Then, if the President Said It, It Was True, I Mean, No, He's Not.

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

There's a messianic aspect to trump. And and cu believers embraced him that way. He was seen as the outsider. He says what the rest of us are just willing to think. That kind of sense, the tone, i think ferke went on. It kind of makes sense. There's a logic to it. So you can see, by the time trump comes round, people are like, i don't believe any of this bulsh that these people are telling us. And trump is an outsider, and he's going to give it to straighten. I mean, never mind that the four years of him and the white house uspel a giant grift. This

Michael Shermer speaks with Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, about QAnon and its followers.

On October 5th, 2017, President Trump made a cryptic remark in the State Dining Room at a gathering of military officials. He said it felt like “the calm before the storm” — then refused to elaborate as puzzled journalists asked him to explain. But on the infamous message boards of 4chan, a mysterious poster going by “Q Clearance Patriot,” who claimed to be in “military intelligence,” began the elaboration on their own. In the days that followed, Q’s wild yarn explaining Trump’s remarks began to rival the sinister intricacies of a Tom Clancy novel, while satisfying the deepest desires of MAGA-America. But did any of what Q predicted come to pass? No. Did that stop people from clinging to every word they were reading, expanding its mythology, and promoting it wider and wider? No. Why not?