The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - If You Don't Know, Now You Know - QAnon

Episode Date: November 27, 2020

Trevor examines QAnon, an increasingly popular conspiracy theory claiming President Trump is fighting a secret pedophile ring run by a cabal of elite celebrities and Democratic politicians. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You're rolling. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts. If you know anything about Q&Own, you've probably heard that it's a conspiracy theory. But the truth is, it's more like a political cult,

built around a conspiracy theory, and then crossed with a big book of of of of of of of of th......... toee, toe, toe, toe, the, the, the, the, the, thii. thi. thi. thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. the, the, the, the, the, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean. thean. thean. thean. th book of word search puzzles. And if that sounds complicated, well wait till you hear what they believe in. For believers, Q is an anonymous government official who post classified information about a covert battle between the president and a malicious ring of celebrities, political elites and the so-called deep state. This anonymous poster, Q, was giving secret clues about becoming, quote, great awakening. The central theme here is that Hillary Clinton and many of the world's other politicians and celebrities are members of a murderous child sex ring. Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, and others eat children in order to extract a life-extending chemical from their blood group.

They believe that a group of military generals recruited President Trump to break up this conspiracy and end their control of the government and the media. Donald Trump in the Cuban view is going to save us from this in a moment called the Storm. His tweets are misspelled for a reason. When he does Kavei, and the smocking gun, it's all cold for what he's telling us. Okay, I want whatever these people are smocking. Because Trump's typos are a secret message?

Man, I wish people were this forgiving when I did stupid shit. No, you guys don't get it. When Trevor threw up at that party, he was showing us. It's what's on the inside that counts. But look, this guy's also not wrong. President Trump's tweets are misspelled for a reason. And that reason is, he can't read. Now look, if Hillary and Oprah were eating children to live longer,

I would be horrified because that is such a waste of magic blood. You feed those kids to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, people priorities. But there's no ways this conspiracy theory is actually true. And look, I believe a lot of crazy shit, okay? I believe the TSA confiscates all our lotion in order to secretly sell it back to us at Walgreen. I believe possums are just dogs without makeup. I believe no one has actually ever broken up with me. They've just all been abducted by aliens. But this conspiracy theory is crazy even for conspiracy theories. I mean, set aside everything else. You're telling me, Trump is doing something heroic, but instead of taking credit for it, he's keeping it a secret. That is the most unbelievable thing I have ever heard.

Plus, if you're wondering how it's possible that Trump can be leading the fight against the pedophile ring when he was friends with Jeffrey Epstein for years, well, according to Q, Trump has been undercover since the 90s, which I believe. I mean, if there's one thing Trump is known for, it's famously long attention span. So, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. th, th. thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, there's one thing Trump is known for, it's his famously long attention span. So how did this insane theory take off? Well, partly, it latched onto fears about the real phenomenon of human trafficking. Partly, it fed off ancient anti-Semitic troops about

elitists who drink the blood of children, but mostly it was just the good old internet. Q&N first emerged in the months after President Trump took offioffioomf. theuuuuuuuuu. theu. theu. theu. theu. And, theu. And, theu. theu. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thoom. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thau. thau. thau. thau. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. Well, it's, it's, it's, tha. Well, tha. Well, tha. Well, tha. Well, tha. Well, tha. Well, t. Well, t. tha. t. tttttttttttttha. tttha. tttttthau. thau. thau. togu. togu. tttogu. tttogu. ttogu. togu. ttogu. thau. thau. thau. thau. t months after President Trump took office, starting on fringe internet message boards before spreading to social media. The pandemic has only made things worse and so these people are just there all day. Facebook groups have grown exponentially with Q&O on. In just four months, membership of the biggest public Q&O groups rose by 700%. We saw a lot of groups who were wellness communities, people who were interested in alternative health people would the algorithm would sort these people together with the Q&O people they would say oh alternative health maybe they're into anti-backs if they're anti-backs maybe they're into

Donald Trump and within one or two clicks people would go down these very bad paths yep yep that's how this shit always goes on the internet. It feels like at this point the entire purpose of Facebook is to funnel everyone towards the craziest conspiracy theories possible. Because people will join a group about cycling and then five hours later, they're like, Hillary Clinton is a mountain goat people. She's an actual goat! And it's not surprising that the pandemic turned out to create the perfect conditions for people to get radicalized. it's not surprising that the pandemic turned out to create the perfect conditions for people to get radicalized. Some people join Q& on, some people ordered Pelotons, and neither of them will shut up about it. This also shows you how much the internet is ruining our brains. When

