The Origins of QAnon (?)
Posted: Mon May 31, 2021 5:22 pm
The origin of QAnon is murky at best. I went to whatever sources I could find on this matter and have simply laid out the "facts" as I found them. I don't do much of any speculating here. I am not trying to speculate on anything but rather give as objective an account as i have thus far been able to compile. I make no claim that this is in any way definitive. It is simply what I have found thus far. Make of it what you will.
On the Vice Channel program, “QAnon: The Search for Q”, a person identified on the program as Manuel “Manny” Chavez III who goes by the online moniker of “Defango” claimed to have been recruited in 2017 by an online network known as Cicada 3301. Among online gamers and hackers, Cicada 3301 is very well known after they posted an elaborate online puzzle/treasure hunt on 4chan in 2012. The players had to solve a series of puzzles and ciphers to get the clue of where to search next—sometimes it was to another online site, a phone number or a physical locale. The treasure to be found was the Spear of Destiny (the spear that supposedly was used to stab Christ in the side during his crucifixion) hidden somewhere in the desert. Manny eventually located the Spear and was recruited into the Cicada network except that he didn’t know it for five years.
Manny claimed he was recruited in July of 2017 at a Defcon (a hacker convention) by a guy known as “Microchip.” Manny claimed that, at the time, he did not know that Microchip had been part of Cicada. Manny said he was basically recruited by Microchip to concoct the next puzzle and so they invented Q as a joke, more or less, at the behest of Cicada—filling it with all kinds of rightwing paranoid tripe strictly as a gag. He claimed this QAnon puzzle was a kind of stripped-down version of the 2012 puzzle only without all the treasure-hunting otherwise it would become too complex and exhausting for most people who weren’t into puzzles the way he is.
Manny said that Microchip conceived of QAnon as a version of a LARP or Live Action Role Playing where people into cosplay would dress up as a knight, king, queen, magician, etc. They would meet in the woods and engage in battle—something like Civil War reenactors. The difference between a standard LARP and QAnon is that the players in a standard LARP knew it was all game and that they were role-playing but the QAnon LARPers were not told they were LARPing and so they took it for real. They fancied themselves people in the know, in on the big secret being spilled to them by an anonymous government insider with all kinds of connections. They would tell their friends who would also become infatuated with the game and they would, in turn, tell others and so on. It spread with frightening rapidity. All these LARPers became QAnon addicts, believing every word of it and regarding it as something supremely important. It wasn’t just for internet gamers and puzzle enthusiasts—in fact, Cicada didn’t want them because they were too good at hacking and figuring things out. They wanted the average Trump MAGA supporter because they were stupid and easily duped. Anyone could join QAnon if they desired and they did in droves. As one woman stated of her membership in QAnon, “It is the most important thing in my life.”
The head of Cicada according to Manny is Thomas Schoenberg who LARPed under the moniker of Sophia Musik. Schoenberg, a shady character with a shady past and a long rap sheet and had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in con games, blackmail, intimidation, etc. He had also once worked in some capacity with some people closely associated with General Michael Flynn who was very high up in Trump’s circle. Manny described the Cicada network as being composed of criminals without conscience. Manny had a falling out with Schoenberg and left Cicada and claimed that the group then hounded him and tried to ruin him and drive him to suicide. Manny said he felt he needed to alert people that Cicada was dangerous and were going to pull off something big and they were perfectly capable of carrying it out because they were far smarter and more ruthless than the MAGA idiots they conned into following them. It should be pointed out that not all MAGA Trumpists are QAnon but all QAnon are MAGA Trumpists.
The internet provides a labyrinth of dots that can be connected almost any way one chooses and has, not surprisingly, become a candy store for kids whose passion is looking for conspiracies behind every tree and rock. Not only is cyberspace chock full of conspiracy websites that are perused regularly and thoroughly by researchers of the fringe (such as yours truly) but mainly by the true believers. Most of these websites have little to no credibility being little more than propaganda watering-holes for racist and religious nutbags looking to reinforce their nutbaggery with the worst type of misinformation. But some of these sites gained a bit of prestige.
