Item 4 – Facebook Post
Collected From: Facebook
Date Posted: April 25, 2021
Original Poster: Chase Matthews
Collector: Alex Hunt
Analysis of Texture
This is a series of images beginning with a post from Chase Matthews, where he uploaded what appears to be a screenshot of a Q post to his Facebook page. He then captioned this post by mentioning that this is an older post (from three years ago), quoted Q, and added his own message to his audience. It is an image upload, but this ‘image’ only contains text with no visual stimuli. Similar to Q’s initial post, it is essentially a series of ambiguous question and statements. Instead of conveying an actual message, it relies on a number of buzz words that inspire the appearance of coherent thoughts without truly getting any concrete point across. It is
posted with a sincere tone, attempting to implement confidence and assurance into other QAnon members. I also included a snippet of the comments section that was found below the initial post, as it included a number of reassuring statements from other members. Commenters are shown expressing a common theme of anticipation, as they seem to be implying that a big event is approaching. There is an image of the notorious “Q” symbol, but it is shown now with an American flag texture instead of the more infamous flame design. This image repeats the communal phrase of this group, “When we go one, we go all,” acting as a continuation of the many variations of this phrase that have been digitally rendered previously.
Context
This is a common Facebook post that could pop up on anyone’s timeline (main home page of Facebook), but I believe it is more prevalent in the timelines of those that follow Matthews. Though it is posted on Matthews’ own Facebook account, it is visible to anyone who wishes to glance at it. It is capable of being shared to platforms, and, looking at the bottom of the caption, one can see that it has been shared 202 times. One can infer that this means this image has been seen by a fairly large amount of people, though many of these individuals are most likely QAnon members. My method of finding this specific post came from searching for QAnon memes, where I stumbled upon a New York Times article that dawned a woman named Valerie Gilbert the QAnon “meme queen” (Roose, 2021). She had shared his original post to her own followers, though it seemed to be more popular on Matthews’ page. Those commenting probably do not know Matthews personally, as I assume that they are simply members of QAnon themselves. Matthews has 395 followers and seems to only post alt-right content, most of which are memes or text uploads.
Interpretation
I believe this is specifically important to folklorists because it provides a great look into how members of the QAnon community interact with one another, and the context in which it was post involves an element of performance. Looking through the comments section under any meme or post online is bound to yield some amount of communal interaction, but it seems as though comments under QAnon-related content are almost always the same. The members who comment cling to their hope that this debunked belief system might still hold some truth, so they latch onto the comforting “When we go one, we go all” phrase in order to feel less alone in their opinions. It allows those in the group to experience a sense of togetherness without even meeting each other, bonded by their shared views of the world. There is also a repeated sense of anticipation, as their belief system has caused them to assume that there is a cataclysmic event approaching. They consistently communicate a feeling of panicked preparation mixed with giddy anticipation. There exists a performative element in the way Matthews posts as well, being that he has acquired a bit of a following since the birth of his account. His 395 followers act as an asynchronous audience, waiting for him to make a new post for their own enjoyment. He consistently performs, as a scroll through his page showed me that he routinely posts memes almost every day to the delight of other members. Like Q’s initial post, there is an element of call-and-response that is apparent in the barrage of questions that inhabit almost every quote from Q. This further encourages participation, maintaining an element of performer-audience formality while simultaneously establishing a sense of communal equality.