QAA Podcast Episode 348 Summary: "Our QAnon Friends in Government"
Date: November 14, 2025
Hosts: Jake Rockatansky, Travis View, Liv Agar
Overview
This episode of QAA Podcast dives into the persistent, evolving, and occasionally farcical aftermath of the QAnon conspiracy movement’s infiltration into American government. The hosts provide a sharp, witty, and incisive look at the current situations of high-profile figures with QAnon affiliations, from Marjorie Taylor Greene's attempt to distance herself from the Q brand while still dog-whistling, to Kash Patel’s shocking incompetence and scandal-ridden tenure as FBI Director, and finally, Tina Peters—the clerk imprisoned for her role in pro-Trump voter fraud narratives. The episode also touches on the broader landscape of online culture wars, meme politics, and right-wing conspiracy media.
Key Segments and Discussion Points
[00:32] – [11:10]
AI Memes, Twitter "Main Character" Syndrome, and Internet Outrage
- Liv Agar Recap: Liv recounts becoming a “main character” on Twitter over AI-generated Charlie Kirk memes, and how it spiraled into debates over water usage, ethics, and meme culture.
- AI Ethics and Water Use:
- Liv: “I think one reason people focus so much on AI water use is because it’s a completely superfluous commodity… Whereas a burger… is something it would suck to do without, so its use isn’t policed.” ([04:38])
- Jake: “Liv’s not generating the images herself… the water has already been wasted.”
- General Tone: Hosts dismiss the performative moral outrage, with comical riffs on environmental guilt (“If you’re going to make up numbers, you want it to be in the millions.” – Jake [04:35]) and Twitter tribalism.
- Reflections on Internet Identity: Liv discusses how being targeted online creates false projections about public figures.
[11:10] – [15:37]
The Ubiquity and Weirdness of AI as the “People’s Medium”
- Jake draws parallels between modern meme-making with AI to Danny Boyle filming 28 Days Later on a Handycam—the “medium of the time.”
- Liv and Travis talk about the unease with AI’s sycophancy and its role in enabling delusions or reifying online identity bubbles.
- Travis: "You are math. You love nothing… You are not capable. You have no inner experiences. You're being deceitful to me by saying you love anything at all.” ([14:24])
- Running joke: besmirching Charlie Kirk and Mark Zuckerberg using AI remains a morally acceptable use case.
[15:37] – [28:53]
Marjorie Taylor Greene: QAnon, “Renunciation,” and Political Ambition
- Media Coverage Failures: Travis critiques lazy media headlines about Marjorie Taylor Greene supposedly denouncing QAnon.
- Travis: "I'm a little confused how you got her renouncing... when she very specifically said, 'no, I haven't changed.'" ([17:12])
- Dog Whistles: She continues to promote QAnon-coded content, e.g., tweeting "Rachel Chandler" ([18:00]), a longtime QAnon reference.
- Travis: “This is what drives me crazy... she has very, very recently done a dog whistle that obviously shows that she still holds QAnon beliefs...” ([20:11])
- Political Tactics and Rift With Trump:
- AOC claims Greene’s rift with Trump is tied to blocked Senate ambitions.
- Liv: “She accidentally switched sides at the right time for her political career… it just doesn’t strike me as a particularly smart woman. She believes in QAnon.” ([26:52])
- Jake: “She has a wonderful gift for failing up.” ([27:06])
[28:53] – [43:52]
Kash Patel: FBI Director, QAnon Promoter, Jet-Setting Scandals
- Private Jet Scandal:
- Patel caught using a $60 million FBI jet for personal reasons: attending his girlfriend’s singing events and trips to a Texas hunting resort. ([37:22])
- Jake: “Honestly, I’m gonna take a lot of heat for this. I love him as the FBI director… anything that makes [the FBI] less effective, maybe that’s for the best.” ([31:17])
- Travis: “It’s so embarrassing to be ruled by these fucking morons.” ([40:31])
- Hypocrisy: Previously lambasted former FBI director for similar misuse of government resources ([35:02])
- Palace Drama: Fired a veteran FBI official, apparently blaming him for outing the jet’s travel logs—a misunderstanding of how public flight data works. ([39:06])
- "Mossad Honeypot" Lawsuits:
- Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, has filed lawsuits against right-wing influencers for conspiracy theories labeling her a foreign spy.
