-You're dealing with one
of the most experienced spies
you're ever going to meet.
-I came up with the idea
for QAnon.
It was meant to be kind of
like a big joke.
-I did make 8chan,
but Jim Watkins totally
took over.
Who else is in the background?
I've heard different names.
Thomas Schoenberger.
-I'm not gonna talk
about that individual.
-Be very, very cautious about
who you trust, even Thomas.
-Q is an elaborately
constructed operation.
-As long as these drops
are still continuing,
it matters a lot
because who's writing them
and who is having all
this influence has the power.
-Flynn is the guy that
I wonder about the most.
-Flynn's name has been discussed
too many times.
-I know Mike Flynn personally.
You live in a dream.
Actually,
you live in a nightmare.
♪♪
-[Sighs] Alright.
This was a digital election
because the media was not
on Donald Trump's side.
This was an insurgency, folks.
-There's a deeper civil w*r
going on in America.
Anybody that is involved
in the movement
that can't admit it's a PSYOP is
too blind to see
that it's a PSYOP.
-You think QAnon's a PSYOP?
-I think it's turning into one.
And I think
it might be by people
who have political ambitions.
-We will never give up.
We will never concede.
It doesn't happen.
You don't concede
when there's theft involved.
-We're gonna fight like a Flynn!
Fight like a Flynn.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-We have an army
of digital soldiers.
♪♪
-You're dealing with one
of the most experienced spies
you're ever going to meet.
-It was meant to be kind of
like a big joke.
-It's called QAnon,
a fringe conspiracy theory
that some have likened
to an online religion.
-Well, I don't know much
about the movement,
other than I understand
they like me very much.
-As long as these drops
are still continuing,
it matters a lot,
because who's writing them
and who is having
all this influence?
-What exactly is QAnon?
And why is it making
headlines now?
♪♪
-Alright.
Here's where we're at so far.
In March of 2020,
global health authorities
announced a new virus
that had swept China was
now being classified
as a pandemic.
Hundreds of millions
of Americans
were stuck at home,
glued to their devices,
fearful and uncertain
about this new virus.
-Q, an anonymous Internet poster
who claims to share
government secrets online,
used this moment to capitalize
on the growing distrust
between everyday citizens
and the government.
-Until this point,
Q had mostly been
a right-wing phenomenon.
But now an increasing faction
on the left
was growing disillusioned
with the status quo
and felt they were being lied to
by a ruling elite class
made up of the 1%.
-This sentiment
mixed with the historic
spike in unemployment
and growing anxiety
about mandatory vaccines
led thousands of influencers,
who'd once dedicated their pages
to alternative healing practices
and had an audience prone
to magical thinking
-To suddenly become
obsessed with Q.
-Let's get down to business
on JFK Jr. being alive.
-False information
about pedophilia
and the protection
of children against Satanist,
a key pillar of Q,
became an entry point
for well-meaning influencers
as Q followers began promoting
the hashtag "Save Our Children."
Thousands of rallies were
staged around the globe
with people demanding
the protection of children.
-This is why
we're all talking about it,
because he's trying to stop it.
-Some not realizing
this movement was a branch
of the Q family tree.
-If behind what you're saying is
essentially indoctrinating
people to Q,
all that sh*t.
-We're not indoctrinating
anybody.
-Q's tent grew yet again.
The films, rallies,
and influencers
had tipped the scales.
-Now Q drops
were being researched
by Bernie Bros, yoga moms,
anti-vaxxers.
-And the vaguely spiritual.
[ Horn blaring ]
-Q had officially crossed
the aisle.
-What had started with a few
and meme lords
on a message board
had grown into
a global digital army
filled with people of every
race, age, religion, sexuality,
and socioeconomic status.
-This has nothing to do
with left or right.
It has to do with right
and wrong.
-Social media companies
began to purge Q accounts
as more and more people
were weaponized against
their fellow citizens
and government officials.
-Their efforts proved to be
too little, too late.
-By the fall of 2020,
polls estimate that
half of Trump supporters
believe in Q.
-And researchers estimate that
10% of the total U.S. population
believes
there's some truth to it.
That's more than
30 million people.
-As Q supporters began
winning seats in Congress
and #SaveOurChildren
invaded everyone's feeds,
we, along with hundreds
of millions of people
around the globe,
started asking
-"Where are we gonna do
about Q?"
♪♪
-Okay.
-Melanie Smith is the head
of analysis at Graphika,
where she studies
online social movements,
disinformation,
and election integrity.
Her research and modeling
has been essential
in mapping the growth
and spread of Q online.
QAnon was beginning to crop up
in a kind of community sense
in some of our network maps
around 2018.
So, these were kind of
very hardcore
conspiracy communities.
The introduction
of anti-child trafficking
narratives
-Our kids are not for sale!
- into the QAnon frame
and the kind of doubling down
on that in Q drops
meant that we saw
new communities
being drawn into QAnon content.
