Going Undercover at the QAnon Conference

Today we'll be taking a look inside the fairly recent Q and On Conference, a five hundred dollar a ticket gathering for the Q and On true believers in Dallas, Texas. This took place over the weekend of May twenty nine, so Memorial Weekend if you're an American. The conference's official name was, awkwardly the Full Golden Country Patriot Roundup. It hosted some major Q and On big wigs, including the

following people. Louie Gomert, a Republican attorney and former judge serving as the US representative for Texas' first congressional district. Allen West, a retired U S Army lieutenant colonel, politician and former member of the US Congress, And of course, Mike Flynn, a retired U s Army lieutenant general and a former national security adviser to Donald Trump. He lasted just twenty two days in that role before he was forced to resign after he lied about his potential ties

to Russia. He was later given a pardon by Donald Trump himself. Now we've mentioned him before, but Flynn has been one of the most prominent big noises pledging unconditional allegiance to Trump and Q and on. At this stage, I'm starting to think for him, at least, it's not even a grift. I think he's genuinely lost the plot

a little bit. Anyway, as you can see from the three people I just mentioned, Q and on is very much still alive and well, even within the realm of semi influential people, even if they are disgraced in the mainstream. Now it does sound kind of funny, but this Q and on conference was taken very seriously by all participants, as you can probably imagine, true to their authoritarian Q and on ideals. Several journalists were kicked out of the event,

including reporters from Vice and The Daily Beast. One journalist who did manage to infiltrate the Q and On conference was Stephen Monicelli. He's a freelance reporter and researcher covering extremism, particularly in the U S. He's going to give us the bizarre inside scoop of what went down at the so called the Full Golden Country Patriot Roundup a K A, Q and ON Conference one. So there was this thing recently, right, this this Q Q and on conference conference whatever it

was called. You went to it, Um, maybe maybe just explain for us, like what was it? What was the point of this thing? It was hosted and organized by a husband and wife team. They go by Q and On John and Q Queen Amy, And in the run up to this they tried to explicitly deny the nature of the event and its relationship to the Q and Q and ON movement. There's some good local coverage here in a paper that I write for occasionally called The

Dallas Observer, where they detailed this. Uh and of course that's absurd given now only you know the blatant handles that the organizers used in telegram, but also the featuring of things like the acronym that stands for where we go one we go all, which is something that was cribbed from a movie called the squall, and it's really only something that people who are deep in this movement would recognize or understand or use. Yes, you did hear

that right. A couple calling themselves Q and On John and Q Queen Amy using the tag where we go one we go all set up this Q and on conference and at first try to say, no, it's not a Q and on conference. I swear to god, they invited all the top Q and on big wigs. Of course, as we know because ARMM was on the inside, it very much was a Q and on conference. Don't get that confused. Listen on to any sort of baseline observer that had a little bit of knowledge about what this

movement is. It was. It was blatantly a Q and on conference, regardless of what they called it, right, And they were trying to stop like Q and on researchers or anti q and on researchers. I guess um going. I know several journalists were school it out. You managed to get in right? How did you? How did you do that? Right? So, uh, this happened in my own backyard. Basically, I'm based here in Dallas, and I hadn't really initially planned on going Uh. It wasn't something that I thought

it was necessary for me to attend. But I saw that Travis view. Uh, when one of the hosts of the Q Anonymous podcast had posted an email where he had been explicitly rejected based on his coverage, and you know, they basically said, you're not nice enough to people here, so we're going to refund your ticket. Uh So when I saw that, I thought to myself, oh, okay, well this should be interesting. I might as well go. Initially,

I tried to go to Transparent Round. I had pitched to a publication that's national here that I write for pretty regularly, and they said, okay, well, why don't you try to get a press pass um. I foolishly tried to do that. Of course, they rejected it within an hour. They just looked at who I was affiliated with and decided that, you know, no, sorry, we're all full of

course that was a lie. So here you see the Q and On's, the people that apparently love unfettered freedom and absolute free speech, decided that they didn't want journalists that were unkind to them in their conference. They even pretended that there weren't enough tickets. So Stephen did what he could, he basically had to go underground to the Q and On conference and they were still selling tickets for the general admission, and so I asked them, hey, you know, can I buy a ticket and will you

let me in? And they basically said, nope, that's not going to happen. Better luck next time. So a local source ended up buying a ticket on my behalf so none of my information would be linked to the ticket purchase, and they picked it up for me so I, you know, wouldn't have to show my I d and the event that I had to, and then they just passed it along and I went inside. I just kind of dressed

the part. I shaved my beard, and I gave myself a pretty basic white person's pseudonym, and uh, you know, had a little bit of a backstory so that if anybody asked me who I was or what I did, that I'd be able to chat my way through it.

