President Trump is asked about QAnon conspiracy...

President Trump. White House photo.

President Trump was asked about the QAnon conspiracy theory today during a briefing. USA Today. Trump said that he didn't know much about the group but that they like him and love the country. When asked if he knew that the theory is that Trump was protecting the world from satanic pedophiles he said "Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" QAnon is a wide ranging conspiracy theory that believes that President Trump is at war with the Deep State, which is made up high ranking pedophiles, among other things. The movement is very popular and some supporters of the theory are prominent, including congressional candidates Laura Loomer and Majorie Taylor Green. Critics of the theory blasted Trump for not denouncing it. 

President Trump's comments can be seen below:

My Comment:

Though I have discussed the QAnon theory on social media before this is the first time I have done so on my blog. I understand I am taking a risk in doing so as I was shadowbanned on Twitter for awhile after denouncing the effort to censor the theory. That could happen again so if my blog disappears you know what happened. 

If it does disappear that would be fairly ironic as I am not a QAnon supporter. Indeed, I have been critical and skeptical of the movement since it began back on 4chan in the day. I don't think the theory is true and I think that the supporters are naive at best. 

I have followed the theory from the start though. I was in the original calm before the storm threads on 4chan and though I didn't post I was looking at it. At the time I was skeptical but I thought there was a chance it was true. When the movement went to 8chan I pretty much stopped caring and when Attorney General Jeff Sessions got fired I thought that should have been the end of the movement, given how critical he was to the original theory. Currently, I would be shocked if the theory is based in reality at all.Though I don't really believe in conspiracy theories, I do enjoy reading about them. QAnon is no different and I've found it fascinating, even though I don't think it's true.

Since I haven't followed the theory in a long time I am somewhat surprised that the theory has evolved so much. Back in the day it was more about the Clintons and the deep state. Now it seems to have moved on to a grab bag of right wing conspiracy theories, including elite pedophile rings, the Russia collusion hoax and general anti-Democrat theories. Indeed, it seems to have picked up where Pizzagate left off, with a large focus on celebrity and political pedophiles. 

That being said, I do think a lot of those things are probably true in some way. I do think that the political establishment is opposed to President Trump and conspired to remove him. To argue otherwise is to pretty much deny reality, as turning on CNN will show that the media is against him at the very least, and there have been several high profile government officials that have turned on him. I also think that there are probably elite pedophile rings (Epstein alone is proof of that). I just think that QAnon is wrong on all the details and is probably a conspiracy itself. 

But is QAnon dangerous? I don't think it is. The USA Today article tried to imply that QAnon supporters are violent but I haven't seen that. I do think there is some danger in people believing things that aren't true but given the events of the past years I doubt that they are any worse then the people that believe in the Russia collusion hoax or the Black Lives Matter movement. It probably is dangerous to the Democrats though...

I also think that QAnon could be a valuable asset to the Republican Party. The movement is huge and it could be used to organize people to get out and vote. Denouncing them offers little advantage and won't help with anything, but tolerating them could help win in 2020. Even though social media has been moving against them, they are still a huge group of voters and have international levels of influence.

As for President Trump, I doubt he knows much about QAnon. He has probably been briefed on him given how many Q supporters have been filmed at his events, but I doubt he knows much about them. Indeed, at the briefing he seemed surprised about he specific allegations. He's savvy enough that he didn't alienate them but I don't think he actually knows the specifics of the theory. He walked a fine line where the Q people will think he admitted it was true while everyone else will think that he didn't denounce them but didn't confirm them either. 

I do think that the censorship of QAnon is pretty despicable. I think the supporters are harmless and the censorship is more about interfering with elections then keeping people safe. And if it really is a conspiracy theory, how are people supposed to debunk it if they can't even read or write about it? And even if you are critical of it, like I have been, you can end up banned from social media. 

Of course banning QAnon is probably the worst thing you could want to do if you want to stop a movement. The Streisand Effect is real and by trying to remove Q from the internet you are just encouraging people to look into it. And given the theory has a lot to say about media, doing so also fits right into the conspiracy theory. It's idiocy. 

Finally, I have to say, why on earth did it take this long for a journalist to ask President Trump about QAnon? The theory has been around for years now and the press has had multiple opportunities to question him about it. Had they really wanted to nip the movement in the bud, asking President Trump about it long before he had any knowledge of it probably would have destroyed it. Plus, basically everyone, supporters, critics and skeptics alike probably wanted to hear what the President was going to say.