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Operation Mindfuck
“Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential.”
—Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen
Mind control. Satanic rituals. Unspeakable sexual perversions. Supervillains eating children’s brains. A divine mandate to keep Donald Trump in the White House, no matter what.
This surreal combination of horror-movie shocks and fascist marching orders is the signature of QAnon, which emerged from the dark corners of the internet in 2017 and soon became the galvanizing force behind Trump supporters, both during Trump’s presidency and in the volatile, ongoing aftermath of the 2020 election. But despite the strange pervasiveness of QAnon, its origins remain obscure. Who is behind QAnon’s messaging, and what do they want? And why do they pair their extreme political agenda with such obviously made-up, phantasmagorical beliefs?
In Operation Mindfuck, Robert Guffey argues that this is not as mysterious as QAnon’s anonymous “drops” of cryptic directives seem to be. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of conspiracy theories and mixing deep-dive research, political analysis, and firsthand notes from QAnon’s underbelly, Guffey insists that we’ve seen it all before.
Unraveling QAnon’s patchwork quilt of recycled material, from pulp-fiction spook stories to Hunter S. Thompson-style pranksterism to Nixon-esque dirty tricks, Guffey diagnoses QAnon as a highly engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lock-step loyalty of its audience. Will its followers ever realize that they’ve been had? Can this new American religion be dispelled as a cult like any other? The answers, Operation Mindfuck reveals, are hidden in plain sight.
—Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen
Mind control. Satanic rituals. Unspeakable sexual perversions. Supervillains eating children’s brains. A divine mandate to keep Donald Trump in the White House, no matter what.
This surreal combination of horror-movie shocks and fascist marching orders is the signature of QAnon, which emerged from the dark corners of the internet in 2017 and soon became the galvanizing force behind Trump supporters, both during Trump’s presidency and in the volatile, ongoing aftermath of the 2020 election. But despite the strange pervasiveness of QAnon, its origins remain obscure. Who is behind QAnon’s messaging, and what do they want? And why do they pair their extreme political agenda with such obviously made-up, phantasmagorical beliefs?
In Operation Mindfuck, Robert Guffey argues that this is not as mysterious as QAnon’s anonymous “drops” of cryptic directives seem to be. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of conspiracy theories and mixing deep-dive research, political analysis, and firsthand notes from QAnon’s underbelly, Guffey insists that we’ve seen it all before.
Unraveling QAnon’s patchwork quilt of recycled material, from pulp-fiction spook stories to Hunter S. Thompson-style pranksterism to Nixon-esque dirty tricks, Guffey diagnoses QAnon as a highly engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lock-step loyalty of its audience. Will its followers ever realize that they’ve been had? Can this new American religion be dispelled as a cult like any other? The answers, Operation Mindfuck reveals, are hidden in plain sight.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
22 people are currently reading
303 people want to read
About the author
Robert Guffey
39 books34 followersRobert Guffey is the author of Chameleo a lecturer in the Department of English at California State University – Long Beach. A graduate of the famed Clarion Writers Workshop in Seattle, he is the author of a collection of novellas entitled Spies & Saucers (PS Publishing, 2014). His first book of nonfiction, Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form, was published in 2012. He’s written stories and articles for numerous magazines and anthologies, among them Fortean Times, Mysteries, Nameless Magazine, New Dawn, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Paranoia, The Third Alternative, and Video Watchdog Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 13, 2023
It was my daughter, a woman in her early twenties, that explained QAnon to me. When she was done, I watched her face for signs that I was being played. Nope. I repeated it back to her, because surely nobody would be dumb enough to believe anything so far-fetched. Instead, she told me that this is it, and that a number of U.S. senators and other highly placed politicos swear it is all true.
My thanks go to the author for the review copy.
If you are still dazed from this business, then Robert Guffey has written a book just for you. In readable yet well researched fashion, he lays it all out: where it began, who, why, how. He can’t make it go away for you—or me, for that matter—but he can make the whole bizarre business a bit less confusing.
As with most nonfiction, this book has its limitations. It won’t persuade anyone that believes in this myth, and Guffey doesn’t try. And he doesn’t have a plan or a recommended way forward out of this morass. But sometimes it helps to pull a thing out of the attic, dust it off and see what it actually is, and he does a fine job of that. The tone is congenial, and at times, darkly funny.