One such conspiracy website is Wikileaks. Founded by Australian activist, Julian Assange, in 2006 in Iceland under the auspices of the Sunshine Press, Wikileaks specializes in anonymous document-dumping where caches of classified material are posted online concerning shady finances, military expenditures, “secret” wars, espionage and black ops carried out by various governmental organizations around the world, etc. Some might object to my characterizing Wikileaks as little more than a conspiracy and propaganda website but when the dumps are done anonymously, how do we determine how true the content of the leaked documents are? Suppose one government frames up another by anonymously releasing doctored documents revealing a coverup of illegal spending or the clandestine imprisonment of innocent citizens, how would we really know this was happening? Even if this was not the intention of Wikileaks, how could they stop their website from being used this way when there is no way to check sources?
In 2016, the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, were stolen by a Russian hacker and dumped on the Wikileaks website. While the dump appeared to be real, it’s what was done with the leaked material that calls the efficacy of Wikileaks into question. If the leaked material results in the freeing of innocent people or the prosecution of law-breakers or puts an end to a genocide then that would justify the existence of such a website. But if leaked material that is basically harmless is utilized by those with an agenda who want that material to be so much more harmful than it actually is, what purpose does a website as Wikileaks really serve other than to provide screwballs with the fodder they require to manufacture conspiracies?
In November of 2016, the emails shared between Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, and one James Alefantis became of intense interest to the rightwing conspiracy theorists who make up half of the regular consumers of Wikileaks. Alefantis was not some high-powered attorney or congressman or lobbyist in Washington but rather he owned the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in DC. Comet Ping Pong was a popular spot to hold parties and even doubled as a concert venue for various bands. It seated 120 and was stocked with ping-pong tables, craft rooms and what not. The place had come to Podesta’s attention through his brother, Tony, who liked to go there a lot. Podesta was looking a spot to hold a fundraiser for Clinton and Alefantis was known to be a staunch democratic donor who knew a number of bigwigs in the party although he did not know Clinton.
This exchange of emails dumped onto Wikileaks by a Russian hacker was gone over by users of the imageboard 4chan. Although I have spent some time at 4chan, I never posted there but I needed to see what it is about. 4chan was founded in 2003 supposedly by a 15-year-old known only as “moot.” It was modeled on similar boards used on the Japanese internet where images are posted and discussed. The site, which is a group of boards covering various topics, appears to be overwhelmingly populated by white teenaged boys which makes sense since it was allegedly founded by one. Many of these boys I found to be maladjusted “incels.” Pornographic images are posted with great frequency including child porn. Other images are disgustingly gory in a way that fascinates teen children. Words as “nigger” and “fag” are overused and antisemitism is quite rampant.
On the Vice Channel program, “QAnon: The Search for Q”, a person identified on the program as Manuel “Manny” Chavez III who goes by the online moniker of “Defango” claimed to have been recruited in 2017 by an online network known as Cicada 3301. Among online gamers and hackers, Cicada 3301 is very well known after they posted an elaborate online puzzle/treasure hunt on 4chan in 2012. The players had to solve a series of puzzles and ciphers to get the clue of where to search next—sometimes it was to another online site, a phone number or a physical locale. The treasure to be found was the Spear of Destiny (the spear that supposedly was used to stab Christ in the side during his crucifixion) hidden somewhere in the desert. Manny eventually located the Spear and was recruited into the Cicada network except that he didn’t know it for five years.
Manny claimed he was recruited in July of 2017 at a Defcon (a hacker convention) by a guy known as “Microchip.” Manny claimed that, at the time, he did not know that Microchip had been part of Cicada. Manny said he was basically recruited by Microchip to concoct the next puzzle and so they invented Q as a joke, more or less, at the behest of Cicada—filling it with all kinds of rightwing paranoid tripe strictly as a gag. He claimed this QAnon puzzle was a kind of stripped-down version of the 2012 puzzle only without all the treasure-hunting otherwise it would become too complex and exhausting for most people who weren’t into puzzles the way he is.
Manny said that Microchip conceived of QAnon as a version of a LARP or Live Action Role Playing where people into cosplay would dress up as a knight, king, queen, magician, etc. They would meet in the woods and engage in battle—something like Civil War reenactors. The difference between a standard LARP and QAnon is that the players in a standard LARP knew it was all game and that they were role-playing but the QAnon LARPers were not told they were LARPing and so they took it for real. They fancied themselves people in the know, in on the big secret being spilled to them by an anonymous government insider with all kinds of connections. They would tell their friends who would also become infatuated with the game and they would, in turn, tell others and so on. It spread with frightening rapidity. All these LARPers became QAnon addicts, believing every word of it and regarding it as something supremely important. It wasn’t just for internet gamers and puzzle enthusiasts—in fact, Cicada didn’t want them because they were too good at hacking and figuring things out. They wanted the average Trump MAGA supporter because they were stupid and easily duped. Anyone could join QAnon if they desired and they did in droves. As one woman stated of her membership in QAnon, “It is the most important thing in my life.”
