‘Q’ Hasn’t Posted In Six Months—But Some QAnon Followers Still Keep The Faith
Topline
Six months have passed since “Q”—the anonymous user behind the QAnon conspiracy theory—last posted online, though some followers continue to believe their so-called leader will return.
A person brandishes a banner referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory during a alt-right rally on … [+]
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Key Facts
QAnon followers have anxiously awaited clues from Q—known as “Q drops”—since the self-described “government insider” first began posting on 4chan in 2017.
Between 2017 and 2020, Q posted nearly 5,000 cryptic messages.
Q’s last post came on December 8, about one month before the Capitol riot, which consisted of a link to a pro-Trump YouTube video (since deleted).
Previously, the longest Q was silent was about three months in 2019—when 4chan’s successor, 8chan, went offline—leading researchers to believe that December 8 was the final Q post.
Some Q adherents have kept the theory alive by continuing to scour old posts for new “clues,” and creating new spin-offs of the conspiracy theory.
Others believe Q will come back online, and continue to propose new dates for the coming of the “storm,” the so-called day when former President Donald Trump is supposed to take down a global Satanic child-sex trafficking ring run by Democrats and Hollywood actors.
Crucial Quote
Mike Rothschild, author of The Storm Is Upon Us, a book about QAnon, told Forbes he believes Q won’t post again. “I think the December 8 drop will be the last one, since the Q movement has outgrown the need for new drops,” Rothschild said. “The core prophecy of the Q movement is now Trump being restored to office, and Q offered up a picture of Trump as being incapable of losing—which doesn’t square well with the current situation.” However, Rothschild added it’s “entirely possible” that Q will come back if “the community really needed new drops to keep it moving forward.”
Key Background
Many QAnon believers lost faith after January 20, when President Joe Biden was inaugurated and their big day, predictably, never came. Since then, some have proposed new dates for when Trump will be reinstated, a conspiracy the former president reportedly has embraced. At a QAnon conference in Dallas last month, Mike Flynn—Trump’s former national security advisor who has expressed support for QAnon in the past—called for a Myanmar-style coup in the U.S. Flynn later walked back those comments. Many QAnon believers have expressed support for the so-called “Domino theory,” which is the idea that Arizona’s controversial election audit will prove there was fraud, handing the state to Trump, before a similar phenomenon will occur in other states, thereby vaulting the former president back into power.
Surprising Fact
It’s still not entirely clear who Q is. However, Ron Watkins, the administrator of 8kun, appeared to suggest he was the person behind the conspiracy theory after he mistakenly seemed to tip his hand during an HBO interview for a QAnon documentary that aired in April. Watkins later denied he was Q in a post on his Telegram channel.
Tangent
Most Q activity has moved underground after social media companies cracked down on the conspiracy in January following the Capitol riot. A report published by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab last month concluded that QAnon content is “evaporating” from the mainstream Web.
Further Reading
A QAnon revelation suggests the truth of Q’s identity was right there all along (Washington Post)
QAnon at a Crossroads: Leaders Try to Rein In the Crazy (Daily Beast)
QAnon Content Is ‘Evaporating’ From The Internet, New Report Finds (Forbes)
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