I guess today is the day that Qanon dies right? since the supposed Storm didn't happen.

‘It’s Over’: Devastated QAnon Believers Grapple With President Joe Biden’s Inauguration

A look inside QAnon’s virtual inauguration watch party, which went horribly wrong.

Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday marks not only the historic beginning of a new presidency, but also, for countless Americans, the devastating end of a yearslong grift.

For believers of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that holds Donald Trump as a deity-like figure secretly battling a “deep state” cabal of pedophiles who control the government, things weren’t supposed to go down this way. Month after month, year after year, they had been told by “Q,” the group’s shadowy online leader, and Q’s army of social media influencers, that a symbolic “storm” was coming. The mythology held that on Wednesday, at long last, the Bidens, Obamas and Clintons would be rounded up and executed for child sex trafficking, treason and other crimes. Trump, having finally conquered evil, would remain in power.

This was the moment they had desperately been waiting for.

Inside digital safe havens for far-right extremists, such as Gab and Telegram, massive QAnon groups turned into virtual watch parties reacting to Wednesday’s ceremony in real time. As the event began, members could hardly contain their joy — or their desire for bloodshed.

“WELCOME TO THE GRAND FINALE!!!” someone cheered in a 185,000-member Gab group. “Anyone else wanna puke with excitement?!?!?!” another person asked amid a rapid stream of messages coursing through a 34,000-member Telegram channel. Others salivated over the idea of decapitations and sexual violence against prominent Democrats. Several messages were too grotesque to publish.

By 11:45 a.m., though, as Kamala Harris took her vice presidential oath of office, the crowds grew anxious.

“Well this popcorn just got cold,” one QAnon supporter wrote. “When do the arrests start??” another questioned. Still, they continued clinging to hope while counting down the minutes until their long-awaited “great awakening.”

But as noon arrived, and a grinning Biden placed his hand on a Bible to be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, reality came crashing down.

“I can’t stop crying. ****. Why?” one person pleaded. “It’s over,” another conceded. Some wondered how they could possibly mend their broken relationships with the loved ones they’d pushed away over their obsessions with Q.

Like a flipped switch, the attitude inside online QAnon communities shifted from glee to shock and misery: “NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENED!!!”; “So now we have proof Q was total bullshit”; “I feel sick, disgusted and disappointed”; “Have we been duped???”; “You played us all”; “HOW COULD WE BELIEVE THIS FOR SO LONG? ARE WE ALL IDIOTS?”

Meanwhile, several QAnon loyalists performed medal-worthy mental gymnastics to keep their delusion alive. A few suggested that the video of Biden becoming president was a deepfake and that he was actually locked away behind bars as it played across the nation. Others posited that Biden himself had in fact been working with Trump to dismantle the deep state all along, and would be the one to sic the military on the supposed traitors. Many simply pleaded with each other to stay patient: “Q wouldn’t do this to us. He wouldn’t let us down. Don’t lose hope.”

But even some of QAnon’s most prominent influencers reluctantly acknowledged that it was time to move on. MelQ, a major QAnon leader, turned off commenting in her Telegram channel as Biden’s swearing-in drew nearer and members appeared to lose faith, in order to “have everyone take a breather.” But once the ceremony was complete, she changed her tune: “Ok let it all out,” she wrote, later adding, “We’ll get through anything together.”

Ron Watkins, the former administrator of 8kun — a platform that has long been vital to Q’s communication with believers — also pulled the plug: “We gave it our all,” he told his nearly 120,000 Telegram subscribers. “Now we need to keep our chins up and go back to our lives as best we are able.”

Even Joe M, one of the earliest and most widely known Q backers, had hinted days ago that QAnon could be a ruse: “Next week, either Q turns out to be an elaborate well-intentioned hoax … or we are all about to watch the Red Sea part and the unfolding of a new biblical-level chapter in human civilization,” he wrote on Jan. 16. But on Wednesday afternoon, he wasn’t ready to accept defeat: “My faith is not in Q, or ‘The Plan’. My faith is in red-blooded, proud and tenacious Americans and everything they have always stood for,” he assured the tens of thousands of users in his Telegram channel. “No matter how dark today may feel, that faith is unbreakable.”

