QAnon believers are in disarray after the inauguration of Biden

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But when Biden raised his hand and vowed to defend the Constitution, becoming the nation’s 46th president, nothing happened.

The anti-climax sent QAnon fans into a frenzy of confusion and disbelief, breaking almost instantly a collective deception that many far-right people had fueled and amplified. Now, in addition to being scattered to several smaller websites afterwards Facebook (FB) i Twitter (TWTR) repressing QAnon-related content, believers risked having their own turbulent world turned upside down, or perhaps right.
Members of a QAnon-focused Telegram channel and some users of the 4chan image board vowed to keep the faith. Others proclaimed that they were renouncing their beliefs. Still others devised new theories that sought to propel the final confrontation into the future. One of the most visible icons of ideology, Ron Watkins – who goes by the online nickname CodeMonkeyZ – told fans to “get back into our lives.”

“QAnon’s strongest followers are messy,” said Daniel J. Jones, president of Advance Democracy, a non-profit non-profit organization that tracks extremist groups and online misinformation. “After years of waiting for the ‘Great Awakening,’ QAnon fans seemed really surprised to see President Biden successfully inaugurated. A significant percentage online write that they are now finished with QAnon, while others are duplicating and promoting new conspiracies “.

Trump is gone, but some of his followers still believe he is about to declare martial law and are excited
The paucity of reactions highlights the uncertain future now facing the QAnon movement, which technology companies had allowed to metastasize to their platforms for years, but which did not begin to act seriously until 2020.
The theory of baseless conspiracy has been circulating since 2017. In addition to alleging a major conspiracy against child trafficking, those who were attracted claimed that government bureaucrats who formed a “deep state” worked quietly. lamenting undermining President Donald Trump’s agenda. Trump himself fueled the allegations by refusing to publicly denounce them on national television.
And people who identified as part of the QAnon movement were part of the crowd of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol earlier this month.

After the riots, QAnon supporters enthusiastically anticipated the timing of Biden’s inauguration.

“As the bond tightens around the deep state, some people are increasingly desperate to discredit Q,” a 4chan user posted Wednesday morning. “I guess what they say is true. The flack is heavier on the target.”

But after Biden’s oath came and went, panic set in.

“We were promised arrests, exhibitions, military regime, classified documents. Where is it ????????” wrote a member of the Telegram channel linked to QAnon, which has about 128,000 subscribers.

“I’m scared, I feel bad in my stomach, but I’m still,” another said.

“Well, they still rape and eat babies, now any God is now,” said another.

Some began to recognize the truth.

“Biden is our president,” a fourth Telegram channel user said. “It’s time to get off our devices and get back to reality. If something happens, something happens, but for now I have the session on all social media. It’s been fun, but unfortunately it’s over.”

Other believers insisted that the lack of a climax was part of the plan, theorizing that Trump would only “allow” Biden to become president “for appearances,” while the former reality presenter would be the one to pull the strings. “Anything that happens in the next 4 years is really President Trumps,” one 4chan user wrote.

“Frankly, it’s a mess,” said Carla Hill, a researcher at the Center on Extremism of the Anti-Famous League, of the various reactions of QAnon believers. “Frustration began to seep in. There ‘s some shame, some anger … A range of [new] conspiracies arise and they argue with each other. ”

The apparent ease with which some QAnon believers have been able to adjust the theory to adapt to new events underscores how slippery the conspiracy theory can be. But the proliferation of new theories and beliefs could also lead to a split in the movement and, some extremism experts warn, a potential new crisis in mental health.

As QAnon believers delved deeper into conspiracy theory, they built a comforting belief system around it, said Marc Ambinder, a senior member who studies misinformation and misinformation at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism in the University of Southern California.

“The‘ plan ’was much more powerful in the abstract than anything you could offer the real world to counter it,” he said.

But now, as many QAnon supporters increasingly face reality, the resulting cognitive dissonance could shatter them, Ambinder said, with potentially devastating consequences.

“These kinds of events are the kind of things that can make someone who is already incredibly anxious, at the time of a horrible global pandemic, feel completely pushed,” Ambinder said, saying he fears more violence. which the country witnessed at the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago.

In recent weeks, CNN has seen Trump supporters embrace the idea of ​​martial law in large numbers on various social media. Earlier this week, a Telegram account purported to be falsely run by General John Hyten, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the moment some supporters had been waiting for, that is, that Trump is finally acting and using the army to crush his enemies – he was coming. A spokesman for General Hyten told CNN Tuesday morning that the account is “an absolute forgery” and added that the Pentagon is “actively working” to eliminate it.
Major social media has intensified its crackdown on QAnon until late. On Tuesday night, Facebook said it has since removed about 18,300 Facebook profiles and 27,300 accounts from its Instagram affiliate for violating its anti-QAnon policies. The company has also eliminated 10,500 groups and 510 events for the same reason.

Last week, Twitter said it banned more than 70,000 accounts to promote QAnon.

But it may not be enough. People who are embedded in conspiracy theories do not hear authoritarian voices, Ambinder said, but the voices they consider authoritative to maintain their worldview.

While Trump can no longer be president, he and his political allies (some of whom still serve the government) may be some of the only ones who can attract QAnon believers to the real world, according to Ambinder.

“On behalf of hundreds of thousands of people who are still trapped in the alternative world of QAnon and have no idea what to do,” Ambinder said, “that’s when the Republicans who cynically and intentionally spread the false‘ elections ’ they were stolen ‘intensify’.

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