And you also have
a growing movement
around anti-vaccination
and alternative medicine,
which is alive and well
in the new-age mom community,
anyway,
and it doesn't take too much
to bring those two communities
closer together
when the major topic
of conversation online
is a global pandemic.
Save the Children,
Save Our Children
is an effort
to mainstream those ideas.
So kind of doubling down
on the idea of Pizzagate
as something that exists
throughout government
and throughout the media
and throughout large
public institutions,
which, again,
is about undermining trust,
but it's also about
bringing communities
that are concerned about that
type of activity into the fold.
-So looking forward, you know,
five, ten years from now,
what do you think we're gonna
say that we've learned
We learned about QAnon?
-I think we've learned
the potential
for conspiracy communities
to grow rapidly
and to encompass
different pieces
of the news cycle,
and the potential
for that movement
to go international
is something that I think
was largely unexpected
because QAnon is so tied to
the particulars of US politics.
♪♪
-With just days
before the election,
our investigation
is taking us to D.C.
Our first stop
is Black Lives Matter Plaza
to get a sense of
what's happening on the ground.
-As we enter the situation,
keep your eyes peeled for exits.
So if, you know,
for whatever reason,
the riot police or things
start to get out of hand
- Super apocalyptic, yeah.
- Like, they're just cleared out.
Everything's boarded up.
People are prepared
for the worst.
- Board City down here.
- Yeah. And so it begins.
-Yeah, this is chalk.
So this is fresh. Yeah.
I don't know if you know this,
but I'm a really good detective.
-[ Chuckling ] Yeah, clearly,
Sherlocking that situation.
[ Upbeat music plays ]
- Feel like there's still, like,
a sense of anticipation
in the air, like,
unclearable protesting
or celebrating.
- Right.
- So what's your name?
- I'm Kelly.
- Kelly?
And where are you from?
-I'm from Chicago, originally,
but I live all over the nation
as a motivational speaker.
-Yeah. So, uh, what is Q?
-I believe
it's a countercultural movement
of people who actually
get the truth,
but we're being labeled
as crazies or
-To be clear, though,
like, your belief is that
this this
This deep-state civil w*r
is between Q
and the deep-state
government officials
who are part of an elite
satanic pedophile ring.
Is that correct?
- At the end of the day,
that is what he believes,
and I actually do stand
with that.
-How do you know that
it's true, though?
-Let me take a breather
on that one,
'cause that's a deeper question.
-That is a deeper question.
Our interview was interrupted
by an onlooker
who didn't want Kelly
to sign her release form.
- Don't sign that.
- Really?
- Don't sign that.
- Okay. Why?
What's that?
- Who's VICE?
- VICE Media.
-But that's good.
VICE is good, right?
- Yeah, go ahead, sign it.
- Are you guys on Facebook?
- Your name is Kelly, right?
- They're everywhere.
Look up VICE News.
Just google VICE News.
Jesus
-She's not.
Talking to Kelly
was a good example
of you Q's stickiness.
With the election underway,
though,
we wanted to know
how much of an impact
Q would have at the ballot box.
Outgoing Congressman
Denver Riggleman
was recently ousted by the GOP
after co-sponsoring a resolution
condemning Q.
We came to D.C. to ask him
what drove a whiskey-making
constitutional conservative
and former intelligence officer
to speak out against Q.
- Yeah. Cut.
- Okay. Ready?
-Everything gets so serious
when the clap comes in.
You're just like, "Oh, no."
- I'm ready.
-We are very excited to be here,
Congressman.
Thank you for having us.
- You're welcome.
You have a background
in intelligence.
- Yes, ma'am.
- Can you tell us about that?
-So from 1992, when I enlisted,
to 2018, I was either doing
technical work with radars,
communication and navigations
equipment,
or I was tracking t*rrorists.
So, 2018, though
I was sitting in my distillery
and got a phone call
to run for Congress
with four-days notice.
I think, in some ways,
I did the right thing
across the board.
In some ways,
I didn't understand
what it actually meant
to be a politician.
-Tell us about your book
that's coming out.
-[ Chuckles ]
- My conspiracy-laden book.
- Yeah.
-Yeah, I did write a book called
"Big Foot: It's Complicated."
-Congressman Riggleman was
driven into the underbelly
of conspiracy theories
when he discovered
Bigfoot tourism was booming.
He wanted to get to the bottom
of how a mythical creature
could take a hold of
so many people's lives.
His interest in the topic
was misinterpreted,
and he became labeled
a Bigfoot devotee himself.
-This is obviously not true.
This was somebody who was
desperate to win an election
and decided to try
to destroy somebody's reputation
rather than talk about policy.
I never thought
somebody would be mocking me
on something completely untrue
on "Saturday Night Live."
