Virginia Heffernan: Reports of QAnon’s death aren’t exaggerated
QAnon is hardly the first conspiracy theory to sweep the nation.
That’s why QAnon, who made a messiah out of former President Donald Trump, was always bound to lose steam. It will follow the arc of furious, loopy-loo American conspiracy theories that have existed since before the Civil War. Cults like QAnon burn bright, and they fade fast.
QAnon’s demise, in fact, is well underway. Its leader, Q, a figure from the internet’s dark side, is now widely suspected to be the creation of Jim and Ron Watkins. The Watkins men are a seedy father-son duo in Asia who serve up pornography and hate speech online.
If the Watkins hypothesis is true, it means that Q is not exactly the patriotic, principled avenger crusading against sex trafficking that his followers have put their faith in.
Q has also been silent for seven months. The cryptic things Q used to post, tone poems that served as Rorschach tests for his followers’ projections, have stopped appearing. They no longer headline the rave at 8kun, the horrifying online image board, administered by Ron Watkins, where they first appeared.
QAnon’s prophecies have been abysmal failures. Early on, Q claimed “the storm” would take place on Nov. 3, 2017. Nothing extraordinary happened. He also repeatedly prophesied that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would quit the U.S. Senate. McCain served until he died in 2018.
People are also reading…
Q insisted that President Trump’s enemies would commit mass suicide on Feb. 10, 2018. Nope. Finally “the storm” was again prophesied, this time for President Joe Biden’s inauguration day, on Jan. 20. Zip.
.modal-backdrop.in { filter: alpha(opacity=90); opacity: .9; background-color: #fff; } #lee-services-modal .modal-content { box-shadow: 0px 7px 15px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12); border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border-radius: 2px; } #lee-services-modal .modal-body { min-height: 300px; border-top: 4px solid #333; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall { /*font-size: 50px;*/ z-index: 1; color: #000; opacity: .3; font-weight: 300; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; line-height: 50px; right: 15px; top: 0; position: absolute; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall span.return { display: none; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall span.x { font-size: 50px; display: inline-block; float: right; padding-left: 5px; margin-top: -3px; font-weight: 200; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall:hover { opacity: .6; } #lee-services-modal .dismiss-paywall:hover span.return { display: inline-block; } #lee-services-modal .modal-top { margin: 0 -15px; padding: 15px; z-index:0; } #lee-services-modal .modal-top .title { font-size: 26px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘serif-ds’, serif; } #lee-services-modal .modal-top .logo img { max-height: 50px; max-width: 220px; margin-bottom: 15px; } #lee-services-modal .return-home { margin-bottom: 5px; } #lee-services-modal .return-home a { color: #aaa; } #lee-services-modal a.text-link { color: #222; } #lee-services-modal .br { border-top: 1px solid #eee; margin: 0 auto 15px auto; max-width: 250px; box-shadow: 0 1px 0px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02); } @media (min-width: 992px) { #lee-services-modal.packages_1 { width: 650px; } #lee-services-modal.packages_1 .modal-top .title { font-size: 32px; line-height: 34px; padding: 0 15px; } #lee-services-modal.packages_2, #lee-services-modal.packages_3 { width: 80%; } #lee-services-modal.packages_4, #lee-services-modal.packages_5 { width: 90%; } } @media (min-width: 1200px) { #lee-services-modal.packages_2 { width: 650px; } #lee-services-modal.packages_3 { width: 900px; } #lee-services-modal.packages_4 { width: 1050px; } #lee-services-modal.packages_5 { width: 1200px; } } @media (max-width: 991px) { #lee-services-modal .modal-top .title { font-size: 24px; } }
