Their claims were incredible: that a man named Thomas Schoenberger had taken over Cicada 3301 by 2014 and that he had later set up the Q phenomena. Further, Schoenberger was linked to a slew of former US intelligence officers. They included
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) members
William Binney (ex-NSA) and Robert David Steele (ex-CIA). Even more curious are his supposed to ties to General
Michael T. Flynn, the former head of the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Trump's first
National Security Advisor. Of course, Flynn served in the latter capacity for less than a month before he was forced to resign in the midst of the scandal. His subsequent legal odyssey could fill an entire blog alone.
|
General Michael T. Flynn |
But how credible is all of this? Both Cicada 3301 and QAnon are described as "
alternate reality games" (ARG) in these accounts. When exactly ARGs first emerged is a matter of some dispute, but they are generally believed to be an outgrowth of the 1980s counterculture, and specifically that of the Bay area. Early influences include
Discordianism, the
Church of the SubGenius, and
chaos magic.
Operation Mindfuck would be one of the most obvious predecessors. 1988 witnessed the launch of
Ong's Hat, the first proper ARG, and a product
of the previously mentioned subculture.
While little acknowledged, ARGs constitute a vibrant subculture in their own right. It all seems terribly clever and as with most clever things, the multinationals were drawn like moths to a flame. Sought after game designers are now frequently used in marketing campaigns for films, TV shows, and the like. In more recent years, it also appears intelligence communities got in on the act. In 2013,
Wired (which grew out of the same 1980s counterculture milieu)
reported that the
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) had begun studying ARGs as a meanings of enabling the Pentagon to better understand human psychology and social behavior. The project was dubbed "Using Alternate Reality Environments to Help Enrich Research Efforts," or
UAREHERE.