[ad_1]
Some QAnon conspiracy theorists, in public and private internet forums and chat rooms, were disheartened on Wednesday as their prophecy of an inauguration day coup to keep Donald Trump in power again failed when President Joe Biden was sworn in.
The situation left some QAnon adherents with no choice but to overturn the conspiracy theory entirely, although others continued to argue that it was still in development.
QAnon supporters believed Wednesday’s inauguration was a trap devised by the former president, in which Democrats would be arrested and executed while Trump retains power. Various other apocalyptic days theorized by the QAnon community also passed without incident.
But unlike in recent days, Biden’s inauguration leaves the community with little daylight. As their predictions failed, radicalized members of QAnon voiced their betrayal on messaging apps like Telegram and forums named after their failed doomsday scenario, The Great Awakening.
While Biden was sworn in, one of the main posts on a QAnon forum read, “I don’t think this is supposed to happen” and wondered, “How long does it take the Fed to go up the stairs and shut it down?” ? “
Other users were immediately shot, realizing their dreams of a bloody coup wasn’t going to come true.
“Does anyone else feel beyond disappointment?” an article on a popular QAnon forum read. “It’s like being a kid and seeing the big gift under the tree thinking it’s exactly what you want only to open it and realize it was a lump of coal.”
One of the biggest QAnon groups on Telegram closed its comments to let everyone “take a break” after Biden’s inauguration. When it reopened after censorship charges, thousands of users commented, expressing a range of reactions: confusion and realization that QAnon was in fact a hoax, as well as a renewed commitment to conspiracy theory, despite its unreliability.
Ron Watkins, the former administrator of the QAnon 8kun bulletin board and hub and a force majeure behind false conspiracy theories surrounding election results, apparently capitulated, issuing a note to his 100,000+ subscribers: “We have it all. given. Now we need to hold our heads up high and get on with our lives as best we can.
QAnon influencers have fled to fringe apps like Telegram and Gab after years of unrestrained growth on bigger platforms including Twitter and Facebook, both of which banned QAnon accounts and content in 2020. Facebook reported on Tuesday. the removal of some 60,000 pages, groups and accounts that had been promoting the conspiracy theory since November.
Some QAnon subscribers spent weeks bracing for a power outage across the country from noon on the day of the opening, warning their friends and family in text channels and Facebook messages to buy CB radios and stock up on food. They believed Trump would announce martial law through the emergency broadcast system before making mass arrests.
Travis View, who hosts the QAnon Anonymous podcast on Conspiracy Debunking, said those making money on conspiracy theory have a harder time convincing adherents to keep the faith after such a spectacularly failed prediction.
“QAnon influencers who have built a large following over the past three years continue to encourage their audiences to ‘trust the plan’,” View said. “Many grassroots QAnon followers are expressing their anger and disillusionment.”
Some QAnon supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, including a man in a QAnon shirt as he led a group of protesters toward the Senate chamber.
In QAnon threads captured by fact-checking technology company Logically.AI and examined by NBC News, QAnon supporters drew hard lines shortly before the inauguration began and instantly felt embarrassed when the coup d’etat did not take place.
“God help us, we are more than ready. If nothing happens, I won’t believe anything anymore, ”said a supporter at the start of the inauguration.
“We all just got played,” said another, moments later.
Logically, AI researcher Nick Backovic said that while it appears that many QAnon followers are giving up after this latest failed prophecy, he has seen white supremacist recruiters “attack” QAnon groups for the explicit purpose of recruit disillusioned and desperate conspiracy theorists.
“There are a lot of people who feel shocked, cheated and angry. As scary as that in itself is, it’s the rest that worries me the most, ”Backovic said. “We see a lot of neo-Nazis preying on the potentially disenchanted Q people.”
In the days following the Capitol Riots, white supremacist groups specifically targeted “Talking refugees,” or Trump fans who they said could be radicalized after the conservative social media platform Talk was at least temporarily closed and QAnon has been banned from Twitter and Facebook.
“Focus less on the red pill [or recruit] about World War II and more on how to make them angrier with the elections and the new democratic regime, ”a white supremacist recruiting post read on Telegram. “Increase their burning hatred of injustice.”
[ad_2]
Source link