-One of the strangest stories
to emerge from
the midterm elections
is that a Virginia Republican
Denver Riggleman,
who won his election
despite being accused of being
a devotee [Chuckles]
of Bigfoot erotica.
-Bigfoot porn is shaking up
the Virginia congressional race.
-'Cause it was so ridiculous,
but people still believed it.
That's why I thought when
I would come out against Q,
I'm like, I'm going to get
Everybody's like,
"Thank God somebody did.
We're behind Denver."
Mnm-mnm.
- Coming up
- After the break
-Do you think QAnon's a PSYOP?
-I think it's turning into one.
-These are intelligence officers
pushing this to people
in order to radicalize them.
-We're in D.C. with Republican
Congressman Denver Riggleman,
whose career
in military intelligence
led him to be one
of the earliest
and most outspoken critics of Q.
Tell us about the legislation
that you
and Congressman Malinowski
introduced together.
-Tom Malinowski and I put out
a resolution to condemn QAnon.
We think we need to denounce
anything that dehumanizes,
has anti-Semitic roots, right,
or could lead to violence
based on dehumanizing others.
I don't think
that's very controversial.
The vitriol and anger
spewing from both sides
of the political aisle,
echoing across
the darkest corners
and caverns of the Internet,
has led to violence and hate,
divisiveness and anger.
We did have
an overwhelming vote.
-On this vote, the yeas are 371,
and the nays are 18.
-But there were certainly people
that voted against it
that surprised me.
- Q purports to be the greatest
military intelligence operation
in the history of the world.
You are a person who has actual
military intelligence
operation history.
What is the difference?
-QAnon is fake.
When you talk about
military intelligence,
we have to deal with facts
and sources.
QAnon's an awful source.
He's wrong all the time,
he or she.
What's amazing,
this is a digital prophet.
This isn't flesh and blood.
But you have other military
intelligence individuals
that are starting
to get subsumed in this.
You guys know that, right?
General Mike Flynn.
-Where we go one, we go all.
-Where we go one, we go all.
-God bless America.
-God bless America!
-Listen, he's a nice guy,
but you do that
We saw a QAnon Spike
at that portion thinking
there's intelligence officers
that are behind this movement.
It's a grift.
It is a monetized grift,
whether it's votes,
whether it's money
for fundraising,
whether it's selling
QAnon coffee or hats.
-We go between
these two kind of dynamics.
One is loser in his basement.
And then you have the thing
that current or former intel
are involved or running.
And that, to me,
is a different level of threat.
-Yes. It's a different
level of threat.
And there's people coming out
of the intelligence business
who have worked
in computer science.
You have more and more people
that can can find those paths
in the dark corners of the web
that other people can't.
And they can actually
bring people
to that sort of sticky corner,
right, and it sticks.
-There was an article
that came out that equated
some of the recruiting tools
of !sis with QAnon.
What do you see?
-Radicalization happens
through a multiple routes,
and we have so many now
on social media.
But it's really about having
some kind of belief system that
you know is better than others,
and you have to fight for.
And when you look at the
definitions of radicalization,
you're talking about taking that
to a level of violence.
And, you know, they're nuts.
They're just nuts.
Stop.
But that doesn't really work.
[ Laughter ]
Saying "halt" does not work.
- But that's not a practical way
to deal with, like,
your neighbor, right?
Like, if your neighbors into Q
and putting that is like
- I have family members that are.
- Yeah.
And a lot of people
in the US now, you know
-I think it's going to
cause problems in families.
- Yeah.
- I think it already has.
And what I tell people is that
"where we go one, we go all"
or "save our children,"
those are portals, right?
That is the front
for a cult-like activity,
just like when Jim Jones said,
"Hey, we want to live
in peace and love."
Right?
And we want to have a commune.
Yeah, people weren't
expecting Kool-Aid
after that frickin' endeavor.
And the thing is, we have
a digital Kool-Aid out there.
You're going the opposite way
of Tron.
You're not being sucked
into the game.
The game is being sucked
into the real world.
-The light is nice outside.
Can we continue
this conversation outside?
- Let's do it.
- Yeah, let's take a walk.
- Alright.
- Let's do it.
-After finishing up
with the congressman,
we decided to wander around
a post-apocalyptic-feeling D.C.
to discuss where we were at
in the investigation
and decide where to go next.
-I do think that he made
some good points about
just the radicalization aspects
of this.
-This is terrorism 101.
I mean, that's just
You know, the type of techniques
that are used for radicalization
are mimicked.
They say,
"Look what they're doing there.
We could do it here,"
but you're talking about just
people putting it out
on social media, right,
or have personalities come up.
Say you're a "Survivor"
contestant.
Or people like Michael Flynn
giving the oath.
-These are intelligence officers
pushing this to people
in order to radicalize them.
I'm wondering if,
in your intelligence work,
you've done any sort
of counterinsurgency
or de-radicalization tactics
that you think could work
on the Q crowd.
