QAnon Congressional Candidate Farcically Compares Himself to Civil Rights Icon: I’m the ‘Digital Rosa Parks’

“You could call me the new Rosa Parks,” leading QAnon conspiracy theorist and Arizona congressional candidate Ron Watkins told the crowd at a “Q” convention this weekend.

Watkins, who announced his candidacy for Congress last week, is likely best known as the administrator of 8kun (previously called 8chan), the site where the anonymous poster “Q” shared “deep state” conspiracy theories in support of former President Trump. The site is known for promoting hate, and it’s where at least three white nationalists posted their manifestos before embarking on mass shootings. Many, including an HBO documentary featuring Watkins called Q: Into the Storm, have theorized that Watkins himself is “Q.”

Ron declares himself the “digital Rosa Parks” because he wants to get on the “Twitter bus,” the “Google bus,” the “Facebook Bus,” and the “Chase Bank bus.”

The audience applauds. And I have to keep mentioning there are sitting members of the @AZGOP here. pic.twitter.com/9OvGBrGHkj

— AZ Right Wing Watch (@az_rww) October 23, 2021

During his speech to the For God & Country Patriot Double-Down convention, which he was reportedly late for, Watkins promised to “take ‘the storm’ to Congress.” “The storm” is a term QAnon believers use to refer to the moment when they believe Trump will return to power and arrest a cabal of “deep state” Democratic operatives allegedly involved in a Satanic child sex trafficking ring.

He also spread election lies favored by “Q” believers. “I’m telling [the media], ‘Trump won. He did win,’ ” Watkins told the crowd, “And I’m telling them the election needs to be decertified and you know what? They’re putting me on TV, and they’re saying that.”

Watkins later attacked social media companies like Twitter, which banned him in the wake of the insurrection and farcically compared them kicking him off their platforms to what happened to civil rights activist Rosa Parks on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955.

“We are living now through a modern digital civil rights movement and you could call me the new Rosa Parks. I’ve been out there, I’ve been getting canceled left and right the past few years,” he said. “I’ve been fighting so you guys can have a voice …. And you might say, ‘Why is Ron the new digital Rosa Parks?’ Well, I want to get on the bus. I want to get on the Twitter bus. I want to get on the Twitter bus. I want to get on the Twitter bus. I want to get on the Twitter bus. We have all been kicked off the bus!”

The conference was organized by The Patriot Voice, which was founded by John Sabal, also known as “QAnon John.” Organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone.

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