Q: Into the Mess
Ok, hold my hand, let’s go down the rabbit hole.
Q Into the Storm is a 6 part documentary that aired on HBO throughout March 2021. Filmmaker Cullen Hoback began to document the Qanon conspiracy in late 2017, making his footage a priceless source of information about the image board hoax that sparked a global decentralized cult.
For those still blissfully unaware, Qanon is essentially an internet conspiracy in which an anonymous figure with “Q” level security clearance leaks cryptic information (aka “Q drops”) about Donald Trump, a vengeful messiah figure in their narrative, and his quest to destroy a secret network of satanic pedophiles run by the Democrats. Their beliefs are like a combination of alt-right fascism, Flat Earth absurdity, and anti-vax cognitive dissonance. Trying to follow the logic makes me long for the quaintness of the conspiracies around JFK’s assassination, or the moon landing, or 9/11.
Because of the vague and cryptic nature of the “Q drops”, a network of Q influencers on YouTube and Instagram cropped up in late 2017–2018 to interpret the “information” for the masses. The algorithms on these platforms brought more and more eyes to the content, and when combined with the influencers’ oft repeated phrase “Do your own research”, many different groups of people quickly became indoctrinated.
Hoback’s documentary is pretty narrow in its scope, though it runs 6 hours long. He primarily focuses on uncovering the identity of whoever is behind the Q posts, and shies away from the more vast network of personalities involved in perpetuating and profiting from the conspiracy. Like anyone who starts scratching at the surface of this ridiculous saga, the list of suspects quickly narrows to Jim and Ron Watkins, the owners of the infamous image board 8-chan (now called 8-kun), and the place in which Q posted almost exclusively. The majority of the documentary centres around the creepy, vile world that Jim and Ron have built for themselves as they exchange legal barbs with 8-chan’s original creator, Fredrick Brennan. Watkins, a military man who spent years working as an army recruiter, made his fortune hosting several internet porn sites during the dot com bubble, before he eventually moved his company (NT Technologies) to the Philippines. Brennan began to distance himself from the site in late 2018, before publicly calling for its termination in 2019 after several mass shooters used the image board to spread their manifestos.
Hoback does a good job of laying out all of the dynamics between these people. Above anything else, he offers a profile of one of the most chaotic, dense and hateful places on the internet. Image boards like 4-chan and 8-chan are anonymous and ephemeral, they have their own hyper-specific lingo, and archiving these interactions for research purposes is difficult, though crucial if we want to understand why we are where we are today. He also details how Q was not the first “anon” to claim to have access to classified government information. Conspiracy influencers like Paul Furbur, Tracy Diaz, and Mr Pizzagate himself Jack Posobiec were only a few “interpreters” who focused on Q as well as other competing “anon” narratives, like FBI-Anon, CIA-Anon, Mega-Anon, etc. In all this noise, Hoback is able to lay out a clear evolution in Q’s timeline, including the crucial point when Q switched to posting exclusively on 8-chan using a new trip code that only the site’s administrator could coordinate (Ron Watkins).
Hoback has also managed to create a fascinating, revolting portrait of Jim and Ron Watkins, as well as the immense influence that they wield. Their behaviour is childish at best, and generally anti-Semitic, misogynistic, ableist and bigoted. They are equally ridiculous and dangerous, like real-life villains out of a Cohen Brothers movie. Pornography is openly visible on their phones and desktops several times during their interviews. With monotone voices and dead eyes, they constantly try to troll Hoback, at first speculating freely about Q’s identity, and then denying any knowledge of the conspiracy months later. In an interview with the podcast QAnon Anonymous, Hoback explained that as the international popularity of Qanon grew (eventually making its way into President Trump’s network), the Watkins would “backtrack on a bunch of things they had told me… Like overtime, they knew less and less and less.” Ironically, their attempts to troll, withhold and misdirect serve as strong evidence of their involvement.
While episodes 3 and 4 get a bit lost in the Watkins’ world and their battle with Brennan, the strongest episodes by far are the final two. Brennan’s life was put in actual danger by actions taken by Jim & Ron, after they filed cyberlibel charges against Brennan for tweeting about Jim. The hypocrisy of two people running a maximalist free-speech site filing criminal charges against someone over their speech is not lost on the filmmaker, who ultimately helped Brennan leave the Philippines. The final episode culminates in the January 6th attack on the US capitol building, which Jim Watkins attended while still being filmed by Hoback. In a chilling moment, amongst a sea of Trump supporters and Qanon believers, Hoback asks Jim if he feels proud of his son. Jim answers “I’m concerned about him, but I’m also proud of what he’s doing”.
In these episodes, there is an overwhelming sense that everything is spinning out of control. 2020 saw the number of Q followers radically increase thanks to the combination of two things; the pandemic, which isolated people under stressful, economically perilous conditions, and amoral algorithms that favour high levels of interaction continuously pushing eyeballs onto increasingly extreme content. It is in these episodes that we get a sense of how multiple people in Trump’s inner circle thirsted for access to the Qanon base, and were more than happy to wink at that base as the calls to “stop the steal” dominated the mainstream media.