♪♪
-Well, I mean [Chuckles]
we've de-radicalized for sure,
but as a way that
it wouldn't happen here.
If there is some sort of
military intelligence officials
behind this,
Q is a much more
insidious threat.
Do you think QAnon's a PSYOP?
-I think it's turning into one,
and I think it might be
by people who have
political ambitions.
-I agree that, if that's true,
the level of threat increases.
That's our journey to prove.
♪♪
- Coming up
- After the break
-To answer your sign's question,
yes, he did win.
-Okay. Says who?
-Says every outlet
that's calling this.
-Oh, my goodness.
All of the networks.
-As the election continued,
we worried how the Q community
would react to results.
Ballots were still being counted
in battleground states.
One of the most
significant counts
was happening in Pennsylvania.
So, we headed there.
-On our way to the convention
center in Philadelphia,
where the election
would likely be called,
two heavily-armed men
were arrested in a Hummer
full of weapons and ammunition,
which had multiple Q
and Great Awakening stickers.
We went to see what else
would happen in Philly.
♪♪
-We arrived to find two sides,
starkly divided,
who both claimed to want
a fair and transparent process
counting the votes.
-Yet, both also claim
the other side was
preventing that from happening.
[ Chanting "as*h*le!" ]
[ All cheering ]
-I mean, I feel like this
just really represents,
like, the divide in America,
very starkly divided sides.
And then in the middle is
the press and the police.
-I'm feeling like I'm in
a First Amendment sandwich,
you know?
- Yeah.
Just both sides yelling
at each other.
But neither side
can hear one another.
-Yes. It's true.
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Count every vote ♪
Count every vote, what? ♪
Count every vote ♪
Count every vote ♪
Let me hear you!
Count every vote ♪
Count every vote ♪
A little louder!
Count every vote ♪
We return
to the convention center
and recognize QAnon John,
a popular Q influencer.
-The numbers are definitely
not in the Trump votes favor.
Couple dozen people here.
-There was a lot of people here
earlier,
but a lot of them left,
you know, 'cause we work.
We have jobs.
They're not legitimate ballots.
So, there's a lot of fake
ballots in circulation.
They're trying to steal
the election.
-Where do the ballot
The fake ballots come from?
-A lot of them are coming
from China.
It's foreign election
interference.
And now there's actually
a patent
using block-chain technology
where they're actually able
to track the ballots,
the real legitimate ballots
that have the watermark on.
It's a genius plan
that Trump implemented.
So, what's gonna happen is,
it's going to force into light
all of the corruption
and voter fraud
that's taken place
during this election.
♪♪
Could you hear that guy
I was talking to
in the "WQKE" with a Q shirt?
- No, what was he saying?
-The cops here between us.
-He referred to himself
as a digital soldier.
- Really?
- And so, of course,
I asked him about
Mike Flynn's involvement.
-Do you think General Flynn
might be Q?
-He's part of the team.
That's as far as I'll go.
-In fact, the Flynn family
even followed him
on all these social platforms.
-He actually follows me
on Twitter.
- Really?
- So, he's been following me.
Yep, a couple members of
the Flynn family follow me.
So, it's a great honor,
-But it is
I think it's like those kind
of, like, little
personal touches
that Flynn has, I think,
strategically done
-That's part of the PSYOP.
- that will keep
these folks loyal.
-Absolutely.
-There was this incident
on Saturday morning,
You may have heard about it.
- The president tweeted,
"Lawyers press conference
-"at the Four Seasons
in Philadelphia."
-Trump corrected the tweet,
saying that the press conference
was going to actually be held
- at Four Seasons
- Total Landscaping.
-Just by an adult bookstore
and a crematorium.
-Oh, that Four Seasons.
Of course.
-There was apparently
a huge miscommunication.
-At least Giuliani's going out
with his head held high.
-Wow. What a beautiful day.
Thank you.
-We are outside
this Trump rally.
sh*t is getting wild.
-We're here at Four Seasons
Total Landscaping
in Philadelphia.
Let me ask you about that.
Pretty much every channel
in the world
has said that Joe Biden has,
in fact, won.
-I don't watch TV,
so I have no idea.
-To answer your sign's question,
yes, he did win.
- He did win?
- Yes.
-Okay. Says who?
-Says every outlet
that's calling this.
- Who was it called by?
- All of them.
-All of them? Oh, my goodness.
All of the networks.
-Started with BBC.
-Joe Biden has won
the American
presidential election.
-We've got Los Angeles Times,
The Atlantic, NPR,
USA Today, Bloomberg,
The Guardian,
Wall Street Journal,
Rupert Murdoch's company,
ABC News, and Slate
with the real hot take
Their headline is, "Donald Trump
is Historically a Big Loser."
-With no evidence
of election tampering,
Anons continue to rally
around Q's message
of the deep state
was stealing the election.
