
The first thing that was wrong
was that they were all from
exactly the same address,
which was something Q
had never done before.
Q posted from at least
six different devices
and addresses,
um, because of
security reasons.
Very few people
agreed with me
that it was a fake.
Filmmaker:
I mean, did you think that
it was possible that
it was a fake Q?
No. To me, it seems like
there's one continuous
hand-off from one
identifier to the next
as far as Q's concerned.
Filmmaker:
I think he convinced both
Corsi and Coleman Rogers
at that point that
the posts were illegitimate.
Breadbox:
Well, Coleman Rogers
was trying to start
a f*cking news network,
and Corsi was trying to,
you know, make money.
You, you know Corsi was making
thousands of dollars
per stream on those
livestreams, yeah?
Filmmaker:
I did not. He was making
thousands of dollars?
Dr. Corsi, funnily enough,
was on my side initially,
but Dr. Corsi changed his mind
within a few days.
Rogers (over computer):
I, I checked it out
with one of my sources
who talks to the White House,
you know, pretty constantly,
and they seem to think
that this is Q.
Man (over computer):
Um
Rogers:
Here's the argument, okay?
They're saying that
So, yeah. He and I'd
agreed to disagree.
He thought it was still
the same Q continuing.
Eventually Coleman Rogers
had to cut ties with Corsi,
because Corsi was threatening
his revenue stream.
The last straw
ended up coming
when Q
posted about, like,
people making, uh,
-personal financial gain
-Urso: But nobody was--
-from the movement.
-He didn't name him
at that point.
Honey. (scoffs)
Can't even finish a thought.
Um
I don't even know
what I was saying now.
-Filmmaker:
Making money off the movement.
-Yeah.
Q came in there,
and made that post about--
Urso:
Be careful who you follow.
Rogers:
Yeah. Be careful
who you follow.
People are making
personal gain off,
off of this movement.
-And he immediately
took it as
-Urso: Personal.
-a slight to, like,
a slight directed at him.
-Urso: At him.
Breadbox:
Pamphlet Anon is an idiot.
Um, I don't say that lightly.
Like, he is
He is a very
controllable idiot.
He was very easily
convinced by Baruch
about whatever Baruch
thought was--
needed to be done.
Filmmaker:
Paul decides to block Q
from using the tripcode.
In fact, Paul blocks
everyone from being
able to use tripcodes.
So what does Q do?
Q goes somewhere
the tripcode will work:
the board run
by Coleman Rogers
from Patriots' Soapbox.
Q left, and went to this board
that I had created.
Filmmaker:
Tell me a little bit about
the board change that happened.
-Uh, what did it feel like?
-On top of the world.
It was a really
important role
that I now have in my hands.
I mean, I kind of felt
for Baruch, of course.
He took it rough.
Like, you could hear it
in his voice.
-Like it was-- it sucked
-Urso: Right.
Rogers:
everything out of him.
And then he got mad.
For him, it all rested
on this idea that Q
would never do that to me.
And he looked for every
confirmation he could.
So, was that the real Q?
I'm not sure.
Actually, I think, hang on.
I think Codemonkey
Codemonkey
made an announcement.
Filmmaker:
In the 8chan
hierarchy of power,
the board owner
was near the top.
There was only one person
above Paul,
and that was Codemonkey.
Sommer:
Codemonkey, as
the admin of 8chan,
he steps in and says,
"Oh, no. This is the real Q."
The buck stops with him.
So if he's saying
this is the real Q,
then, you know,
as far as the public goes,
or perhaps someone who,
like Paul Furber,
who disputes this,
there's not really
anywhere you can go,
because he, he has sort of
the ultimate access
in terms of the technology
of 8chan.
Furber:
Ultimately,
I blame Codemonkey.
Because without his help,
fake Q would have gone
absolutely nowhere.
I sent a private message
to Codemonkey,
and I said, "Dude.
Thanks for throwing
"the whole board
under the bus.
That is not Q,
and you know it."
When you're online
and you're
up against the administrator,
you're wasting your time.
And that's where Paul Furber
kind of jumps off the train.
There was this bunch of
hardcore anons on CBTS
that said, uh, yeah,
this is a LARP.
Q is compromised.
Bye.
But most of the sheep
immediately moved over
to The Storm.
