By John Fraim
It is often overlooked that Donald Trump rose to power much on the wings of a conspiracy theory, so it should not be surprising his presidency rose to power on the wings of another conspiracy theory. The theory was/is called QAnon, and with the end of the Trump’s presidency there is the question of whether the QAnon theory will also end.
QAnon was/is the “mother ship” of all conspiracy theories. Starting on Oct. 28, 2017, via an anonymous imageboard called 4chan, a person known as “Q” began posting messages claiming secret information about a world cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against U.S. President Donald Trump to overthrow the American Constitution and nation. The theory went back in history to include the assassination of JFK, saying Kennedy was killed for attempting to put America back on the gold standard. After the JFK assassination, as Q theory went, there were a number of generals who (somewhat like patriotic Rosicrucian’s) knew the “real” reason Kennedy was killed. These generals would always protect America from outside forces and the great satanic cabal many world leaders are members of. Over the years, the secret Kennedy information was passed on to other generals. Now, Trump was in touch with generals associated with this group. The real reason the deep state and others were so viciously against him was that he, like JFK, was attempting to put America back on the gold standard.
By Dec. 8, 2020, Q had created 4,953 posts and was followed by millions in America and around the world. The Q letter began appearing at Trump rallies in the form of T-shirts and flags and other fan-type paraphernalia. And QAnon went from obscure postings on the dark web to videos on various platforms. Like a lot of products in America, QAnon became a type of “household” word, almost something you could pick up at the local grocery store. The real popularity of QAnon came in the months since Trump’s election defeat. The face of the new popular QAnon came not in the form of a new website but rather three jovial people: the American Robert David Steele and Brits Simon Parkes and Charlie Ward. I refer to them as spokespersons for the modern QAnon brand, or simply “the Trio.” The Trio had sophisticated, friendly websites with much information and videos on them. And they were all restrained and very trustworthy, speaking in knowledgeable tones, weaving all sorts of things together for Trump supporters desperate to know that the defeated Trump might maintain his presidency by proving vast election fraud.
The Trio often appeared together and became the popular face for Q during the election fraud investigations from the November election to Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. Visits to their sites rose astronomically during this time. There were all types of secret messages to be decoded for the audience and reassurances to be made on a daily basis that Trump would ultimately prevail. The battle had really come down to one not between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats but rather between the global forces for Good against Evil.
The big day the Trio and QAnon predicted would change the world was the Jan. 20 inauguration. It was the day when the forces of Light and Good would prevail over the forces of Darkness and Evil, when global arrests would start to be made. There were almost 200,000 that would be arrested.
Listeners to videos of the Trio were told to stock up on food and that the weeks following 1/20 would be days of martial law in the nation. The president, cut off from mainstream media, would communicate through use of the emergency broadcasting system. There would be arrests all over the world and then military trials.
All followers of the Trio and QAnon know what hit the old fan on the 20th when nothing happened. The forces of Good did not have their great confrontation with the forces of Evil. The Vatican was not implicated in the election fraud scheme via their DaVinci satellite. The pope was not arrested, nor were key American political leaders. Rather, they were all participating in the pageantry of Inauguration Day. The entertainment was great. Lady Gaga gave a powerful rendition of the national anthem. Other celebrities in attendance like Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks gave passionate performances. A band marched dressed in uniforms of the early American patriots. And that evening, Tom Hanks hosted a prime-time special titled “Celebrating America” with appearances of stars like Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, Ant Clemons and Jon Bon Jovi. Altogether, Inauguration Day was a celebration of America. Yes, it was of course for optics, but the optics were very effective, especially considering the Democrats own the entertainment industry.
On Jan. 21, the Trio had their work cut out for them. They admitted they knew how upset everyone was. A video of Charlie and Simon Parkes was posted on Simon’s Bitchute site. It was hosted by world heavyweight boxer David “Nino” Rodriguez. Nino told the two he was being contacted by many depressed QAnon people. He told them that he was under attack by his listeners for giving them false hopes and information. In many ways, the video session (one of a number of QAnon “explainers” the day after Jan. 20) was an apology session for Q and the theory that had been growing since 2017. In effect, the jovial Simon and Charlie had become the face of Q, and millions were now in a state of limbo, waiting to hear what they would say. One Q follower compared it to opening a present wrapped in bright, shiny paper on Christmas day and finding a dirty lump of coal inside.