-I've heard several people say
that they don't believe
what the news is saying.
-We're not going to sit down
-And we're gonna have a fair
and clear election.
And we're gonna save
our democracy right now.
-Melanie Smith of Graphika
had earlier spoken to us
about the danger that
this rejection of reality
poses to our democracy.
-The issue that we see
with QAnon
and the reason that I think
possibly it poses such a threat
is in those
inexplicable theories
being used to justify distrust
of major institutions
and a distrust of democracy.
-What do you see coming
in the next few months?
-Lawsuits.
See a lot of lawsuits.
And if it does get overturned
in the Supreme Court,
let's say that we find out.
All these people over here
that are all excited,
they're going to be pissed off,
then.
So, the news has done
what they wanted, right?
So, it's, we got to have
everyone angry at each other
no matter who wins, right?
They do it every single time,
okay?
I don't have a problem
with Democrats.
I don't have a problem
with Republicans.
I got a problem with the media.
-So, what we're now seeing is
the fallout of distrust
in the democratic process
and a mistrust
in the organizations
that really are
orchestrating elections.
So, I think that the distrust
that we've seen this
Over the past few years
that's been growing
around public institutions
has really come to a head
in this election.
- Coming up
- After the break
-In 2016
Flynn lists himself
as joining a company,
and this is their logo.
-After witnessing
a large-scale dismissal
of democracy in Philly,
Anon's rhetoric shifted
towards the hashtag
"Stop the Steal" campaign.
We decided now was
a good time to regroup
and discuss where
our investigation stood.
-Alright.
-Oh, man.
Alright.
You ready?
-I think so.
-Alright.
Let's bunker it up.
-Alright.
-Based on our talk
with Denver Riggleman,
we felt it was worth
revisiting the theory
that Q is a PSYOP that
was targeted at reshaping
the political landscape
of America
by a White House insider.
-Anybody that is involved
in the Q movement
that can't admit it's a PSYOP
is too blind to see
that it's a PSYOP.
-And if that's the case,
there's one person who stands
to gain more than anyone else.
-Retired three-star
Lieutenant General Mike Flynn
served in the White House
as Trump's national
security adviser,
but was fired after 24 days
for lying about
his communications with Russia.
-Prior to this,
he served as the head of
the Defense Intelligence Agency
for two years
after several tours
in Afghanistan
and was considered to be
a brilliant tactician.
He published a number of books
recounting the effectiveness
of modern warfare methods
that were being implemented
by foreign adversaries.
-After pleading guilty to
charges of lying to the FBI
during
the Mueller investigation,
he would later deny
any wrongdoing
until Trump pardoned him
in December of 2020.
Anons consider the general to be
a patriot of the highest order
and a w*r hero.
-I think the real question is,
what is this dude's deal?
-Flynn's one of the sort of
top generals in Afghanistan.
Then Obama brings him home
to lead the DIA,
the Defense Intelligence Agency.
But then there's some
sort of dispute,
and Flynn gets pushed out.
-I think that's when
he went into a dark zone.
-You said you feared
he was "demented."
Something is genuinely wrong.
-Is the way that he left
the military
Does that kind of provide
enough motivation,
given the context,
for him to start an operation
like this?
-I mean,
tactics 101 in warfare is,
if you don't know the enemy,
then you cannot
defeat the enemy.
-When he leaves DIA, he forms
the Flynn Intelligence Group,
which is, you know,
a private intelligence firm
that he's running
with Bijan Kian
and a couple other guys.
His son, Mike Flynn Jr.,
has been in the mix since
the beginning, you know.
-Yeah. That dude
Pizzagate all day.
-All day!
In 2016, Flynn lists himself
as joining the board of this
company called OSY Technologies.
So, looking up
the company's name,
and the only thing
that I can find
registered in the United States
is a trademark that was filed
two weeks after Flynn
joins the board.
And check this out.
Q Intelligence.
And this is their logo.
-Dude
-Straight up a Q.
-So, Flynn also owns a firm
called
the Digital Soldiers Media.
-We have an army
of digital soldiers.
-At that rally in Beverly Hills,
there was a tent
called Digital Army
where people were being asked
to take the oath.
- What's this?
- This is a
It's, basically, a news network.
Like, a censor-free
news network.
-The thing that
everybody points to
when it comes to
Flynn's involvement is the oath.
- Do solemnly swear
- Do solemnly swear
-That I will support
and defend
-That I will support
and defend
-But then at the end of it,
he signed off with the,
"Where we go one, we go all."
-Where we go one, we go all.
-And so immediately,
a dog whistle
to the Q community.
-I think that's actually
just, like, a whistle.
-Yeah.
-This signified a turning point
for the movement.
Searches for Q spiked shortly
after Flynn took the oath,
which led millions of others
to wonder if there might
be actual military intelligence
behind Q.
