QAA Podcast - Premium Episode 190: r/conspiracy Time Machine (Sample)

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

The "r/conspiracy" subreddit serves as a time capsule to track the changes in conspiracy-minded internet posters over the last couple of decades. We visit post-9/11, pre-2016 election, post-QAnon and ...present day reddit posts in the infamous online community Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like 'Manclan' and 'Trickle Down': http://www.patreon.com/QAnonAnonymous NOVEMBER LIVE DATES: Nov 12th Philadelphia @ First Unitarian Church Nov 14th Brooklyn @ The Bell House Nov 15th Washington DC @ The Howard Theater Nov 18th Toronto @ The Garrison Nov 20th Chicago @ Lincoln Hall TIX: http://tour.qanonanonymous.com Liv Agar: https://linktr.ee/livagar Music by Max Weber. Editing by Corey Klotz. New Merch / Join the Discord Community / Find the Lost Episodes / Etc: http://qanonanonymous.com

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Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up QAA listeners? The fun games have begun. I found a way to connect to the internet. I'm sorry, boy. Welcome listeners to Premium Chapter 190 of the Q&ONONANANANANANIS podcast, the R-conspiracy Time Machine episode. As always, we are your host, Jake Rockatansky, Julian Fields, Liv Agar, and Travis Vue.
Starting point is 00:00:29 Dear listeners, today, Liv and I have stuffed piles upon piles of garbage into Mr. Fusion and have generated the 1.21 gigawatts of power necessary to take us all back in time. But where are we going? Perhaps to ancient Egypt where we can each high-five Moses as he parts the Red Sea. Or maybe to the mighty Coliseum in 180 AD so we can cheer as Russell Crowe decapitates a particularly rude barbarian. Or better yet, let's set our time circle. to 28 AD so we can watch in awe as Jesus Christ himself turns water into weed. And we can all get high together.
Starting point is 00:01:07 All tempting possibilities, of course. But alas, since our producer, Julian Field, is a stern taskmaster. Instead, we will be traveling back through the twisted ethernet chords of time. To a place on the internet where conspiracy theories were not beholden to a political party. When Q clearance meant nothing other than you had a pretty decent gig within the Department of Energy. That's right, folks. We're going back through our conspiracy, the popular conspiracy theory Reddit board with almost 2 million concurrent subscribers. We'll be analyzing posts made during the board's humble beginnings in 2008
Starting point is 00:01:44 and tracking them all the way through to today. So customize your avatar, load up on Reddit Gold, and prepare to give Liv and myself as many down votes as technology allows allows as we deep dive into the history of our conspiracy. I wanted to go to the October Revolution, but he said, Julian said no. So we decided to narrow our search into four distinct eras of the message board, post 9-11, pre-2016 election, the arrival of QAnon, and what kind of posts are being written in present time today. Now the first archived page of our conspiracy dates all the way back to April 1st, 2008,
Starting point is 00:02:24 over 14 years ago. The top posts are a healthy mix of 9-11 conspiracies as well as general theories about secret societies, such as skull and bones and the Illuminati. One post links to a now-dead YouTube video titled, 9-11 debunking for dummies. The posts are overwhelmingly anti-imperialist, anti-intelligence agencies, and anti-corporate. There are even two posts warning readers about the dangers of mass surveillance via their cellular phones. One is a shared wired article titled, quote,
Starting point is 00:02:55 AT&T invents programming language for mass surveillance. And another post is titled, Final, Total Proof that Cell Phones are Government Tracking Devices. The beginning of that post reads, From the Don't Ever Call Me Paranoid Again files, the Washington Post reported something remarkable, quote, cell phone tracking powers on request. An article that plainly states that law enforcement and intelligence agencies
Starting point is 00:03:19 routinely track U.S. citizens through their cell phone's GPS capability. Please remember that I'm not being alarmist. I personally accepted the fact I live in a total surveillance police state a while back. Rather than view that as a prison, I've decided to treat it like a stage.
Starting point is 00:03:33 This is not a crisis. This is not a nightmare. This is just the world that you and I happen to live in. It's not ideal. Carpe diem, man. You know, fucking seize the surveilled day. It is interesting.
Starting point is 00:03:47 I feel like we'll see, like, slowly, as the subreddit devolves, like, less and less of the, like, front page is going to be about actual things in the world that, like, any rational human being would be worried about. Yeah, everyone gets specialized. Yeah, exactly. So here in 2008, we have two of the top posts on our conspiracy linking to Wired and the Washington Post. This is insane, knowing what the board is now. So I began to search the archives for snapshots toward the end of 2008.
Starting point is 00:04:19 to see how the election of Barack Obama would affect the content of the popular posts. But even on November 3rd, 2008, a day before the election was held, most posts were still discussing 9-11, sharing the occasional Alex Jones YouTube video, or sharing extraterrestrial sightings and UFO stories. In the replies to most of the posts, there is a healthy amount of both a willingness to believe as well as skepticism. In a post from late January of 2009 titled, quote,
Starting point is 00:04:46 Nibaru slash Planet X photos from January 2008, the top reply cast doubt on the idea that a secret planet is barreling towards Earth. So, Travis, will you read Scientologist 2? He says, story from January 2008, surely it would be much brighter in the sky now. Simply put, Planet X cannot exist as described unless it violates natural laws. Violates natural laws equals supernatural, or it's the Bork Planet, etc. I am not holding my roof. Or it's the Borg Planet, etc. So listen, I'm a reasonable man.
Starting point is 00:05:21 I can allow the possibility of a Bork Planet, but otherwise, this is a ludicrous tale. You have been listening to a sample of a premium episode of QAnon Anonymous. We don't run any advertising on the show and we'd like to keep it that way. For five bucks a month, you'll get access to this episode,
Starting point is 00:05:39 a new one each week, and our entire library of premium episodes. So head on over to patreon. com slash QAnonanonymous and subscribe thank you thanks i love you jake loves you

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