This is an excellent, well-crafted documentary series, and a fascinating insight into the QAnon phenomenon but, above all, it is an important warning to us all. Some reviews on here have complained about the length but, like so much of the story, the truth is in the details so it needed a full 6 hrs to tease them all out in chronological order.
That so many people were so easily conned by QAnon is not new news - history is full of similar examples of mass manipulation. That we no longer live in the time of Joseph Smith makes no difference at all when the world is still populated by so many gullible people - the game remains the same. The difference now, of course, is the wide reach of the internet, and a world where a hybrid of Cousin Eddie Johnson and Ron Jeremy with all the charisma of a bus driver's sock, and his wapanese son, get to yank the chain of millions of idiots in the USA.
The real hero of the series is Fredrick Brennan. He made a few mistakes along the way, but get the feeling things will yet pan out for him. It's just a shame that he wasted his time trying to get Jim kicked out of The Philippines when attempting to have Ron deported from Japan would have been a more sensible option - the Japanese government generally don't take kindly to guest residents taking advantage of their hospitality and waste little time in deporting undesirables, especially if their presence makes them look bad.
It is usual under such circumstances to hate the scammers and have sympathy with the scammed. But ignorance these days walks hand in hand with arrogance, so it is difficult to feel sorry for either of them. The documentary illustrates perfectly how, even in the 21st century, pride still comes before a fall.
And, of course, the irony is not lost in the ongoing free speech debate that it is precisely because of half-wits such as these that we are forced to have laws in the first place.
That so many people were so easily conned by QAnon is not new news - history is full of similar examples of mass manipulation. That we no longer live in the time of Joseph Smith makes no difference at all when the world is still populated by so many gullible people - the game remains the same. The difference now, of course, is the wide reach of the internet, and a world where a hybrid of Cousin Eddie Johnson and Ron Jeremy with all the charisma of a bus driver's sock, and his wapanese son, get to yank the chain of millions of idiots in the USA.
The real hero of the series is Fredrick Brennan. He made a few mistakes along the way, but get the feeling things will yet pan out for him. It's just a shame that he wasted his time trying to get Jim kicked out of The Philippines when attempting to have Ron deported from Japan would have been a more sensible option - the Japanese government generally don't take kindly to guest residents taking advantage of their hospitality and waste little time in deporting undesirables, especially if their presence makes them look bad.
It is usual under such circumstances to hate the scammers and have sympathy with the scammed. But ignorance these days walks hand in hand with arrogance, so it is difficult to feel sorry for either of them. The documentary illustrates perfectly how, even in the 21st century, pride still comes before a fall.
And, of course, the irony is not lost in the ongoing free speech debate that it is precisely because of half-wits such as these that we are forced to have laws in the first place.