What if I told you that everything was one big joke? Would you believe me if I said, horny dudes, with fetishes for Asian women created platforms for Nazi’s, who would eventually trick evangelical Christians and other highly impressionable groups, into thinking they were internet crusaders fighting against a Satanic cabal of elite children-adrenaline-dosing Globalists? I take no pleasure in telling you this. But this is the truth, and as news about the true identity of the man or possibly men behind QAnon comes to light, there really is no simpler way to put it. You’ve been had, even if you haven’t.

When Fredrick Brennan created 8chan in 2013, he never thought it would become the site that it is today. At the time 8chan was one of hundreds of copycat sites, serving the need of anon’s online, who wanted to talk about whatever they felt like, in a space that wouldn’t regulate their discussions. It’s important to note that QAnon is not some stand alone conspiracy theory, that came out of no-where. Brennan in his interview with KnowYourMeme, pinpoints the moment 8chan really made a name for itself. It was 2014, and the small 100-post-a-day image board, exploded into a 7,000-posts-an-hour board in a single day. The catalyst was GamerGate, an event which expelled thousands of anon’s from 4chan for breaking the rules of ‘brigading’, ie partaking in irl harassment. 8chan became an overnight sensation and hub for some of the internet’s more active Nazis.

In a recent interview with KnowYourMeme, 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan, provides a credible timeline into the evolution behind QAnon and insight into who he believes currently operates and controls Q’s drops. Brennan explains how QAnon started on 4chan and was later banned, before then showing up on 8Chan, which is where Q has posted exclusively since 2018. Brennan explains how QAnon originally started out as a 4chan troll, but was eventually stolen by Jim Watkins, the now owner and operator of 8chan.

Brennan is uniquely positioned to make this claim, as he worked for Jim Watkins for a number of years and is himself the creator of 8chan. Read Brenna’s full KnowYourMeme interview for a deeper understanding into his relationship with Jim Watkins, his inspiration for 8chan, and some wild tidbits about him escaping capture in the Philippine’s.

One of the first QAnon post to appear on 4chan in 2017, was labeled ‘Bread Crumbs - Q Clearance Patriot’. The post consisted of a list of ambiguous questions and statements surrounding Trump, his Presidency, General Flynn and other topical Trump news mentions. The original poster claimed to be a high ranking official in the US government, who had access to classified information proving the deep-state was secretly obstructing Trump behind closed doors.

In the months following QAnon’s ban from 4chan, a struggle for the control of Q was secretly being waged behind the scenes. It safe to say what we know is at best, an educated guess, and at worse the best take out there, about who controls Q. But according to Brennan when Q was banned on 4chan, it was quickly moved to 8chan by either Jim Watkins, his son Ron, or Paul Ferber, a 8chan mod. Brennan further elaborates that it may have been Paul Furber who originally brought Q to 8chan, but it would be Jim Watkins or his son Ron who maintain control. Brennan sites the security system he built when he made 8chan, and how only someone with direct control of the site would be able to maintain consistent and secure QAnon drops. Also, Paul Furber posted public on Twitter around the time Q was taken away from him, according to Brenna’s timeline of events.

So could it be true? Could Jim Watkins, owner of both 8chan and 2channel whose Wikipedia Bio notes, “founded the company N.T. Technology in the 1990s to support a Japanese pornography website he created while he was enlisted in the United States Army” actually be the man behind QAnon? Or at least the man currently in control? Fredrick Brennan says yes, and he seems to have the best evidence out there to argue it.

Brennan has reflected on if he made the right decision allowing 8chan users to post as they wished, a decision that prompted him to leave the site in 2016 and later advoctae for its removal in 2018, after the Christchurch shooting where shared on the imageboard he created.

The first mistake we make when talking about groups like QAnon, is we pretend they are products of “niche” online communities on the edge of what is excepted by the “mainstream”. The obvious answer to, “how do ideas like QAnon become so popular” is that places like 4chan and 8chan, and the ideas shared on them, once thought of as ‘radical secluded communities’ are in reality some of the most active and dedicated communities anywhere on the internet.