For me, the point of my awakening was pre-Q, when an incident known as the so-called "vanishing" of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370 occurred. There's just way too much surveillance over our skies for me to believe the BS that was relayed by MSM outlets after that. And after that, it was one rabbit hole after another that led me towards getting the full picture of what was truly up. My only real exposure to "conspiracy theories" prior to this point was the (extremely little) knowledge that the rap community (for e.g. Immortal Technique) were speaking about things such as the Illuminati and 9/11 and Reptilians and all of that stuff, and, like any other normie, I refused to believe it. At that time, I clubbed it all in with "tinfoil hatter nonsense", like how the normies now club anything that sounds unbelievable with "flat earther nonsense" and such. But yes, after that flight disappearance incident, I pretty much woke up full-scale in about less than 6 months or so.
What's your awakening story?
In 2001 (and before) I had already developed an intense distrust of MSM. I would routinely seek out alternative news, not just in the US, but abroad; everything I could get my hands on.
There was an article I found in some middle eastern news outlet that talked about the assassination of Massoud, leader of the Afghan Norther Alliance. No US outlets covered it that I could find. The article said that the Taliban was to blame. But the way the hit was carried out screamed Al Qaeda. Two pretend journalists exploded a bomb hidden in a video camera, killing themselves in the process as well. That wasn't the MO of the Taliban.
This kinda told me that some shit was in the works though I had no idea what. But an important question: Why the total silence of US MSM on this? I told myself this is some important shit. But crickets from MSM.
Not long after was 9/11. I thought at first it was Al Qaeda, but when I saw the collapse of tower 7, I knew in an instant that that shit was a controlled demolition. Of course my conclusion then was this is an inside job.
I didn't know who the insiders were but after all the destruction they found the passports of some of the terrorists laying on the street, perfectly preserved. I called BULLSHIT. It was our government touting this insanity. That was something of an OMG moment, government complicity?!?! MAD World!!!