To be sure, this isn’t the end of QAnon or the immense damage it has inflicted on this country. The movement, which the FBI considers to be a domestic terrorist threat, has already evolved and regrouped to string its members along time and time again, and it has planted deep roots in an array of other communities: yoga lovers, church groups, school classrooms, anti-vax networks — the list goes on.

QAnon’s mass radicalization of Americans is part of Trump’s legacy. Addressing it will likely be one of the Biden administration’s greatest challenges.

It’s unclear where the conspiracy theory goes from here; many ardent supporters are vowing to keep marching forward, undeterred. For today, though, the group is at a loss.

“WE’VE BEEN SCAMMED INTO BELIEVING Q!!!” a Telegram user declared.

“WHAT NOW?!?!?!”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/qanon-believers-react-to-joe-biden-inauguration_n_60087eebc5b6efae62fe3d10

This had me rolling, "A few suggested that the video of Biden becoming president was a deepfake and that he was actually locked away behind bars as it played across the nation.

Hell even Alex Jones called out these nutty ass people. That's enough said.

These people need to believe....therefore they will just believe in something else. They aren't going away but they may be fractured into different conspiracy groups.

QAnon followers struggle to explain Biden inauguration | TheHill

lmao. low IQ trumpers.

I really don't want to feel bad for these people, but goddamnit I kinda do. I hope the vast majority of them learn from this experience and become better a weeding out BS, but a lot of these folks just need to believe in stuff like this. Someone will step in and give them what they want.

LOL

"A user on another forum dedicated to the "awakening" claimed that the 17 flags onstage as Trump gave his farewell were a coded message, since "Q" — the mysterious figure who posts cryptic messages that serve as the theory's foundation — is the 17th letter of the alphabet.

It really is a cult.

Stupid normies and boomers fell for the LARP and made it into a cult.

A bunch of right wing cucks just out to lunch. Don’t know how they bought into qanon for so long in the first place.

They'll find something else to believe in. Q was never the problem. It was and will be the severe lack of critical thinking ability in so much of the population.

I spent all weekend on overtime preparing for a possible protest by far right groups. No one showed. Today the only protestors police are dealing with right now are antifa. Luckily, my team wasn't pulled to assist downtown.

Don't ask me what they're tearing down fences and damaging property for. They're a special bunch.

There was never going to be a "storm." Real Republicans don't loot, riot and burn property like the terrorists on the left. I find it hilarious that leftists are trying to pass off ANTIFA posing as Trump supporters as real conservatives.

Where exactly is this? you said NW of SF. So like San Rafael? Richmond? Santa Rosa?

In either case, I hope this is over soon and you get some rest. Sounds like they've been sending you through the wringer.

So much focus on a radical right wing minority.

@girlusocrazy: I've lived in South Dakota and California. Never lived in Florida nor would I ever want too, that humidity is just gross.

@daredevils2k:

Mann.....I wish...TRULY WISH I could have been there to see the disappointment on their faces! Not like in a cynical way (tempting as it is) but like in a way to knock some real sense into them. To wake the f uck up! Stop feeding the Trump train of destruction and recognize once in for all that they've been lied to.

“ARE WE ALL IDIOTS?”

Yes. Yes, that’s precisely what you are.

I tend to try not to correlate the ridiculousness of one’s belief to their intelligence as some incredibly smart people in this world believe incredibly stupid things, but this is a struggle for me. How can so many seemingly intelligent people believe this nonsense? How?? I mean....wha? A Democratic run, Satan worshipping, cannibalistic, child-blood drinking (to help bring eternal youth) pedophilic cabal?

I can’t even say that out loud without laughing my ass off. The degree of delusion and absolute absence of even a momentary bit of introspection and application of critical thinking skills that would immediately relegate this nonsense to the garbage where it belongs is beyond astonishing.

HOW are people so stupid? I really need to read a study on this one. It’d be much easier to accord this the laughter in contemptuous dismissal this earns, were it not so widely believed. What a horrific indictment of our educational system.

Such gullible morons LMAO.

I'm glad that today ended up being a peaceful one, and this is the outcome I was hoping for.

Many of the extremists that ran the Capitol have been dropping like flies (getting arrested), for starters; and others are getting caught online as well for exposed plots and plans. I figure after all the heightened security hype that anyone else would chicken out.

Also, heightened security. I'm sure no one had access whatsoever to the inauguration route that was not intended to be there.

