“Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth“

December 29, 2018 6:49 AM

“The mysterious 8chan poster known as “Q” promised on multiple occasions that “2018 will be GLORIOUS.” For people who genuinely believe that Q is a government insider close to President Trump, that “glory” was supposed to come in the form of mass arrests of some equally dramatic event that would expose the so-called “deep state.” But even as QAnon community broke into mainstream awareness, vindication remained elusive.” The Year In Q (The Contemplator) “2018 was a year in which right-wing pundits and self-proclaimed “prophets” made a variety of predictions and proclamations that never came true“ 2018: The Year in False Prophesies and Failed Predictions (Right Wing Watch)
posted by The Whelk (58 comments total)

Just like doomsday cults. My apocalyptic prophecy can never fail, only be failed!
posted by supercrayon at 6:57 AM on December 29, 2018 [18 favorites]

I'm convinced QAnon is some left-leaning prankster who has no idea how to stop riding the tiger they unleashed.
posted by Nelson at 7:21 AM on December 29, 2018 [11 favorites]

That's it? That's pathetic! This is basically nothing more than Timecube and that guy who claimed to be from the future whose "prediction" was that the Segway would revolutionize the world. I am sorely disappointed.

And which state is supposed to be the deep one? I know South Dakota has the Homestake mine, which is pretty deep...
posted by heatherlogan at 7:45 AM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

QAnon's amazing secret codes (which are totally, honestly, secret codes) have a keyboard heatmap that looks a lot like someone resting their fingers on a qwerty layout and lazily trying to be "random". All this attention and these people can't muster even a basic level of competence.
posted by samworm at 7:59 AM on December 29, 2018 [33 favorites]

There’s a lot of this going on on the left as well. I’ve lost count of the tweets from supposed intelligence community insiders who tell us that 45 is royally fucked and impeachment is coming any day now. It’s like a prolonged Democrat fever dream. I check Fox periodically for any indication that the administration is on the brink, and as far as I can tell it’s all still about Hillary’s emails.
posted by simra at 8:05 AM on December 29, 2018 [19 favorites]

And which state is supposed to be the deep one?

Massachusetts has a lot of Deep Ones.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:08 AM on December 29, 2018 [47 favorites]

On July 17, End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles issued a dire warning that leftist activists would attack the White House within 72 hours and drag Trump and his family out on to the lawn, where they would be executed.

That could be tough, considering his family doesn't even live at the White House.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:19 AM on December 29, 2018 [7 favorites]

Well, not any more. They were executed, remember?
posted by yhbc at 8:33 AM on December 29, 2018 [14 favorites]

Even debunking QAnon makes it stronger. From this Vox piece a while ago:

Conspiracy theories like QAnon are “self-sealing” — meaning that evidence against them can become evidence of their validity in the minds of believers, according to Stephan Lewandowsky, a professor at the University of Bristol who studies conspiracy theories and conspiracists. Trying to disprove a conspiracy theory thus usually only serves to reinforce it.

To paraphrase a quote about conservatism: QAnon cannot fail, it can only be failed.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:47 AM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

There’s a lot of this going on on the left as well.

Politico had piece recently about 2018 and predictions. Apparently, EVERYBODY was wrong.

and here it is ...
posted by philip-random at 8:49 AM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

I check Fox periodically for any indication that the administration is on the brink...

I don't think that would work for you, even if it were.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:14 AM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

Hang on a minute. So we have a series of prophesies / divinatory statements from followers of the Christian god that their ruling institution is riddled with a "massive cabal of elite pedophile[s]", whose exposure will dominate public awareness of the institution during 2018.

The diviners just guessed wrong about the identity of the institution. Why would a god care more about the U.S. government than about his own church hierarchy?
posted by heatherlogan at 9:18 AM on December 29, 2018 [12 favorites]

If you're going to watch any of the embedded videos, keep in mind that the YouTube algorithm is super aggressive about serving you more and more right wing conspiracy videos because that's how the whole system works. You may want to open the link in an incognito window to keep your suggested video list unpolluted by this garbage.
posted by peeedro at 9:37 AM on December 29, 2018 [44 favorites]

There’s a lot of this going on on the left as well.

