Why Devolution is quickly becoming the future of the QAnon movement

[Nevilledog]

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Mike Rothschild
@rothschildmd
My latest for @dailydot, on how Devolution has become the hot new take on "Trump is actually still the president." It's needlessly convoluted, revolves around classified plans and orders, and you can buy t-shirts.
Why Devolution is quickly becoming the future of the QAnon movement
Devolution: A new theory about the 2020 election that has some elements of QAnon is taking hold on the conspiratorial right.
dailydot.com
7:54 AM · Aug 12, 2021

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/devolution-qanon-patel-patriot/

Most conspiracy theories start with existing concepts or events, then take elements of them into fantastical directions. This way, the people who create and believe these theories can use the real elements in them as “proof” the invented elements were also real—and that they were right all along.

Such a mingling of real and invention is at work in a concept becoming more popular with Trump supporters and QAnon promoters who believe former President Donald Trump rightfully won the 2020 election, not President Joe Biden. That idea is “Devolution”—an extremely complex emerging set of events based around a real concept, but full of invented details and wishful thinking. The theory takes the “stolen election” trope and tweaks it a bit, claiming that Trump won’t be “reinstated” as president, because he’s always been president, despite you having witnessed Biden’s “inauguration.”

Political devolution is a real thing. The term refers to the “devolving” of power from a central government to regional or state governments. The most well-known recent example of devolution was in the late 1990s, when the U.K.’s member nations held a series of votes moving power from London to governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

But that’s not the Trump-centric Devolution theory in the early stages of going viral in the stolen election and right-wing conspiracy world. That theory, compiled in a series of eight (and counting) Substack articles by the anonymous account Patel Patriot, is an almost incomprehensible secret operation where Trump appears to no longer be president, while still carrying out the duties of being the president, in order to expose the massive fraud of 2020. Trump, according to Patel Patriot in Part 4 of the series, “suspended the counting of the electoral college votes” sometime between Dec. 6 and Jan. 7, meaning that “he is still President, and we’re in a state of devolution at the moment.”

*snip*

[lame54]

1. Where are there flower pot hats?

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. Are We Not Men? Nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

5. We are Devo! nt

[liberal N proud]

3. If they don't get their shots, it might not be an issue

There should be one mass Darwin award for those who refuse to vaccinate and thus are removed from the gene pool

[tanyev]

4. There is no reality in which Trump voluntarily chooses to no longer be the center of attention.