WEBVTT 00:00:02.020 --> 00:00:04.150 align:middle line:84% The human mind is a tricky thing. 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:09.080 align:middle line:84% For example, if you sit in front of a television set 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:15.015 align:middle line:84% with just snow on it eventually you will start to see things. 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:84% Because your brain can't deal with the idea 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:22.870 align:middle line:84% that there's nothing connected in the information 00:00:22.870 --> 00:00:25.410 align:middle line:90% you are seeing. 00:00:25.410 --> 00:00:28.300 align:middle line:84% Q clearance, I had a Q clearance when I worked, 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:30.498 align:middle line:84% a Q clearance is a clearance given 00:00:30.498 --> 00:00:31.665 align:middle line:90% by the Department of Energy. 00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:36.500 align:middle line:84% What if everything you knew about the world 00:00:36.500 --> 00:00:40.310 align:middle line:84% was wrong, because the good guys were really the bad guys, 00:00:40.310 --> 00:00:42.920 align:middle line:84% and the bad guys were way worse than you ever imagined? 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:45.170 align:middle line:84% And what if the only people brave enough 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:47.960 align:middle line:84% to expose this truth were a bunch of concerned military 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.150 align:middle line:90% or intelligence insiders? 00:00:50.150 --> 00:00:54.170 align:middle line:84% QAnon is the online conspiracy that claims exactly that. 00:00:54.170 --> 00:00:56.870 align:middle line:84% But that narrative is almost a distraction. 00:00:56.870 --> 00:00:59.420 align:middle line:84% Taken at face value, at the heart of Q 00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:02.030 align:middle line:84% lies an effort to generate distrust. 00:01:02.030 --> 00:01:05.000 align:middle line:84% Whether it's a state sponsored disinformation campaign 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.120 align:middle line:84% or something more spontaneous is harder to say. 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:11.000 align:middle line:84% Simplifying it, as most of the media currently does, 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:13.790 align:middle line:84% as a far right conspiracy that worships Trump and believes 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:16.880 align:middle line:84% his opponents are Satanic paedophiles probably 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:18.880 align:middle line:90% misses the point. 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:21.580 align:middle line:84% I first came across Q last summer. 00:01:21.580 --> 00:01:25.630 align:middle line:84% The FT had invited Adam Curtis, the cult BBC documentary maker, 00:01:25.630 --> 00:01:27.910 align:middle line:84% to a one-off experimental stage show. 00:01:27.910 --> 00:01:31.780 align:middle line:84% He told the story of Operation Mindfuck, which he explained 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:34.270 align:middle line:84% had been devised by two counter-culture radicals 00:01:34.270 --> 00:01:36.220 align:middle line:90% in the 1960s. 00:01:36.220 --> 00:01:37.720 align:middle line:84% Both were practitioners of something 00:01:37.720 --> 00:01:41.530 align:middle line:84% called discordianism, a sort of parody religion centred 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.530 align:middle line:84% on the worship of the goddess of chaos, Eris. 00:01:44.530 --> 00:01:46.600 align:middle line:84% One of them, Kerry Thornley, wanted 00:01:46.600 --> 00:01:50.020 align:middle line:84% to understand how malleable reality really was. 00:01:50.020 --> 00:01:52.390 align:middle line:84% He did so by starting a conspiracy of his own 00:01:52.390 --> 00:01:54.880 align:middle line:84% in the letters pages of Playboy magazine. 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:55.930 align:middle line:90% Anonymously. 00:01:55.930 --> 00:01:59.410 align:middle line:84% The letter asked if a single secret society, the Illuminati, 00:01:59.410 --> 00:02:02.020 align:middle line:84% was really behind all the political assassinations 00:02:02.020 --> 00:02:03.190 align:middle line:90% in the world. 