Gizmodo: Here's How QAnon Reacted as They Realized 'The Storm' Isn't Happening

[highplainsdem]

https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-qanon-reacted-as-they-realized-the-storm-isnt-1846095605


Too long to excerpt.

I haven't seen this posted here yet, and I wanted to link to it since it has more examples of posts from Q cultists than I've seen elsewhere, as well as some good commentary.

[Initech]

1. It reminds me of the cult episode of the Simpsons.

"Oh man it fell apart just like everything else I have ever believed in. Oh well, back to good old fashioned voodoo."

[soldierant]

49. Touched by an Angel also had a cult episode

(Okay, I'm old.) It guest-starred Montel Williams. He was convincingly creepy.

[Initech]

50. I wouldn't put it past Trump to try and start his own religion!

[soldierant]

52. Actually it sounds just like him.

I could almost wish he would, provided it would dispense entirely wit the words "Jeses," "Christ," and "Christian." That would allow those of us who take Jesus's commands seriously to go public again. (I don't mean proselytize. I am convinced that the only honest way to proselytize is to live your life in such a way that others want to be like you. Do I do that? Oh, once or twice in 75 years someone has mentioned it.)

[Initech]

53. "This man seems to have people worship him and he enjoys tax exempt status!"

[Hekate]

2. These people are nuts. Tho as Gizmodo notes, it's hard to tell who among them are expert Trolls. nt

[NJCher]

3. in the farthest stretches of my imagination

I cannot imagine being foolish enough to think any of these things.

As an educator, I just have to ask how this happens. Where did your education fail you, QAnon people?

[Tommymac]

26. When they gave up their minds to Faith based speakers and news.

I'll bet the majority of them practice some form of extreme 'TV' Evangelism.

If you can be made to believe that gibberish is a 'foreign tongue'...that a demagogue can heal cancer with a touch and a prayer...that your soul can be saved more with every $$$ you send to a conperson...

...then you are probably a QAnon insurrectionist.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

38. Sign up for just $19.99 a month and I will send you enlightenment! Holy operators are standing by!

[LiberalArkie]

41. I think it happened when a person could not believe in government.

Like knowing anything coming out out Ari Flescher's mouth was a lie. Of course that goes all the way back to the Viet Nam days. So make up anything (jet contrails spraying chemicals) government says you are crazy. Who to believe. Neither has a good track record for telling the truth.

We are going to send $2000 to everyone in the U.S. (really only $1400). Government is going to have to tell the truth no matter how much it hurts. Then the conspiracy crap will go away.

[TexasLefty29]

43. I theorized

at one point it was a bad combination of people being at home furloughed +/- quarantined in the springtime.

Too much idle time, lost sense of purpose, depression, for some, a certain type of mental predisposition or gullibility.


* Edit: mix the risk factors then obviously at some point you start to believe that whacked out shit.

[uponit7771]

56. You have a 1. base of knowledge, 2. Trust of YOUR ABILITY to discern information, 3. Willingness to

... check your thinking so you're not in a silo of information.

Of all the MAGA nuts I've talked to they seem to be missing a huge one or all of the aforementioned

[wnylib]

57. It's not a matter of education

or of rational thought. It is emotional, which is why education and reasoned arguments do not reach these people.

They are driven by emotional needs. Speak to the emotions with them, not to their minds.

[Boomer]

59. This. n/t

[Brother Mythos]

4. I'm getting a near irresistible urge to tell those QAnon people, ...

"The Plan would have worked, if you just had enough faith."

But, I also have serious reservations about having anything to do with them.

[COL Mustard]

29. I Want Nothing To Do With Them.

Chances are, I know some of them (family members, I suspect) but I will not ask and do not want to know. That is some scary shit.

[Chicago1980]

5. Reading those posts are comedy crack.

I want to see "Q" The Movie, written by Mel Brooks.

[Dirty Socialist]

8. A Musical!

“Springtime for QAnon”

[Laha]

23. Yes!

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!

[COL Mustard]

30. "Yes, It's Springtime For Trumpler and QAnon"

Winter for....I dunno, help me out.

Of course you gotta have the chorus girls singing "Q Is Coming! Q Is Coming!"

Is Matthew Broderick available?

[Squinch]

6. That is fascinating.

[Buns_of_Fire]

7. My God, these people are loons.

Early in the day, on Great Awakening, some Q aficionados said they were sleep-deprived over excitement for the big day. Others noticed with an increasing wariness that the ongoing inaugural festivities did not exactly bode well for Trump, though others mined the outbound president’s farewell speech for rhetorical clues or visual hints, having attributed random mundanities like gold-fringed flags or the movements of his hands as secret messages in the form of archetypal motifs. One asked about the hidden meaning of Trump repeatedly dating the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic to 1917, disregarding the obvious answer that he never has any idea what the fuck he’s talking about.