I normally distrust most documentarians who insert themselves into their films, like Hoback does here. But like everything related to Qanon, nothing is black and white, and nothing ever goes according to plan. In that same interview with the QAA podcast, he spoke about needing to have a lot of rules for himself, since he feared that Jim and Ron would use him to either get information or spread misinformation. They would often try to control the interview and behaved in many bizarre ways, some of which did make it into the final cut. “[Ron] is a real life walking shit-post. He’s always trying to provoke a response. …He would do funny walks in front of the camera, he would never behave normally.” Later on, he said of both Jim and Ron: “They are constantly hiding under this veneer of absurdity, but it’s masking something more sinister. It’s intentional, and it makes it really hard to argue with, because you’re trying to come at them with reason and logic and they’re responding with absurd whimsy and nonsense.” Ultimately Hoback’s involvement guides us through the muck as best he can, and actually grounds a lot of the more fantastical, disturbing events.
The making of this series was a massive undertaking. Hoback shot hundreds of hours of footage from late 2017 all the way up to the Capitol riots in 2021. Him and his partner maxed out credit cards to fund the production until Adam McKay’s production company stepped up in late 2020 to complete the project. They had a mere 4–5 months to sift through the raw footage and build the six-hour documentary, meaning many of the stranger Qanon “side quests” ended up on the cutting room floor. And while this is a good profile of the key people involved in perpetuating the conspiracy, it does not spend much time on the widespread harm this ideology has caused, nor does it really go into why the movement is so addictive.
The documentary also features the kind of quippy humour we’ve come to associate with McKay’s brand, which on the surface lends itself to the kooky beliefs that are a core part of Q. However, I wonder if a more sincere approach could have offered a kind of antidote to the Watkins’ perpetual trolling. While they make jokes about being in the Pen15 club and insist they aren’t “political”, their image board hosts some of the most heinous content on the internet (while also being among the top sites driving traffic to Trump’s campaign page). Most Q followers don’t even use 8-chan, preferring instead the aggregator Qmap.pub, thus missing the inherent contradiction of their anti-sex-trafficking messiah using a platform full of predatory images. Several times during this film, I wished they had included more levity and context, instead of jokey montages and flashy special effects (the added sound effects during a montage of porn web banners was particularly cringe).
Hoback’s final episode hints at connections between the Watkins and those working for Trump, but I wish more of the specifics were fleshed out. Hoback himself said as much when he spoke to NPR. “I would like for there to be more investigation into the ties between Ron and Jim and some of these power players in D.C. — Gen. Flynn and these other characters.” The most dangerous part of Qanon has never been the true believers — it’s the opportunists, extremists and confidence artists who want to weaponize them, who did weaponize them on January 6th. Given how much unused footage he likely still has, I hope Hoback continues his series and fleshes out the destruction that this radicalization wrecks on the lives of so many families.
Q may never post again (they’ve been silent since December 2020), but the movement is alive and well. Tracy Diaz was recently elected onto South Carolina’s executive committee, a trend that is spreading across the entire country’s local elections. Actor Jim Caviezel recently talked about “adrenochroming children” at a conservative conference in Tulsa while promoting his new film, which is heavily based in Q lore. And on April 24th there was a massive “Save the Children” rally in LA, a kind of gateway movement into Q, in which the Proud Boys themselves provided “security”.
As ridiculous as the beliefs are, the Q conspiracy offers a simple solution to a cruel and chaotic world. Q says — the universe isn’t random, there’s a plan. Trump isn’t a narcissistic con man, he’s a warrior, fighting to uncover the truth. Sexual abuse isn’t a complicated, pervasive, systemic problem across multiple institutions, its a singular, satanic evil. This belief system, though disturbing, offers relief to those with little to no control over their daily lives, whose communities have been devastated by vanishing industries and minimal access to health care. Add to that complications like rampant MLM/pyramid schemes, high-demand evangelical groups, a growing population of retired military personnel, and a lot of unprocessed trauma, and you get thousands of people who just want to “ have faith” and “trust the plan”, making them highly susceptible to a fascistic leader who cares nothing for their wellbeing.
While he marched to the capitol and greeted his fans, Jim Watkins turned to the camera and quipped “It started as a LARP, and it became real”. Though their image board may be an irredeemable money pit (no advertiser will go near it), the real goal for Jim and Ron was always about power. They sparked something in hundreds of thousands of people; they gave them a mission, and manipulating that mission makes them feel powerful. So much about the Q movement is repulsive, anti-Semitic, and dangerous, but I’ll always have some empathy for the people who logged on hoping to find a higher purpose.
They don’t know they’re the cannon fodder. They think they’re saving the world.
BC — May 2021
- The majority of this article, unless specified, references the HBO documentary Q:Into the storm. https://www.hbo.com/q-into-the-storm
- Qanon Anonymous Podcast - Episode 136: Into the Storm (featuring Cullen Hoback). https://soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous/episode-136-into-the-storm-feat-cullen-hoback
- NPR - Q&A: Documentary Unravels Twisted Knots Of QAnon Movement. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989241933/q-a-documentary-unravels-twisted-knots-of-qanon-movement
- VICE News - One of QAnon’s Earliest Influencers Just Got Elected to South Carolina GOP. https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/93ywwv/one-of-qanons-earliest-influencers-just-got-elected-to-south-carolina-gop
- TIME - QAnon Candidates Are Winning Local Elections. Can They Be Stopped? https://time.com/5955248/qanon-local-elections/
- Complex - Star of Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion of the Christ’ Pushes Unhinged QAnon Conspiracy at Conservative Conference. https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/star-of-passion-of-the-christ-pushes-qanon-conspiracy-theory-conservative-conference
- Qanon Anonymous Podcast - Episode 140: Undercover at the Save the Children (Again) Rally. https://soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous/episode-140-undercover-at-the-save-the-children-again-rally