00:02:03.190 --> 00:02:05.530 align:middle line:84% Kerry Thornley felt this was a crazy idea 00:02:05.530 --> 00:02:07.690 align:middle line:90% that nobody would ever believe. 00:02:07.690 --> 00:02:10.300 align:middle line:84% Except that over time, strange coincidences, 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:13.330 align:middle line:84% often involving the government, kept happening to him. 00:02:13.330 --> 00:02:16.000 align:middle line:84% These eventually made him believe his own conspiracy, 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.280 align:middle line:84% prompting a huge amount of self-doubt, 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:21.670 align:middle line:84% to the point he no longer knew what was real or not. 00:02:21.670 --> 00:02:24.310 align:middle line:84% Adam Curtis links that to the emergence of the Dual State 00:02:24.310 --> 00:02:26.200 align:middle line:90% theory at the heart of QAnon. 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:29.545 align:middle line:84% What he didn't reckon with was the fact that really was what 00:02:29.545 --> 00:02:32.170 align:middle line:84% one State department man called - he was called Hans Morgenthau 00:02:32.170 --> 00:02:34.180 align:middle line:90% - he called it a Dual State. 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:36.540 align:middle line:84% He said, look, if you've got a democracy, 00:02:36.540 --> 00:02:39.423 align:middle line:84% a democracy has got to keep its people safe, 00:02:39.423 --> 00:02:40.840 align:middle line:84% and that means at some points it's 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:42.465 align:middle line:84% going to have to do something very bad. 00:02:42.465 --> 00:02:44.920 align:middle line:84% But in democracies you can't tell them that. 00:02:44.920 --> 00:02:46.390 align:middle line:84% You can do it if you're a dictator. 00:02:46.390 --> 00:02:47.848 align:middle line:84% But you can't do it in democracies. 00:02:47.848 --> 00:02:49.520 align:middle line:90% You've got to keep it quiet. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:52.400 align:middle line:84% And he in 1955 called it - disapprovingly - 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:53.710 align:middle line:90% he called it the Dual State. 00:02:53.710 --> 00:02:56.822 align:middle line:84% Which is, I think, the origin of the phrase we all now know 00:02:56.822 --> 00:02:58.480 align:middle line:90% called 'Deep State'. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:01.120 align:middle line:84% QAnon's origins are remarkably similar. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.820 align:middle line:84% In 2017, the Q team, whoever they may be, 00:03:03.820 --> 00:03:05.650 align:middle line:84% made use of the modern equivalent 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:07.510 align:middle line:90% of the Playboy's letters page. 00:03:07.510 --> 00:03:09.820 align:middle line:84% It's a message board called 4Chan. 00:03:09.820 --> 00:03:11.980 align:middle line:84% They used it to bring the world dispatches 00:03:11.980 --> 00:03:14.600 align:middle line:90% about this secret dual system. 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:18.550 align:middle line:84% A YouTuber called defango has since claimed the work was his. 00:03:18.550 --> 00:03:21.670 align:middle line:84% He says he created Q as an alternative reality game, 00:03:21.670 --> 00:03:24.370 align:middle line:84% mostly for the LOLs, but also to spoke out 00:03:24.370 --> 00:03:27.340 align:middle line:84% bad journalists in the alternative media space. 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:29.500 align:middle line:84% But he also says that in 2018, a man 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:32.050 align:middle line:84% called Thomas Schoenberger wrested control of the game 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:32.980 align:middle line:90% from him. 00:03:32.980 --> 00:03:35.190 align:middle line:84% And in a nod to Operation Mindfuck, 00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:37.870 align:middle line:84% defango says he too is no longer sure if he ever 00:03:37.870 --> 00:03:39.760 align:middle line:90% controlled the game at all. 00:03:39.760 --> 00:03:42.430 align:middle line:84% Nobody knows if what he says is really true. 00:03:42.430 --> 00:03:44.380 align:middle line:84% What is becoming clear is that the whole thing 00:03:44.380 --> 00:03:46.270 align:middle line:90% has run away with itself. 