But, you see, this is where they went off track. As the above paragraph implies, they should have been watching the movements of his hands. Sure, he was playing his invisible accordion again, but the point is what tune was he playing??? (You know this is a serious question by the three question marks.) Figure out the tune, and you will know the Secret of Q. That's all I can say without a signed book contract in hand.

"I never joke about my work, 007."

[Klaralven]

31. "My name is Q, for we are many." - Apologies to Mark 5:9

QAnon managed to successfully unite large swathes of the conspiracy web—pro-Trump imperial cultists, Christian fundamentalists, amateur race theorists, fascists, hardcore anti-Semites, gullible suburbanites, moon landing truthers, coal rolling neo-Confederate dirtbags, anti-vax quacks, you name it—under one big tent: that Donald J. Trump is a brilliant strategist, possibly anointed by God, fighting an Underworld-style secret war against a child-raping cabal of Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities.

[SCantiGOP]

48. His accordion hands were playing

a John Lennon song from their second album:
I’m a Loser

[ProfessorGAC]

51. Now, I'm Mad At You

You shouldn't have thought of that before me!

[Vinca]

9. Wow - that's totally deranged. I could only read to Trump's March 4 "re-inauguration."

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

10. Dangerously stupid, and malicious.

Employers should consider firing them, if they actually work, or screening them out in interviews and rejecting them.

Definitely don't want any of these wack jobs cooking or serving me food. Don't want them in any position of employment where they can clandestinely deliberately hurt me.

[Johnny2X2X]

11. More sickening that funny

It's good to poke fun and get a chuckle, but know that these people are sick. They were so excited about the prospect of beheadings at the nation's capitol they were losing sleep. Thing about that for a second, they want to see our Democratically elected leaders blood spilled and it's so exciting for them that they cannot contain themselves. That is as evil as ISIS ideology.

They are blood thirsty fiends. They have no respect for their fellow countrymen or leaders. Zero ability to understand that killing people like Nancy Pelosi would devastate the majority of the country and send the country into massive civil unrest.

These people are sick in the head, craven, terrorists. They're monsters. No coddling, call them out for being sick and wanting to see terrorism and violence. Every single one of them needs to be doxed and monitored, this is not harmless conspiracy theory, these people are not safe, they are not peaceful, and they are not to be trusted.

Deranged lunatics, one and all. Imagine one of them works at your kid's school? Or cares for your elderly grand parent.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire

[GreenEyedLefty]

12. Everything I ever needed to know about Q I learned from It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

All you have to do is watch Linus as he nurtures his delusion right to the end, when he is left alone and ranting in the pumpkin patch. "It won't be long now!"

[lagomorph777]

37. Excellent analogy! The role of huge orange leader is played by Trump.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

13. Like the lone surviving WWII Japanese soldier on a remote Pacific Atoll

30 years later fighting the war that has long since ended, sure that reinforcements are coming, just over the horizon. At least WWII was real. These loons will be fighting their imaginary wars against imginary enemies forever.

[DBoon]

28. The Japanese were fighting a real war though

QAnon is complete fiction

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

34. That's what I said

At least WWII was real.

[Renew Deal]

14. The tears of unfathomable sadness

[kpete]

15. It's hard not to laugh, but mostly, it's just plain sad.

[Hortensis]

19. So sad. Without pernicious internet brainwashing, they could have

attempted to transform their lives by connecting with positive astral forces without harming themselves and others, be suspicious of FDA tested drugs without being turned into paranoid loons, claim all politicians were corrupt to cover their disaffected ignorance (like almost everyone they know), without becoming active menaces to society.

In other words, remain the normal and common sort of people they were.

[Laha]

24. I didn't find it that difficult to laugh.

When someone brings on their own pain themselves, sympathy comes in short supply. And I've been waiting a long time for these idiots to have reality slap them in the face with a herring.

[Lucinda]

16. KNR

❤️~✿~❧~🌿~❧~✿~❤️

[Maeve]

17. One line made me laugh as it sums up so much of the absurdity

One asked about the hidden meaning of Trump repeatedly dating the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic to 1917, disregarding the obvious answer that he never has any idea what the fuck he’s talking about.

[dclarston13]

18. How many of them are there really?

That's some crazy stuff in those messages but how many people are there that actually bought this crap? I can't imagine there are that many in reality. And why did the mainstream media not break these theories down and show the world how these theories do not hold up to simple logic.
I feel bad for them in a way, but for crying out loud do your homework people. They will be susceptible to the same thing when presented differently by a more savvy troll.

[niyad]

33. Even when msm does something, it is fake news, lying, covering up, etc. they, and they

alone, are privy to the truth. Everyone else is brainwashed.