The various QAnon communities have been kicked off Reddit of all places for continuous, bigoted harassment and rhetoric encouraging violence against marginalized groups and the left. A violent, heavily-armed QAnon devotee shut down the road over the Hoover Dam, and the man who murdered a dozen Jewish people at the Tree of Life synagogue expressed support for them. Leading right-wing commentators like Hannity have peddled their theories, at least one GOP organization has openly supported them, and Trump invited a top QAnon proponent to the White House.

But both sides amirite?
posted by zombieflanders at 9:48 AM on December 29, 2018 [99 favorites]

In which MetaFilter stands and points and laughs at others.

"They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."*

To be fair, I am also quite alive to the existence of left-wing desire for this madness to be over as expressed through conspiracies. It's harder to find it funny when there are some conspiracies at hand. So far as I can tell, the distinguishing feature of a real conspiracy is its carelessness, openness and naked avarice. It shambles along, relying on fear and power to do its work, and may succeed in that end for many years.

-----
* This is attributed to Carl Sagan. It's a very good point, although I think it stumbles at the end. I don't know if Bozo ever inspired laughter so much as a rictus of fear.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:49 AM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

the YouTube algorithm is super aggressive

Tell me about it. A co-worker sent me a link to a video of some cute goats, and now the "cute goat channel" is "recommended for me." (Wow! There are a lot of cute goat videos! Goats are the new cats!)
posted by SPrintF at 9:50 AM on December 29, 2018 [9 favorites]

All this attention and these people can't muster even a basic level of competence

Which is to say they certainly know their audience.
posted by wildblueyonder at 9:57 AM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

There's definitely some unhinged leftists. Louise Mensch and Seth Abramson both come to mind. But there's nothing like an equivalence to QAnon.

The danger with QAnon is its fever dream politics not only get people killed, but also radicalize thousands of foot soldiers in a direction that is useful to Trump and the unprincipled people promoting him. I guarantee that some QAnon memes are going to be recycled in 2020 and used as ammunition in the mainstream media to take down Democratic candidates for President. It's not hard to imagine. Hateful lying conspiracy theories like Seth Rich's death have already bridged this gap between right wing lunatic conspiracy and mainstream political rhetoric. Effectively, I might add.
posted by Nelson at 10:19 AM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

Yeah where do we place 'Bernie Sanders and AOC are Russian agents' on this spectrum?
posted by Space Coyote at 10:25 AM on December 29, 2018

The likes of Eric Garland and Louise Mensch are the closest on the other side of the aisle. Particularly Mensch - who probably shouldn't be considered part of any meaningful Left anyway but does appeal to the more desperate Resistance Twitter types - gets into similar "my secret sources tell me our enemy is on the ropes" territory. There's nothing quite like Q though, which is extremely low effort trolling by some 4chan kid causing the talk-radio-sensitized brains of people their parents' and grandparents' age to dissolve into mush
posted by atoxyl at 10:58 AM on December 29, 2018 [7 favorites]

They laughed at Columbus because Columbus was an idiot who thought the Earth was much smaller than what was known from classical Greek proofs, many of which had just been translated from plundered Arabic libraries.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 11:02 AM on December 29, 2018 [26 favorites]

Wait, I thought it's been shown that QAnon is one of the wingnuts? Wasn't there a livestream or something where the asshole was actually logged in to the QAnon account in the background?
posted by aramaic at 11:14 AM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

> There’s a lot of this going on on the left as well. I’ve lost count of the tweets from supposed intelligence community insiders who tell us that 45 is royally fucked and impeachment is coming any day now. It’s like a prolonged Democrat fever dream.

Up here in Toronto during the Rob Ford Era there was a lot of that, as you might imagine. There was one guy on Twitter in particular ("MetroMan") who professed to have insider information and contacts and all of that, and had everyone (including me) constantly abuzz with rumours about how Rob Ford was going to be arrested in ten minutes/that afternoon/tomorrow/sometime next week...
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:23 AM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Well. It only took four comments for the false equivalency fallacy to emerge.