One thing I appreciate is his view on censorship:
"These days, the inability to deal with reality as it exists—and not as one wishes it to exist—is the biggest challenge facing the right and the left. The reaction to QANON, pre-insurrection, is the perfect example of this trend toward puritanical solipsism. The attitude seems to be: If we block out (or “deplatform”) people with whom we disagree, then the Evil Nasty Ones will magically—poof!—disappear simply because we can’t see or hear them anymore. Like tossing a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West or running a lightsaber through some cloaked asshole at the end of a Star Wars film. I hate to break it to you, kids, but that’s not the way the real world works.”
Sometimes it helps to have basic information, and if that’s what you’re looking for, this book is what you need. Get your fire lit, your cup of coffee (or something far stronger,) curl up (in fetal position, if necessary,) and prepare to learn.
My thanks go to the author for the review copy.
If you are still dazed from this business, then Robert Guffey has written a book just for you. In readable yet well researched fashion, he lays it all out: where it began, who, why, how. He can’t make it go away for you—or me, for that matter—but he can make the whole bizarre business a bit less confusing.
As with most nonfiction, this book has its limitations. It won’t persuade anyone that believes in this myth, and Guffey doesn’t try. And he doesn’t have a plan or a recommended way forward out of this morass. But sometimes it helps to pull a thing out of the attic, dust it off and see what it actually is, and he does a fine job of that. The tone is congenial, and at times, darkly funny.
One thing I appreciate is his view on censorship:
"These days, the inability to deal with reality as it exists—and not as one wishes it to exist—is the biggest challenge facing the right and the left. The reaction to QANON, pre-insurrection, is the perfect example of this trend toward puritanical solipsism. The attitude seems to be: If we block out (or “deplatform”) people with whom we disagree, then the Evil Nasty Ones will magically—poof!—disappear simply because we can’t see or hear them anymore. Like tossing a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West or running a lightsaber through some cloaked asshole at the end of a Star Wars film. I hate to break it to you, kids, but that’s not the way the real world works.”
Sometimes it helps to have basic information, and if that’s what you’re looking for, this book is what you need. Get your fire lit, your cup of coffee (or something far stronger,) curl up (in fetal position, if necessary,) and prepare to learn.
January 6, 2023
I bought this book hoping it would explore how sixties pranks like Discordianism got Co-opted into Q, and I got that for about ten pages. The rest of this book was mostly transcripts of qtubers, the author talking about his other books, and the author proclaiming the idiocy of anyone who fell for Q. I’m sure this guy is very smart but it seems like he missed the point.
May 17, 2023
Missed opportunity to have done something very interesting indeed.
July 8, 2022
Don’t think they’re gone.
They’re not.
QAnon’s rants still fester on the internet much like the sores of monkey pox, virulent and contagious. It steals your children … or your mother, your sister, your friend … into its cult-like grasp. And many of these people will never come back.
In many ways, the followers of Q are like the Nazi storm troopers of the 1930s. They are anti-Jewish and they still believe in tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But QAnon has been rebranded in strange ways in the 21st Century. QAnon believers think Donald Trump will rescue the world from an underground Satanic cabal of baby eaters. And, of course, Trump has done nothing to disabuse them of the notion. Hitler would approve.
You will remember that the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. was a front for this cabal. According to QAnon, Adrenochrome, a chemical being harvested by liberal elites from the blood of kidnapped children, offers immortality to those who take it. According to the followers of PizzaGate, Hollywood actors and famous singers apparently laid around in subterranean dens under the pizza place torturing children for this chemical. One QAnon follower showed up and loaded the place with bullets. So much for saving the children.
Let’s not deny it. There is a child trafficking problem in the United States. But, according to Robert Guffey in Operation Mindfuck, instead of finding ways to prevent child trafficking, QAnon spends its time “searching for Illuminati symbols hidden in the décor of celebrities they dislike.”