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:49.120 align:middle line:84% Q drops a cryptic message encouraging Q followers, known 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:50.800 align:middle line:90% as bakers, to go and solve. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:52.960 align:middle line:84% He tells them to do their own research. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:54.700 align:middle line:84% Bakers authenticate that it's really Q 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:56.890 align:middle line:90% via tripcode used in the post. 00:03:56.890 --> 00:03:59.290 align:middle line:84% They package the information into a wider map, 00:03:59.290 --> 00:04:00.910 align:middle line:90% based on so-called proofs. 00:04:00.910 --> 00:04:03.700 align:middle line:84% Coincidences matter, as do symbols. 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:06.550 align:middle line:84% The best proof is when Donald Trump himself tweets or says 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:08.710 align:middle line:84% something that can be correlated to Q. 00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:11.230 align:middle line:84% The clues lead to the coming of the storm. 00:04:11.230 --> 00:04:14.590 align:middle line:84% The storm is the day the cabal will be eliminated. 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:16.720 align:middle line:84% From this comes a world of Q clocks, 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:19.060 align:middle line:84% quantum computers, and time travel theory. 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:20.350 align:middle line:90% Yes, really. 00:04:20.350 --> 00:04:22.089 align:middle line:84% Because Donald Trump's uncle was asked 00:04:22.089 --> 00:04:24.790 align:middle line:84% to evaluate Nikola Tesla's remaining documents after he 00:04:24.790 --> 00:04:26.495 align:middle line:90% died, which really happened. 00:04:26.495 --> 00:04:28.870 align:middle line:84% And that's how he figured out how to make a time machine. 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.270 align:middle line:84% And Q might be a messenger from the future. 00:04:31.270 --> 00:04:32.980 align:middle line:90% Or something like that. 00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:36.520 align:middle line:84% QAnon may be a byproduct of how today's highly bespoke 00:04:36.520 --> 00:04:38.800 align:middle line:90% information landscape operates. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:41.500 align:middle line:84% In a world of unlimited data, anyone 00:04:41.500 --> 00:04:44.170 align:middle line:84% can take a kernel of suspicion and run with it 00:04:44.170 --> 00:04:46.570 align:middle line:84% to confirm their own biases, with a view 00:04:46.570 --> 00:04:48.280 align:middle line:90% to amplifying them further. 00:04:48.280 --> 00:04:50.800 align:middle line:84% Add to that the easily weaponised nature 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.785 align:middle line:84% of social media - from tweets and blogs to YouTube videos 00:04:53.785 --> 00:04:56.950 align:middle line:84% - and you can see how a bad actor can generate chaos 00:04:56.950 --> 00:05:00.280 align:middle line:90% and friction to sow discontent. 00:05:00.280 --> 00:05:03.290 align:middle line:84% Who's pushing the buttons doesn't necessarily matter. 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:06.310 align:middle line:84% What matters are the techniques they are using. 00:05:06.310 --> 00:05:08.870 align:middle line:84% Anyone who plays live action role playing games, 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:13.180 align:middle line:84% known as LARPs, will recognise the gaming elements of QAnon. 00:05:13.180 --> 00:05:17.140 align:middle line:84% In 2015, 2016, and 2017, there were 00:05:17.140 --> 00:05:21.760 align:middle line:84% a lot of what are called LARPs, live action role playing 00:05:21.760 --> 00:05:24.380 align:middle line:90% is what the term means. 