QAnon (Q) was a conspiracy theory and political movement that centered around an alleged government insider who was mainly active during the first presidency of Donald Trump. It was a fringe cult that originally hyped up Donald Trump as a 'savior' against this 'deep state' cabal.

After the 2020 electoral loss, QAnon was radio silent for two years until impostors started appearing on Truth Social, then the disillusionment started to set in with the second presidency of Donald Trump. This article will only focus on the 2017–2022 run on 8chan.

The conspiracy relied on the idea that an evil 'deep state' cabal is responsible for everything bad in the world, from 'pedophile rings' to wealth hoarding, and saw identity politics as a mere distraction. It hyped Trump's election as this coup-delaying event, believed the 'drain the swamp' crap, and believed that the NSA was 'flipped' onto said cabal, which is where the mythical “Q” clearance division comes in.

At the time, the movement's goals was to spread awareness in what was called 'The Great Awakening', then Trump would hypothetically initiate 'The Storm' which describes a military dictatorship that would enable the arrest and subsequent execution of high-profile members of this 'deep state' cabal through military tribunals. Since the electoral loss, the QAnon movement has largely splintered.

In the beginning, “Q” started out as an anonymous 4chan user on October 28, 2017,¹⁾²⁾ but stood out as their patience³⁾ enabled /pol/'s confirmation bias.⁴⁾ “Q” eventually adopted a tripcode by November 9, 2017,⁵⁾ started posting on 8chan's /pol/⁶⁾ and /cbts/⁷⁾ boards, then they quit 4chan altogether by December 15, 2017.⁸⁾ Eventually, “Q” received a major spotlight as Infowars covered them on December 24, 2017.⁹⁾

Shortly after, the “Q” identity was hijacked on January 6, 2018.^{10)11)12)13)14)} The hashed IPs weren't lining up because it was being spoofed,¹⁵⁾¹⁶⁾ so Ron Watkins would *conveniently* step in,¹⁷⁾ then “Q” discredits the board¹⁸⁾¹⁹⁾ and never revisits old boards as a precaution.²⁰⁾ The writing then changed²¹⁾²²⁾ and the movement spread unusually far, then 8chan went offline for three months in late 2019.

Most internet dwellers would've moved, but the adherents stayed, and any issues with 8kun were *magically* resolved by… making another board.²³⁾²⁴⁾ However, Trump lost the 2020 election on November 3, 2020, causing Rom Watkins to resign²⁵⁾ and dispute the results,²⁶⁾²⁷⁾ then he supported the idea of triggering the insurrection act,²⁸⁾ which brings us to the infamous Capitol attack on January 6, 2020.²⁹⁾³⁰⁾

After the loss, “Q” closed out with a "We're Not Gonna Take It" video³¹⁾ on December 8, 2020³²⁾ and went radio silent, but its legacy amongst conservatives lingered.^33)34)35) However, the rise of “Q” impostors³⁶⁾³⁷⁾ would actually cause “Q” to break this silence in 2022,³⁸⁾ but the reboot had issues, like the whole “ID: 422ccc” scandal,³⁹⁾⁴⁰⁾ then “Q” disappeared once more after November 27, 2022.⁴¹⁾

• 17anon - An uncommon, alternative name for QAnon, since 'Q' is the 17th letter of the alphabet.
• bread - The playful term for a thread, though this actually predates QAnon.
  • bakers - The thread starter, the 'original poster' (OP). Typically a moderator on Q-affiliated boards.
  • breadcrumbs, crumbs - This can refer to any post, or a 'drop' that QAnon had made.
• Q+ - The internal codename for then-President Donald Trump. It's on the same level as 45.
• tora, tora-san (tora3) - Trump's surname becomes 'Toranpu' (トランプ) in Japanese, which became 'Tora-san' (トラさん) since it's the Japanese name for a tiger. The emoji may also be used.⁴³⁾
• WWG1WGA - An abbreviation of the “where we go one, we go all” slogan. This comes from the 1996 disaster survival film, White Squall, based on the 1962 book, The Last Voyage of the Albatross.

• Normally, I wouldn't write this article,⁴⁴⁾ but it felt like an obligation after I heard their slogans over the radio on August 15, 2020. I also want to be clear that QAnon had a part in the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 if people are still asking the question, “what went wrong?” or “how did we get here?”
• There was a number of unusual 'phenomena' surrounding QAnon, where it deviates from the expected behavior and reactions from the typical anonymous imageboard environment:
  • In the beginning, “Q” manages to skip the 'browbeat' that tripcode users normally face by starting off anonymously, and not having a kneejerk reaction to the critics that label it as a LARP.⁴⁵⁾
  • After the hijack, “Q” had an odd preference for boards with a long URI, which gives credibility to the Watkins theory as 2channel boards typically have long URIs, and most seasoned imageboard users normally hesitate whenever an imageboard's URI has over 3–5 characters.
• Early on, “Q” claims that Lynn Forester de Rothschild tweeting #FlyEaglesFly in support of the Philadelphia Eagles⁴⁶⁾ was a reference to Bill Clinton's Secret Service code name of 'Eagle',⁴⁷⁾ despite responding to a tweet about the Eagles being 9–1 in a Super Bowl winning season.
  • In contrast, the post-hijack “Q” made a vague comment about Robert Kraft in 2019,⁴⁸⁾ then uses the Super Bowl to say that the Geoffrey Berman situation was big in 2020.⁴⁹⁾
• During the 2020 election season, there were a few otherwise unremarkable QAnon-related events:
  • Jim Watkins made a 'Disarm the Deep State' Super PAC in February 2020,^50)51)52) though it flopped.
  • A minor QAnon convention was held in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 17, 2020.^{53)54)55)56)57)}
• There was a short-lived Japanese QAnon following,⁵⁸⁾ dubbed 'JAnon' (Jアノン), but this was linked to existing cults (e.g. Happy Science, Unification Church).^59)60)61) It didn't last long,⁶²⁾ but we did get to see Trump attend a 'Rally of Hope' organized by Hak Ja Han on September 11, 2021.⁶³⁾⁶⁴⁾

• GamerGate

• /qresearch/ on 8kun - The community and board that QAnon last made a post in.
  • qalerts.app - The primary QAnon post aggregator since then.
• greatawakening.win - QAnon Reddit clone. Formerly /r/greatawakening on Reddit.
• @Q on Truth Social - Another impersonator of QAnon.
• @QTHESTORMM on Twitter - Another impersonator of QAnon.