Pushing the problem to the fringes does nothing to stop it. And neither has Donald Trump. Once you realize that Q is the 45th letter of the alphabet, it all starts to make sense. QAnon seems to be Trump’s personal cult. Obviously, Q equates liberal Democrats with Satanists across the board. Here’s one for the record: “Fema camps are good, because we won’t be in them. It’ll just be the Democrats!” These are the people who believe one hundred percent that the left wing cabal (Hillary, George Soros, et al) rigged the election for Joe Biden. Guffey writes: “If the “cabal” had the capability to rig the election in 2020, why didn’t they rig the election for Hillary in 2016?”
QAnon uses stock wingnut Christian conspiracy bullshit like the Shaver Mysteries (underground caverns full of devils) on repeat. Ideas like these are not new. I can tell you I’ve read it all before. But this time it’s got a new buff on it. For some people, reality is ripping apart at the seams.
The author of a five-part Salon series on QAnon, Robert Guffey has studied the Cult of Q in microscale. As it says on his book jacket, QAnon is a “highly-engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lockstep loyalty of its audience.” It is highly fabricated mind control.
Who is Q? Who wrote this junk? According to Guffey, QAnon’s sources are tied to a group of 800 military intel specialists who advised President Trump when he was in office. Trump famously distrusted the CIA, DIA or any intelligence arm of the U.S. government. Instead, he formed policy decisions based on intelligence from this group.
In Chapter 8 (Mind War), Guffey starts to sink his back molars into the pizza crust. In Q’s popular video, Out of the Shadows, QAnon quotes a 1980 military psy-ops paper called “From Psyop to Mind War,” written by Maj Gen Paul Valley. This paper was later exposed as being co-written by Lt Col Michael Aquino, the head of the Temple of Set (previously a high-ranking member of Anton Lavey’s Church of Satan), who specializes in using Satanist techniques in psychological operations against domestic populations. Yet, Q uses much the same techniques.
Robert Guffey is a seasoned conspiracy writer who writes with cool flair and deep background knowledge on this Discordian-style hijinks. This is a highly-recommended book for your bookshelf—a wild romp into a real-life psy-ops campaign that went on right before your eyes during the Trump presidency.
They’re not.
QAnon’s rants still fester on the internet much like the sores of monkey pox, virulent and contagious. It steals your children … or your mother, your sister, your friend … into its cult-like grasp. And many of these people will never come back.
In many ways, the followers of Q are like the Nazi storm troopers of the 1930s. They are anti-Jewish and they still believe in tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But QAnon has been rebranded in strange ways in the 21st Century. QAnon believers think Donald Trump will rescue the world from an underground Satanic cabal of baby eaters. And, of course, Trump has done nothing to disabuse them of the notion. Hitler would approve.
You will remember that the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. was a front for this cabal. According to QAnon, Adrenochrome, a chemical being harvested by liberal elites from the blood of kidnapped children, offers immortality to those who take it. According to the followers of PizzaGate, Hollywood actors and famous singers apparently laid around in subterranean dens under the pizza place torturing children for this chemical. One QAnon follower showed up and loaded the place with bullets. So much for saving the children.
Let’s not deny it. There is a child trafficking problem in the United States. But, according to Robert Guffey in Operation Mindfuck, instead of finding ways to prevent child trafficking, QAnon spends its time “searching for Illuminati symbols hidden in the décor of celebrities they dislike.”
Pushing the problem to the fringes does nothing to stop it. And neither has Donald Trump. Once you realize that Q is the 45th letter of the alphabet, it all starts to make sense. QAnon seems to be Trump’s personal cult. Obviously, Q equates liberal Democrats with Satanists across the board. Here’s one for the record: “Fema camps are good, because we won’t be in them. It’ll just be the Democrats!” These are the people who believe one hundred percent that the left wing cabal (Hillary, George Soros, et al) rigged the election for Joe Biden. Guffey writes: “If the “cabal” had the capability to rig the election in 2020, why didn’t they rig the election for Hillary in 2016?”
QAnon uses stock wingnut Christian conspiracy bullshit like the Shaver Mysteries (underground caverns full of devils) on repeat. Ideas like these are not new. I can tell you I’ve read it all before. But this time it’s got a new buff on it. For some people, reality is ripping apart at the seams.
The author of a five-part Salon series on QAnon, Robert Guffey has studied the Cult of Q in microscale. As it says on his book jacket, QAnon is a “highly-engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lockstep loyalty of its audience.” It is highly fabricated mind control.
