So I really can't recall hearing about illuminati except maybe? a handful of times before Q. And I ignored it because I dismissed it as some conspiracy theory - not true. I did know about the FreeMasons but not enough.

9-11 I chalked up to typical government bureaucracy mishaps - intelligence was too compartmentalized. Because my sister was a flight attendant and flying that day and I had young children that were in school (that I ran to pick up) and then I was more worried about how they were handling everything afterward, I was probably a little too invested in believing the government incompetence angle. Plus, since I've been in and out of government and/or gov't contractor jobs, I've seen that incompetence over and over. Similarly to you, I knew establishing DHS was not a good idea and the Patriot Act would be bad, but I was missing the background to know how really bad they would be.

What I really remember is a conversation during Geoge W's presidency, in a gymastics waiting room, with a conservative woman (whom I really liked and admired) who proceeded to tell me that her father had done a lot of reading and research on the Rockefellers and others and that the Bushes had a plan to build a highway straight up the US to connect Mexico to Canada. I really wish I had not dismissed what she was saying that night and instead taken the opportunity then to learn all I could about the NWO and the Bush family from her. I also thought she was nuts for homeschooling her kids and little did I know that I would be homeschooling my girls in just a few short years. Those memories still humble me and have made me a much better listener!