QAnon is entirely mainstream on the right. My own brother, a one time supposed centric republican (as was I) level headed middle class dude forwards this horseshit to me all the time. As do my supposedly sensible friends and former school mates.

The idea that there exists this moderate republican mainstream is totally delusional. Those that have stayed with the right have largely gone off the rails. The Overton Window has flown off the right side of the spectrum and into a realm lunatic conspiracy and violent rhetoric. FFS Our own president is a huge fan of this movement.

The kooks on the fringe left are nowhere near as dominant nor influential on the mainstream democratic policy or the liberal cultural front as the lunatic right has become.
posted by You Stay 'Ere An Make Sure 'E Doesn't Leave at 11:59 AM on December 29, 2018 [59 favorites]

Wait, I thought it's been shown that QAnon is one of the wingnuts? Wasn't there a livestream or something where the asshole was actually logged in to the QAnon account in the background?

Maybe I'm behind the curve on what exactly "Q" is doing where, but the *chan sites that were the original venue don't have accounts or logins - if you want to authenticate yourself across multiple comments you enter a passphrase that is put through a hash (one-way pseudo-random scramble) function to produce an authentication code that people can check against previous comments made with the same passphrase. The code for "Q" has changed several times by now and for that and other reasons I think it is not just possible but likely that there are several Qs at this point.
posted by atoxyl at 11:59 AM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

Wait, I thought it's been shown that QAnon is one of the wingnuts? Wasn't there a livestream or something where the asshole was actually logged in to the QAnon account in the background?

Yep. Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins did a very good history and takedown of the Q movement at in August. In short, Q is the creation of three known trolls / conspiracy theorists. As atoxyl notes above, ownership of the main account has likely changed hands several times since they were exposed.

QAnon is entirely mainstream on the right.

The right is a hydra of conspirational thinking. This can be traced back to the John Birch Society and the Red Scare of the 50's, although its roots go far deeper.

With these massive predictive failures QAnon's influence will probably start to wane significantly, although reframing by true believers will go on for a long time. To me one of the signifiers of its decline was the breathless Q reporter Lionel Nation (YouTube, so open in Incognito if you want to avoid the suggestions that will follow) completely dropping all coverage of Q about six months ago, about the same time that his pal Jerome Corsi began to get in legal hot water. He's talking about UFOs over New York now.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:26 PM on December 29, 2018 [13 favorites]

There’s always this temptation to write this off kookery or Facebook driving people into increasingly radical spaces but like, ‪the last time we just laughed and shrugged “something bizzare happening online” off they became the recruiting base for a violent resurgence in white nationalism and fascism, complete with body count. ‬

My hope is that the base for this stuff skews way older than the other right wing stuff and they’re mostly treating it like some kind of video game as opposed to angry, agreeived young men forming social bonds around thier hate. I’d keep a closer look on other threads in toxic rightwing culture first, but you know it only takes a few sparks...
posted by The Whelk at 12:32 PM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

My hope is that the base for this stuff skews way older

I don’t know what you think old is. But. The forges of 4Chan and the cesspools of various T_D SubReddits that churn this shit out are not crazy grandpas. They are millennials and X’ers. There is fertile grounds for this garbage among the youth of this country.

It all ends up meme-ified on the Old’s social media. But it is made by younger people savvy in creating these networks and troll farms.

Relying on some special or specific identity or demographic or gender to save us is a grave strategic error.

Remember this. 46% of women who voted in the 2016 presidential election voted for Trump.

The skill of critical thought has eroded across all typical non-political demographic spectrums.
posted by You Stay 'Ere An Make Sure 'E Doesn't Leave at 12:44 PM on December 29, 2018 [13 favorites]

I posit that Trump cannot be impeached until Fox News decides that it’s time. According to 538 he still has more than 40% support. Mueller’s progress notwithstanding, impeachment is still far into the future, by which time most of the lasting damage will have already been done.
posted by simra at 1:07 PM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

What I was trying to get at is I hope the over 56 crowd and retirees who seem to really go for the Q stuff very visibly online aren’t as likely to say, go shoot a bunch of people over it your young newly minted nazi (sorry white chauvinist) might. It feels more like an alternate reality hobby for them not a Cause, I hope.