Thousands of Anons posted
their own videos,
taking the oath
to pay tribute to Flynn
and pledge loyalty to Q.
-A majority of the Anons
and definitely a large majority
of bakers,
in their videos, there's a link
to the General Flynn
Legal Defense Fund,
it seems to me, raking in a lot
of money from the community.
The thing that stands out to me
is that
of everything we've seen,
of all the events we've been to,
all the videos
that we've watched,
of all the interviews
that we've done,
I can't think of one
where Flynn has not come up.
Through studying some of
the articles of General Flynn
-Everybody sort of suspects
people like Admiral Byrd
and General Flynn and others
as being part of the team.
-Do you think General Flynn
is involved in Q?
-Oh, 1,000%
-I know Mike Flynn personally.
Flynn is the guy that
I wonder about the most
because he has the most
to gain from Q.
-If it's General Mike Flynn,
then likely it's not a LARP.
-If this is Flynn,
this is a military
intelligence operation
on the American people.
- Coming up
- After the break
-I firmly believe
Q gives us the truth.
There's too many of us
to not become even stronger.
-As our investigation focuses in
on General Flynn,
I remember how my friend J.T.
had prominently featured him
in a number of videos
and that he mentioned
that he's interviewed members
of the Flynn family.
So I thought it would be a good
idea to head back to Florida
and see what J.T. thinks
about our Flynn theory.
-This song goes out
to General Flynn
and the Q army.
-What made the music transition
from being something
that you did
to kind of write about
your personal experience
to then just about, like,
Q and the movement?
-I've wrote a lot of love songs
and, like I said, that weepy
"Oh, poor me!"
You know?
And I've graduated
from that phase in my life.
And then I also was inspired,
and and I got to say
as much as Q did,
I think General Flynn did, too,
because when you
If you really look at his case,
a man that gave 33 years
of his life to our country,
and then you see what, you know,
the FBI did to him,
that's been their M.O.
That's how they get people,
you know,
and they bring up
these fake charges.
I guess it's just the travesty
of what he's gone through.
And then for him
to sort of assemble
the digital soldiers and
-I was just In fact,
I was just going through
Through social media,
'cause social media
is the only thing
that's reporting it.
-You know,
assembled this group of people
that are creating
information warfare.
There's so much power
in social media
for for your generation.
-That being said, I also wonder
if he did it on purpose
so that we can take
these down,
'cause he knows
what they've been doing.
-That's interesting.
-I mean, that song
"Beautiful Black Sky,"
he was sitting
in Andrew McCabe's book.
He would ask a question,
and Flynn would lean back,
and he'd look out the window,
and there was a storm outside,
oddly enough.
And he goes,
"What a beautiful black sky."
[ Rock music plays ]
The storm, beautiful black sky.
Was he forewarning them that,
"You keep at this"
-Storm's coming.
"the storm's coming."
-What are, like What happens
with this movement both ways?
It goes either way?
- Right. Yeah.
I was thinking about that
all night long.
What I came up with is,
there's just too many of us
to give up.
There's too many of us to
not
become even stronger.
Again, I think it would
just further drive people
to get involved themselves
in the process.
And I think that's
the best thing that happened
with not only Trump, but Q,
with even, you know,
General Flynn, I go back to,
and a lot of these leaders.
They are saying that
"Go and get involved
in your cities.
Get involved in your states
and learn how it works
and so we can get
these people out.
And it's only four years.
Another election is
only four years away.
Then Flynn will run
for president.
- True.
- H-He'll win.
And he's a lifelong Democrat.
He wants to help people,
and he's not
-I like that you
put those together.
I love that you put
those together,
because that is
what we want to do.
We want to help people.
Being a Democrat
and wanting to help people.
You said that in one sentence.
-He's the person
that I really think
can make a big difference
in the corruption, you know?
And And that's all I want.
-Dude, our whole
political system's so
I mean,
and the media has up,
and the money in politics
is a problem
and so is corruption
and all of those things.
Yes, absolutely.
I think that's the case.
And I think it's definitely,
like
It is a part
of our larger issue.
-It's nice to, like, I guess,
see that your side, though.
-That's how I felt
about talking to you all day.
I've been like, "Interesting."
- Yeah.
- Interesting point.
I agree with that,
but I have a different
conclusion there.
- Right. Right.
- [ Chuckles ] Yeah.
-And, you know,
there is a middle ground.
There's a desire for the truth.
Whether we're getting it
from Q or not,
there's a desire for it.
I firmly believe
Q gives us the truth.
-Is it the dream scenario
that Flynn's involved?
-Is that
What's the dream scenario?
-I just know that somebody
who is the director of DNI,
somebody who's the director
of the NSA,
somebody who's the director of,
you know
They have a lot of guys
under them that they trained.
They have a lot of guys
that know
the same information
that they have.
So
- Wait. DNI or DIA?
Defense Intelligence.
- Yeah.