One of the questions in the coming months is whether the Q crowd will slowly die or find a renewed faith in something else. It filled the post-inauguration discussion by the Trio. Charlie Ward said that much of the event was staged and that he had received a broadcast of the event from a Spanish channel 10 hours before it happened. He attempted to push back the big date for change in the world to March 4 (the original constitutional date, he said), so perhaps there will be a particular segment of the Q crowd that will move along with Charlie on this part of the theory. Simon lectured that cowards leave the believers when things don’t turn out right, using history of the American Revolution as an example. What would have happened if those early patriots gave up after a few loses in battle?
Simon then went on to explain how he saw some hidden symbols in the events. In Q lore there has always been symbols for events and images. For example, as Trump and Melania left the White House there were 17 flags behind Trump as he gave his brief good-bye speech (the letter Q is the 17th letter in the alphabet); and Melania had changed from a black dress at the brief farewell to one filled with hexagons (a military symbol for fire) when she stepped off the plane in Florida. There were other hidden symbols brought up during a few long videos of the trio on Jan. 21: President-elect Biden put his hand on a Bible with upside down crosses on it; the American flag was taken down at the White House, and soldiers along the parade route turned their backs on Biden. Simon speculated that they had to call off the planned event because a dirty nuclear bomb had gone missing, and there was speculation it would be used if the insurrection started.
The world moves on. There is still our dumb regular television programming full of reality shows and talking heads – and the emergency broadcasting system has not been activated. A lot of people are probably overstocked with canned goods from the Trio’s warnings. And the Trio continues to post on the internet, now on different channels from YouTube such as Bitchute and Rumble.
An article by Jim Hoft, founder of Gateway Pundit, argues that QAnon might have been a type of planned “honey pot” of the deep state to attract Trump-following patriots all to one place so that they could be gathered up. His idea is based “Operation Trust,” a Bolshevik counterintelligence operation run from 1921 to 1926 aimed at neutralizing opposition by creating the false impression that a powerful group of military leaders had organized to stop the communists’ takeover. Yet, many strike back at Hoft, claiming this is just another conspiracy theory.
One of the more interesting developments going forward was an article in NewsMax about a Swiss team of scientists that might have discovered information on the identity of Q. From the very beginning of the theory, Q was presumably an American individual. Yet the story in NewsMax titled “Swiss Text Sleuths Unpick Mystery of QAnon Origins,” suggests that Q might be a group of people acting under the same name. A company in Switzerland called Orph Analytics has conducted a stylometric analysis of Q posts and claims to have uncovered that at least two people wrote as Q in different periods.
The analysis of the Q posts covers the period from the start of Q in 2017 to an ending post on Dec. 8, 2020, and covers 4,053 posts. The notice of the analysis of the Q posts is contained in a Dec. 15 press release from Orph Analytics. All the Q posts are organized in one link for all to see. If anything, the list of Q posts is interesting for any researchers studying the development of a large conspiracy theory. Besides the post with the links, there is a fascinating White Paper from Orch Analytics.
The conclusion of the White Paper is the following: “In view of the results presented in this contribution, as well as the insights provided by the practice of the Orph Analytics expert group, the presence of two styles in the QAnon corpus is clearly established. These two styles most likely correspond to two distinct authors. Since a certain number of authors have been proposed as possible authors of this corpus, an analysis of reference texts would allow to challenge the results obtained in this contribution. The continuation of our work would correspond to that done on Elena Ferrante’s corpus. This additional analysis would benefit from algorithms capable of providing results with a higher resolution, as well as from a quantification of the probability of the results obtained.”
The world moves on. Trump spends his first post-presidency day playing golf. Simon Parkes posts a painting of himself in the uniform of a solider of the American Revolution, claiming it a gift from Gen. Michael Flynn. Charlie and Robert interview more guests on their video shows. Biden signs 30 executive orders in his first three days in office. Some of the National Guard troops in D.C. begin to move out. AOC and a number of Dems suggest that Trump followers (Q followers?) need to be deprogrammed.
I move onto other things than watching Simon, Charlie and Steele each day on the computer. Alternate realities might be nice to think about, but sometimes one needs to come back to just reality.
Inauguration Day moves further into the past. The world moves on. I get an email telling me about all the new Netflix programs I’m missing. And there are always the “Twilight Zone” marathons and the daily reruns of “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza.” The pandemic is still with us, but more are getting shots. My stepfather just got his vaccination.
I move onto other things. But always in the back of my mind there is the comment about March 4, the day Charlie Ward claims Donald Trump will return as president.
John Fraim grew up in Los Angeles and has a BA from UCLA and JD from Loyola Law School. He has had a career as a marketing executive and entrepreneur and has been involved in a number of business ventures via GreatHouse and Midnight Oil Studios. See his LinkedIn profile for additional info.
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
