# What happens to QAnon after the non-apocalypse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 14, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613 "2020-09-14T22:21:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/21 "2021-01-20T18:44:18Z")
I’m sure new conspiracy theories will sprout in the wake of Trump’s departure. Biden will be “revealed” as the mastermind of the satanic child sex slavery ring, and was voted in by the most super-secret voting hacker cabal that bribed the inspectors with help from dead Venezualan dictators. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/22 "2021-01-20T18:47:30Z")
Actually, the New York Times has an [article](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/technology/qanon-inauguration.html) that some QAnon believers are considering the possibility that maybe they were wrong about Joe Biden. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/23 "2021-01-20T18:54:28Z")
[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsMNea6W8AkRs-D.jpg) ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsMNea6W8AkRs-D.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/24 "2021-01-21T15:51:24Z")
Well, for those who are making money off of Q, they’re learning the fundamental lesson of making money off of CTs in general: Never tie it to any single real-world event, because when it doesn’t come to pass, you’re left scrambling to explain why it failed, and will lose at least a few marks who come to their senses. For the True Believers, Q will evolve the way _every_ CT eventually evolves: They will never admit they were wrong, but they will quietly incorporate this into the general background noise of the CT mindset. “You still think Oswald acted alone? You still think we landed on the Moon? You still think WTC7 fell because of fires? You still think Biden wasn’t a Satanic Cannibalistic Pedophile? Ha! Sheeple!” ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/25 "2021-01-21T16:26:04Z")
And to cement the illusion, Trump (through Biden) is undoing all of his own works! We knew he was clever, but even we didn’t expect this level of genius! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/26 "2021-01-21T18:03:36Z")
The qultists are going to need some time to arrive at a new conclusion here. There are many different options: 1. They were wrong all along (this will NOT be a popular choice) 2. Trump will be elected President again in 2024 and that was the plan all along 3. Trump will become President again in 2021, or the election will be overturned, through some ridiculous legality 4. Trump is in fact the President right now; this is already growing in popularity 5. Something else I mean, the Q thing wasn’t just wrong on January 20. Q has been wrong over and over and over; a LOT of predictions, most involving mass arrests, have been made, not happened, and simply vanished from their memories. The thing about cults is that they’re the opposite of thinking. When you think, you receive evidence and draw conclusions. When you’re in a cult, you draw a conclusion and apply only the evidence that fits it. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/27 "2021-01-21T19:02:51Z")
[This timeline of events from a 1954 UFO cult](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails) may be relevant: > - Before December 20. The group shuns publicity. Interviews are given only grudgingly. Access to Keech’s house is only provided to those who can convince the group that they are true believers. The group evolves a belief system—provided by the automatic writing from the planet Clarion—to explain the details of the cataclysm, the reason for its occurrence, and the manner in which the group would be saved from the disaster. > - December 20. The group expects a visitor from outer space to call upon them at midnight and to escort them to a waiting spacecraft. As instructed, the group goes to great lengths to remove all metallic items from their persons. As midnight approaches, zippers, bra straps, and other objects are discarded. The group waits. > - 12:05 am. December 21. No visitor. Someone in the group notices that another clock in the room shows 11:55. The group agrees that it is not yet midnight. > - 12:10 am. The second clock strikes midnight. Still no visitor. The group sits in stunned silence. The cataclysm itself is no more than seven hours away. > - 4:00 am. The group has been sitting in stunned silence. A few attempts at finding explanations have failed. Keech begins to cry. > - 4:45 am. Another message by automatic writing is sent to Keech. It states, in effect, that the God of Earth has decided to spare the planet from destruction. The cataclysm has been called off: “The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction.” > - Afternoon, December 21. Newspapers are called; interviews are sought. In a reversal of its previous distaste for publicity, the group begins an urgent campaign to spread its message to as broad an audience as possible. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/28 "2021-01-21T21:51:58Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Those dates came and went without incident, and yet the QAnon droolers believe it all even more. Sounds a lot like Jehovah’s Witnesses. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/29 "2021-01-21T21:58:41Z")
Oh, if you haven’t seen it, count yourself lucky. There’s a whole 12 point screed that basically says that because FDR or LBJ (I’ve seen both) changed the inauguration date from 3/4 to 1/20, the REAL inauguration day is going to be 3/4/21 when Trump will swoop in with JFK Jr (not really dead) and the military and smite them all down and become our ruler for life. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/30 "2021-01-22T01:54:20Z")