And I had enough baseline knowledge of you know, the speakers and some of the sayings of the movement to be able to blend in and you know, kind of respond whenever people chatted with me, while mostly trying to just kick it back to them to better understand why they were there and you know what they were thinking. Um so you were there on the cover, you got to see it. I'm tell us what what did you

actually see this? What was you know, very clearly a Q and on conference, I would describe the overall atmosphere is not unlike going to really sort of fervent fire and Brimstone Church. But I guess, you know, maybe the pastor would be someone like Tucker Carlson. So that was just the general tone and tenor of the event, and a lot of people were, you know, getting really amped up about the speakers. There were dozens of them over the course of the three days where they had speakers.

Uh and that was the bulk of the event, right, you know, just people sitting in a room listening to speakers. Uh. So a lot of that was captured on live streams and that's accessible to folks that weren't there. But a lot of the really interesting and I think importantly contextual stuff happened around those events that were not live streamed.

So there was an auction, for example, where they're saying it was going to some veterans charities, which a bit ironic at an event where they're openly promoting a military coup where people were spending thousands of dollars on really kitchy memorabilia that was either Q and On themed or Revolutionary War themed, where they were you know, sort of lionizing these folks like Flynn and Sydney Powell, uh by featuring them in these you know, often like photoshops portraits

of revolutionary era war paintings and portraits where they would you know, put their faces over like George Washington and describe them as these fighters that are fighting the you know, early battles and shooting the first shots in this revolutionary war. So that atmosphere was you know, kind of like a party. They were all really into it. H some someone spent six thousand, five hundred dollars on our shoddily made quilt that had a big Q on it, nearly seven grand.

Spent on a Q and On quilt, a blanket, a cube blanket, nearly seven grand. This is the sort of thing that was going on at the Q and On conference in terms of the ruffles, the money making, and frankly, if I may say, the grift, but what were people actually talking about. Stephen was listening in and talking to people genuinely trying to find out what is going on

within the Q and on world right now. So sat down across a young man at lunch who he described, you know, he was there because he's a believer that there's some sort of international communist cabal or new world order that's pulling all the strings and if only we didn't have that, then we could be colonizing the Moon

and Mars, and you know, we wouldn't have any war. Uh. You know, he he would speculate that once there's this awakening and unmasking of these you know, big hidden conspiracies, that then we would have this period of tumultuousness and chaos which often sometimes people describe as the storm that would lead to you know, this sort of new brave world. Other folks were talking about, um, you know, how they think Christians should have total control over the government and

they need to take it back. Uh. You know, there's a lot of casual racism and oftentimes transphobia and other things like that, which you know are not unique to an event like this, but you know, they help us understand the mindsets of some of the folks that were there, and probably to just kind of sum up all the threads. There's many of them, but it's it's just kind of a mix of you know, things that were rooted in

satanic panic. You know, this fear of eluciferian satanic pedophile cabal. Uh. These these you know, ideas of a hidden communist government or new world globalist order. Uh. There's you know, fear of some sort of national or international quote unquote deep state. Uh. You know, people reacting very positively to jokes about hanging democratic politicians or you know, the open reference to an

embrace of the idea of a military coup. Uh. Not everybody that I spoke with would suddenly start espousing all of these views was or even you know, even one of them. You know, people were drawn to this for a number of reasons, and all of them seem very kind and normal when you just kind of chit chat with them. But the more you maybe go down the road of why are you here, who are you responding to?

