QAnon

January 23, 2021

I admit I have not paid much attention to QAnon or its followers.  Instead, I discounted it as yet another fringe group associated with the ex-president.  An article in today’s paper shed an entirely different light on the movement.  For years adherents have called on the faithful to “trust the plan.”  This was the belief that the president would “orchestrate mass arrests, military tribunals, and executions of the Satan-worshiping, child-sacrificing enemies.”  QAnon asserted that the president was planning a day of reckoning known as the “Storm” when thousands of members of the cabal would be arrested.  The “Storm” was initially said to be scheduled for November 3, 2017, but there were no notable events on that day.  Next the “Storm” was said to take place on January 20, 2021, the day of the presidential inauguration, but no coup took place.  The faithful have been forced to reassess.

When I looked up the group online it called QAnon “a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory.”  U.S. prosecutors have discounted QAnon as “a group commonly referred to as a cult”.  QAnon supporters have accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials of being members of the cabal.  They have also claimed that the ex-president feigned conspiracy with Russians to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the sex trafficking ring and preventing a coup d’état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.  The QAnon conspiracy theories have been amplified by Russian state-backed troll accounts on social media, as well as Russian state-backed traditional media.

When Biden was sworn in on Wednesday the QAnon message boards were bombarded by hecklers making fun of the conspiracy, and prominent posters announced they were stepping away from social media, “if only temporarily.”   Adherents were left with anger, confusion and disappointment as the apocalyptic reckoning failed to appear.  For many, the departure of the past president sowed doubt on the beliefs that had consumed their lives for several years.  Others continued to find cryptic clues in the “17 American flags” behind the ex-president as he delivered his last speech (Q is the 17^th letter of the alphabet).  As one follower wrote, “I believe the game is still being played this is not over.”     

Thoughts:  I have been an adherent of Generational History for 30 years.  This theory of cyclical history suggests a four-stage cycle that changes roughly every generation (20 years +/-).  The theory also identifies that we are in a period where a new prophet is destined to lead the people (good or bad) in a new direction.  That is exactly what QAnon said was happening.  With the collapse of the “Storm,” members are being forced to reevaluate.  This reassessment has happened time and again in the past and is generally associated with apocalyptic overtones.  The news article I read told of various right-wing neofascist groups looking to recruit the QAnon followers left in the vacuum.  Indeed, the game is still being played.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.