'No plan, no Q, nothing': QAnon followers reel as Biden inaugurated

[webfact]

'No plan, no Q, nothing': QAnon followers reel as Biden inaugurated

By Joseph Menn, Elizabeth Culliford, Katie Paul and Carrie Monahan

 

FILE PHOTO: Supporters wearing shirts with the QAnon logo, chat before U.S. President Donald Trump takes the stage during his Make America Great Again rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA, U.S., August 2, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - For three years, adherents of the sprawling QAnon conspiracy theory awaited a so-called Great Awakening, scouring anonymous web postings from a shadowy "Q" figure and parsing statements by former U.S. President Donald Trump, whom they believed to be their champion.

 

On Wednesday, they grappled with a harsh reality check: Trump had left office with no mass arrests or other victories against the supposed cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophile cannibal elites, especially Democrats, he was ostensibly fighting.

 

Instead, Democratic President Joseph Biden was calmly sworn into office, leaving legions of QAnon faithful struggling to make sense of what had transpired.

 

In one Telegram channel with more than 18,400 members, QAnon believers were split between those still urging others to 'trust the plan' and those saying they felt betrayed. "It's obvious now we've been had. No plan, no Q, nothing," wrote one user.

 

Some messages referenced theories that a coup was going to take place before the end of Inauguration Day. Others moved the goalposts again, speculating that Trump would be sworn into office on Mar. 4.

 

"Does anybody have any idea what we should be waiting for next or what the next move could be?" asked another user, who said they wanted to have a 'big win' and arrests made.

 

Jared Holt, a disinformation researcher at the Atlantic Council, said he had never before seen disillusionment in the QAnon communities he monitors at this scale.

 

"It's the whole 'trust the plan' thing. Q believers have just allowed themselves to be strung from failed promise to failed promise."

 

"The whole movement is called into question now."

 

A poll with more than 36,000 votes conducted in another QAnon Telegram channel before Biden's swearing-in ceremony showed that more than 20% of respondents predicted nothing would in fact happen and Biden would become president, according to the Q Origins Project, which tracks the movement.

 

However, 34% believe "the military & Trump have a plan coming in the near future," even while acknowledging the transfer of presidential power.

 

JARRING REVERSAL

The anonymous person or people known as "Q" started posting the vague predictions that would become the basis of the QAnon movement on message board 4chan in 2017, claiming to be a Trump administration insider with top secret security clearance.

 

The number of followers exploded with the arrival of the coronavirus last year, providing a sense of community missing in many people's isolated pandemic lives by encouraging participants to "do their own research" and contribute findings to the crowd.

 

Q interpreters have become mini-celebrities in their own right, spreading the gospel on mainstream sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and raising money with appeals to charity or merchandise sales, before the social media platforms cracked down late last year. [L4N2JJ3PC]

 

Among them was Ron Watkins, who was among a small group of movement leaders who stepped up their public activity after Trump's loss in the Nov. 3 election, as the "drops" from Q slowed and then stopped.

 

The longtime administrator of 8kun, an unmoderated forum where Q posted alongside violent extremists and racists, Watkins adopted the cryptic tone of Q in the past two months on Twitter and then Telegram.

 

At the same time he positioned himself as an expert on election fraud, getting retweeted by Trump and interviewed by Trump-favored media outlets such as One America News Network.

 

In one of the most jarring apparent reversals on Wednesday, Watkins appeared to admit defeat, posting: "We have a new president sworn in and it is our responsibility as citizens to respect the Constitution regardless of whether or not we agree with the specifics."

 

"Please remember all the friends and happy memories we made together over the past few years." He said he was working on a new venture, but gave no further details.

 

On TheDonald.win, a reconstituted version of the Reddit forum "The Donald" that long served as an online home for Trump loyalists, users turned on Watkins and accused him of being a "shill" and a CIA plant.

 

Other fringe groups, including neo-Nazis, said they intended to capitalize on the disarray by stepping up recruitment from among QAnon followers.

 

(Reporting by Joseph Menn, Elizabeth Culliford, Katie Paul and Carrie Monahan; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-21

 

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[PatOngo]

Losers! One gone, All gone........................Get lost!

 

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by PatOngo

[tonray]

Useful Idiots...

[Tug]

Go camp out at mar a largo and sit at the feet of your master listening to his words of (wisdom)lol what a bunch of idiots yes you have been had by the grifter from NY city lol

[Virt]

Don't cry Qs. 

