Aggrieved QAnoners Accuse Trump of Q-Baiting
The Trump administration launched a bizarre QAnon-themed social media campaign this week, using QAnon slogans like “trust the plan” and even a fake Q post to promote Trump executive orders on “quantum computing.”
“Where we go one, we go quantum,” one Department of Defense account posted on X, a clear play on the QAnon motto: “Where we go one, we go all.”
Why would the administration play footsy with QAnon? Perhaps they’re just stirring the pot? Maybe they feel like the QAnon brand is a little less toxic, since it’s been a while since Q believers murdered their family members, kidnapped a child, or stormed Congress? Maybe they’re true believers? After all, Trump has frequently posted QAnon memes in the past, albeit not this explicitly.
The most likely reason is that it’s a troll job—more about that later—but that’s not exactly why, the posts went over so poorly with the QAnon believers (in addition, it almost goes without saying, to normies). The movement, once convinced that Trump was a messianic figure who would literally bring about heaven on earth, apparently has gotten sick of him.
“We’re done being treated like shit!” wrote QAnon promoter Liz Crokin, saying Q believers’ lives had been destroyed while Trump did nothing.
There are several reasons why QAnon believers are turning on Trump. But the main thrust boils down to this: After trying to block the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and failing to deliver deep-state arrests, some of the movement’s dissatisfied stars think it’s a bit gauche, if not insulting, that the president and his team are appropriating QAnon culture.
No one has been more vocal about this than former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once the nation’s most prominent QAnon believer. After falling out with Trump in part because of his attempts to stop the release of the Epstein files—a key part of the QAnon mythos—Greene tore into the president in a video this week.
“Well, now they’re trying to throw out the Q-slop and propaganda to get you guys sucked back in!” Greene said.
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In fact, the “quantum” faction of QAnon is among its craziest—embraced by a man who went by the name “Baby Q,” the leader of an off-shoot QAnon sect that once set up a romance-filled compound in Arizona. Baby Q, who claimed to be a time traveler, later pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge and served time in jail.
No one better typifies the strange push-and-pull in Trump’s approach to QAnon than Bobby Levy, a rapid response director at the White House. Levy has been gleefully participating in the recent social media effort, posting “Activation Word: Ronald McDonald”—a QAnon catchphrase. On Wednesday, Levy wrote that “patriots are still in control,” yet another QAnon reference.
Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Man by Peter K. Andersson is the first full length study of William Somer’s life and posthumous myth
Andersson begins with posthumous myth, as found in the anonymous 1637 jest book A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers, for example. (The revised name was probably the work of Thomas Nashe for his 1592 play Summer’s Last Will and Testament, in which the ghost of ‘Will Summers’ comments on the action.) From there Andersson works backwards, circling the evidence until he arrives back at the man himself.
The approach has much to recommend it, not least because our idea of the fool is indelibly shaped by those in Shakespeare, and in particular the fool in King Lear. Shakespeare wrote that part for Robert Armin, who also originated the roles of Feste and Touchstone. Armin wasn’t merely an actor, however; his book Foole Upon Foole (1600) studied the lives and natures of six fools, Somer among them.
Will Sommer, political reporter for the Daily Beast, talks with Rachel Maddow about infighting among the celebrities of the QAnon delusion and what dangers may come with the fracturing of the movement. (Edited for length from the original broadcast.)
YouTube's Advertising Hellhole Urges People to Waste Money on Mystery Boxes
YouTube’s Advertising Hellhole Urges People to Waste Money on Mystery Boxes
Will Sommer for The Daily Beast:
Untold riches are promised on Mystery Brand, a website that sells prize-filled “mystery boxes.” If you buy one of the digital boxes, some of which cost hundreds of dollars, you might only get a fidget spinner—or you might get a luxury sports car.
For just $100, users can win a box filled with rare Supreme streetwear. For only $12.99, they can win a Lamborghini,…
He just took down director James Gunn. Now he's using a trollish rumor about a sex tape to go after journalists.
Luke O’Brien at Huffington Post:
Mike Cernovich was celebrating on Friday, at least for a few hours. Disney had just fired James Gunn, the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, over crude jokes about pedophilia and rape Gunn made on Twitter between 2008 to 2011.
