Op Ed: Don't hold your breath because all the MAGAts are evil and delusional to one degree or another but this will certainly disrupt them. Trumpers are fighting among themselves and that will probably continue. They irrationally and ignorantly turned on Mike Pence and called for his death in spite of Pence being as treasonously loyal to Trump as anyone.
Online far-right movements are splintering in the wake of last week’s
Capitol riot, as some radical anti-government movements show signs of
disillusionment with the relatively hands-off approach of some QAnon
conspiracy theorists amid warnings of future violence.
Users on
forums that openly helped coordinate the Jan. 6 riot and called for
insurrection, including 4chan and TheDonald, have become increasingly
agitated with QAnon supporters, who are largely still in denial that
President Donald Trump will no longer be in the Oval Office after Jan.
20.
QAnon adherents, who believe Trump is secretly saving the
world from a cabal of child-eating Satanists, have identified
Inauguration Day as a last stand, and falsely think he will force a
10-day, countrywide blackout that ends in the mass execution of his
political enemies and a second Trump term.
Several QAnon supporters were arrested after storming the Capitol last week, including Jacob Chansley, whose lawyer said his client believed he was “answering the call of our president.”
QAnon believers have spent the last week forwarding chain letters on Facebook and via text message,
often removing the conspiracy theory’s QAnon origins, in an effort to
prepare friends and family for what they believe to be the upcoming
judgment day.
According to researchers who study the real-life
effects of the QAnon movement, the false belief in a secret plan for
Jan. 20 is irking militant pro-Trump and anti-government groups, who
believe the magical thinking is counterproductive to future
insurrections.
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Travis
View, who hosts the QAnon-debunking podcast QAnon Anonymous, said Q
supporters are waiting for a “miracle that prevents Biden from being
inaugurated,” and it is beginning to grate on those anxious for more
real-world conflict.
“I have seen some Trump supporters chastising
people promoting QAnon-like conspiracy theories," he said. "It seems
some Trump supporters are reassessing their coalition and laying
judgment on the QAnon wing."
The split has become apparent on
extremist forums like TheDonald, from which QAnon adherents have fled to
an identical sister site due to constant pillorying for their
fantastical thinking on the original site. The new website is named
after The Great Awakening, the mythical judgment day of mass arrests and
executions.
It is also apparent on viral TikToks and Facebook posts on the more mainstream parts of the web.
“I
can’t believe the number of the gullible people who are still out there
saying Q is going to run to the rescue in the next five days and you’re
going to see military tribunals,” a user in one viral TikTok video
said. “Look, I’m a full Trump supporter and I enjoyed reading all the
stuff about the deep state and I believe most of it.”
Conspiracy
theorist Alex Jones, who has frequently quibbled with QAnon supporters,
also lashed out at believers of the conspiracy theory in a viral video
earlier this week.
QAnon supporters have predicted blackouts for
years, citing posts from “Q,” the false digital prophet at the center of
the conspiracy theory. Q frequently posted about routine outages of
major services, alluding to them as potential warning signs of the Great
Awakening. In August 2018, Q posted three times about outages on the
video game service Xbox Live, wondering “Anybody have problems with
their X-Box Live accounts?” to the conspiracy theory’s followers.
While
several specific doomsdays have passed without any prophecies coming
true, experts who study QAnon believe another failed prophecy on
Inauguration Day could further decimate the movement.
Fredrick
Brennan, who created the website 8chan where “Q” posts and has spent the
last two years attempting to have the site removed from the internet
for its ties to white supremacist terror attacks, said he believes
reality may devastate the movement on Inauguration Day.
“This week
has been hugely demoralizing so far and that will be the final straw,”
he said. “Even though Q is at the moment based on Donald Trump, it is
certainly possible for a significant faction to rise up that believes he
was in the deep state all along and foiled the plan.”
