Conspiracy meta-theory 'The Storm' pushes the 'alternative' envelope yet again
Special counsel Robert Mueller, in this alternative universe, is in fact preparing to indict hundreds of Democrats (including Clinton, Barack Obama, and financier George Soros) and Hollywood celebrities for their roles in a massive worldwide pedophilia ring, operated by “globalists” who are conspiring to destroy Trump — and that the president himself is himself masterminding this “countercoup.”
“What we have come up with is a possible coup,” explained conspiracy theorist David Zublick in a late-November video, “not against Donald Trump, but by Donald Trump, working with Robert Mueller to bring down the Clintons, the Democrat Party, and the entire U.S. government involved in pedophilia and child sex trafficking.”
In just a few short weeks, the theory has grown from a handful of posts on fringe Internet chat forums to become the overwhelming obsession of nearly every conspiracy theorist in the business, notably Alex Jones and his Infowars operation, as well as social-media figures such as Liz Crokin. In addition to being a constant focus of discussion on Infowars, dozens of YouTube videos and thousands of Twitter posts exploring various facets of the conspiracy, and presenting the usual dubious “evidence” to “prove” it, have shown up on the Internet.
The origins of “The Storm” lie in Trump’s cryptic remarks on October 6, saying that a gathering of military leaders represented “the calm before the storm.” When asked what he meant, Trump responded: “You’ll see.”
...This is the same pedophilia ring that was the focus of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that excited much of the far right in the months after the 2016 election. The conspiracists, including Jones, claimed that Clinton campaign adviser John Podesta’s emails, stolen by hackers during the campaign and published on Wikileaks, revealed that he, Clinton, and a host of others were part of a pedophilia ring operating out of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor.
However, in the new expanded version of the theory, the pedophilia ring has gone global, drawing in alleged participants from all around the nation, and occurring in locations ranging from Hollywood to Europe. (One version of the pedophilia theory entertained by Jones claimed that the child victims were being secretly shipped to a colony on Mars.)
“QAnon” and the conspiracy theorists who piled on at 4chan, 8chan, and on Twitter claimed that contrary to the running story in mainstream media, this pedophilia ring is the real focus of Mueller’s investigation. The general conclusion, spread through the #qanon hashtag on social media, was that a wave of arrests – including Clinton, Obama, Podesta, Soros, Sen. John McCain, and a number of leading Hollywood figures and Democrats was about to happen.
As Martineau pointed out, however, there has been a credibility problem for “QAnon” early on, since he posted in early November a scenario in which hundreds of arrests, and massive social turmoil, were about to be unleashed within a matter of days. “Rest assured, the safety and well-being of every man, woman, and child of this country is being exhausted in full,” he wrote. “However, the atmosphere within the country will unfortunately be divided as so many have fallen for the corrupt and evil narrative that has long been broadcast. We will be initiating the Emergency Broadcast System (EMS) during this time in an effort to provide a direct message (avoiding the fake news) to all citizens.”
November came and went, of course, without any such event. But that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm among QAnon’s horde of fans.
Read more: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/201 ... -yet-again