Cernovich had mobilized his network to have the tweets show up in all corners of the internet ― and in Disney’s executive suite ― and he was rewarded when “James Gunn” shot to the top of Twitter’s national trending topics.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was up until 3 a.m.,” an exuberant Cernovich told HuffPost on Friday. “That’s a lot of real sick stuff.”
Cernovich had claimed a scalp. This was what the far-right propagandist lived for, these kamikaze moments. They kept him going. They got him high. They allowed him to cling to a dank relevancy, even as it slips through his fingers.
“I’ve been a very good boy since Pizzagate,” he said, as he watched Disney dispatch Gunn.
By now, it should come as no surprise that Cernovich, who played a key role in manipulating public opinion during the 2016 election, was involved in the campaign against Gunn. The far-right propagandist has been locked in an endless war against the mainstream media, and at the end of 2017, had warned his “enemies” that he planned to use their tweets against them. He would dig up “fireable tweets.”
It was a credible threat, especially for journalists — Cernovich’s favorite targets. In November, Cernovich bushwhacked MSNBC’s Sam Seder, distorting the context of an off-color Roman Polanski joke he’d tweeted almost a decade ago. Much like he did with Gunn, Cernovich smeared the podcast host as an enabler of pedophiles. Pedophilia is Cernovich’s favorite frame-up, and he gloated when clueless MSNBC executives briefly fired Seder.
In February, Cernovich set his crosshairs on a new target: Will Sommer, who was then the campaign editor for The Hill newspaper and covers the far-right in a weekly newsletter.
Sommer, who declined to comment for this story, had put up a tweet — nothing remotely fireable — that linked to a Medium post written by Nathan Bernard, a technologist and humorist who lampoons Cernovich and other fake news merchants online. In the post, Bernard claimed a “source” had told him of a sex tape featuring Cernovich.
In his tweet, Sommer also quoted from an email that Cernovich’s attorney, Marc Randazza, had sent Bernard:
“In the event that you are in possession of ... a sex tape starring Mr. Cernovich, I presume that it would be somewhat old material.”
Bernard didn’t reveal his source. There’s no good evidence the tape is real.
But linking to a Nathan Bernard post — any Nathan Bernard post — is a great way to make Cernovich angry. Over the last two years, Bernard and his close friend Vic Berger, a video producer and humorist at Super Deluxe who makes satirical videos of politicians and public figures, have waged a two-man campaign to annoy, infuriate and, they hope, ultimately stymie Cernovich and other bad actors.
“Satire with a purpose,” Bernard calls their work. (Bernard was roommates in the Bronx with rising progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and says she influenced his politics.)
Bernard and Berger write comedic takedowns of Cernovich and mock the propagandist in videos filled with amusing sound effects, uncomfortable close-ups and awkward slo-mo edits. In a Trumpian flourish, they have branded Cernovich “Weird Mike.” They are out-trolling the troll.
And the troll doesn’t like it.
So perhaps what happened the day after Sommer tweeted the link to Bernard’s post shouldn’t have been so surprising: Randazza, who represents multiple white supremacists such as Andrew Anglin and far-right slanderers such as Alex Jones, emailed a scathing three-page letter to Bob Cusack, the editor-in-chief of The Hill. In the letter, which HuffPost obtained a copy of, Randazza falsely accused Sommer of “soliciting revenge pornography,” “sexual harassment,” and having “an obsession [with Cernovich] bordering on stalking.”
He didn’t stop there. Randazza, who advertises himself as a staunch defender of the First Amendment, referenced the Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit that libertarian billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel secretly financed to drive Gawker out of business.
Thiel’s demolition of Gawker has had a chilling effect on press freedom in America, and the case is routinely and gleefully invoked by phony free speech “patriots” who share Cernovich’s agenda to cripple the media.
“Mr. Sommer’s moral bankruptcy should not lead to your financial bankruptcy,” Randazza, who refused to comment for this story, warned Cusack.
The message was clear: Shut up or else.
It wouldn’t be the last time Cernovich came after Sommer. And the journalist wasn’t his first target. Far from it.
