The Storm Is upon Us

How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything

By: Mike Rothschild

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Its messaging can seem cryptic, even nonsensical, yet for tens of thousands of people, it explains everything: What is QAnon, where did it come from, and is the Capitol insurgency a sign of where it’s going next?

On October 5, 2017, President Trump made a cryptic remark in the State Dining Room at a gathering of military officials. He said it felt like “the calm before the storm” - then refused to elaborate as puzzled journalists asked him to explain. But on the infamous message boards of 4chan, a mysterious poster going by “Q Clearance Patriot”, who claimed to be in “military intelligence”, began the elaboration on their own.

In the days that followed, Q’s wild yarn explaining Trump’s remarks began to rival the sinister intricacies of a Tom Clancy novel, while satisfying the deepest desires of MAGA-America. But did any of what Q predicted come to pass? No. Did that stop people from clinging to every word they were reading, expanding its mythology, and promoting it wider and wider? No.

Why not? Who were these rapt listeners? How do they reconcile their world view with the America they see around them? Why do their numbers keep growing?

Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, has been collecting their stories for years, and through interviews with QAnon converts, apostates, and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics, he is uniquely equipped to explain the movement and its followers.

In The Storm Is upon Us, he takes listeners from the background conspiracies and cults that fed the Q phenomenon, to its embrace by right-wing media and Donald Trump, through the rending of families as loved ones became addicted to Q’s increasingly violent rhetoric, to the storming of the Capitol, and on.

And as the phenomenon shows no sign of calming, despite Trump’s loss of the presidency - with everyone from Baby Boomers to Millennial moms proving susceptible to its messaging - and politicians starting to openly espouse its ideology, Rothschild makes a compelling case that mocking the seeming madness of QAnon will get us nowhere. Rather, his impassioned reportage makes clear that it’s time to figure out what QAnon really is - because QAnon and its relentlessly dark theory of everything isn’t done yet.

©2021 Mike Rothschild (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Great book, lousy narrator

Good book but unfortunate choice for narrator. Joe Barrett doesn't even sound like his other books, his voice is both higher and more raspy. He sounds like an old character actor cold-reading a script that he's never seen before. The real shame is that I've heard the actual author on podcasts and he has a great voice, he would have done a much better job himself. Still, excellent book if you want to understand the weirdest and scariest social movement around.

Demystifies QANON with Empathy and Reason

Loved the book and reader's performance was easy to get used to. Excellently written. Offers an introduction to intermediate level understanding of Q and qanon, the "deep state," nesara/gesara, Iraqi Dinar scam, and other similar grifts. Thank you Mike Rothschild!

for the uninitiated

Thorough and entertaining, given the 6th, everyone should understand more what this movement/cult/ideology is...

great job! lays it all out.

should have been read by the author

I just heard an interview with the author on a podcast (cognitive dissonance) and he was so interesting and so well spoken that it made me come buy the audiobook. The book is great but I don't love the narrator, I definitely would have preferred this to be read by the author, or at least by someone with a voice that better reflects the author.

Actual Patriots should read this book

Make no mistake, Q is not a patriot, and he doesn't care about America. We're in jeopardy of losing our republic, either to breakup or authoritarian barbarians.