Then again the mass bomb mailing guy was into all this and older so who knows.
posted by The Whelk at 1:27 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I remember these idiots. They're always obsessed with storms.

'The storm is brewing!'

'Here comes the storm!'

'Cloudy, with a chance of storm!'

It would, of course, be an entirely appropriate punchline for the whole sideshow if Trump is eventually brought down not for the Russia stuff, but the Stormy Daniels payoff.

I agree though that as silly as all the Q stuff is, they probably shouldn't be brushed off as a joke. I remember watching some news coverage of it when it started. Not sure if it was CNN, but one of the major news outlets had a reporter on scene before a Trump rally asking questions to random attendees. You could tell the reporter was stopping just short of laughing at them as they earnestly discussed their theories, and man were they getting mad, sputtering about how the reporter himself was part of the problem of the main stream media, and all I could think was 'Jesus, this guy's gonna get a gun pulled on him'.
posted by mannequito at 1:41 PM on December 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I like to make jokes that I’ve been living in an abandoned Walmart since I was interned during Jade Helm. At some point I decided to see what the Jade Helm true believers were up to. Turns out it they were right and that JH is actually some kind of sentient AI that is now running the government or something. And Q is involved somehow. I couldn’t keep the batshit straight but suffice it to say that no one is admitting they were wrong. I’m not going to link to anything because it’s easiest to find and also just plain dumb.
posted by misterpatrick at 2:38 PM on December 29, 2018

Even the AOC and Bernie are Russian plants stuff (which, let's be clear, is whackadoodle) doesn't come anywhere near some of the bizarre Satanic Ritual Abuse, Part 2 stuff the Q people have going on. Since it hatched in the fetid depths of Pizzagate you have people believing all the stuff about adrenochrome and thousands of children being murdered a year - remember that "abuse camp" they "found" in Tucson? Or the recent thing about the subterranean labyrinth connecting Arlington Cemetery to downtown DC? (Why is it always tunnels?) There are large parts of the QAnon followers who think a video exists of Hilary Clinton removing a child's face and wearing it, like Hannibal Lecter, it's way way out there.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 2:38 PM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

impeachment is still far into the future

Good. This European spectator would prefer not to see a President Pence any time soon. The Orange Pretzel serves a great purpose in shining light on the most moronic parts of US society. He's not done yet.
posted by DreamerFi at 2:45 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Has anyone considered that all this stupidity and ignorance and magical thinking is a direct result of the failure of the education system in the US? Who benefits from this failure? Looks like the answer is: republicans and white supremacists (but i repeat myself). Maybe look into fixing that for the future. Jus sayin.
posted by some loser at 3:30 PM on December 29, 2018 [8 favorites]

Yeah where do we place 'Bernie Sanders and AOC are Russian agents' on this spectrum?

The idea that Sanders has a lot of suspicious dealings is nowhere near the claim that Cortez is a Russian agent. Conflating the two seems disingenuous.
posted by bongo_x at 4:29 PM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

heatherlogan: " Why would a god care more about the U.S. government than about his own church hierarchy?"

What does God need with a starship?
posted by Chrysostom at 4:45 PM on December 29, 2018 [8 favorites]

Because only Starship can build cities on rock and roll. God requires a void as a base material.
posted by hippybear at 4:49 PM on December 29, 2018 [13 favorites]

There's definitely some unhinged leftists. Louise Mensch and Seth Abramson both come to mind.

Louise Mensch, the former UK Conservative MP and editor of a “libertarian” online news site for Rupert Murdoch?
posted by acb at 4:49 PM on December 29, 2018 [20 favorites]

The right is a hydra of conspirational thinking. This can be traced back to the John Birch Society and the Red Scare of the 50's, although its roots go far deeper.