Who is Q? Who wrote this junk? According to Guffey, QAnon’s sources are tied to a group of 800 military intel specialists who advised President Trump when he was in office. Trump famously distrusted the CIA, DIA or any intelligence arm of the U.S. government. Instead, he formed policy decisions based on intelligence from this group.
In Chapter 8 (Mind War), Guffey starts to sink his back molars into the pizza crust. In Q’s popular video, Out of the Shadows, QAnon quotes a 1980 military psy-ops paper called “From Psyop to Mind War,” written by Maj Gen Paul Valley. This paper was later exposed as being co-written by Lt Col Michael Aquino, the head of the Temple of Set (previously a high-ranking member of Anton Lavey’s Church of Satan), who specializes in using Satanist techniques in psychological operations against domestic populations. Yet, Q uses much the same techniques.
Robert Guffey is a seasoned conspiracy writer who writes with cool flair and deep background knowledge on this Discordian-style hijinks. This is a highly-recommended book for your bookshelf—a wild romp into a real-life psy-ops campaign that went on right before your eyes during the Trump presidency.
July 4, 2023
WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 1449 - The United States of Conspiracy w/ Robert Guffey
https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episod...
“Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential.”
—Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen
https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/opera...
https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episod...
“Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential.”
—Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen
https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/opera...
August 14, 2023
A dizzying romp through the past few yrs of events make up the final section, bolstered by excellent reviews of the supporting material used for our recent disgraceful mess.
I cannot wrap my head around the appeal of nonsense no matter how many times I witness desire trump reality and emotion overwhelm reason.
The internet platforms endless babbling kooks and there are asses for all their seats.
Is this just an inevitable curve in our path to a better nation, internet growing pains? Will we tire of supplements and survival gear and hokey conspiracies?
Eventually.
I cannot wrap my head around the appeal of nonsense no matter how many times I witness desire trump reality and emotion overwhelm reason.
The internet platforms endless babbling kooks and there are asses for all their seats.
Is this just an inevitable curve in our path to a better nation, internet growing pains? Will we tire of supplements and survival gear and hokey conspiracies?
Eventually.
December 26, 2025
Spoilers, if spoilers can be a thing for a non-fiction book.
Lots of good information and concise distillations in here if you're new to the right-wing conspiracy scene; unfortunately, the premise that Q was a highly-coordinated disinformation sci-op now rings pretty hollow. And seeing that the book is from 2022, it probably would have rung just as hollow then. Two and a half stars for content and great writing, but a big ol' eye roll at the author's own takeaway. Discordianism, QAnon is not.
Lots of good information and concise distillations in here if you're new to the right-wing conspiracy scene; unfortunately, the premise that Q was a highly-coordinated disinformation sci-op now rings pretty hollow. And seeing that the book is from 2022, it probably would have rung just as hollow then. Two and a half stars for content and great writing, but a big ol' eye roll at the author's own takeaway. Discordianism, QAnon is not.
July 25, 2022
Gave 3 stars instead of 4 mostly because I grew tired of the transcriptions of Rick Rene’s YouTube videos. Won’t be my last foray into this author’s work, however. I’m curious to read his Salon series on QAnon and will seek out his other work on conspiracy theories.
July 27, 2023
Some people want to believe what they want to believe. Honest review of the facts show it is too difficult to improve a lie than show the truth. The book was a bit too self-referential and repetitive
October 25, 2023
I liked Chameleo. This was 2/3 polemical screed. The facts speak for themselves and don't need to be sarcastically restated. The space would have been better filled with fuller explication of proposed connections, such as with Aquino, Birchers, and the like.
December 26, 2023
Started off interesting. Then it turned into a collection of YouTube video transcripts.
August 14, 2024
It was pretty expensive at Labyrinth, but I took a chance because the title was intriguing and I thought a book merging politics and conspiracy would be interesting. It was alright. The author lowkey gives "I'm a white male and I'm smarter than you vibes" (not in a terrible way, in the occasionally irksome way my dad does it). A weird amount was just block quotes from other works, and with the font being huge and the book already being pretty short, it felt like a lot of filler.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews