Really don't know why I'm wading into this mess after this long, but let me tell you about how predicting the future works. This is going to be a super long mega thread:

It's easy. Human beings are hardwired to look for connections in everything, it's how we evolved to learn.

Like if you're some hunter gatherer you can probably realize pretty easily that a certain time of day is the best time to hunt, because you've had better luck hunting at that time of day before. But it's also really easy for humans to get carried away with those connections.

It's how superstitions form. Like if you tap on a tree a couple of times before you go hunting & you do really well on those days, that's logically just coincidence, but the human brain still sees a connection between those two events, & becomes convinced that the tree is lucky.

Do that enough and you get entire religious practices centered around the tapping of a sacred tree, thinking it will bless you with bountiful hunting.

This is also where confirmation bias comes in. People start with pre-existing beliefs and look for evidence which fits them.

This is why astrology, dream interpretation and personality tests are such a big thing. Lets take horoscopes for instance. Apparently, I'm a Taurus , and the first horoscope site I found told me that my strengths are "Progressive, original, humanitarian, independent."

My weaknesses are: "Runs from emotional expression, uncompromising, temperamental, aloof." I won't deny, at first, those words sound pretty accurate, (I'm a center-left-liberal, that's also more than a bit of an introvert, that's Progressive, Humanitarian, and Aloof right there).

But that's largely b/c it says a lot of good things about me, even in the weaknesses. Everyone thinks they're bad at expressing their emotions, but it certainly left out other less attractive weaknesses, since no one wants to look up their horoscope & be told that they're awful.

The strengths are blatant in how they capture as many people under an umbrella; Name me a person who doesn't think they're "original" or "independent." People love these things, b/c they see a few words that they identify with themselves, ignoring the rest that aren't applicable.

And thus we come to predictions about the future. Now the great thing for the people that write these, such as the original guy who everyone thought predicted every major event, Nostradamus. Is that they're never actually forced to spell things out plainly.

For years oracles dressed it all up in some mysticism, "The Reversed Temperance besides the Seven of Wands while Mars is ascendant." I literally just pulled all that out of my a**, looked up what it supposedly means in tarot and astrology and can tell you that I just predicted:

Trump bombing Syria the same weekend of the Comey Book being released. (Mars symbolizes War, Reversed Temperance is disharmony, and Seven of Wands represents standing your ground despite challenges to your authority).

But I could also tell you that it predicted you getting into a fight with your spouse because you refused to admit you were wrong, or whatever else I want to spin it depending on what happened.

What #QAnon is doing is essentially the modern day version of this trick. Rather than just saying something straight, he just says a few cryptic things (because he can't just say the truth without letting 'them' know who he is) & leaves other people to draw their own conclusions.

These people are already invested to look for some connection that satisfies their own beliefs (namely Trump good, Liberals bad) much like a horoscope fan connects random crap people decided represented their zodiac sign with their own personality.

Mix that all in with some confirmation bias & the daily updates of the fast-paced news media world, & people have enough "crumbs" to lead them to "treasure troves" of predicted "secrets" having been leaked. They'll overshadow all the BS predictions with the supposedly "true" ones

Somebody please take away bath salts or whatever folks like this are on. Good god! https://getpocket.com/@8b8p6T17AtTi9d3636g8dhuga8d2Ayj13d7aa2W0g1X1c6J898e36of6Udiaf1a7/share/3641732