Conspiracy theories can be neat to learn about. Conspiracy theorists I generally have no time for. I don’t believe in picking fights or anything, but I generally believe that conspiracies like those often described in those theories can’t work if for no other reason than human beings really suck at keeping secrets. The advent of the Internet means that it is now far easier for people who believe in such theories to form communities of like-minded people, many of whom it is believed just can’t stand the idea that they are on the losing end of a social or political trend. That was one of the things that made QAnon such an interesting theory in that, for the people who believed it, weren’t their people in power? Weren’t they winning? Did they not feel like they were?
Regardless, QAnon came from a mysterious online figure known as “Q” dropping cryptic clues online for his followers to somehow interpret. Filmmaker Cullen Hoback decided to find Q, and that search was chronicled in the HBO documentary mini-series Q:Into the Storm.
Told over six episodes, Hoback appears in his documentary as an onscreen narrator, interviewing subjects and perhaps becoming part of the narrative. That’s fine for a story like this. Hoback makes it clear right from the start that QAnon is as much a theory as it is a community, talking to numerous true believers, many of whom run their own popular YouTube channels or Q-related blogs, all of whom believe for whatever reason that a mysterious fellow known only as Q is a high-ranking secret government insider, dispensing secret information in the form of cryptic clues that somehow suggest that former president Donald Trump is secretly working to bring down a conspiracy of Satan-worshiping child murderers and pedophiles, all of them high ranking members of the Democratic party or Hollywood celebrities and media members. Oh, and possibly some Republicans too. To his credit, Hoback doesn’t try to argue with the people he’s interviewing as they all insist they did their research and believe this idea to be true because, well, it just has to be.
No, Hoback isn’t interested in why these people believe what they believe. He’s interested in who Q is, and that in and of itself is the focus of the documentary. To that end, Hoback tracks it all back to the now-defunct online message board community of 8Chan. 8Chan grew out of a similar site, 4Chan, only the idea was 8Chan would be even less controlled as safe haven for free speech, no matter how awful that speech might be. As a result, most of Hoback’s documentary is basically a fight between 8Chan founder Frederick Brennan and the site’s financier Jim Watkins, plus Jim’s son and 8Chan admin Ron. And that is more or less what Hoback covers: the fight between these three while Q does his thing.
It actually makes the whole thing seem almost silly, or would if the events of January 6th, seen in the last episode, didn’t seem to suggest the Q stuff prompted people to violence. Brennan largely regrets his actions in founding 8Chan following some high profile incidents where users committed acts of violence or hate, making him seem like the reasonable one. He also doesn’t have the resources of Jim and Ron, something that becomes clear when Jim takes Brennan to court. As for the Watkins, Jim often looks rather ridiculous with his choices of facial hair and attire, such that it’s hard to believe he’s as wealthy as he is. Ron, on the other hand, alternately claims ignorance and seems to know quite a bit about all things Q. Jim himself seems to take little notice to Q but he doesn’t mind the attention it gets him. Both Watkins men seem to like the idea of how Q and 8Chan seem to be providing in-roads to the Trump Administration.
Likewise, Hoback also goes through the various other theories and concepts that led up to QAnon, such as Pizzagate, Gamergate, and various online scavenger hunt games. Personally, I have always wondered why I have yet to find anyone who connect the Q theory to the Satanic Panic of the 80s since both involved mysterious cabals of powerful people sacrificing children to the devil. Regardless, Hoback ends the series with both the events of January 6th and its aftermath as well as his deduction of who exactly the mysterious Q is. The whole thing does make QAnon as a whole seem more like the result of a childish series of pranks that went too far, but for all I know, most conspiracy theories start off that way, and the Internet actually gives us the opportunity to find the original prankster. Regardless of where QAnon came from, it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. After all, if there are people who believe our leaders are secretly inhuman lizard people, then belief Donald Trump is secretly battling Satanic pedophiles is a lot more believable.
Grade: A-
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