-In other words,
I think it's somebody
that was connected
to Flynn somehow.
I don't think it's Flynn.
Watnick. Ezra Watnick.
- Ezra.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick, I think,
is a really interesting one.
- Q has just put his name.
- Just Ezra.
- Just his name like three times.
- And he's running
Now he's at DOD running
the child-trafficking stuff.
-And he was trained by Flynn.
-He was Flynn's boy.
-There's a guy's name
that's been coming up
that is friends,
that supposedly worked
real close with the General.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick.
- Never met Ezra.
I know Mike speaks
incredibly highly of him.
-Cool. We have a feeling that
he's probably way more important
than a lot of people
think he is, you know?
♪♪
-As it becomes more clear
that Q is a PSYOP,
promoted by White House insiders
and former members
of the intelligence community,
we're left wondering
how profoundly the effects
of an operation like this
could be on the people
who regularly engage
with the content.
-Amarnath Amarasingam
is the author
of a much-discussed report
for West Point's
Counterterrorism Center
examining the potential threat
posed by Q.
What are some
conversational techniques
that you've seen work
in de-radicalizing,
you know, whether it be
loved ones or friends?
-Part of the challenge here
is that we're not necessarily
used to the age group
and the demographic
going down these rabbit holes.
Radicalization has
always been seen
as a kind of
young person's game.
The entire de-radicalization
framework,
countering
violent extremism framework
is built around 20-year-old men,
for the most part.
And so the idea that
an 85-year-old grandma
would be going down this path,
we don't really know
what to do with it.
Did you know I have
grandmother groupies.
The people that love me the most
are grandmothers
that have woken up.
I think one of the main things
that they did was,
they gave some
of these individuals
a sense of community.
And the nature of that community
was such that they felt like
they were awakened to the truth.
-The world deserves a witness
not just of rage and hate,
but of people who are actually,
like, know what's going on,
like the real woke.
- Right?
A lot of people that
I've interviewed
who were part
of the neo-n*zi movements
or jihadist movements,
conspiratorial movements,
there's a kind of common trend
amongst a lot
of these individuals
who believe that once
they've entered the ideology,
once they've kind of fully
accepted this world view,
it's like they're the only
awake ones in the room.
-I mean,
there's human trafficking
on so many levels,
You'll never hear
that narrative.
But it's it's real.
It's what's going on.
-It's not simply that
me and you have a disagreement.
It's that you are the epitome
of evil.
-The liberal media is gonna
produce a bunch of zombies
to go down a different agenda.
But I'm telling you that agenda
is hell for this country.
-If you think about how
we navigate the outside world,
it's often through systems
of expertise, right?
And if you lose trust in
those systems of information
-They call it the lying
media mob.
They're literally a mob,
like sh
Telling you what
to think and believe
and censoring truth.
-Then a whole host
of other possibilities opens up.
A lot of these people feel like
they're part of a cosmic w*r
against good and evil.
-And it makes sense that
there's, like,
a WhiteHat movement of patriots
who are fighting for America,
and that there's
a deeper civil w*r
going on in America.
Satanism is real.
The things that they're,
like, breaking up,
it's happening.
-What is it that
drives some people
to just stay at their computer
and post the memes
and some people
to get in the car
and drive across the country?
-I mean, that's that's
the million dollar question
of radicalization to violence,
right?
And it's been the question that
has been the hardest to answer.
But it's also
the most important.
-That we have the right
to stand up for our right
to preserve our rights,
-They have elements of extremism
in their ideology,
which has proven
to mobilize people to violence.
-Nothing can stop
what is coming.
Nothing!
For too long ago,
they took advantage of us.
We're all awake.
The Great Awakening has
only just begun.
-You know, that's something
to watch closely.
-So, where we stand tonight,
we stand on a crucible moment
in United States history,
willing to die,
willing to sacrifice
their very lives
for the fresh air of liberty
that we breathe.
This is so important, people.
We should, as Americans,
not accept this.
-Yes!
-All the digital soldiers
out there, all of you,
the members
of the House of Representatives,
the members of
the United States Senate,
tomorrow, we, the people,
are going to be here,
and we want you to know
that we will not stand
for a lie.
We are the ones that will decide
America's future forward.
It may not be
a Republican Party.
It may not be
a Democratic Party.
It will be the People's Party.
God bless you
and God bless America.
-Because you'll never take back
our country with weakness.
You have to show strength,
and you have to be strong.
We're going to walk
down to the Capitol
because we're gonna
have somebody in there
that should not be in there,
and our country
will be destroyed,
and we're not gonna
stand for that.
-Somebody's got to do something!
-What do you think
we should do?!
- They're evacuating
- Occupy the Capitol.
[ Chanting "USA!" ]
-Protestors,
who have stormed the Capitol
The vice president
of the United States
was just rushed off
the floor of the House
by Secret Service.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-We were just told
that there has been
tear gas in the rotunda,
and we're being instructed to,
each of us,
get gas masks that
are under our seats.
