Far-right online movements are fragmenting in the wake of last week’s Capitol riot, while some radical anti-government movements show signs of disillusionment with the relatively straightforward approach of some QAnon conspiracy theorists amid warnings of future violence.
Forum users who openly helped coordinate the January 6 riot and called for the insurrection, including 4chan and TheDonald, are increasingly agitated by QAnon supporters, who still deny that President Donald Trump will no longer be in the Oval Office after January 20.
QAnon supporters, who believe Trump is secretly saving the world from a cabal of child-eating Satanists, have identified the inauguration day as the last resistance and mistakenly think he will force a 10-day national blackout that ends in mass execution of his political enemies and a second Trump term.
Several QAnon supporters were arrested after breaking into the Capitol last week, including Jacob Chansley, whose lawyer said his client believed he was “heeding our president’s call”.
QAnon believers have spent the past week sending chains on Facebook and via text message, often removing QAnon’s origins from conspiracy theory, in an effort to prepare friends and family for what they believe to be the next day of judgment. .
According to researchers studying the effects of the QAnon movement in real life, the false belief in a secret plan for January 20 is angering pro-Trump and anti-government militant groups, who believe that magical thinking is counterproductive for future insurrections.
Travis View, which hosts the QAnon-debunking QAnon Anonymous podcast, said Q supporters are hoping for a “miracle that prevents Biden from opening,” and is starting to irritate those eager for more conflicts in the real world.
“I saw some Trump supporters punishing people who promote QAnon conspiracy theories,” he said. “It appears that some Trump supporters are reevaluating their coalition and judging the QAnon wing.”
The split became apparent in extremist forums like TheDonald, where QAnon supporters fled to an identical sister site due to constant reporting of their fantastic thoughts on the original site. The new website is named The Great Awakening, the day of the mythical trial of mass arrests and executions.
It is also evident in viral posts from TikToks and Facebook in the more conventional parts of the web.
“I can’t believe the number of credulous people who are still out there saying that Q will rush to the rescue in the next five days and that you will see military courts,” said a user in a viral TikTok video. “Look, I’m a huge supporter of Trump and I enjoyed reading all the things about the deep state and I believe most of them.”
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who frequently fought with QAnon supporters, also criticized conspiracy theorists in a viral video earlier this week.
QAnon supporters have predicted blackouts for years, citing posts from “Q”, the false digital prophet at the center of conspiracy theory. Q frequently posted about routine interruptions to major services, alluding to them as possible warning signs of the Great Awakening. In August 2018, Q posted three times about disruptions to the Xbox Live video game service, asking himself, “Does anyone have any problems with their X-Box Live accounts?” to followers of conspiracy theory.
Although several specific doomsday days passed without any prophecy coming true, experts studying QAnon believe that another prophecy that failed on Inauguration Day could further decimate the movement.
Fredrick Brennan, who created the 8chan website where “Q” posts and has spent the past two years trying to remove the website for its ties to white supremacist terrorist attacks, said he believed that reality could devastate the movement on the day of inauguration.
“This week has been extremely demoralizing and that will be the last straw,” he said. “Even though at the moment Q is based on Donald Trump, it is certainly possible for a significant faction to rise up who believes he was in a deep state all along and thwarted the plan.”