.modal-backdrop.in { filter: alpha(opacity=90); opacity: .9; background-color: #fff; } #lee-registration-wall-modal .dismiss-regwall { font-size: 50px; margin-top: -15px; z-index: 1; color: #000; opacity: .3; font-weight: 300; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; right: 15px; position: absolute; cursor: pointer; } #lee-registration-wall-modal .dismiss-regwall:hover { opacity: .6; } #lee-registration-wall-modal .modal-content { box-shadow: 0 5px 15px rgba(0,0,0,.1); border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.1); border-radius: 3px; } #lee-registration-wall-modal { font-family: ‘Lato’, sans-serif; } #lee-registration-wall-modal .title { font-size: 24px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 5px; font-weight: 700; } #lee-registration-wall-modal .logo img { max-height: 50px; max-width: 250px; margin: 15px 0; } #lee-registration-wall-modal .tagline, #lee-registration-wall-modal .buttons { margin-bottom: 15px; } /* inline */ #lee-registration-wall-inline { position: relative; margin-bottom: 20px; display: none; } #lee-registration-wall-inline .lee-registration-panel { background-color: #f7f7f7; padding: 30px 20px; border-radius: 5px; } #lee-registration-wall-inline .lee-registration-redacted-overlay { height: 80px; width: 100%; top: -90px; z-index: 1; position: absolute; background: linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), #fff 80%); } #lee-registration-wall-inline .head { font-size: 36px; line-height: 36px; font-family: ‘Yrsa’, serif; } #lee-registration-wall-inline .tagline { padding-bottom: 15px; } #lee-registration-wall-inline .tagline a { color: #222; text-decoration: underline; } @media (max-width: 767px) { #lee-registration-wall-inline .lee-registration-redacted-overlay { display: none; } } #lee-registration-wall-modal .regwall-login-frame { padding: 0 10px; } #lee-regwall-login-frame { height: 500px; } @media (min-width: 767px){ #lee-regwall-login-frame { height: 360px; } #lee-registration-wall .modal-dialog { width: 770px; } }
That’s when Ron Watkins, who denies playing a part in the Q phenomenon, posted this to Telegram: “We gave it our all. Now we need to keep our chins up and go back to our lives as best we are able.”
Of course, the one historic event that QAnon DID help catalyze didn’t end well for the participants. On Jan. 6, Trump zealots, some in Q shirts or waving Q flags, stormed the U.S. Capitol.
QAnoners who are still on board aren’t sure what any of it means anymore. Some have stopped talking about Trump and now just preach antisemitism. Others urge supporters to take on debt because somehow the future belongs to cryptocurrency and the Iraqi dinar. Orthodox Q types, whose numbers are diminishing, are presumably still waiting for tribunals for Trump’s enemies and, of course, the storm.
But then late last month, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, one possible heir apparent to the Q empire, dismissed some of the most popular Q memes at a Dallas Q convention. “There are no military tribunals that’s magically going to solve this problem for us,” she said.
And though Q used to urge followers to “trust the plan,” Powell announced, “I don’t have any evidence that there’s some grand underlying plan.”
With Jan. 6 still fresh in our minds, and with the cultural ascendancy of next-gen conspiracists such as Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Louie Gohmert of Texas, it’s easy to miss evidence that QAnon’s power is waning.
Believe it: QAnon’s coherence, allure and leadership are over. Trump has retired. Many QAnoners are now behind bars.
Of course, that’s not the end of dangers posed by fanatical groups. It might not be QAnon next time, but extremist ideologies and paranoid fantasies will always captivate the dispossessed.
And if we’re still battling a cult that’s defeated, we’re in strategic trouble. Not only will we have failed to learn from Q’s unraveling, but we also won’t be able to recognize the next catastrophe, let alone prevent it.
Virginia Heffernan is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
#pu-email-form-opinion-email { clear: both; background-color: #fff; color: #222; background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 15px 20px; margin-bottom: 40px; border-top: 4px solid rgba(0,0,0,.8); border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.2); display: none; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email, #pu-email-form-opinion-email p { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email h1 { font-size: 24px; margin: 15px 0 5px 0; font-family: “serif-ds”, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email .lead { margin-bottom: 5px; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email .email-desc { font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; opacity: 0.7; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email form { padding: 10px 30px 5px 30px; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email .disclaimer { opacity: 0.5; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 100%; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email .disclaimer a { color: #222; text-decoration: underline; } #pu-email-form-opinion-email .email-hammer { border-bottom: 3px solid #222; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; padding: 0 10px 5px 10px; margin-bottom: -5px; font-size: 16px; }