00:05:24.380 --> 00:05:27.220 align:middle line:84% And it really just means that there is a person pretending 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:28.630 align:middle line:90% to be somebody else. 00:05:28.630 --> 00:05:30.910 align:middle line:84% The players knew they weren't real, 00:05:30.910 --> 00:05:33.340 align:middle line:84% but it was fun for them to interact with. 00:05:33.340 --> 00:05:36.130 align:middle line:84% But what happened on 4Chan and 8Chan 00:05:36.130 --> 00:05:41.080 align:middle line:84% is that individual people would go and LARP all by themselves, 00:05:41.080 --> 00:05:45.160 align:middle line:84% and create basically a single point of contact 00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:47.680 align:middle line:84% for an entire alternate reality game. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:52.000 align:middle line:84% In 2016, there was FBI Anon, and CIA Anon, 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.240 align:middle line:84% Meganon, and all of these different LARPs 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:57.700 align:middle line:84% that were basically practicing, there 00:05:57.700 --> 00:06:00.310 align:middle line:90% were prototyping what QAnon is. 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:03.040 align:middle line:84% In many ways, the connections Jim identifies 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.680 align:middle line:84% echo the madness of the QAnon network maps. 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:07.480 align:middle line:84% There are disaffected spies, there's 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.510 align:middle line:84% Julian Assange, famous filmmakers, technologists 00:06:10.510 --> 00:06:14.132 align:middle line:84% and LARPers, and even secret societies and cults. 00:06:14.132 --> 00:06:16.090 align:middle line:84% But there are also links to internet industries 00:06:16.090 --> 00:06:19.690 align:middle line:84% like Cicada, and ideologies that link back to the libertarian 00:06:19.690 --> 00:06:22.020 align:middle line:84% philosophies expressed by the cyberpunks who 00:06:22.020 --> 00:06:23.530 align:middle line:90% brought us Bitcoin. 00:06:23.530 --> 00:06:26.950 align:middle line:84% Most concerning are connections to a possible real-life occult 00:06:26.950 --> 00:06:29.710 align:middle line:84% movement that was the offshoot of the Theosophy theory 00:06:29.710 --> 00:06:32.980 align:middle line:84% that influenced Heinrich Himmler and the Nazis. 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:35.160 align:middle line:90% It is another rabbit hole. 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:38.680 align:middle line:84% Cicada was a really interesting, legitimate, internet puzzle 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:41.410 align:middle line:84% game that a lot of people played because it 00:06:41.410 --> 00:06:43.030 align:middle line:90% involved many cool techniques. 00:06:43.030 --> 00:06:46.900 align:middle line:84% Cryptography, and steganography, and cryptocurrency, and all 00:06:46.900 --> 00:06:51.220 align:middle line:84% this really interesting stuff packaged into an investigation 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:52.630 align:middle line:90% that you needed to do. 00:06:52.630 --> 00:06:56.320 align:middle line:84% And you had be really smart and really good in order 00:06:56.320 --> 00:06:58.520 align:middle line:90% to even come close to it. 00:06:58.520 --> 00:07:00.460 align:middle line:90% And that was one of the appeals. 00:07:00.460 --> 00:07:03.850 align:middle line:84% So it turns out there's a guy named Thomas Schoenberger. 00:07:03.850 --> 00:07:07.420 align:middle line:84% He saw this Cicada game as an opportunity 00:07:07.420 --> 00:07:10.900 align:middle line:84% to radicalise smart people, and he ended up 00:07:10.900 --> 00:07:14.890 align:middle line:84% creating puzzles and calling it Cicada, 00:07:14.890 --> 00:07:17.890 align:middle line:84% even though he was not the creator of it. 00:07:17.890 --> 00:07:21.220 align:middle line:84% To this day, no one seems quite sure who the creator of Cicada 00:07:21.220 --> 00:07:22.150 align:middle line:90% was. 00:07:22.150 --> 00:07:24.370 align:middle line:84% We haven't been able to confirm Thomas Schoenberger's 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:27.120 align:middle line:84% involvement in either Cicada or QAnon. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:31.810 align:middle line:84% He's currently thought of as the guru behind Cicada 3301. 00:07:31.810 --> 00:07:35.800 align:middle line:84% Cicada was this game that Thomas Schoenberger - 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:39.550 align:middle line:84% basically the term is gamejacked - from the originators, 00:07:39.550 --> 00:07:42.250 align:middle line:84% and is still running it to some extent. 00:07:42.250 --> 00:07:45.160 align:middle line:84% In the beginning it was very much about cryptography, 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:50.080 align:middle line:84% and technology, and espionage, and cool and interesting 00:07:50.080 --> 00:07:54.450 align:middle line:84% topics, but in no way political, in no way harmful. 00:07:54.450 --> 00:07:56.890 align:middle line:84% What happened when Thomas got on board 00:07:56.890 --> 00:08:00.390 align:middle line:84% is that suddenly the themes turned very dark. 00:08:00.390 --> 00:08:04.900 align:middle line:84% They turned into artefacts and symbology from the occult. 00:08:04.900 --> 00:08:07.180 align:middle line:90% Even Nazi symbology. 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:10.360 align:middle line:84% One of the biggest prize was the Spear of Destiny. 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:13.840 align:middle line:84% It's a Christian symbol, but also used heavily 00:08:13.840 --> 00:08:15.700 align:middle line:90% by Hitler and the Nazis. 00:08:15.700 --> 00:08:18.220 align:middle line:84% And that was the final prize of the Cicada puzzle. 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:22.660 align:middle line:84% That's the kind of thing that it started to do more and more. 00:08:22.660 --> 00:08:25.840 align:middle line:84% And the later it went, the more radical it got. 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:29.140 align:middle line:84% And frankly the closer to QAnon it got. 00:08:29.140 --> 00:08:32.980 align:middle line:84% Tell us a bit more about how Cicada links into QAnon. 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:35.200 align:middle line:84% There's a woman named Lisa Clapier 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:38.890 align:middle line:84% who runs an account called SnowWhite7IAM. 00:08:38.890 --> 00:08:45.160 align:middle line:84% And her job was to bring people from Cicada to QAnon. 00:08:45.160 --> 00:08:48.250 align:middle line:84% So there was a whole theme about follow the White Rabbit. 00:08:48.250 --> 00:08:51.910 align:middle line:84% A whole theme around Snow White and Disney characters. 00:08:51.910 --> 00:08:54.640 align:middle line:84% And that theme was used specifically 00:08:54.640 --> 00:08:58.150 align:middle line:84% to pull people from Cicada into QAnon. 00:08:58.150 --> 00:09:00.790 align:middle line:84% Jim told me these amplifier accounts are frequently 00:09:00.790 --> 00:09:03.520 align:middle line:84% endorsed by former intelligence personalities like Bill 00:09:03.520 --> 00:09:07.060 align:middle line:84% Binney and Robert David Steele to give them credibility. 00:09:07.060 --> 00:09:09.160 align:middle line:84% So if all of this is fantastical, 00:09:09.160 --> 00:09:11.110 align:middle line:84% why would they be lending support? 00:09:11.110 --> 00:09:12.250 align:middle line:90% My name is John Sipher. 00:09:12.250 --> 00:09:15.490 align:middle line:84% I spent 28 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, 00:09:15.490 --> 00:09:18.700 align:middle line:84% in the clandestine service of the Intelligence Agency, 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:19.990 align:middle line:90% the espionage side of it. 00:09:19.990 --> 00:09:22.060 align:middle line:90% Mostly working overseas. 00:09:22.060 --> 00:09:24.190 align:middle line:84% Our intelligence community is huge. 00:09:24.190 --> 00:09:28.060 align:middle line:84% There's people that work in CIA, and NSA, FBI, and these places. 00:09:28.060 --> 00:09:30.300 align:middle line:84% Some of them are intelligence collectors. 00:09:30.300 --> 00:09:32.170 align:middle line:84% Some of them are high-level analysts. 00:09:32.170 --> 00:09:34.100 align:middle line:90% But there's all kinds of people. 