 

I bet the illuminati, moon landing, 9-11 or flat earth conspiracy groups has saved a seat for you. 

 

If not, there is a new kid on the block. 

Anti vaxxers.

They probably have a seat or two available as time goes by.... 

 

 

[tonray]

20 minutes ago, Tug said:

Go camp out at mar a largo and sit at the feet of your master listening to his words of (wisdom)lol what a bunch of idiots yes you have been had by the grifter from NY city lol

Don't worry...Qanon and Proud Boys online already calling him weak and a traitor for not pardoning the insurrectionists. He's done

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

Useful Idiots...

Useful as a 3 fingered glove!

[Chomper Higgot]

I’ve said for a while now, these people are going to need post cult counseling.

 

Willing participants in their own radicalization.

 

Noe deserted by those who brainwashed them.

 

Suckers.

[PatOngo]

25 minutes ago, tonray said:

Don't worry...Qanon and Proud Boys online already calling him weak and a traitor for not pardoning the insurrectionists. He's done

Has it finally sunk into their thick skulls that they where totally duped by the one term loser?

[Walker88]

When I first heard about Q I thought it was some sort of comedy skit, a la Monty Python or Saturday Night Live. I guess sometimes I can be a little too 'elite' and not realize that a good percentage of Americans are woefully naive, gullible, moronic, or brain-addled. Of course, when I remind myself that a Game Show Host was elected POTUS, it makes sense a little. People, too many, are easily fooled. Snake oil seems to have a ready market always.

 

I avoid my country now, even having served it, because too many have chosen to try to resurrect the Dark Ages, embracing superstition over science, delusion over reality, ignorance over knowledge. Too many are willfully ignorant, perhaps finding meaning in otherwise banal lives by desperately grabbing on to the silliest of notions simply to find some sense of belonging and some sense of purpose. As an 80s TV character used to say, "Pity the fool".

 

It's tough to pity them, however, when their need to believe idiocy leads to violence. The US came too close to having the lunatics run the asylum. One lunatic made it all the way into the Oval Office. That should never have happened, but it did. I wonder if humanity doesn't have a 'kill gene' embedded in its collective DNA, something that demands the species take a few steps backward after having moved forward.

 

When I was young, one part of history that always captured my attention was the Dark Ages, that period roughly defined from the fall of Rome around the 3rd or 4th Century up until almost the end of the First Millennium (according to the Gregorian calendar). Society was not perfect before that period by any means, certainly not Rome, but there was a scientific awakening that encompassed the Roman Empire, China, India and the Middle East and Arab world. Then it went fallow most everywhere, though mostly in what we call the West. Science virtually stopped, replaced by superstition.

 

My personal view is that most people shudder at the thought of a random Universe, at least random in the way it impacts people individually. So desperate are some to avoid the thought that they demand to find, or create, something in charge, something that calls the shots. Even malevolent control is preferable to randomness, as one might always find a way to make a deal with a malevolent ruler. There is no deal to be made with randomness; one can only try to avoid getting gobsmacked by it. Thus, people manufacture deities or embrace autocrats or grab on to superstition. Easy answers, even absurd answers, are better to many than no answers.

 

History is said not to repeat, but to rhyme, and the absurd beliefs of QAnon, or the anti-vaxxer movement, or the new embrace of ancient myths we call 'religion', are reminiscent of the Dark Ages. Society is rhyming with a past we did well to leave behind a thousand years ago. I worry it is our fate, that our 'kill gene' is beginning to hold sway again and force the species to take two steps back. I hope we can overcome the tendency, but I fear we will not.

[Jeffr2]

This proves the problems with social media and unregulated outlets.  Time for a change.  Sadly, many aren't smart enough to suss out the truth from the BS.  As shown by Trump's supporters and the attempted coup.  Election fraud?  Wow...

[ballpoint]

They're not all reeling.  After all, their saviour sent them a message during his farewell address:

 

"But while some QAnon disciples gave way to doubt, others doubled down on blind belief or strained to see new coded messages in the Inauguration Day’s events. Some followers noted that 17 flags — Q being the 17th letter of the alphabet — flew on the stage as Trump delivered a farewell address.

“17 flags! come on now this is getting insane,” said one post on a QAnon forum devoted to the “Great Awakening,” the quasi-biblical name for QAnon’s utopian end times. “I don’t know how many signs has to be given to us before we ‘trust the plan,’” one commenter said."

 

As Trump era ends, QAnon believers grapple with doubt - The Washington Post

 

Any comment on the intelligence, or lack thereof, of these people is superfluous.

[Golden Triangle]

Before these Muppets came along the only Q I knew was in Star Trek ???? 

[mikebike]

2 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Before these Muppets came along the only Q I knew was in Star Trek ???? 

You haven't watched a James Bond movie?

[Golden Triangle]

1 minute ago, mikebike said:

You haven't watched a James Bond movie?

Buggar, well spotted ???????? but you know what I mean ????

[cdemundo]

26 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

the “Great Awakening,” the quasi-biblical name for QAnon’s utopian end times.

Makes me think of the Millerite Christians who set a date in the 1840s for the Second Coming.  People quit jobs, sold farms and went to the "mountain top" at the appointed time.  Spoiler alert, there was no Second Coming.  Afterwards this (non-) event was referred to as the "Great Disappointment".  I guess the Qanon folks just had their "Great Disappointment".

[ballpoint]

13 minutes ago, mikebike said:

You haven't watched a James Bond movie?

And the Spike Milligan Q programs, which were just as farcical, but a lot funnier.

[mtls2005]

This may help some of the cult members to regain their grasp on reality.

 

Welcome back.

 

 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

Before these Muppets came along the only Q I knew was in Star Trek ???? 

I remember Q from the James Bond films.

 

Desmond Llewelyn.

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by onthedarkside
social media video removed

[Bluespunk]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

"Does anybody have any idea what we should be waiting for

In the case of qanon believers, the men in the white coats would be a good bet.

[placeholder]

14 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

This may help some of the cult members to regain their grasp on reality.

 

Welcome back.

 

 

Maybe a few. Look up Leon Festinger and "cognitive dissonance".

[Meat Pie 47]

1 hour ago, mikebike said:

You haven't watched a James Bond movie?

[mtls2005]

Some die-hards are still hanging on. Saying the "military" is in charge now, and just waiting for mike flynn's brother Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, to stage a military coup.

 

gen flynn is said to have been on the call with the Captiol Police as they requested help from the Pentagon. Awkward.

[placeholder]

11 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Some die-hards are still hanging on. Saying the "military" is in charge now, and just waiting for mike flynn's brother Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, to stage a military coup.

 

gen flynn is said to have been on the call with the Captiol Police as they requested help from the Pentagon. Awkward.

You have to admire their ingenuity fueled as it is  by desperation.

Edited January 21, 2021 by placeholder

[Jeffr2]

I have a friend in the medical profession in the US.  I asked him what's going on with all these nutters.  Trump supporters and Q supporters.  He said you'd be amazed at how many have mental health issues in the US.  He works with many patients like this.

[simple1]

2 hours ago, cdemundo said:

Makes me think of the Millerite Christians who set a date in the 1840s for the Second Coming.  People quit jobs, sold farms and went to the "mountain top" at the appointed time.  Spoiler alert, there was no Second Coming.  Afterwards this (non-) event was referred to as the "Great Disappointment".  I guess the Qanon folks just had their "Great Disappointment".

 

Reminds me of the Great Replacement of white supremist ideology...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement

Edited January 21, 2021 by simple1

[Bangyai]

15 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

He said you'd be amazed at how many have mental health issues in the US. 

 

Nope . Not me. 

 

Mormons, Jehova Witnesses , Seventh day adventists , The Waco siege etc etc

 

The desire to find some wacky alternative religion to succumb to seems to be an abiding passion in the USA so I can well believe that a lot of people there have mental health issues on account of their gullibility.

[jvs]

5 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Useful as a 3 fingered glove!

Those would sell in Thailand!!!!

[Jeffr2]

13 minutes ago, Bangyai said:

 

Nope . Not me. 

 

Mormons, Jehova Witnesses , Seventh day adventists , The Waco siege etc etc

 

The desire to find some wacky alternative religion to succumb to seems to be an abiding passion in the USA so I can well believe that a lot of people there have mental health issues on account of their gullibility.

I saw an interview with a member of a church where they were refusing to wear masks.  When asked why?  I'm covered in the blood of Jesus.  So I'm protected. 

 

Guess what?  The pastor eventually died of CV19 as did many members of the church and choir.  Who would have guessed.

[Snig27]

8 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

I saw an interview with a member of a church where they were refusing to wear masks.  When asked why?  I'm covered in the blood of Jesus.  So I'm protected

 

Which, of course, has been part of the COVID problem in both Malaysia and Indonesia with imams telling the faithful that Allah will save, as they gather in huge numbers.