The head of Cicada according to Manny is Thomas Schoenberg who LARPed under the moniker of Sophia Musik. Schoenberg, a shady character with a shady past and a long rap sheet and had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in con games, blackmail, intimidation, etc. He had also once worked in some capacity with some people closely associated with General Michael Flynn who was very high up in Trump’s circle. Manny described the Cicada network as being composed of criminals without conscience. Manny had a falling out with Schoenberg and left Cicada and claimed that the group then hounded him and tried to ruin him and drive him to suicide. Manny said he felt he needed to alert people that Cicada was dangerous and were going to pull off something big and they were perfectly capable of carrying it out because they were far smarter and more ruthless than the MAGA idiots they conned into following them. It should be pointed out that not all MAGA Trumpists are QAnon but all QAnon are MAGA Trumpists.
The internet provides a labyrinth of dots that can be connected almost any way one chooses and has, not surprisingly, become a candy store for kids whose passion is looking for conspiracies behind every tree and rock. Not only is cyberspace chock full of conspiracy websites that are perused regularly and thoroughly by researchers of the fringe (such as yours truly) but mainly by the true believers. Most of these websites have little to no credibility being little more than propaganda watering-holes for racist and religious nutbags looking to reinforce their nutbaggery with the worst type of misinformation. But some of these sites gained a bit of prestige.
One such conspiracy website is Wikileaks. Founded by Australian activist, Julian Assange, in 2006 in Iceland under the auspices of the Sunshine Press, Wikileaks specializes in anonymous document-dumping where caches of classified material are posted online concerning shady finances, military expenditures, “secret” wars, espionage and black ops carried out by various governmental organizations around the world, etc. Some might object to my characterizing Wikileaks as little more than a conspiracy and propaganda website but when the dumps are done anonymously, how do we determine how true the content of the leaked documents are? Suppose one government frames up another by anonymously releasing doctored documents revealing a coverup of illegal spending or the clandestine imprisonment of innocent citizens, how would we really know this was happening? Even if this was not the intention of Wikileaks, how could they stop their website from being used this way when there is no way to check sources?
In 2016, the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, were stolen by a Russian hacker and dumped on the Wikileaks website. While the dump appeared to be real, it’s what was done with the leaked material that calls the efficacy of Wikileaks into question. If the leaked material results in the freeing of innocent people or the prosecution of law-breakers or puts an end to a genocide then that would justify the existence of such a website. But if leaked material that is basically harmless is utilized by those with an agenda who want that material to be so much more harmful than it actually is, what purpose does a website as Wikileaks really serve other than to provide screwballs with the fodder they require to manufacture conspiracies?
In November of 2016, the emails shared between Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, and one James Alefantis became of intense interest to the rightwing conspiracy theorists who make up half of the regular consumers of Wikileaks. Alefantis was not some high-powered attorney or congressman or lobbyist in Washington but rather he owned the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in DC. Comet Ping Pong was a popular spot to hold parties and even doubled as a concert venue for various bands. It seated 120 and was stocked with ping-pong tables, craft rooms and what not. The place had come to Podesta’s attention through his brother, Tony, who liked to go there a lot. Podesta was looking a spot to hold a fundraiser for Clinton and Alefantis was known to be a staunch democratic donor who knew a number of bigwigs in the party although he did not know Clinton.
This exchange of emails dumped onto Wikileaks by a Russian hacker was gone over by users of the imageboard 4chan. Although I have spent some time at 4chan, I never posted there but I needed to see what it is about. 4chan was founded in 2003 supposedly by a 15-year-old known only as “moot.” It was modeled on similar boards used on the Japanese internet where images are posted and discussed. The site, which is a group of boards covering various topics, appears to be overwhelmingly populated by white teenaged boys which makes sense since it was allegedly founded by one. Many of these boys I found to be maladjusted “incels.” Pornographic images are posted with great frequency including child porn. Other images are disgustingly gory in a way that fascinates teen children. Words as “nigger” and “fag” are overused and antisemitism is quite rampant.