The anonymous message board user known as “Q,” whose cryptic announcements spawned the fascist pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, has returned to posting after a nearly two-year hiatus.
On Friday night, someone with access to Q’s login credentials posted on 8kun, the anarchic internet community where Q last posted in December 2020.
“Shall we play a game once more?” the first post marking Q’s return to the board read, signed “Q.”
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The message was written in the same clue-like format as thousands of earlier Q posts, dubbed “Q Drops” by their fans, that led to the creation of QAnon in late 2017. Q’s followers believe the messages explain the world as it really is, controlled by Satan-worshipping, child-eating pedophiles in the Democratic Party, finance, and other institutions.
In QAnon’s telling, Donald Trump was recruited by the military to run for president in 2016 to take down that nefarious “cabal.” QAnon believers await “The Storm,” an event in which they believe Trump enemies like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be executed via orders from a military tribunal, or imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
The Q poster followed up with two more messages on Friday night. Asked why they had disappeared for more than a year, they wrote, “It had to be done this way.”
“Are you ready to serve your country again?” Q wrote in another post. “Remember your oath.”
Despite its ludicrous claims, QAnon has managed to become a faction within the Republican Party. Two current members of Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), have voiced support for QAnon in the past, and more Q backers are expected to win office in the midterms. A 2021 poll found that QAnon’s core tenets have a significant amount of support, with 15 percent of people surveyed saying they believed the world is run by a Satanic pedophile cabal.
Q stopped posting on 8kun in December 2020, shortly after Trump’s election defeat. Ron Watkins, the former 8kun administrator who has often been accused of controlling the QAnon account, is currently running as a longshot candidate for an Arizona House seat.
Watkins, who has denied posting as Q, didn’t respond to an immediate request for comment on Q’s return. It’s not clear whether the new Q posts are meant to coincide with the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday overturning abortion rights.
QAnon has won backing from a number of prominent Trump supporters, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, comedian Roseanne Barr, and MAGA lawyers Lin Wood and Sidney Powell. A QAnon leader has successfully organized a coalition of secretary of state candidates who could be poised to win control of elections in some battleground states.
The conspiracy theory has also inspired terrorism and multiple murders, as well as providing the inspiration for a number of Capitol rioters.