The Ratfucker Cabal
To understand Cernovich’s war on the press — and his gripe with Bernard and Berger — requires a familiarity with the alt-lite, a group of nativist “Make America Great Again” propagandists and grifters who got their name because of their ideological proximity to the white nationalist “alt-right” movement.
Cernovich is a ringleader in the group, whose members include anti-Muslim Laura Loomer, British fascist and former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and Lucian Wintrich, a smarmy white supremacist-friendly correspondent for The Gateway Pundit, a far-right propaganda outlet. These dirty tricksters, several of whom have received press credentials from the Trump White House, all work to subvert the real media.
The alt-lite’s fake news ecosystem sprouted from the far-right fever swamp created by Fox News and a tireless effort by movement conservatives to demonize the media. But the new breed of alt-lite ratfucker is feral, with an ability to directly sway gullible minds through social media. Twitter and other social media platforms have abetted the rise of frauds, racists and fascists who spread lies and can easily form cybermobs. This is a worrisome development for the truth business.
One of the best ways to hurt journalists in the social media era, Cernovich knows, is to tar them online; to destroy their reputations. Too many news outlets exist in financial distress. Overworked journalists can be sidelined by harassment campaigns. And many media companies are now run by business-school graduates allergic to controversy and given over to a reflexive political correctness. One flip statement by a reporter on social media can cause lasting professional damage. All of which plays to the strengths of the alt-lite.
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“Don’t care re Polanski, but i hope if my daughter is ever raped it is by an older truly talented man w/ a great sense of mise en scene,” Seder wrote.
Eight years later, sans context, the tweet was irresistible for Cernovich. It combined his obsessions with the media and Hollywood — and child rape. And Seder was the perfect target after he’d recently brought Berger on his show to discuss Cernovich’s mudslinging.
On social media, Cernovich’s attack on Seder was boosted by figures from all corners of the alt-lite and MAGA world, including Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, along with two of Cernovich’s close collaborators ― Stefan Molyneux, a racist Canadian propagandist who has helped radicalize many young men to fascism, and Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, a far-right ethnonationalist crew whose members routinely engage in political violence.
Also telling: Around the time Cernovich’s Medium post went live, a “Majority Report” advertiser received a lawyerly email straight out of the Gamergate playbook. The sender warned about “reputational damage” to the advertiser’s brand because of Seder’s “horrific child rape comments” and promised to alert media outlets and an anti-sexual violence organization.
MSNBC caved and cut ties with Seder. After about a week and much outcry, the network hired him back. It was all very sad — the corporate patellar reflex triggered by a knock from political saboteurs, followed by media executives doing the right thing only after being shamed.
[...]
In June, Sommer took a new job, at The Daily Beast. He hasn’t mentioned Bernard’s sex tape claim again. As it turns out, though, the rumor wasn’t cut out of whole cloth, and Bernard’s source — whom I spoke to — was real, and someone I also know and trust.
The source, a writer who focuses on the far-right, explained to me that he’d been interviewing Cassandra Fairbanks, who is close to Cernovich, when Fairbanks mentioned that a female alt-lite propagandist had been gathering sexual blackmail — Snapchat messages, photos, possibly video — on various men in the scene, including “someone prominent in the movement who was married.” Fairbanks confirmed to HuffPost that this account was accurate.
Only a few people fit Fairbanks’ description. Cernovich was one of them. In the past, Cernovich has bragged about how he “cheated ruthlessly” on his first wife. In a 2011 blog post about “How to Avoid a False Rape Case,” he recommended secretly filming sexual encounters.
Still, there was no evidence of a sex tape. The rumor was secondhand scuttlebutt. A news outlet could have never run a story claiming a Cernovich sex tape existed. And most media outlets wouldn’t resort to using Berger and Bernard’s selective editing of videos, which can alter their context.
But the two don’t feel bad. In their minds, they’re just giving Cernovich a chemically salty taste of his own medicine.
Illustrations for Will Sommer’s cover story in the new Washington City Paper! I drew the cover, which was fun, and a first for me. Thanks to those folks for the opportunity! Below I have some fun process stuff: process sketches and some visual inspiration for the cover.
