QAnon is Baby Truther Talk
It’s ok if you don’t understand the title. I’ll get you there.
Some of you will surely have some vague idea of what the “Qanon” conspiracy theory is. If you don’t, the Sparknotes of it is this: Donald Trump was/is battling a global network of Satan worshipping pedophiles that includes most of Hollywood and the DC elite. This conspiracy community has many side plots and offshoots, but that’s the soul of it.
Q belief systems are one of the best examples of what I would call pro-political conspiracies.
The broadest way of classifying conspiracy theories is to sort them into pro-political and anti-political conspiracy theories. The angry and paranoid gap between them is defined by how they conceptualize mass politics.
(For my personal definition and understanding of conspiracy theories, read the link below).
Pro-political conspiracies theories accept some of publicly discussed mass politics as “actually happening”, but might speculate on motives or other events happening outside public view.
They also assume the presence of political competition to varying degrees. This means they assume that though political parties often cooperate and self-deal, there is some amount of competition that occurs between and within them, and it can be worthwhile to promote one large political faction over another.
They likewise accept that different branches of the Federal government compete against one another, and that foreign states compete against each other, including against the United States
Most importantly, they believe in contingency, and that their actions can significantly influence political outcomes. Though they can be extremely cynical, they have political confidence, and efficacy. Storming the Capitol could in theory overturn a fraudulent election outcome, since although there was a conspiracy against Trump, the future can be changed by direct political action.
The second category I naturally call anti-political conspiracy theories. This is not to say they are apolitical, which they assuredly are not. They reject the assumptions of the pro-political truthers. Instead they take it for granted that nearly all, or sometimes exactly all, of widely discussed political events is staged by “them”, which can be masons, the Illuminati, or other institutions such as the deep state.
Political bodies do not compete against one another, though there may be some individual dissent within ruling institutions. All parties, states, institutions, and other political bodies that appear to oppose one another are actually cooperating and orchestrating politically salient events together.
Anti-political truthers have low political efficacy and are skeptical of contingency, and their IRL efforts to move politics in their direction are usually less dramatic and determined than pro-political truthers.
This is why Stop the Steal and Qanon conspiracy theorists stormed the Capitol while flat-earthers and 9–11 truthers did not, even though it would seem to me that the second pair have more to be upset about.
It adds up then that anti-political conspiracy theorists aren’t labeled as extremist or terrorist threats as frequently as their pro-political counterparts.
Actual people are more complicated than isolated beliefs, and one person may hold many theories from both categories. Anti-political and pro-political are much better at classifying beliefs and belief systems than they are at classifying believers.
Anti-political truthers can take anti-political worldviews pretty far. And by pretty far, I mean to their logical conclusion. One flat-earth YouTuber, “Witsit Gets it” (his first name is Austin, and I never caught his last name) goes as far as to call voting sinful and says partisanship is fictitious. This is relatively basic though.
Another who goes by “Rose 777”, and who is ironically a co-host on the “Baby Truther Show” believes the American Revolution was a scam because the elite wanted another corporation, and she is far from alone.
Denying that the American Revolution represented a political change of any significance is a very far reaching, and internally consistent, denial of political competition.
Another anti-political truther, whose YouTube channel is called “RV Truth” (RV stands for Russian Videos) agrees with this interpretation of the Revolution. He also said on a livestream recently that popular music that appears dissident, such as that made by Michael Jackson, actually isn’t, and contains satanic or masonic messaging. If it were dissident, you would not have heard it.
All anti-political conspiracy theorists think any IRL expression of political dissent is orchestrated or even completely staged. The George Floyd demonstrations and Capitol Siege were clearly both fake. (I am not equating the two here. Anti-political truthers equate them in their fakeness).
Wielders of political power do not infight, and no large political movements come about without elite permission and support. There are no “organic” movements, because that would both require and create political contingency.
A pro-political truther might say, and indeed many have, that Antifa or other provocateurs (sometimes the FBI) sabotaged what would have otherwise been a peaceful rally in DC on January 6 of this year.
