I’m sure most people will have heard of QAnon by now - the anonymously named Q who posts online about shadowy organisations, and talks about how president Trump is fighting dark forces in the US. QAnon tends to use lots of code names and obscure references, including the oft used acronym as the title of this section - it means Where We Go 1, We Go All. Here are a couple of examples of QAnon messages:

@Snowden Twitter rec 24D. Bravo-2gKVT. [24]RR

Why is Hussein traveling the globe? $$$,$$$,$$$ Acct # xx-XXXxx-x-39670 Acct # XXXxx-XXXx-2391 Where did the MONEY come from? How do you destroy the most POWERFUL country in the world? Direct attack? Covert OP by [CLAS-59#241-Q] to infiltrate at highest level to destroy from within? Think GAME. Who are the PLAYERS? What are the REWARDS? AMERICA FOR SALE. PATRIOTS in FULL CONTROL. We will make more public. SA was strategic. "We know" "Do as we say or face consequences" These people are stupid!

Early on in the Q timeline, an IT security analyst performed an analysis of the codes Q uses, and found that they were consistent with someone just alternating tapping keys on the left and right sides of the keyboard, much as someone would do if they were just trying to type in random text. QAnon’s ramblings remind me of the writing of Nostradamus - obscure and vague enough that readers are left to join the dots themselves, and make their own narrative out of the mess he writes.

However the influence of Q’s rabbit hole shouldn’t be underestimated - it’s even reached our fair shores, with a conspiracy involving the trafficking of children, a secret Antarctic base, adrenochrome (opens new window) and several yachts (opens new window) docked in the Viaduct in Auckland. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a firm believer in the QAnon conspiracy, won the nomination (opens new window) for Georgia's 14th congressional district - so as of January there will be a QAnon believing conspiracy theorist in American politics (although Trump has at least flirted with the idea that QAnon is real, refusing to disavow (opens new window) the theory).

Weirdly, and thankfully, since election day in the US QAnon has gone quiet (opens new window) on the internet. We can only hope that this is the end of Q, although it’s early days yet and I suspect we’ll be hearing from them again. It would not surprise me to see Q, whoever they may be, try to foment unrest among Trump supporters who are unhappy with the election result.