QAnon

[Linden]

Have to admit I was totally unaware of this bunch of...ahem.. eccentrics, until BBC radio did a programme on it earlier this evening:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lf1t

The whole thing just screams DC: QAon is a bonkers organic/brain slice AI that's uncovered a Cobra Man org. Whether or not the Cobra Men are operating in the highest echelons of US government is for the GM to determine. Either its true, or the AI's madness/paranoia has made it go David Icke and its various pronouncements on the subject are an unintentional red herring, leading minion hunters down a false trail. QAnon's followers are Dobie/Gidget types who hinder rather than help. Meanwhile the real Cobra Men are still getting away with it.

[ReHerakhte]

Wow!
Just... Wow!

I did a quick check on the net and from the first article I found, it's very easy to believe that those people are deranged... beyond deranged even.
It definitely fits in with conspiracy games

Great find!

And your scenario is great although I'd like to add a twist if I may.
Everything is as you've written but perhaps QAnon has brain slices not just from humans, but also from reptilian aliens (who were prisoners of its creator) and the dissonance created by it being (at least partly), in it's own mind, one of the "reptilian enemy" has caused it's paranoia. It's second guessing itself all the time because it fears the "reptilian" side of it's mind is trying to subvert everything it does. This makes it plan various actions to catch it's "reptilian" side out, which it expects it's devoted followers to carry out, leading to many, many red herrings for the PCs.

Regardless of my thoughts, your scenario is fantastic food for thought!

[Linden]

I like the split species/personality idea.

Heard the radio prog quite by accident. Just happened to stick the radio on hoping for the news while I was making my evening meal. Serendipity indeed.

[ReHerakhte]

I think the most disturbing aspect of the whole QAnon business isn't simply that so many people in the US are willing to believe it regardless of just how unbelievable it actually is, I think the most disturbing aspect is that once they've reached that stage of distrust of the world around them, they become quite willing to vote into office any authoritarian they think will "save the country".
I seem to recall that a similar thing happened somewhere in Europe in the 1930s and it caused a few problems for the world.

[Linden]

I'm wondering, much as with the Trump presidency itself, if the whole thing isn't a wind-up that's got well and truly out of hand.

[ReHerakhte]

A bit like Trump's stance on Australia - this is going from memory so there's more than likely a lot of gaps...
Trump demanded Australia help in an investigation into claims that the Russians were willing to provide compromising material on Hillary Clinton during the run-up to the US election. The information apparently came from someone claiming to be a CIA agent that an Australian politician met in a bar somewhere in London (I think it was London but definitely the UK). As the story goes, the Aussie reported the info to Australian intelligence services who reported it to the FBI and Trump eventually found out about it and then demanded (DEMANDED!, who the f**k does he think he is?!) Australia collaborate in an investigation.

As far as I recall, the events and actions from the Australian side of things were legit and done in good faith but I am left wondering why some random CIA agent would even bother to pass such information on to a politician of an allied nation. Why specifically a politician and not the intelligence services? What's the purpose?
I'm inclined to think that it was an action by some US faction to garner support or sympathy for Trump, (i.e. translate all of that to "Trump - good, Hillary - bad" in the minds of the US voters) that got out of hand.

[Linden]

As far as I recall, the events and actions from the Australian side of things were legit and done in good faith but I am left wondering why some random CIA agent would even bother to pass such information on to a politician of an allied nation. Why specifically a politician and not the intelligence services? What's the purpose?

It's difficult to answer but you do get some very odd sorts working for the intelligence services. I'm reminded of the Le Carre quote about spies being "little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked ­husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives.” As a real life UK example there's David Shayler, ex-MI5 and mad as a fish.

[Morthrai]

Ah yes, Shayler's a fan of Mr Icke for some non-ironic reason unlike the rest of us who watch him out of mere humourous interest

My personal favourite crap British spy is Michael Bettaney, who not only tried to pass documents to the USSR by posting them through a KGB general's letterbox, which was being watched by a double agent, but also got sacked by MI5 after being arrested for public drunkeness (literally shouting "you can't arrest me, I'm a spy!) and repeatedly trying to dodge Tube and bus fares - the ultimate crime for London dwellers

[ReHerakhte]

After reading about Shayler and his messianic claims (among all the other rubbish he believes), it seems MI5 ended their association with him just in time!