Try the previous '50s, with the Know Nothing Party (famous members including Presidential candidate Millard Filmore, who later lent his name to a right-wing newspaper comic, and John Wilkes Booth). Or, some three decades earlier, the Anti-Masonic Party.
posted by acb at 5:00 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

these letters included the signoff, “Where we go one, we go all,” which is the QAnon rallying cry

Interesting grammar; that almost looks like it could have been written by an inexpert English speaker whose native language was something else, like, say, Russian.
posted by acb at 5:16 PM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Can we stop with the "everything bad is Because Russia" nonsense? Not only is it inaccurate, it also lets Republicans and libertarians off the hook for their demonstrably plentiful contributions to both the ongoing sabotage of the public welfare and the increase in homegrown terrorism. It's bad enough that we've got the "moderates" and nevertrumpers out there pretending they didn't spend decades playing along with destroying democracy, we don't need to deny their fellow travelers that are giving them the cover to appear moderate any agency for our current situation.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:34 PM on December 29, 2018 [9 favorites]

I don't think there is nearly enough blame being placed on Russia because most people really don't want to believe it's true. I also think "all the Russia talk is conspiracy theory" is propaganda.

I don't think suspecting Russian interference is cover for anyone, and I don't think there will be cover for anyone. There were Nazis before this started, Russia didn't invent them, doesn't mean they're not aligned. I will have no problem battling moderate Republicans (or whatever the party is called after they're gone). There are varying degrees of bad and wrong.
posted by bongo_x at 6:00 PM on December 29, 2018 [13 favorites]

But both sides amirite?

I didn't take the assertion that there's a lot of this on the "left" (although I'd amend that to say that "mainstream liberals" instead, since they're the ones that seem to be in alignment with Garland and company in terms of their being totally okay with the US military apparatus so long as it's doing things they agree with) to be a statement of moral equivalence, which for the reasons cited above is obviously wrong, just that there's a sizable demographic of liberals who self-identify as holding a monopoly on logical and empirical thinking who nonetheless fall for the prognostications of crypto-conservative charlatans because it's what they want to hear, and they should do better for all our sakes.
posted by invitapriore at 6:26 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Good. This European spectator would prefer not to see a President Pence any time soon.

Children are literally being put into cages. Two of the have died. A bunch of US workers didn't get paid this holiday season because crybaby Trump didn't get his wall. The discourse in this country continues to be in the commode because of the man who really puts the bully into the bully pulpit.

I posit that Trump cannot be impeached until Fox News decides that it’s time.

This is why Fox News must end. It is not just another news source. It is the root cause of many of on ur problems. There is not nearly as much social stigma involved in watching Fox as there could be. I have personally walked out of businesses that play Fox News on their sets.
posted by JHarris at 6:50 PM on December 29, 2018 [25 favorites]

Russian intelligence interference in American politics doesn’t get near the attention it deserves. Not near.

If anything the fact that a former KGB agent has such sway on the Republican Party should unite elements of the left and right. Because it turns out much of what those old cold warriors were worried about was true. The left underestimated the dangers of the Soviets just as much as the Right underestimated them now.

It’s just that it turns out competitive strategic interests are largely divorced from ideological roots. Communism vs capitalism was only one of many superficial layers.

What the Russian/Soviet state has always been is a thug state and its motives and efforts for undermining the West have never really changed. They know there are finite resources on this little rock. And a century of thug political culture has evolved through natural selection in Russia to get as much for themselves as they can no matter the human cost.

Hell. Our system is bad enough. But theirs is far, far more brutal with much less transparency or accountability. And they are exporting this thug culture to the already receptive American Right.

The combination of American corporate white supremacy with Russian Thug State totalitarianism is a nightmare come true.

No. We don’t worry nearly enough about this.
posted by You Stay 'Ere An Make Sure 'E Doesn't Leave at 7:31 PM on December 29, 2018 [19 favorites]

Russia didn't build the machinery that is currently ripping its way through your democracy. They just nudged the levers a bit so that instead of plowing the fields it's tearing through your houses.

But the machine was Built By Americans For Americans…
posted by Pinback at 7:44 PM on December 29, 2018 [9 favorites]

drag Trump and his family out on to the lawn, where they would be executed

Of all the delusional regressive-right fears, I think we can all agree this one we would all be shocked and disturbed to have occur.

