It started in 2018 with warnings about being controlled by the propagandistic mainstream media, then warnings about a “global elite” manipulating a sleeping population that needed to “wake up.” He had “secret information” about all this and the details would horrify anyone. Seemed like he was falling prey to fearmongering. I just shrugged it off. Then he said he received this info from friends deep within the intelligence community who were leaking this info and working to restore our freedoms. Skeptical, I wondered, “Who the heck does he know in intelligence?” Brushed it off again. Then he said Trump was in on this effort and working to purposely dismantle Washington in order to restore it to an ideal state. He refused to see any of the corruption surrounding Trump and dismissed all of it as fake news. When he started forwarding far-right "news" sources, I began to worry and point out how unreliable it was, but he would just dig in further, rail against the fake news MSM but then provide far-right sources full of easily disputable lies for his beliefs. He became increasing belligerent and if I questioned any of it or asked for proof, I was told to “do my own research” or was called a sheeple or worse. He has a deep reverence for Trump, an almost divine worship of him as a savior in an ultimate battle of good vs. evil. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it. I guess I didn’t want to accept it, but when he signed off a message with WWG1WGA in March of last year, I knew. I’d researched hate groups for years so suddenly I realized that “friend” deep within the intelligence community was “Q Clearance Patriot,” the “Q” of QAnon. I told him he was following a cult but he didn’t want to hear it, got belligerent again. I cut ties temporarily, tried to help him again, but had to cut ties again after he was predicting a Christmas Eve miracle and hoping for a civil war. Some of my articles come from the strange prophecies he spewed. I haven’t talked to him since. Really sad.