Whitney Webb prompted me to once again look into the origin of the QAnon phenomenon after she implied in an interview that Cass Sustein was its architect. A little bit of searching turned up an Oct., 2019 article titled The True Entity that created and managed Q-Anon. It's an interesting read.
According to Wikipedia, Cass Sustein is "an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics.". In the section titled "Conspiracy Theories" and government infiltration we read:
Sunstein co-authored a 2008 paper with Adrian Vermeule, titled "Conspiracy Theories," dealing with the risks and possible government responses to conspiracy theories resulting from "cascades" of faulty information within groups that may ultimately lead to violence. In this article they wrote, "The existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the government's antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be." They go on to propose that, "the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups",[38] where they suggest, among other tactics, "Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."
Behavioral economics, also from Wikipedia:
Behavioral economics studies the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on the decisions of individuals and institutions and how those decisions vary from those implied by classical economic theory.
These descriptions certainly jive with what QAnon appears to be, which is a classical psychological operation.
From The True Entity that created and managed Q-Anon we read:
QAnon appears to be an evolution of a proposal once put forth by Cass Sunstein, who would manipulate such groups in order to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of "conspiracists."
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QAnon is not 'just making people think'
QAnon is also:
– telling us to trust every action of the current president
– telling us that PNAC neocon John Bolton is 'cleaning house'
– telling us that Michael Flynn who co-wrote a book with PNAC neocon Michael Ledeen is a hero— Robbie Martin (@FluorescentGrey) May 31, 2018
QAnon called for regime change in Iran.
Shortly after midnight, the Q account published "Free Iran !!! Fight Fight Fight Regime change. People have power. We are with you.The post was not Q's first reference to Iran, building off previous Q posts that warned simply that Iran was "next." Those posts first emerged just as Iran hawk Bolton was set to join the Trump administration. However, Tuesday's post was notable for its explicit call for regime change in the Islamic Republic, just weeks after covert U.S.-brokered regime change in Iran had become official U.S. policy.
Given the influence of QAnon, this shift is particularly concerning. One of the reasons it is concerning is that it is based on disinformation often circulated by proponents of war with Iran. Qanon posts assert, for example, that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal, was not about nuclear disarmament or preventing a military conflict, but instead a greedy money-motivated plot planned by the Clintons and carried out by Obama. The money given to Iran after the deal by the Obama administration is used as evidence for this assertion, even though that money was the sum of Iranian assets that the U.S. had seized years prior when it imposed sanctions on Iran, something Bolton himself helped to accomplish while serving the George W. Bush administration.
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Thanks to QAnon, Trump will continue to remain blameless in the minds and hearts of many of his supporters, as those who blindly follow the "Gospel of Q" will continue to "trust the plan" no matter what Trump does, even if it results in a devastating war with Iran that kills millions of innocent people.
"Trust the plan" is the sequel to "Hope and change."
One of the first things Trump did after his "election", which was financed heavily by Shelden Adelson (Jew) who again just dumped $75 million into Trumps 2020 campaign, was to dissolve the Iran Nuclear Deal, a deal which Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was absolutely livid over. The nonsensical nuking of this deal at Israels insistence reopens the door to further Israeli aggression toward Iran and destabilization in the middle east, which is precisely what Israel wants; more wars for which more Americans will sacrifice their lives for the benefit of 'our greatest ally'.
Indeed, Trump has been very generous to Israel, a country founded by terrorists and whose fingerprints are all over various terrorist events, including 9/11. I think it's quite obvious where Trump's allegiance lies.
U.S. Embassy opening in Jerusalem will be covered live on @FoxNews & @FoxBusiness. Lead up to 9:00 A.M. (eastern) event has already begun. A great day for Israel!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018
After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2019
For more on Trump, read Exposed: Donald 'Drain the Swamp' Trump.
A more recent article on Swiss Policy Research, "Q Anon" May Have Been an FBI Psyop, draws some parallels between previous domestic FBI operations and the 'Q Anon' phenomenon.
The "Q Anon" phenomenon has generally been regarded as a hoax or prank, originated by online message board users in late October 2017, that got out of control. The "Q Anon" persona was preceded by similar personae, including "FBI anon", "CIA anon" and "White House insider anon".
"Q Anon" originally called himself "Q clearance patriot". Former CIA counterintelligence operative Kevin M. Shipp explained that an actual Q clearance leaker – i.e. someone possessing the highest security clearance at the US Department of Energy, required to access top secret nuclear weapons information – would have been identified and removed within days.
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Given the recent revelations by British investigator David J. Blake, who for the first time was able to conclusively show, at the technical level, that the "Russian hacking" operation was a cyber psyop run by the FBI and FBI cyber security contractors such as CrowdStrike, the Reuters report may in fact indicate that "Q Anon" was not just a hoax, but another FBI psychological cyber operation.
The article includes a link to a video of Kevin Shipp, a former CIA operative and whistleblower, in which he scrutinizes the 'Q Anon' movement and points out several key failed predictions of 'Q'.
video: Q anon: Kevin Shipp's Position
video: QAnon is a Psyop - Wake Up People! - David Icke Dot-Connector Videocast
The tactic of the 'Q' movement is not new. The author of the article, Q-Anon Bears Striking Resemblance to Bolshevik Psy-Op from 1920s to Stupefy Potential Resistance, compares the modern 'Q' psychological operation to a very similar psyop in the 1920's Soviet Union.
"Operation Trust" was a Bolshevik program in Russia from 1921 to 1926 that was aimed at neutralizing opposition by creating false expectations that a powerful group of military leaders had organized to stop the Communist takeover. Similarly, Q-Anon deluded freedom-loving citizens into believing that "White hats" in the military and throughout government would save them without them having to do anything except distribute the Q-Anon reports. While Q-Anon claims to fight the "deep state", it promotes the goals of the deep state, such as CIA regime change in Iran and support for Attorney General William Barr, who (1) failed to prosecute anyone in the 2016 attempted coup by the Obama administration, (2) failed to prosecute key players in the RussiaGate hoax, (3) failed to investigate the 2020 election fraud, and (4) covered-up the Jeffrey Epstein case. In this provocative article, Internet commentator An0maly delves into examples of how influencers in the MAGA and Q movement have defended many Deep-state goals, such as gun control, forced vaccinations, lockdown, and martial law.