So I guess the 20th amendment was signed in a room that had a tasseled American flag or something? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/31 "2021-01-22T02:37:35Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > 1. They were wrong all along (this will NOT be a popular choice) > 2. Trump will be elected President again in 2024 and that was the plan all along > 3. Trump will become President again in 2021, or the election will be overturned, through some ridiculous legality > 4. Trump is in fact the President right now; this is already growing in popularity 1. Everything Q said was accurate, but the Satanic Pedophile Cannibal Conspiracy was to wily, and Trump couldn’t defeat them. Probably due to betrayal from within - a [“stab in the back”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth) from someone close to him that prevented his otherwise inevitable triumph. Not a good time to be Jared Kushner, I think - for more reasons than usual, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/32 "2021-01-22T03:07:52Z")
The idea that Trump was outwitted might not be possible for them to accept. ---
**Author:** ![Tilt-A-Whirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@Tilt-A-Whirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tilt-A-Whirl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/33 "2021-01-24T01:01:47Z")
I have a friend from high school who has become a Q follower. I unfollowed him on Facebook because I got sick of his idiotic posts, but I still go back and see what he’s up to. Before the inauguration he was full on with the Q stuff, his secret decoder ring was giving him all sorts of inside info about coded phrases and secret events. He was clearly very puffed up that he was so smart and in with the in crowd. Since the inauguration, he hasn’t posted any specific Q stuff, but he’s still posting lots of dimwitted far right wing nonsense from sub-OANN quality, reality adjacent, sources. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts back up with Q posts before long. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/34 "2021-01-24T14:24:25Z")
I am very curious about where the Q-followers will go now. I know a few. Sadly I am not of speaking terms with them, but I hear that many have lost faith in ‘The Donald’ to lead the great uprising of the righteous against the evil Deep State. His back pedaling after the invasion of the Capitol, condemining the ‘Patriots’ who he stoked up in the rally a few hours before seemed a betrayal of the cause. It seems to have broken their confidence and there are no more subtle signals to be decoded from the Twitter-in-Chief now that he is without his bull horn. One day, I expect, we will find out the story behind all of these Q-anon shennigans. Social media seems to be the natural home of the confidence trickster and I am sure there are plenty more waiting in the wings to take advantage of the gullible and the neurotic amongst us. The demise of Trumps’ credibility in the US and the conclusion of the campaign in the UK by Boris to ‘Get Brexit Done’ seems to have robbed populist nationalism of any flag to rally around. Both countries now have to deal with the damaging consequences of this very strange period in political history. There are a lot of lessons to be learnt from all of this. I do worry about the Q-Anon followers, they may be foolish, but some are also not in the best of mental health and their lives have been intoxicated by this obsession for some time now. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/35 "2021-01-24T20:24:05Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > I do worry about the Q-Anon followers, they may be foolish, but _ **some** _ are also not in the best of mental health and their lives have been intoxicated by this obsession for some time now. [emphasis added] “Some”. Surely you jest. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/36 "2021-01-24T21:09:12Z")
Now now. It’s true that “some” meth addicts have bad teeth too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/37 "2021-01-25T00:22:47Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “Q” has already made a number of huge predictions that never happened. There have been several dates upon which the whole thing was supposed to blow up with hundreds of arrests of Democratic leaders and celebrities, in some cases personally arrested by Trump himself. > > Those dates came and went without incident, and yet the QAnon droolers believe it all even more. There’s been social media posts for weeks, if not months, that those arrests have **already** happened. You just don’t know it because every single one of those dozens or hundreds of people have been replaced by body doubles. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/38 "2021-01-25T00:27:56Z")
Now that is a serious mental health issue. Or else the most spectacularly succesful psycho trolling in the history of online presence. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/39 "2021-01-25T01:01:00Z")
Once you understand that everybody, or at least everybody who matters, has been replaced by a shape-shifting lizard person, then suddenly it all snaps into focus. In Scientology terms, you’ve become “clear”: in possession of a scintillatingly discerning intellect devoid of bad mental habits. I just had a bad thought. A really, _really_, _ **really** _ bad thought. Does anyone think that Scientology is behind at least some part of the whole RW media / QAnon / disinformation / insanity / Trump phenomenon? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613/40 "2021-01-25T08:46:06Z")
Nah. Scientology has its own bizarre creed, which doesn’t line up at all with the constellation of beliefs revolving around Qanon’s black hole of insanity. Also, Scientology holds their scripture under copyright and fiercely defends it from disclosure in order to profit from its controlled publication; they wouldn’t distribute any part of it for free. They also aggressively inflate their declining membership numbers to protect their remaining whales from disillusionment; they’d be happy to claim the millions of new Qanon adherents if there were a connection. And they’re very busy fending off constant legal attacks trying to pry open the books on their investments and real-estate holdings to get a clear picture on exactly how much money is available for lawsuits claiming harm. Basically, Qanon is a free-floating, uncontrolled delusion, while Scientology is a tightly-leashed profit-oriented grift. I don’t see any reasonable connection between them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-qanon-after-the-non-apocalypse/920613.md?page=3)