Cullen Hoback.Photo: Cinetic Media
What’s an idea so dangerous that it warrants being banned?
The theory takes its name from the so-called “Q,” who first began posting on the internet in October 2017, styling themselves as a government insider incorrectly predictingHillary Clinton’s imminent arrest.
More and more, QAnon has also beenbooted frommainstreamplatforms, though it still thrives in some digital corners.
In attempting to answer the question of who was behind it all, Hoback may have gotten more than he bargained for — ultimately spending three years embedding himself with both those who believe in the conspiracy and those who just may have created the entire thing to begin with.
Much has been written about those who follow the QAnon narrative, which alleges a number of wild and macabre claims, including that a group of cannibalistic pedophiles run a global child sex-trafficking ring and actively plotted against President Trump while he was in office.
Far less has been confirmed about who is actually pulling the puppet strings at the center — as the author of the Q posts — which is what Hoback says he wanted to do: Determine who, exactly, was behind the conspiracy-laden prophecies purporting to share insider information about the White House and top levels of government.
In short, Hoback wanted to use his six-part HBO docuseries,Q: Into the Storm, to out the anonymous part of the movement.
“I thought that unmasking ‘Q’ might bring this whole thing to a conclusion,” he tells PEOPLE.
QAnon: Into the Storm.HBOMAX
Q’s conspiratorial predictions were dense and jargon heavy — or nonsensical, depending on the view — and read to fans like a code to be cracked.
QAnon, though still viewed as something of a fringe group, has no doubt hadan impacton the American electorate. The conspiracy has even made its way into mainstream politics thanks to the Trump administration and lawmakers like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whoexpressed her supportfor QAnon in the past. (Her spokesman has since said she thinks it’s “disinformation.")
Many observers also noted the amount of QAnon paraphernalia at the deadly insurrection at the the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
While Hoback says he doesn’t blame QAnon for the riots, he also says the attack likely wouldn’t have happened without it.
“It’s the idea of meme and magic — memeing something into reality. Jan. 6 was the attempted manifestation of that,” Hoback says. “You had a number of people … trying to make the Q narrative real.”
Indeed, an ABC News report examining the court records of those arrested forparticipating in the riotsshowed a large number of them appeared to be followers of QAnon.
“Those who follow Q see the magic trick. And what we’re doing is showing how the magic trick works,” Hoback says of his docuseries. “And I think once you show how a magic trick works, it can’t work again.”
Based on the investigation he documents inInto the Storm, Hoback believes the primary architects of the “magic trick” of QAnon are Jim and Ron Watkins, a father-son duo who took over the forum 8chan, now known as 8kun, from founder Fred Brennan.
As the site administrator, Ron has long been rumored to be the man behind Q. Some say that even if he wasn’t the first person to begin posting as Q, he eventually took over as Q or, at the very least, knows who the poster is.
Hoback explains that, in his view, Ron, Jim, and the conspiracy-laden message boards are “the engine that makes Q work.” (The Watkins have disputed this.)
To understand Q, he says, you have to understand them.
From left: Jim and Ron Watkins.Cinetic Media
Some QAnon followers claim not to care who the poster actually is — but Hoback doesn’t buy that: “Deep down, they all wanted to know the answer, even though the talking point was that they don’t care.”
Determining Q’s identity, he says, can lift the curtain on the truth.
“Masks have an incredible amount of power. And when you take a mask off of someone, all of the baggage that comes with that person is revealed,” Hoback says.
He continues: “It’s not my intention to make people turn their back on it. It’s just to show them what was going on behind the scenes and let them come to their own conclusions.”
Still others aren’t giving up — a notion Hoback says one believer featured in the documentary recently compared to basketball players “running around shooting hoops, trying to change the score even after the game is over.”
As the movement’s claims continue to go unfulfilled, the allure of the conspiracy has begun to fade among some. For those who still believe, learning the truth can be harsh.
“It had a very game-like quality [initially],” Hoback says. “I think people were flirting with the idea of ‘Maybe it’s real, maybe it’s not.’ But if you pretend to be something long enough, you eventually become that thing.”
Even as Q hasn’t postedsince December, it’s unlikely that the QAnon community will dissolve entirely. Instead, the group of believers might morph into something else.
“I think we will have an element of Q going on into the distant future,” Hoback says, “but if folks sit down and take the bitter pill of what was going on behind the scenes, I think it will change the story they tell.”
While Ron has previously denied that he is behind Q —saying last monththat “I am not Q. I’ve never spoken privately with Q. I don’t know who Q is” — Hoback believes Ron leaned into the narrative in text message exchanges with him sent as the docuseries began to air.
In one of the more recent messages, according to Hoback, Ron wrote something that Hoback says seems to be “almost a confirmation in and of itself.”
“Something I learned long ago is that internet personalities are just actors on a stage,” Ron wrote, according to Hoback. “Making things larger than life makes for a better story and ultimately more entertaining existence.”
Q: Into the Stormis available now on HBO.
source: people.com
