Thread by @_MAArgentino

1/ Let me re-share this article that @AmarAmarasingam and I wrote for Religion Dispatches about the failure of prophecy since we've now arrived to March 4th which was the most recent prophetic date for QAnon religiondispatches.org/qanons-predict…

2/ Here is a recap of what the general narrative about the fourth is, which is basically it is a combination of QAnon and Sovereign Citizen narratives), that believed the inauguration of President Trump would be today

https://twitter.com/_MAArgentino/status/1359689997796990976the

3/ what's important to examine is the way influencers initially promoted this specific conspiracy theory in December and subsequently picked up momentum in January around the inauguration, but influencers have been trying to walk back from it and call it a false flag recently.

4/ What occurred was that influencers were using conspiratorial ploys as the way of knitting together and maintaining the integrity of the community following the loss of the election, Trump's twitter access and January 6th.

5/ To that end QAnon influencers used this conspiracy theory as a way to bring people together following a series of loses. What they didn't realize in all likelihood is the legs that this conspiracy theory would have.

6/ Considering the impact of recent events on the QAnon movement, adherents would be looking for anything to maintain their ideological belief rather than dealing with the meaning of failure.

7/ Therefore when the influencers in the movement crafted this narrative the rank and file adherents ran with the conspiracy theory and it's just been there.

8/ Moving to platforms like Telegram or other alternative platforms there's a growing narrative overlap between the Sovereign citizen movement and QAnon, so the adaptation of solving citizen language is no surprising to see.

9/ Nevertheless, SovCit language created a historical base to provide more "evidence" to support this possibility. To that end as we got closer to March 4th we saw more and more of the influencers of the movement pulling back away from The Conspiracy theory.

10/ Like with the JFK Jr. is Q conspiracy theory, though Q and influencers called it fake, rank and file members ran with it. March 4th is another example of this effect: the QAnon movement can function and create content with out the need of Q or Influencers.

11/ Influencers tried to call it a false flag and distance themselves from the date and avoid any repercussion if an incident would happen. I think the amount of arrest that took place following the insurrection does act as a deterring force for groups like QAnon.

12/ However, we now arrive to the day where nothing will happen, no secret inauguration and the community needs to deal with another trauma of faith. To that end i'm going to see how the community reacts over the next 24 to 48 hours.

13/ It really comes down to this: is there going to be another tangible goal post that they could move or are they going to have to move to the next phase of grief and accept that they have lost and thus adapt to a new type of conflict mentality as a way of continuing the war.

14/ There's a lot of possibilities on how it influencer could spin this; however, only time will tell what will stick with the adherents. Ultimately I think we might see QAnon loose some of the less committed adherents but again that is something that's very hard to predict.

15/ I also think what is going to be important to keep in mind is we are going to see the community shift (don't expect the same but look for the next iteration) once more it may provide avenues for adherence to be recruited into other movements

16/ It might also just let them find another conspiratorial community that has a little more hope than one may have in QAnon right now considering the losses they have taken ideologically nevertheless influencers will try to find a way to the goal post.

17/ a lot of these influencers have or had a revenue stream around QAnon and it's something that they wish to maintain; therefore they are going to find something else. Will it stick? Who knows.

18/ There is a resiliency that is built into being a QAnon adherent: which is the fact that there is a strong community that has been built that it's not only on one platform but across multiple platforms and across multiple countries.

19/ To that end even if there is a failure of prophecy there is going to be a resiliency to failure due to the fact that the movement has provided a way for adherence to build networks of friends and peers.

20/ This is something important: though you may not fully believe in an ideology or you see that your ideology is failing to deliver what it has promised, there is
a way for you to continue your participation because you do not want to lose relationships that you've built.

21/ QAnon adherents have very likely have lost contact with friends and family (see r/QAnonCasualties) so to adherents their peers and friends in this community are the only individuals that may be interacting with them.

22/ This also might provide an exit avenue, but there are so many other factors at play that this may not be guaranteed.