Family Member Speaks in Code

May 11, 2022 2:14 AM

A family member just posted this in a private Facebook group. "B we t stop Q3" Can any of you decipher this?
posted by Raybun to Human Relations (19 answers total)

A butt-text? (ie They sat on their phone and pressed random buttons)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:22 AM on May 11, 2022 [10 favorites]

Something to do with the economy? (Q3 being third quarter of fiscal year)
posted by Morpeth at 2:54 AM on May 11, 2022

Cat on the keyboard?
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:02 AM on May 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

What was the group? What were other posts like?
posted by bbqturtle at 3:22 AM on May 11, 2022

An older relative was posting strange things on FB, not always but often enough that it was weird. We discovered eventually that they didn't understand the difference between the browser search bar and the FB post box. And that occasionally those searches had skipped letters because Relative was using a touchscreen.
posted by KneeHiSocks at 4:04 AM on May 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

Knowing what type of group it was posted to would help in deciphering, as would knowing what, if any, replies were posted. It might also be helpful to know if this family member is given to conspiracy nonsense or whatnot.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:30 AM on May 11, 2022

Response by poster: The family member has very strong political views.
posted by Raybun at 5:33 AM on May 11, 2022

Is your family member anti-vax? There's a bit of Twitter hubbub about the predictions for Q3 of 2022 from the U.S. Group Life Insurance COVID-19 Mortality Survey. The study predicts a large increase in COVID-related deaths for people between ages 25 and 64. For example, this person is an anti-vaxxer who thinks COVID can be managed with medications.
posted by neushoorn at 5:59 AM on May 11, 2022

Two possibilities:
- It was a search for a bedwetting alarm accidentally posted to Facebook, e.g., https://www.ebay.com/p/1840348967
- They drive an Audi Q3 and were Googling stopping distance in the rain
posted by SNACKeR at 6:03 AM on May 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Not sure about the rest of it, but given the political views, if this is a code, "B" and "t" could stand for, obviously, Biden and Trump. I've seen a lot of conspiracy-theory stuff recently about predicting when Trump will be "revealed" as the "real President". Perhaps this is something along the lines of saying that Trump will "stop" Biden during Q3?
posted by Rock Steady at 6:25 AM on May 11, 2022

What's the possibility they were drinking and just posted some nonsense? This message could mean absolutely anything, but if they might have been drunk/high/on a lot of cold meds or sleep aids or whatever else that might explain mental impairment in the moment.. there might not be much point in trying to figure it out.
posted by fight or flight at 7:05 AM on May 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Alternatively, you could reply, "If u cn rd ths u cn gt a gd jb w hi pa!"
posted by SPrintF at 7:54 AM on May 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Is anyone replying or liking the post? Meaning, is it reaching an intended audience (political, presumably)? If no one who usually interacts with their posts is biting it is probably just a butt dial/wrong search bar situation.
posted by lydhre at 7:58 AM on May 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Poster here; I have no idea who the intended audience would be.
posted by Raybun at 8:28 AM on May 11, 2022

Response by poster: Poster here again. This family member has posted similar things in the past in our private family Facebook page.
posted by Raybun at 8:29 AM on May 11, 2022

Why don't you just ask them what it means? I don't know how old this person is but my mom is older and while usually a pretty adept texter/typer, she sometimes will send gibberish.
posted by cakelite at 8:30 AM on May 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Cakelite; any answer from him could not be trusted.
posted by Raybun at 8:31 AM on May 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Can't speak to this specific code but I also know of a couple of people deep in the anti-vax pro-Trump world whose Facebook posts are nearly incomprehensible because of shorthands used to avoid what they assume will get them censored on FB for "speaking the truth" about whatever shady covid treatment they're shilling this week, or whatever politician they want to support in their efforts to overturn election results. If this person falls into that category your best bet might be to look at other people's posts in the same group and see if there are consistent codes/shortcuts people are using that you might be able to make sense of with additional context from other posts.

Or, yeah, cat on the keyboard. My cat is not an anti-vaxxer but he types like one sometimes.
posted by Stacey at 10:37 AM on May 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: This sounds a lot like what Qanon people do that's referred to "baking." As in - there's a cryptic message and then the "bakers" all get together and bake the shit out of it until it seems meaningful. Honestly, these "codes" aren't really codes but weird little snippets that can mean anything so that they're never wrong. They'll do so far as to use their own made up system of gemaria to translate things into numbers and then what do those numbers mean and then back.

I don't think it's worth trying to learn to bake. It makes people truly go off the deep end. He certainly thinks something important is happening in quarter 3 this year, but it has no grounding in reality, whatever it is. You won't break this code short of convincing him you are a political ally (or open to becoming one) and having him explain to you what it means.
posted by Bottlecap at 11:31 AM on May 11, 2022 [11 favorites]