[Linden]

My personal favourite crap British spy is Michael Bettaney, who not only tried to pass documents to the USSR by posting them through a KGB general's letterbox, which was being watched by a double agent, but also got sacked by MI5 after being arrested for public drunkeness (literally shouting "you can't arrest me, I'm a spy!) and repeatedly trying to dodge Tube and bus fares - the ultimate crime for London dwellers

Hmmm...sounds like a classic MI5 ploy to get their man embedded with Russians. Publically discredit the bloke and then wait for the other side to approach him with a recruitment offer. It's The Spy Who Came In From the Cold all over again, if done a little more colourfully this time round.

[ReHerakhte]

While dredging through my various links for DarkCon and T2k, I started to explore some of the links for one site.
The site author was (still is?) a member here and posted a few times. His website hosted a few links to useful gaming material that could be found at various places on the web.

Anyway, to get to the point, he had a link to a blog post about QAnon that was written up back in 2018, it makes for some interesting reading, the author makes the claim that QAnon is basically a data-mining operation conducted by some department of the US government to provide predictive threat assessment a la Minority Report (although with all the very subjective claims being made, I might be reading it all wrong in my confusion trying to understand what this author's point actually is).

https://www.cyberculturalist.com/2018/0 ... ilder.html

[Linden]

Anyway, to get to the point, he had a link to a blog post about QAnon that was written up back in 2018, it makes for some interesting reading, the author makes the claim that QAnon is basically a data-mining operation conducted by some department of the US government to provide predictive threat assessment a la Minority Report (although with all the very subjective claims being made, I might be reading it all wrong in my confusion trying to understand what this author's point actually is).

https://www.cyberculturalist.com/2018/0 ... ilder.html

I've found if you start delving into this stuff you realise a lot of the people involved are mentally ill - almost always claiming some sort of special knowledge that the "sheeple" (a dreadful expression which I really despise) don't have, but invariably turns out to be a load of incoherent jibber jabber. Of course in Dark Conspiracy they, like the tabloids, just might be on to something...

[ReHerakhte]

As sad a reflection on modern society as it is, I have to say I agree with you. There seems to be huge number of people either mentally ill or desperate for some sort of validation/attention that they spout this nonsense to get people to listen to them.
My favourite quote regarding conspiracy theories and other such things is that if you look long enough, you can link every single conspiracy theory back to the JFK assassination.
With all the nonsense floating about due to the ease of distribution via the net, that quote holds true even more so today than the day I first heard it (after you've jumped down the rabbit hole and found one chemtrails believer associating their... ahem... "research" back to the use of chemicals in the Vietnam War and from there to claims that JFK was trying to stop it... well, you can guess the rest easily enough).

And as much as I might despair for humanity, holy cow does it makes for great fodder for conspiracy gaming!

[Linden]

I'm not the only one who thinks QAnon might be a joke that's gone a bit too far:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/autho ... t-english/

An interesting examination of the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories generally as well.

[ReHerakhte]

Thanks for the link Linden, interesting reading and I'll say it again... JFK assassination!

But on a serious note, I have a tendency to believe that with the decline in importance of religion in the Western World, some people appear to be seeking some other form of connection to the "bigger picture".
In the past it was a spiritual/religious connection, religion told them what they were and where their place in the universe was and also told them just how "special" and "unique" they were.
But now that science has shown us that we are not particularly special in the grand scheme of things, now that Westerners live in a relatively comfortable world with good health care, surrounded by all the consumer goods they could ever want and need for nothing, some people have come to feel that harsh reality is not giving them the "I'm a unique snowflake" feeling that they had in the past (and which it seems, many of them desperately desire).

So instead of seeking knowledge and finding out about the real world around them, i.e. actually learning about the reality, they latch onto conspiracy theories. It makes them feel they are getting knowledge others lack, makes them feel important and special because they start to think they are actually aware of the big picture.
It makes them feel so, so special because they believe they have information that we don't, they believe they have "the truth".
When the reality is that they are using ignorance of reality as a way to make them feel better about themselves.
At least with superstitions you can see how they came about and how people came to believe them. This 21st century conspiracy rubbish offers nothing and is built on piles and piles of crap with no connection to reality what-so-ever.