Constructive Conspiracy Theory

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"There's enough real conspiracies in human history that it's reasonable to be kind of suspicious and cautious," says snogos. "So many times these things are just sort of, ou know, mid level guys trying to keep their jobs or make a couple bucks on the side." Snogos: It could have been a run down prison staffed by incompetent minimum wage guards who just didn't care what this guy did,. He wanted out, and he didn't want to face the consequences.

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?