They believed it.
'Cause Codemonkey
said it was real.
Filmmaker:
So who exactly is Codemonkey?
A lengthy search online
only produced
scattered results.
His real name
was Ron Watkins.
And in terms of pictures,
I could only find shots
of his father, Jim.
Even in his
high school yearbook,
he had no photo.
It's as if this guy
had been training
his whole life
to be a ghost.
I mean, I certainly never
had any interaction
with Codemonkey.
Just, just strikes me
as sort of an online punk.
The funny thing is,
he's the one that offered
to take over 8chan.
'Cause he knew
he could convince his father.
So I think it was sort of
his plan all along.
I don't even know
who Codemonkey is.
It's just, his name is
synonymous with what we do.
Codemonkey's in
direct contact with Q.
And that's, that's
a pretty rare thing.
He's the only person
Q's actually talked to
on the boards.
Codemonkey's either
such a useless admin,
that he ca--
That, yeah, you cannot
tell the difference.
Or Codemonkey
is treacherous,
and that he is in on it.
Filmmaker:
So, like, if anybody
kind of has access to,
or knows who Q is,
-uh, it might be Codemonkey?
-Yeah.
(violin music playing)
(grunting softly)
I can't f*cking believe it.
This
f*ck. Stupid f*cking Skype.
To my knowledge,
this was the first
recorded interview
that Codemonkey
had ever given.
f*ck me.
I don't know why
he agreed to talk to me.
But I wasn't going to
pass up the opportunity.
Of course Skype is just
being a f*cking as*h*le.
(beeps)
-(sighs)
-(beeping)
-Filmmaker: Hey.
-Hello, Cullen.
Filmmaker:
Hey. Sorry about that.
-Um
-No worries.
Filmmaker:
What has it been like for you
watching the Q movement
evolve on 8chan?
I watch it like
any other person.
I go to the Q research board,
and see what he's posted,
and
and read like what people
are saying about it.
It's interesting.
I, I like how, uh,
Q is very consistent
with what he does.
To me, it's the biggest
factor that Q's real.
Currently, they're the most
active board on 8chan.
By a lot.
Recently, QAnon said
there's, like,
something like 410,000
users on 8chan.
-Q said that?
-Q said that,
which is strange,
'cause how does,
how does he know?
I, I don't even know.
Filmmaker:
Yeah, I'd really enjoy,
like, having some time
with you in person.
Early December works--
works well for me.
Filmmaker:
It does?
I was getting on a plane
to hang out with the guys
behind the most
notorious website on Earth.
Because if anyone knew
who was behind Q,
it would be those
closest to the source.
("White Rabbit"
by Grace Wing Slick playing)
One pill makes you larger ♪
And one pill
makes you small ♪
And the ones
that mother gives you ♪
Don't do anything at all ♪
Go ask Alice ♪
When she's ten feet tall ♪
When logic and proportion ♪
Have fallen sloppy dead ♪
And the White Knight
is talking backwards ♪
And the Red Queen's
"Off with her head" ♪
Remember ♪
What the dormouse said ♪
Feed your head ♪
Feed your head ♪
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
I was just thinking,
"Wow, wouldn't it be amazing
if Reddit and 4chan had a baby."
CULLEN HOBACK: And presto,
8chan was born.
Now posts could be
totally anonymous.
SPEAKER: I don't honestly follow
that board.
I'm not a political person,
myself.
I make money doing other things.
Twenty-five percent of 8chan
is paid for by pigs.
There's been some disagreements
over the years.
I have to be careful what I say.
I don't want to say the words,
"financial insolvency."
We don't know who Q is.
It's not me.
I just found it one day,
on my desk.
I'm one of the 'Q Proofs.'
They believe Q put the 'Q'
in my room. (LAUGHS)
I'm pretty sure Q is a spinoff
from Star-Trek. (LAUGHS)
HOBACK: Do you think it's
possible that your dad is Q?
(MUSIC CRESCENDOS) ♪
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01x01 - Calm Before the Storm
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When documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback sets out to uncover the forces behind QAnon, his attention turns to 8chan, the site where "Q" posts.
When documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback sets out to uncover the forces behind QAnon, his attention turns to 8chan, the site where "Q" posts.