I don't know if this will be the end of the Qanon crowd.

I mean...if you're stupid enough to believe any of that stuff, then you also lack the critical thought to realise when you've lost.

That's because Alex does not even believe his own shit, he's in it for the money, and the Q nutjobs are nothing but competition.

yes and no. right now neo nazi,right wing extremest and such are trying to recruit this people .

@MirkoS77:

I hope you're doing better! 🙇

Nah, QAnon will continue. Just need a new guy who they can promote as the next dictator.

White supremacists are trying to figure out how to lure them over. But some are disillusioned which isn't a bad thing. Now they need to learn how to educate themselves with facts and not rumors/propaganda.

@nepu7supastar7: managing. Discharge from hospital inpatient rehab tomorrow. Long road of therapy but out in a about a day, outpatient to come. Can kinda walk all screwy.

Looking forward to getting home. This whole ordeal has been like a two week sobriety test. 😂Miss my PC and keyboard for the boards.

Thanks for the kind thoughts! 🙏

Those people are stupid but sure most know after the storming of the capitol that once the national guard was deployed it would be suicidal to try.

LMAO

SAVE US FRUM DEH DEYVUHL

Wouldn't be surprised if she's a local. Lots of those folks around.

Really, they seem unbelievably stupid...

@warmblur: The degree of emotional manipulation and control that’s taken hold is unsettling to see. These people just need to breathe and understand the sun will continue to rise and set. They have been manipulated for years on end so it’s impossible for them to see. It is sad.

Granted, I wasn’t in much better shape on the night of Trump’s election four years prior, but I cried for my parents in feeling like I had lost them (or never had ever known them to begin with). I couldn’t understand how they supported, much less admired (which they do) someone like Trump. It wasn’t about ideological differences or the country, it was an issue of reconciling the character of those who raised me with the one Trump demonstrates. It hurt, and still does. But that person is living in downright delusion. Laying here in the hospital, I overheard two woman nurses talking last night:

“I don’t have a president anymore...”

“I know, right? Not a legitimate one, anyway...”

This is a sickness. It really is. Mass delusion has a grip on our society currently. I’d engage them, but certainly not in such a context where I’m a patient and depend on their care.

I don't know man. People been waiting for Jesus to return for 2 millennia and they are still happy throwing money at that belief system.

@silentchief: Yeah, so much attention on them....BUT...that tends to happen when that minority breaks into the Capitol during session in an attempt to assassinate a Vice President and an entire party’s elected officials.

@MirkoS77: I lost my parents to Trumpism and I agree with you that the hardest part is reconciling who they are as people, and I’m left wondering both were they always that way and how much of it is imbedded in me.

No we don't have to respect white supremacists, terrorists storming the Capitol, and the lack of accountability. Some are doubling down on the election fraud lies. And frankly if you susceptible to believing insanity without studying facts I will not respect you.

Why have laws at all then?

The saddest part about this is Trump is most likely going to get away with the insurrection and not only that but he will run again in 4 years and probably win. What we have now is a nice break from the madness but the trash in this country isn't going to go away it's going to mutate. It's super depressing but I can easily see Trump winning again half of this country wants a dictator wannabe.

It's incredible hearing the left talk about lack of accountability? You have ignored insurrection all summer long. From mass Vandalism , murder to even taking over a police station. Even as we speak now leftwing protest continue in Oregon ( apparently they hate that Biden called for Unity.)

This guy talked about reconciling with his parents( who probably didn't storm the Capitol) and your comparing them to white supremacists and terrorists?

They didn't really give a shit when a radical minority takes over a police station in Seattle and divided several city blocks into their own town. There is insanity on both sides don't be fooled.

I know I'm some random forum poster and it doesn't really matter what I say. But don't let the bullshit of politics effect how you view your loved ones. Pretty pathetic for anyone to lose friends and family over any of this. And if your cutting people out of your life the blame is on you.

Protests and riots are not insurrection. One is legitimate and the other is criminal. But they are not at any point equal to storming the Capitol to overturn an election. And only a fool would equate those two.

You need accountability. Drop that part and this will happen again.

You won't get unity without accountability either. But yes, a message needs to be sent for the future. If the GOP doesn't want to defend the country, they have no right to a political party. And I'd say that if the Democrats had done this as well.