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:37.300 align:middle line:84% And there's also all kinds of people who do poorly at the job 00:09:37.300 --> 00:09:38.890 align:middle line:90% and even get kicked out. 00:09:38.890 --> 00:09:42.220 align:middle line:84% So to just assume since somebody worked in the intelligence 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:44.650 align:middle line:84% community that it automatically gives them credibility, 00:09:44.650 --> 00:09:46.240 align:middle line:90% I think is a mistake. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.342 align:middle line:84% And it actually works to their advantage 00:09:48.342 --> 00:09:50.425 align:middle line:84% for some of these crazy guys because they can say, 00:09:50.425 --> 00:09:52.155 align:middle line:84% I worked in the intelligence community. 00:09:52.155 --> 00:09:54.340 align:middle line:84% But the intelligence community obviously 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:55.330 align:middle line:90% keeps its mouth closed. 00:09:55.330 --> 00:09:56.923 align:middle line:84% It doesn't talk about these things. 00:09:56.923 --> 00:09:59.590 align:middle line:84% And so there's no way for people to check whether the person was 00:09:59.590 --> 00:10:01.540 align:middle line:84% a terrible failure who worked for one year, 00:10:01.540 --> 00:10:04.630 align:middle line:84% or whether they had a 30-year career and did really well. 00:10:04.630 --> 00:10:08.040 align:middle line:84% Q is famously named after Q clearance, 00:10:08.040 --> 00:10:10.090 align:middle line:90% or so the community says. 00:10:10.090 --> 00:10:11.380 align:middle line:90% Is that correct? 00:10:11.380 --> 00:10:12.340 align:middle line:90% What is Q? 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:14.590 align:middle line:84% The Department of Energy in the United States controls 00:10:14.590 --> 00:10:16.930 align:middle line:84% our nuclear programme, nuclear weapons, 00:10:16.930 --> 00:10:20.970 align:middle line:84% and the process by which those are kept secure, and built, 00:10:20.970 --> 00:10:21.470 align:middle line:90% and things. 00:10:21.470 --> 00:10:24.040 align:middle line:84% And so if you're going to work on those programmes you have 00:10:24.040 --> 00:10:25.270 align:middle line:90% a Q clearance. 00:10:25.270 --> 00:10:26.740 align:middle line:84% So people with Q clearances aren't 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:29.260 align:middle line:84% necessarily the same ones that are overseas 00:10:29.260 --> 00:10:31.120 align:middle line:84% trying to spy and collect intelligence. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:32.662 align:middle line:84% They're not necessarily the same ones 00:10:32.662 --> 00:10:35.650 align:middle line:84% that are in the NSA listening to electronic intercepts. 00:10:35.650 --> 00:10:38.410 align:middle line:84% It's a Department of Energy clearance 00:10:38.410 --> 00:10:39.710 align:middle line:90% related to nuclear weapons. 00:10:39.710 --> 00:10:42.100 align:middle line:84% So I don't know how Q got hooked up 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:46.060 align:middle line:84% with this crazy talk about drinking blood and, you know, 00:10:46.060 --> 00:10:49.660 align:middle line:84% paedophiles and things because they just don't cross. 00:10:49.660 --> 00:10:51.810 align:middle line:84% Disinformation works best when at least 80 00:10:51.810 --> 00:10:55.900 align:middle line:84% per cent of the narrative is anchored to verifiable truth. 00:10:55.900 --> 00:10:58.000 align:middle line:84% It's a strategy that the intelligence world 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.220 align:middle line:90% calls a limited hangout. 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:02.530 align:middle line:90% QAnon is no different. 00:11:02.530 --> 00:11:04.960 align:middle line:84% And it's these connections to real truths, 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.060 align:middle line:84% such as the Jeffrey Epstein case, 00:11:07.060 --> 00:11:10.700 align:middle line:84% that makes the conspiracy so alluring to ordinary people. 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:13.030 align:middle line:84% Especially to those genuinely and rightly 00:11:13.030 --> 00:11:15.910 align:middle line:84% concerned about state corruption, child trafficking, 00:11:15.910 --> 00:11:17.290 align:middle line:90% or worse. 