Shakespeare was quarantined during the plague, he was like, maybe I should write King Lear. Now people are sitting around during coronavirus going, I wonder if I could prove that Tom Hanks has sex with the devil. Either way, starting from the swampiest parts of the internet, Q&N gradually picked up followers and eventually grew into a major online movement. And it hasn't seemed to matter that many of the things it predicted over the years just never came true. Early on they were claiming that Robert Moller was secretly investigating and to indict the cabal of Democratic leaders and that President Trump was secretly working with Mueller's team. President Trump has secretly created a police force, by the way,

to arrest them and force them to wear ankle bracelets. The belief is that somehow the late JFK Jr. is alive and helping Trump clean up the deep state. Nearly all of these clues, including that Hillary Clinton was arrested, turn out to be wrong, but the batting average doesn't seem to matter. You can present them with evidence. You can demonstrate how the predictions have gone wrong, and they don't seem to care. It's just again and again that Q is bigger than anything anything that they can be presented with to the contrary. That. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's, that's right. That's right. That's right. That's right, that's right, that's right, th. That's right, th. That's right, th. That's right, thi, thi, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, t. the, the, the, the. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. the. te. the. the. the. the. te. bigger than anything that they can be presented with to the contrary. That's right. It doesn't matter how many of Q's outlandish predictions fail to pan out. It never seems to have an impact on the movement.

And that, my friends, is the classic sign of cult behavior. Once you're invested enough in something, you will make any excuse for its failures. So please, don't be looking for logic here. That's not how cults work, okay? Cults don't follow logic. They follow whatever the cult tells them. That's why you always see cult leaders go so quickly from the sacred aliens have chosen us to weird news, guys. The sacred aliens told me I should bang all of your wives. I guess it must be for our redemption or something to go somewhere. I pick her. So, thanks to this religious fervour, Q&N took over the internet. And it would have been fairly harmless if it had just stayed on the internet, you know, like Momo.

That thing was a joke. That was weird. But the scary thing about Qanon is what happened when it jumped from the screen to the streets. This is th th th th this is not th th th th th th th th thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus. the the the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the an the an thean. thean. toean. toean. thean. theanan. tean. toean. thean. toean. thean. thean. toean. th happened when it jumped from the screen to the streets. This is not just a bunch of online crazy talk. It's dangerous in real life. The FBI says Q&O and their many conspiracy theories are a potential domestic terrorism threat.

The North Carolina man who shot up this DC pizza restaurant looking for non-existent ped, people believed to be followers of Q&on have shown up, sometimes with weapons, in places that the character told them were somehow connected to anti-Trump conspiracies. In June, a man armed with a rifle and a handgun, drove an armored vehicle to the Hoover Dam on what he said was a mission from Qanon. Qun followers have allegedly been involved in a foil. a foiled presidential assassination plot, the devastating California wildfire, and armed standoff with local law enforcement officers in Arizona. In July, a 24-year-old man was charged in the shooting death of a reputed mob boss. His attorneys argued he was motivated by Q&N on.

Written on his hand in the courtroom were Qanon symbols. You cannot be serious. Can you imagine being a mob boss, and you get whacked by a kid from a message board? Not a rival, just some random kid. You'd almost want them to lie in your obituary and say you were a snitch. But this is insane! Q& on people are out in the world doing real things, shootings, hijackings, kidnappings. Of all the bad advice I've gotten on the internet, nothing ever came close to making me murder a mob boss. The worst. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, th, th, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi-I I thi-I I thi-I I thi--------------I, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, th. th, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the. theeeean. to-n''''ean. thean. to-I. thean. thean. thean, theee. the. nothing ever came close to making me murder a mob boss. The worst advice I ever got was to use toothpaste to get rid of pimples.

But I ate the entire tube of toothpaste and all I got was a tummy ate. Pimples didn't go anywhere. And even with sporadic real-world violence, it might be tempting to dismiss Q-and-on as just another lunatic frinetic fringe. But it, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thiatat-a, I's thi, I thi, I the thi, I thi, I their-a, I their-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a, I their, I their, I their, I their, I I I I their, I I I I I their, I I I I I is is their, I I I is their, I is their, I is the th. I is th. I is th. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thatua-noom. too-nooma-nooma-nooma-nooma-noomateaseateateateateateateateateate, I there are roughly 50 Q supporters who ran for office in the Republican Party this year. And it's almost certain that one of them is actually going to be in Congress next year. Although maybe that's a good thing. Nothing will prevent them from getting anything done better than being in Congress. Congress. The only people with a lower approval rating than Q&N. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11th, 10 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

And subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News.

Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts. This has been a Comedy Central Podcast.