However, if he was led out on hands and knees, wearing only a leather bulldog harness and fully colsed gag mask, collar and leash, by Hillary Clinton in a shiny black leather pantsuit and juggalo makeup, while RuPaul and Jinkx Monsoon flailed his sagging red butt cheeks with diamond studded cats o' nine tails... I have to admit I would experience a very wide range of mixed emotions.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:29 PM on December 29, 2018 [9 favorites]

The left underestimated the dangers of the Soviets just as much as the Right underestimated them now.

It's truly a weird thing to see people both on the right and alleged Left argue against Investigating Russian interference unsing the McCarthy arguments. And yet those Left-facing arguments about witch hunts also tend to end up helping Republicans. Odd.
posted by happyroach at 8:48 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

acb: " the Know Nothing Party (famous members including Presidential candidate Millard Filmore"

19th century president pedantry: Fillmore was elected as vice-president in 1848 as a member of the Whig party; he became the 13th president when Zachary Taylor died. The Whigs chose not to nominate him again in 1852, going with Winfield Scott, who ended up losing to Democrat Franklin Pierce.

In 1856, Fillmore became the nominee of both the Whigs - who by this point were on their last legs - and of the American Party (whose adherents were known as the Know Nothings). Fillmore would end up finishing third behind Democrat James Buchanan and John C. Frémont of the new Republican party.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:24 PM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

i'm struggling for a historical example of when political hate and delusion this bad has turned out ok and the country continued apace without widespread violence or upheaval. really, this mood is just the tinder. a recession or war will be the match, and fuck all knows how bad it could get. i'm betting at least as bad as the unrest of the 1960s, at least until the corrupted rotten republican party is deleted as an organized entity.
posted by wibari at 10:33 PM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

Not all Russia talk is conspiracy theory but per my earlier comment there are several legit basically-making-shit-up conspiracy theorists who managed to gain an alarming popularity among liberals in the climate of concern about Russia.

(I think there are maybe a couple overlapping conversations to do with Russian influence going on here so I'm not sure to what extent this clarification was necessary.)
posted by atoxyl at 3:17 AM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

And honestly I think the preoccupation with a through-line to the Soviet era does teeter on the edge of conspiracy territory. That's not really necessary to analyze what someone like Putin is about.
posted by atoxyl at 3:22 AM on December 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

The various QAnon communities have been kicked off Reddit of all places for continuous, bigoted harassment and rhetoric encouraging violence against marginalized groups and the left.

Randomly, I like how the day that I got my issue of Fortean Times with QAnon on the front cover was the same day as it all got kicked off of Reddit.

I'm sure there was a discussion about that, but oddly not in the letter column of later issues.
posted by Katemonkey at 5:12 AM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

The far right fuckups of 2018
posted by The Whelk at 11:54 AM on December 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

A masked man with a loaded gun was arrested on his way to a Texas church to fulfill a 'prophecy' [CNN 12-31-2018]
posted by hippybear at 3:04 PM on December 31, 2018

The QAnon Anonymous Podcast looks into the wide wild world of QAnon products and conartists and grifts
posted by The Whelk at 3:41 PM on December 31, 2018

Q now officially has a body count: Qanon-Believing Proud Boy Accused of Murdering ‘Lizard’ Brother With Sword

Prosecutors say Buckey Wolfe, 26, killed his brother in Seattle on Sunday night by stabbing him in the head with a four-foot-long sword.

Wolfe, who prosecutors say exhibited signs of mental illness, called police himself after the killing and claimed he thought his brother was a lizard, The Seattle Times reported. When detectives arrived, he asked them if they saw other “lizards,” according to court filings. Wolfe has been charged with second-degree murder.

A Facebook page confirmed to belong to Wolfe by a local Seattle TV station is filled with references to Trump and other conservative figures, as well as the cartoon character Pepe the Frog, who has been embraced by the far-right.

The Facebook page also features a declaration of allegiance to the Proud Boys, the group’s “first degree” of membership.

posted by zombieflanders at 4:04 PM on January 9, 2019