00:11:17.290 --> 00:11:19.390 align:middle line:84% This is why it is important not to treat 00:11:19.390 --> 00:11:23.170 align:middle line:84% QAnon followers as crazy, far right evangelists. 00:11:23.170 --> 00:11:27.970 align:middle line:84% When I was 19, back in 1974, I was recruited into a front 00:11:27.970 --> 00:11:32.200 align:middle line:84% group of the Moon Cult and spent two-and-a-half years in it 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:36.130 align:middle line:84% as a rightwing fascist, fanatic leader. 00:11:36.130 --> 00:11:40.930 align:middle line:84% Then I was deprogrammed after a near-fatal van crash and I woke 00:11:40.930 --> 00:11:43.840 align:middle line:84% up and I realised, I want to understand how this could have 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:44.800 align:middle line:90% happened to me. 00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:47.770 align:middle line:90% Mind control is absolutely real. 00:11:47.770 --> 00:11:49.540 align:middle line:84% And what we're talking about is not 00:11:49.540 --> 00:11:53.770 align:middle line:84% where you control your own mind, or an ethical therapist 00:11:53.770 --> 00:11:56.890 align:middle line:84% is helping teach you how to control your own mind 00:11:56.890 --> 00:11:58.360 align:middle line:90% and your own feelings and such. 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:00.190 align:middle line:84% What we're talking about is a form 00:12:00.190 --> 00:12:03.070 align:middle line:84% of what was called brainwashing, thought 00:12:03.070 --> 00:12:07.600 align:middle line:84% reform, coercive persuasion, or undue influence. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.900 align:middle line:84% And what it is is it's using hypnosis, 00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:15.940 align:middle line:84% it's using control of sleep, privacy information control, 00:12:15.940 --> 00:12:18.460 align:middle line:84% indoctrination of irrational fears, 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:21.100 align:middle line:90% called phobia indoctrination. 00:12:21.100 --> 00:12:24.940 align:middle line:84% It's inculcating a dissociative-like disorder 00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:26.440 align:middle line:90% in people's minds. 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:31.120 align:middle line:84% With QAnon, I've watched specific recruitment 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:36.250 align:middle line:84% documentaries, and there are intentional hypnotic techniques 00:12:36.250 --> 00:12:36.985 align:middle line:90% being used. 00:12:37.630 --> 00:12:39.760 align:middle line:84% Have you ever wondered why we go to war? 00:12:39.760 --> 00:12:42.630 align:middle line:84% Or why you never seem to be able to get out debt? 00:12:42.630 --> 00:12:44.680 align:middle line:84% Why there is poverty, division, and crime? 00:12:45.250 --> 00:12:48.220 align:middle line:84% And without someone understanding 00:12:48.220 --> 00:12:51.370 align:middle line:84% how the mind works, and understanding 00:12:51.370 --> 00:12:56.140 align:middle line:84% how to discriminate what is coming at them, 00:12:56.140 --> 00:13:00.560 align:middle line:84% especially if people are binge watching on the internet, one 00:13:00.560 --> 00:13:01.450 align:middle line:90% after the next. 00:13:01.450 --> 00:13:04.180 align:middle line:84% And this is where the algorithms of the platforms 00:13:04.180 --> 00:13:08.620 align:middle line:84% have been absolutely devastating and nefarious in terms 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:10.440 align:middle line:90% of radicalising people. 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:13.825 align:middle line:84% So what is the wrong way to try and deradicalise people? 00:13:13.825 --> 00:13:16.870 align:middle line:84% The worst thing you can do with a family member or friend who 00:13:16.870 --> 00:13:21.430 align:middle line:84% gets into QAnon or one of these conspiracy cult things 00:13:21.430 --> 00:13:23.680 align:middle line:90% is to cut off contact with them. 00:13:23.680 --> 00:13:30.640 align:middle line:84% The risk of saying, oh it's just stupid people, ignorant people, 00:13:30.640 --> 00:13:33.370 align:middle line:84% people who are weak, which they said about me 00:13:33.370 --> 00:13:35.480 align:middle line:84% when I was in the Moon Cult, by the way, 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:37.630 align:middle line:90% which I am none of those. 