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There's a long series of conspiracy theories that basically amount to the country being governed by secret putifile rings. You're listening to War College, a weekly podcast that brings you the stories from behind the front lines. Here are your hosts, Matthew Gault and Jason Fields.

Hello, welcome to War College. I'm Matthew Gault. And I'm Jason Field. Conspiracy theories are as old as the Republic, but the latest one seems stranger and more elaborate than most.

QAnon is the internet-driven conspiracy theory that supposes Donald Trump is waging a

shadow war against satanic pedophiles from inside the White House.

And that's the simple version.

It seems ridiculous on its face, but QAnon has a loyal following, and they've actually been

spotted at Trump rallies holding up Q signs.

Recently, Q and on proponent Michael Lionel LeBron visited the White House and even took a

picture with Donald Trump. Here to help us sort through all of this is Jesse Walker. Walker is the books

editor at Reason magazine and the author of the United States of Paranoia, a

conspiracy theory, a book about the history of American conspiracy theories.

Jesse, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, thank you for inviting me on.

So, I ask my first question is, is Q&on really anything new?

QAnon itself is sort of the latest and maybe most elaborate remixed version of a bunch of older stories and in fact the way it's

set up the the open-endedness of it has really encouraged the remixing I mean all conspiracy theories people build on them, adapt them,

you know jettison a bit, add some more, maybe radically revise them if someone encounters

...