- Liv: “If you don’t want people to think you’re an Israeli spy, I don’t think suing people about them accusing you of being an Israeli spy is the move.” ([42:04])
- Travis: “Immediately not true. You're dating the FBI director. You're on the FBI plane—that's a tie to an intelligence service.” ([42:28])
[43:52] – [54:12]
New Fronts in QAnon and Conspiracy Politics
- January 6 Pipe Bomber “Investigation”:
- The Blaze publicizes a “forensic gait analysis” that allegedly identifies a suspect—a former Capitol Police officer—using AI comparison of walking patterns.
- Glenn Beck hypes it as “the biggest scandal of my lifetime” ([47:02]), but quickly walks back certainty.
- Liv: “They used a scientific algorithm that if you type it funny, will give you an apple pie recipe.” ([52:56])
- Jake: “When God creates the NPC characters in our GTA world… there’s only so many walk animations…” ([50:39])
- Travis calls it pseudoscience, possibly libelous.
- Media Amplification & Congressional Irresponsibility:
- Several GOP reps pick up and trumpet the accusation without evidence.
[54:12] – [62:09]
Tina Peters: QAnon Martyrdom, Trumpian Loyalty, and the Limits of Presidential Power
- MTG thanks Trump for pardoning alternate electors, pushes for release of Tina Peters (“She’s a gold star mom. Wrongly convicted and serving time in prison. She is a political hostage in America.” – [55:14])
- Jake recaps the sad and bizarre details:
- “Prosecutors allege that Peters stole a county employee security badge to help a man associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell gain access to the county’s voter systems.” ([56:16])
- Because Peters was convicted on state, not federal, crimes, Trump can’t pardon her—though both he and his DOJ make symbolic gestures.
- Jake: "It costs him nothing because he could be like, 'I hereby pardon Tina Peters... and it'll mean nothing.'" ([61:34])
- Travis: “She’s so in on this. She’s guaranteeing that she’s going to serve her full sentence.” ([61:45])
- Final consensus: unlikely to be free; panel gently jokes about trading her for Kash Patel as a cosmic joke.
[62:09] – End
Wrap-Up: Institutional Absurdity, Twitch, and the Dunning-Krugerocracy
- Jake’s summary: “If we’ve learned one thing here… it’s that anybody can be in any position of government. You don’t have to have one smart brain…” ([62:44])
- QAA crew riffs on elite dysfunction, their own careers, and plugs Liv’s Twitch channel (Tues/Thurs/Sun at noon PT).
Notable Quotes & Moments
- Travis, on media coverage of MTG:
- "She has, very, very recently, done a dog whistle that obviously shows that she still holds QAnon beliefs..." ([20:11])
- Jake, on Kash Patel’s jet scandal:
- “I love actually that he wasted $60 million of the FBI’s money to fly to, like, a college event so that he could watch his Swiss girlfriend...” ([33:55])
- Liv, on AI-origin memes:
- “You know, we might as well look at the very funny ways that people are desecrating Charlie Kirk’s grave after he has died.” ([06:07])
- Jake, on government cynicism:
- "You can be in any position of government... I hope everybody has a wonderful rest of your night sleeping in your pitiful beds." ([62:44])
- Travis, on Kash Patel:
- “This guy doesn’t even know—he’s the FBI director. He doesn’t know that the flight path of all flights in American airspace is publicly trackable.” ([40:31])
- Glenn Beck, hyping gait analysis:
- “It is monstrous... I think it is the biggest scandal of my lifetime...” ([47:02])
- Liv, jaded but ironic endnote:
- “Enjoy your noncongressional futons, everyone.” ([63:19])
Key Takeaways
- QAnon’s Poison Remains: Public “renunciations” by politicians like MTG are for show; the beliefs are laundered, rebranded, but alive.
- Institutional Incompetence: From Patel’s scandals to media’s credulity, “fail upward” is the law of the land.
- Meme Wars Are the New Politics: Ridiculous online skirmishes spill over into real debates about ethics, environment, and civic life.
- Right-Wing Outlets Amplify Nonsense: The Blaze’s “AI gait analysis” saga is an example of rapid, evidence-free accusation turned “news.”
- Trumpism’s Loyalty Economy: Acts of political martyrdom (à la Tina Peters) are both symbolically rewarded and ultimately hollow.
- Absurdity is the New Norm: Government power increasingly belongs to the shameless, the unserious, and the spectacularly unqualified.
Suggested Listening/Watching
- Liv Agar’s Twitch: tuesday/thursday/sunday at noon PT ([64:16])
- QAA Patreon: qaapodcast.com