Notice the political assumptions required to believe this. There is a worldview informing this conspiracy. The speaker accepts that there is a political grouping called Antifa that exists in opposition to Trump supporters. They also accept that a rally is in theory worthwhile, since political outcomes are not determined. It assumes genuine competition and genuine contingency, and is therefore pro-political.
Anti-political truthers scoff at all of this. The outcome of the 2020 election was known ahead of time. Antifa are paid actors. They refuse to believe in genuine political competition and the contingency implied by it.
Mark Sargent, one of America’s leading flat-earthers, told me the Capitol Siege was mostly if not entirely choreographed. Ashli Babbitt’s death specifically was staged, and other truthers such as his co-host Karen B agree.
(While I was covering the Capitol Riot I did not see Ashli Babbitt get shot myself. Eye witnesses did direct me to the area where her body was taken away, and I do have pictures of a trail of blood that eyewitnesses told me was from Babbitt’s lifeless body. I also have a video of police performing CPR on her which originated from an eyewitness. I have opted to exclude both from this article, but can provide them on request.)
The Capitol Siege was a planned stunt to do any of the following: further divide the country, justify the Biden presidency, to justify further militarization of the police, or to make Trump supporters look insane which would somehow give more credibility to the vaccine or mask mandate enforcement. (The “what is the goal of staging this?” question comes up a lot when listening to anti-political truthers).
The most visible break between the two categories lies in how anti-political truthers and just Q-adherents understand former President Trump. Q-adherents view Trump as a savior-like figure, fighting secretly against the Cabal. Anti-political truthers, which include many if not most flat-earthers, would remark that Trump is part of that Cabal.
At times, anti-political truthers openly mock Q and conspiracies that portray Trump as a hero.
The aforementioned Austin Witsit performs a character named “Baby Q Austin” where he parodies Trump supporters and Q-adherents. The joke is essentially that Q-adherents trust politicians such as Trump and DeSantis and look to conventional politics for solutions. Witsit says Trump is the most likely candidate to be the Anti-Christ.
Karen B, a co-host on two conspiracy shows (one with famous flat-earther Mark Sargent and the other with Brian Staveley) has said that the point of Trump was merely to encourage Republicans to get vaccinated.
The appearance of elite partisanship is fake, and itself part of the conspiracy. Democrats and Republicans do not actually oppose each other. Trump was selected to be President because Trump is trusted by many anti-vaxxers, so when he endorses the Covid vaccines it carries weight with them, in (conspiracy) theory.
The anti-political truthers understand Qanon as being a conspiracy itself. Sargent remarks that Q is a “designer made conspiracy sub-group for the Republican Party” and that hard-core truthers saw this immediately.
I had to call into Staveley’s show to speak with him, since he doesn’t answer formal inquiries. He tells me that all big name conspiracy theories are controlled opposition, designed to silo off the conspiratorially minded so that they don’t pursue real truth, like the Mandela Effect, Staveley’s specialty. He adds that very few people have come to flat-earth from Q, and on the whole it has been bad for the truth movement.
The amount of media crossover between the two camps does seem to be limited. From personal observation only, I have heard anti-political truthers and people in their live comments say that they heard of Q for the first time from the regular news.
The largest crossover conspiracy between them that I can see are those related to vaccines and Covid, in which their views are nearly exactly the same, except of course on whether or not Trump is part of the problem.
Sargent confirms, independently of Staveley, that he knows of only a few flat-earthers that came from Q. I can hear some of these people calling into his weekly radio show sometimes to tell him that God gave us Trump and that Democrats are all Communists. And these are friendly callers.
Sargent tells me that with all Trump has done with Space Force and the vaccine that pro-Trump flat-earthers shouldn’t be able to exist, but he tells me he has friends who think this is all a ruse to eventually arrest Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.
Several conspiracy theory shows have their own vernacular for what I am describing. Beliefs that suggest contingency or competition are mocked as “baby truther talk” (hence the title). RV Truth in particular loves this phrase, and another beautiful phrase “coincidence theorist”.
Beliefs that suggest total elite control, and therefore no competition nor contingency, are dismissed as “auto-hoaxing” for their tendency to immediately deduce that everything is a hoax.
Qanon, which dotes over real politicians and sees opportunities in conventional politics, is of course Baby Truther Talk.
Occasionally, one can hear the pro-political truthers fire back.
Jordan Sather, a Q influencer and podcaster, mocks flat-earth and believes we likely landed on the moon. His affection for Trump actually helps keep him tethered to reality in some respects. Trump support makes one more susceptible to some conspiracy theories and less so for others.
Most people who believe in one conspiracy theory believe in many, and sometimes the contradictions between theories aren’t always seen by conspiracy theorists, but sometimes they are. Believing in one won’t necessarily lead to believing in another.
Some conspiracy theories can actually block someone from accepting others, if they see the contradictions between them that is. The nature of mass politics, the dividing line between pro and anti-political conspiracy theories, is perhaps the most common source of contradiction that I see.
In individual believers though, this neat divide becomes blurry. If a conspiracy theorist does not see the tension between the two categories, they can easily hold multiple pro and anti-political conspiracy theories as true simultaneously.
The talk show host and another co-host of the “Baby Truther Show” Alex Stein is a great case study here.
Unlike all other truthers, I have actually been able to track his career since about the time it first began. I have watched him move gradually from pro-political to anti-political.
When Alex Stein first started broadcasting live over YouTube (I don’t recall exactly when, but it’s been at least a year) he definitely supported Trump and thought ordinary politics was worth talking about. He often would whine about Nancy Pelosi and BLM.
He would later admit to RV Truth that he “fell hard for Trump”. He has told me that he stop liking Trump after he became a “vaccine salesman” and he has repeated this line multiple times. I personally suspect that he was ridiculed by his truther friends for his Trump support and that this played some role too.
Last February, Stein told one of his guests who believes in Q that “Q is kinda bs”, and Stein is usually very accommodating to his guests.
Stein’s dropping support for Trump is a sign that he has matured as a truther in a way. He has seen the problem with believing that vaccines are toxic, the Earth is flat, and that 9–11 was an inside job; and also supporting Trump, who started Operation Warp Speed, founded the Space Force, and hasn’t provided proof that 9–11 was an inside job.
He metamorphized from a baby truth caterpillar with a mere list of opinions, to a loud paranoid butterfly with a conspiracy worldview. When Trump support conflicted with that worldview, he stopped supporting him.
But Alex is interesting for another reason. He keeps some of his old pro-political intuitions, and these are shared by another “Baby Truther Show” co-host, Jeran Campanella.
One way this is expressed is in the question “do things actually happen?” or the statement “hey, sometimes things actually happen”. This formulation means that sometimes politically important and widely known events happen “on their own”, meaning without deliberate elite planning.
Jeran once asked on the show, in reference to the theory that Kobe Bryant faked his death, “Is Kobe playing in Diego Garcia or in the clouds?” besides being one of the more hilarious and self-aware questions I have heard a truther ask, it also crystalizes the internal truther debate on Bryant’s death.
Stein has argued that sometimes things, such as the death of Kobe Bryant, aren’t controlled.
More tellingly, he believes that countries exist.
Stein has proposed that China might expose the US and use various conspiracy theories as blackmail against them. When Stein says that China might have some serious blackmail on the US, he is assuming political competition at a high level. He is in other words, still a baby truther in his heart.
I have used the same template to form arguments against 9–11 truthers, when I am in a mood to debate them. You call their attention to political actors who might be opposed to the United States security establishment: investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and most importantly foreign states. Does China know 9–11 was an inside job? How about Iran? Wouldn’t this be a potent source of blackmail?
This is not a fool-proof argument by any stretch, since it proves little to fools. You can pull the rug out from under this argument very easily. One only has to reject the underlying assumption that Iran and China exist in contrast to the US, and not as actors merely pretending to be opposed to US interests. Investigative journalists and high-minded leakers likewise do not really exist. In other words, this sort of argument can be problematic for pro-political 9–11 truthers, but is easily brushed off by anti-political 9–11 truthers.
Individual truthers can defy easy or even consistent classification. But I think I am on to something in classifying beliefs in this way.
Pro-political truthers, at least here and now, pose a more acute threat to public safety, and are certainly more likely to vote and participate in real political campaigns.
So anyway, that was on my mind. Here’s a flowchart that sums it up.
