Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory certainly don’t find it difficult to connect non-existent dots and see patterns that accord remarkably with their innermost political desires. From President Trump using the number 17 as a nod and a wink that he is everything they think he is (Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet), to servicemen having ‘TQ’ on their clothing allegedly to denote their support for Trump and Q, there’s no end to the apophenia.
One of the latest delusions has been the importance of the 10th of October as a date of significance – perhaps the moment when Trump would finally arrest and execute all of his Democrat opposition – due to a post from ‘Q’ last month with an image of a Mickey Mouse watch showing the time 10:10 (from which QAnons inferred they were suggesting 10/10 would be a significant date).
And just to prove that this sort of crazy conspiracy thinking sucks us all down the rabbit hole, Raw Story yesterday posted an article with a counter-conspiracy, asking if press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was dog-whistling to the QAnon faithful because recent video interviews with her have featured a clock in the background showing the time 10:10.
With 10th October now having passed, and still no Democrats hanging from hastily erected gallows in Washington D.C., QAnons are now dealing with yet another failed prophecy – not by coming to their senses of course, but by looking for other possible meanings.
But what about the clocks? The answer is in all likelihood a very mundane one, sure to disappoint both QAnons and ‘counter-QAnon’ conspiracies such as suggested by Raw Story: clocks are often set to 10:10 at the factory and in promotional photos, for aesthetic reasons (hands are separated, symmetrical, not in the way of the maker’s logo which is normally in the bottom half of the clock face – and also, apparently, because the hands reflect the shape of a smile).
So if someone like ‘Q’ finds a random photo online to post, it’s likely going to show 10:10. If someone like Kayleigh McEnany sets up a little ‘video interview set’ with furnishings at home, and puts a newly bought clock in there without adding batteries, it’s likely going to show 10:10.
Or maybe the Storm is just going to happen on 10th of October 2021…