00:13:37.630 --> 00:13:42.280 align:middle line:84% I was trained to die or kill on command as a Moon member. 00:13:42.280 --> 00:13:46.270 align:middle line:84% Not everybody in QAnon is going to do anything violent, 00:13:46.270 --> 00:13:50.950 align:middle line:84% but there are people that are being singled out, I believe. 00:13:50.950 --> 00:13:54.220 align:middle line:84% Especially former military officials, 00:13:54.220 --> 00:13:57.790 align:middle line:84% former police who have a weapons training, 00:13:57.790 --> 00:14:00.340 align:middle line:84% and they're being groomed to kind 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:01.910 align:middle line:90% of like a civil war scenario. 00:14:06.177 --> 00:14:08.600 align:middle line:84% QAnon may be a cry for help by people 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:11.240 align:middle line:84% desperate to believe in something more optimistic 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:14.990 align:middle line:84% than the future that is currently carved out for them. 00:14:14.990 --> 00:14:17.140 align:middle line:90% What did they say, Q? 00:14:17.140 --> 00:14:17.640 align:middle line:90% QAnon. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.410 align:middle line:84% A belief in something or someone that's looking out 00:14:24.410 --> 00:14:25.755 align:middle line:90% for their interests. 00:14:25.755 --> 00:14:28.130 align:middle line:84% Something that used to be the role of the government, but 00:14:28.130 --> 00:14:29.240 align:middle line:90% isn't anymore. 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:32.060 align:middle line:84% And that's what's left out of the popular narrative portrayed 00:14:32.060 --> 00:14:33.860 align:middle line:90% by most of the media. 00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:36.080 align:middle line:84% QAnon differs from conventional conspiracies 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.630 align:middle line:84% because it is focused on who's trying to save us rather 00:14:38.630 --> 00:14:39.800 align:middle line:90% than destroy us. 00:14:39.800 --> 00:14:41.600 align:middle line:84% The reason it runs into trouble is 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:45.380 align:middle line:84% because the framework prompts justifiable anxieties about who 00:14:45.380 --> 00:14:48.440 align:middle line:84% the disaffected should blame for their troubles, 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:51.830 align:middle line:84% and how they might move to overcorrect the situation. 00:14:51.830 --> 00:14:53.990 align:middle line:84% This creates an environment rich for abuse 00:14:53.990 --> 00:14:56.420 align:middle line:84% by opportunistic demagogues whose agendas 00:14:56.420 --> 00:14:58.790 align:middle line:90% are far less egalitarian. 00:14:58.790 --> 00:15:00.980 align:middle line:84% Just like reading tea leaves, today we 00:15:00.980 --> 00:15:02.650 align:middle line:90% see what we want to see. 00:15:02.650 --> 00:15:06.170 align:middle line:84% QAnon is the most extreme case of this. 00:15:06.170 --> 00:15:09.050 align:middle line:84% Yes, there may be forces trying to exaggerate 00:15:09.050 --> 00:15:12.440 align:middle line:84% those inclinations to bring out the worst of our biases, 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:14.930 align:middle line:84% and there's certainly a lot of circumstantial evidence 00:15:14.930 --> 00:15:18.170 align:middle line:84% pointing to strange cults and actors being involved. 00:15:18.170 --> 00:15:21.680 align:middle line:84% But it's impossible to say if they're just one group or many. 00:15:21.680 --> 00:15:23.570 align:middle line:90% Nazis or communists. 00:15:23.570 --> 00:15:25.670 align:middle line:90% CIA or GRU. 00:15:25.670 --> 00:15:29.450 align:middle line:84% Inventors of the game or its opportunistic co-opters. 00:15:29.450 --> 00:15:32.180 align:middle line:84% Until we come up with something more concrete and cohesive 00:15:32.180 --> 00:15:34.250 align:middle line:84% for everyone to believe in, our desire 00:15:34.250 --> 00:15:35.660 align:middle line:84% to make sense of the madness will 00:15:35.660 --> 00:15:39.730 align:middle line:84% continue to draw false signals from the noise.