Is QAnon an Elaborate Leftist Prank Targeting Right-Wing Boomers?

A lengthy BuzzFeed piece on the origin of QAnon has come to the conclusion that the entire group may have been started as an elaborate prank on the alt-right by leftists and anarchists.

Members of QAnon claim that President Donald Trump was recruited by rogue members of the U.S. military who "begged him to run for president" to overthrow a deep state involved in a global conspiracy that operates a pedophile ring.

4chan trolls are now claiming that QAnon was always meant as a prank on "older conservatives."

"[L]ook how many normies and boomers got sucked into our lulz chaos," one member writes.

Further supporting the theory QAnon is a prank are statements by the author of a 1999 novel called Q that bears a striking similarity to the conspiracy theory.

"We can't say for sure that it's an homage," they told BuzzFeed. "But one thing is almost certain: our book has something to do with it. It may have started as some sort of, er, 'fan fiction' inspired by our novel, and then quickly became something else."

But the authors are concerned that the spread of QAnon represents a danger. The appearance of a seemingly armed man outside lawyer Michael Avenatti's office shared in photos by QAnon members serves as evidence of QAnon's possible danger.

"Let us take for granted, for a while, that QAnon started as a prank in order to trigger right-wing weirdos and have a laugh at them," the authors said. "There's no doubt it has long become something very different. At a certain level it still sounds like a prank. But who's pulling it on whom?"