The more it became clear that there's a set of foundational beliefs underlying this movement that you know, as I mentioned, I don't think they're necessarily new, but they're novelly composed in this in this way where it attracts you know a lot of different people who ultimately seem like they're attracted to this because they're afraid of either social change or losing their you know, social position. Uh. They think, maybe you know, their values or culture is being lost

or dying or being forced out of existence. Uh. And so as a result, these these narratives are really appealing to them because they give some explanation of who is doing this or who are causing these perceived albums, as opposed to any sort of systemic critique. Now, what Stephen is saying here, I think is quite important. It's giving you a small glimpse into the world of Q and On and why they believe what they believe in. Yes, I've said it before. It's very easy to laugh and

sneer at them. What they believe in is frankly, absolutely ridiculous. However, there is a reason so many of these people are falling into the grasp of Q and On, even now after all of the predictions failed and Q completely vanished. Take this conference, for example, hundreds of people paying five hundred dollars a ticket to talk to each other about why this secret Satanic cabal of politicians is soon going to be smited by a military coup and Trump will

come back. Blah blah blah. This is why I think the information Stephen got whilst talking candidly to the Q and On people, it's very interesting. Each shows that when times change, some people simply cannot let go surprised. That's

nothing new. We all knew this. But in the Internet age, in the time of constant updates, very short attention spans, and unrelenting conspiracy theories, the people that just cannot let the old times go, cannot look at themselves, cannot self criticize, seem to be falling in love with Q and On. I think that says a lot. It says it cannot be us, that's wrong, It's got to be everyone else.

But instead of saying everyone else, they're also saying it's got to be one of the most insane, intricate, satanic, evil conspiracy theories you've ever heard of. You get the idea anyway, Stephen continues. Plenty of people on stage would say things like, oh, it doesn't necessarily matter who Q was or is. What it did was it awakened me, It opened by eyes, it uh taught me to how

how to do my own research. Um. And so for the really true believer types, whether they're true believers there grifters, I don't know if it matters, they would you know, basically say that it's irrelevant that these things that maybe didn't happen, or that it's irrelevant that we you know, don't know who Q is. What matters is that they've created this movement and that they are continuing to fight for uh, you know, things like the return of the

real president, which you know they mean Donald Trump. Um. The difficulty really though, is it is it is? It is a horizontal movement. So there's no singular ideology, there's no singular narrative. Um. We had everything from you know, people discussing how Q opened their eyes to you know, this idea of the deep state, to someone discussing how, you know, UFO technology is is being suppressed knowledge about

UFO technology is being suppressed. There was a common you know, mentions of things like adren of chrome or gosh, chlorine dioxide. You know, all these things that have been debunked and don't really have any roots in reality, and yet they persist.

So the fact that you know, Q has fallen into the background, you know that they're sort of leader figure has disappeared, it hasn't stopped some of the momentum, and I think it's it's led to these figures like Flynn and Sydney Powell and others to become the de facto leaders of the movement. People would describe Flynn as the General or you know, Sydney Pals the attorney general. Uh

they are lionized as these revolutionary leaders. Uh Q is gone, but their influence remains and the town has been passed to these these other leaders, while these other you know, sort of adherents and promoters continue to find ways to keep the narrative going, regardless of how many ways these threads have frayed. Yeah, definitely man Um. In terms of Mike Flynn, Um, he was given some kind of talk, right,

what was this guy going on about? He he at one point, you know, the most viral clip that's come out of this is he responded to a question about why can't what happened in me and mar happened here? And he answered in a way that suggested he thinks it should happen. And the cup basically correct correct a military coup based on these notions of a fraudulent election, which is basically what happened to me and mar I'm not saying that the election was fraudulent, but that's you know,

the narrative that fueled this military coup. But yeah, he seemed to embrace some of that. He was peddling, you know, the typical ideas that there there is some force that is fighting against them, and that if you know, they stick to the plan, basically, you know, they'll keep moving forward.

You heard that, right. Mike Flynn, a retired U. S Army lieutenant general who was the twenty five U S National Security adviser for Donald Trump, did not say, no, we shouldn't have an armed military coup in the US. This is what he actually said when again, someone said should we have a military backed coup in the States like they had in Miama? Recently? Trump one, Hey won,

he won, he won the popular vote. He won the popular vote, and he won the other oral college volt and people think q and On is no longer a threat now. Mike Flynn later walked all of that back on social media, saying, no, I don't think there should be a coup, but they're in the fever pitch of the Q and on conference, hundreds of people there, they all paid a lot of money to get in, and they see this guy that they call the General and

he says Trump won, he won fair and square. When someone asks him if there should be a US military coup, it hardly screams, let's remain peaceful. Q Clearance is brought to you by iHeart Radio and Kudata Media. I'm Jake Hanrahan. You can find me online at Jake Underscore and Rahan that's h A N A h A N. You can get Q Clearance merch at dark washed dot net. This episode was produced by myself, with fact checking and additional

research by Sarah hit Out. The music is by Sound Black and the sound was mixed by Thomas Griffin at Splicing Block.