[ Bang ]
♪♪
[ Indistinct shouting ]
[ Chanting "USA!" ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
[ g*nsh*t ]
-Alright.
Everybody make a hole.
This lady just got shot.
Make a hole.
Make a hole.
Make a hole.
-Shots are being fired
inside the Capitol chambers.
-Everybody down!
Everybody down!
♪♪
- Coming up
- After the break
It seems to me that we are
more divided than ever.
-It doesn't matter who Q is.
It matters why Q exists.
♪♪
-Alright.
[ Both sigh ]
-This is very daunting still,
more so than even
when we started, right?
Of having done all of
the research we've done
and traveled across the country
and met the people that we have,
it seems to me that we are
more divided than ever,
and that pains me.
-Yeah, I feel like there's
actually just more questions,
and this is, just like Q,
kind of a never-ending
rabbit hole.
- It's true.
All Trump had to do was send out
one tweet in October 2017
saying somebody is
impersonating
a government official
in my administration,
making things up
to divide the country,
and had he done so.
Millions of people
would have been saved
from dedicating their lives
to these rabbit holes,
these endless rabbit holes.
-The crux of the theory
is this belief
that you are secretly
saving the world
from this satanic cult
of pedophiles and cannibals.
Does that sound like something
you are behind
-Well, I haven't
I haven't heard that.
But is that supposed to be
a bad thing or a good thing?
-For a long time,
we've been looking
at social media companies.
We've looked to Congress.
We've looked at everybody
except ourselves
to get us out of this mess.
To the people
who are watching this
and thinking, "What can I do?",
it has to be a civic duty
to see yourself
and even people who you
vehemently disagree with
It's going to take
more patience,
more compassion
than you may think you have,
but that is the work
that is truly patriotic.
-I think that's exactly right.
-I have often said that
I believe democracy
to be a verb.
We have so much
of our own work to do.
We began this investigation
to create order
from the chaotic world of Q.
-The story of Q has
evolved one bizarre
and outrageous headline
at a time
over the last few years.
And when you consider
any of the events
or connections we discuss
in isolation,
they appear random and chaotic.
That's what's made Q so hard
to understand.
But when you look at it
from the right perspective,
it all starts to make sense,
and we see what
a single headline cannot.
-In examining each
of our theories,
we've come to the conclusion
that they're not
mutually exclusive.
-We do not believe
Q is an individual,
but rather a network
of individuals,
each playing their role,
from the general to the Anons,
the bakers, the artists,
and even the critics,
which have all enabled Q to leap
from the message board
into the streets.
-We believe the account has
changed hands over time.
Originating in 2017,
we think Q was launched
as a pro-Trump LARP,
designed by the cicadas
under Thomas's supervision
on 4chan.
Shortly after, Tracy Beanz
and his Patriot Soapbox crew
expanded it to a lucrative grift
that thrived on 8chan
under the Watkins' supervision
and encouragement.
-Which only leaves
our final theory,
the White House insider,
and whether or not you believe
that General Flynn was
involved in designing Q.
Since taking the oath,
he's made it really difficult
to believe that he
and those close to him
are not currently playing
an active role in Q
and organizing the Anons.
-When the mob stormed
the Capitol
believing they were
fulfilling a Q prophecy,
they did so at Flynn's command,
as much as at Trump's.
And while we don't know
why law enforcement
and intelligence communities
didn't act with the urgency
that the moment required,
it's worth noting that
shortly after the election,
Trump promoted several figures
revered by Q
to top national
security positions.
And as details come out
about the Pentagon's role
in blocking the National Guard
from assisting
local law enforcement,
it's certainly curious
who was in the room
when that decision was made.
-While Q and the Anon's
are being erased
from every major
social media platform,
it doesn't mean that
they stop existing.
We have a long way to go
before we're able to address
the reasons why Q appealed to
tens of millions of Americans,
and the further that
we isolate followers
from mainstream society,
the more likely this is all
to end in more violence.
-We can't afford to ignore
how widespread Q has become.
In the last few years,
it's gone from the dark shadows
of the Internet
to small gathering
on Hollywood and Highland
to a well-organized protest
in front of Netflix
to violently storming
the U.S. Capitol.
Q has emerged as a malignant
force in our society.
Q successfully weaponized
the disenfranchisement
that many Americans
still feel today.
-Unless we continue
to take it seriously,
rigorously examine the operators
behind the drops
and their end goals,
American democracy will crumble.
-We, the people!
Where we go one, we go all!
[ Indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
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01x03 - Why Does Q Exist?
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Explore the origins, rise and social impact of QAnon, whose story has been told to the public one outrageous headline at a time.
Explore the origins, rise and social impact of QAnon, whose story has been told to the public one outrageous headline at a time.