[samsingh]

20. these morons would not even like the horrific world they're trying to create.

they'll be the first set of cowards like their traitorous leader

[dustyscamp]

21. We have so many unhinged people living in this country

[JohnnyRingo]

22. One paragraph sums it up.

One asked about the hidden meaning of Trump repeatedly dating the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic to 1917, disregarding the obvious answer that he never has any idea what the fuck he’s talking about.

[LakeArenal]

25. To be fair the first few sentences of their text, were me four years ago.

Sick, waiting for some to tell me it didn’t happen. Faith in polls. Sure it was rigged.
Faith in other citizens. So.... that part I relate to. Never thought any conspiracy would change the outcome but might have wholeheartedly supported one.

[dalton99a]

27. They need to get their calculator out and rework the numerology

[BobTheSubgenius]

32. That is some fabulously wacky shit!

I don't know how they expected a movement led by 8-year olds to succeed.

[marble falls]

35. Q is 16yr old that after years of goofin' the gullible, got got tired of his own schtick at 21.

[Grins]

36. Also on local news this PM..."Were we duped..."

...by Qanon” they asked when no Democrats were executed on the west lawn of the Capitol.

Reporter for MSNBC who tracks conspiracy bunking quoted a Q follower who asked that.

Me: You were not duped. What you are is stupid!

Really? You BELIEVED it was all an elaborate plan so the military could gather a whole bunch of people you hate, capture them - and then EXECUTE THEM? LIVE and on TV?

You can’t fool someone like that unless you are willfully stupid.

[Javaman]

39. my favorite response from those halfwits was that "Biden is Q". that got me laughing.

it's really sad to read through this though, it only tells me that there truly is a mental health crisis in this nation.

all these people need treatment and our sympathy.

[The Mouth]

40. Sweet tears of fascist butthurt

[birdographer]

42. I have a question

Where exactly did they get this idea, which they reference constantly, that Biden, or sometimes Hillary, sometimes Pelosi, are pedophiles? Where did that come from, is that a Q thing? The cannibals thing is too laughable to bother questioning, but they do seem very stuck on this pedophile idea. This truly baffles me. Is it the most repugnant non gender-specific thing that they could come up with?

[NJCher]

44. Doesn't that go back to Pizzagate?

And to your last sentence, yes.

[DesertRat]

47. My guess

Is that in an attempt to smear Dems they tried to smear them with the most reprehensible reference they could, and pedophilia fit the bill. When that didn't work (Pizzagate), they added in cannibalism.

[AmyStrange]

45. "Biden is Q"

-

That message got me laughing.

Here's the last paragraph. It pretty much says it all:

“QAnon believers are now at a crossroad where they will choose whether they keep believing in lies or they leave the movement,” Jared Holt, a visiting research fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told Gizmodo. “So many people who believe in the conspiracy theory have done so at the detriment of their personal lives and relationships. We can only hope they understand that they have been scammed and are able to start returning to normal life, but that remains to be seen. There will be some who never stop believing in Q.”

============

[bucolic_frolic]

46. It's a geographically dispersed Jonestown, on cell phones, without KoolAid

Don't know how they can afford the resources to support their lifestyle. They may later regret the wasted time.

[catchnrelease]

54. These people go back awhile

Remember, they believed that JFK Jr faked his own death and is alive and is Q. I had read that some believed he had changed his face and was attending various rallies, or that he was going to be Trump's running mate. Their loony conspiracies are all over the place. I think like so many other cults, they will just keep adapting their beliefs to some new weird thing when the previous one doesn't pan out.

[Iggo]

55. Maybe the real Q was the friends they made along the way.

[tymorial]

58. I feel sorry for some of them, not all but some. Many are mentally ill.

Qanon is dangerous. There is no question. They are however a cult and all cults target vulnerable and mentally unstable people because they are easier to manipulate. They are love bombed and made to feel special, unjudged, and given a sense of belonging. They are told their group is special and better than everyone else not "in." They are constantly told that outside forces want to destroy the group. Their irrational fears are fed all the while they are carefully made to feel special for being in the know. The secret knowledge is sprinkled here and there to give the marks/members something tangible they can hold onto as evidence of their truth. I.E. Qanon "knows" the spirit cooking was about pedophiles when everyone else had no idea of were involved. That kind of manipulative bullshit.

Well meaning people love kids and want them safe right? Combine that with some mental illness that causes irrational fear and that is perfect opportunity for qanon. Does that mean everyone like that will fall for it? No, just like many qanon folks are just anarchist racist assholes. But some are damaged people who have been exploited and brainwashed.

I feel sorry for them and I can only hope they get help before they hurt themselves or others. Q could very well be a compound in Waco. Some of the people there were damaged and broken people exploited by a fucking predator.

This isn't a rant at anyone here. Its a rant at the assholes who intentionally went out to exploit vulnerable people. I feel the same way about people who fall for a religion made up by a shitty pulp sci-fi writer.