Member-only story
Fuck Q: Conspiracists Beyond Redemption?
How can we deradicalise cultists when we can’t even look at them?
The world of the cult known as QAnon ended today, not with a storm, but with a whimper.
Without going too deep down the rabbit hole, Q adherents basically believed Trump was working in secret to overthrow the Deep State, with the end coming in a grand finale known as “the Storm” or “Great Awakening,” where all the enemies of the people would be rounded up and taken down. Various dates for this Storm have come and gone — Q first suggested the Storm was in motion in Nov. 2017 — but with the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States at noon today, the clock ran out.
Nevertheless, until the last possible minute, Q adherents believed.
On Twitter, screenshots of Q chatrooms and message boards circulated alongside the pomp and ceremony of the incoming administration, and the lonely, defeated farewell of the outgoing POTUS, who delivered his final speech to a smattering of loyalists at Joint Base Andrews, MD.
