But when Biden raised his hand and swore an oath to defend the constitution and become the country’s 46th president, nothing happened.
“The most seasoned QAnon followers are in disarray,” said Daniel J. Jones, president of Advance Democracy, an impartial nonprofit that tracks extremist groups and misinformation online. After years of waiting for the ‘Great Awakening’, QAnon supporters seemed genuinely shocked to see President Biden being successfully inaugurated. A significant percentage online write that they are now done with the QAnon, while others are doubling down and promoting new conspiracies. ”
After the riots, supporters of QAnon eagerly awaited the moment of Biden’s inauguration.
“As the noose tightens around the deep state, some people are getting more and more desperate to discredit Q,” a 4chan user wrote Wednesday morning. ‘I think what they say is true. The flap is heaviest over the target. ‘
But after Biden’s swearing-in came and went, panic set in.
“We were promised arrests, exposures, military regime, classified documents. Where is it ????????” wrote a member of the Telegram channel linked to QAnon, which has nearly 128,000 subscribers.
“I’m scared, feel sick in my stomach, but I’m still holding the line,” said another.
“Well, babies are still raped and eaten now every f ** kin minute GOD,” said another.
Some began to recognize the truth.
“Biden is our president,” said a fourth user on the Telegram channel. “It’s time to get off our devices and go back to reality. When something happens, something happens, but for now I log out of all social media. They’ve been nice guys, but it’s unfortunately over. ”
Other believers insisted that the lack of a climax was itself part of the plan, theorizing that Trump was merely “allowing” Biden to become president “for appearances,” while the former reality show host would be the one who attended the show. pulled strings. “Everything that happens in the next four years is actually done by President Trumps,” wrote a 4chan user.
“It’s frankly a hot mess,” said Carla Hill, a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Extremism, of the various responses from QAnon believers. Frustration started to seep in. There’s some embarrassment, some anger … A series of [new] From this ensue conspiracies and they quarrel among themselves. ”
The apparent ease with which some QAnon believers have been able to adapt the theory to new events underscores just how slick the conspiracy theory can be. But the proliferation of new theories and beliefs could also fragment the movement – and, some extremism experts warn, a possible new crisis in mental health.
When QAnon believers were drawn deeper into the conspiracy theory, they built a reassuring belief system around themselves, said Marc Ambinder, a senior fellow who studies misinformation and misinformation at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
“The ‘plan’ was so much more powerful in an abstract sense than anything you could offer in the real world to counter it,” he said.
But now, as many QAnon adherents are increasingly confronted with reality, the resulting cognitive dissonance can break them, Ambinder said – with potentially devastating consequences.
“Events like this are something that can make someone who is already incredibly fearful in the time of a terrible global pandemic feel like they are being pushed all the way to the edge,” Ambinder said, saying that he is more afraid of the kind of violence of which. the country witnessed in the Capitol two weeks ago.
Last week, Twitter said it had banned more than 70,000 accounts from promoting QAnon.
But that may not be enough. People embedded in conspiracy theories don’t listen to authoritative voices, Ambinder said, but rather to the voices they consider authoritative in upholding their worldview.
While Trump may no longer be president, he and his political allies – some of whom still serve in government – may be the only ones who can pull QAnon believers back into the real world, according to Ambinder.
“For the sake of hundreds of thousands of people who are still trapped in QAnon’s alternative world and have no idea what to do,” said Ambinder, “this is when Republicans cynically and deliberately need the false ‘election was stolen'” rumors. . get on.”