The inauguration was bereft of mass arrests and Trump no longer holds the power of the presidency. We examine how QAnon followers are dealing with a moment of intense cognitive dissonance.
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Welcome, listener, to Chapter 127 of the QAnon Anonymous Podcast, the episode about QAnon's Great Disappointment.
As always, we are your host, Jake Rokitansky, For the last few years, QAnon followers have regarded Donald Trump's election as a kind of miracle.
He ascended to the highest office in defiance of the polls, the media, the Republican establishment, the so-called experts, and especially Hillary Clinton.
The people who had faith in Trump were right, and all the smug elites were wrong.
So in January 20th approach, QAnon followers expected a similar miracle to keep Trump in office.
Except this time they weren't hoping that just the polls were wrong.
They were hoping that a certified election would be invalidated and would be essentially ruin American democracy.
They wanted to put the election into the tenant machine, and it comes out backwards.
I have not seen that movie, but I'll take your word for it.
Yeah, well, that's the whole concept right there.
You don't need more.
Now, obviously, that didn't happen, which means that we now have a failed prophecy on our hands.
So this is very exciting because, you know... This is the kind of shit that gets Travis going.
So this is incredible!
We have a great disappointment!
No, we have an incredible disconfirming event from people who are highly committed to their belief system.
It's time to put them under the microscope.
So before we dive into the specifics of how QAnon is handling this tumultuous time, I think it would be valuable to take a step back and go to Professor View's Social Psychology Night School and review some theory on the matter.
But it's day right now.
Well, this is... It's night somewhere.
I have to use my imagination?
That's right.
I assume fans of this podcast are familiar with the classic work on failed prophecy and cognitive dissonance, the 1956 book When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger.
This book documents the behavior of a small UFO cult called the Seekers.
The Seekers predicted that the entire United States would be destroyed in a great flood on December 21st, 1955.
However, the cult's leader, who went by the name Marion Keech, claimed that his followers would be spared because friendly aliens would whisk them away on the UFO.
The group was stunned to see the day of Armageddon roll by without incident.
But this failed prophecy did not deter them from their passionate belief in the cause.
Keech then declared that the apocalypse was called off by God because the Seekers were just such good people.
So instead of feeling embarrassed or mistaken, the Seekers actually became even more convinced that they were doing good work.
What's more is that these events drove the members to spread the message of their cause and seek publicity for their group.
So...
Not only were they wrong, they wanted to tell the world about their obviously now certainly proven wrong sort of cause and belief system.
Well, you know what they say, once wrong, twice right.
From this case study of the Seekers, Festinger developed what he called his theory of cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance describes the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes.
Festinger illustrated his point using the example of a chronic smoker.
If the smoker learns that smoking is bad for their health, they will experience dissonance assuming that they value their health.
This dissonance is painful and they will be driven to reduce this dissonance so they don't have to suffer the anxiety, shame, or stress that comes with it.
Now, the fact that people are driven to reduce cognitive dissonance is key.
Reducing dissonance isn't merely a preference.
It's not something people like.
People are driven to reduce dissonance in the same way that they are driven to eat food or driven to remove a painful thorn in their foot.
We are weak, sensitive creatures who need to feel like our beliefs agree with each other so that we can reach cognitive consonance.
Right.
So the harder option there is, of course, to change your theories so that they match reality, right?
But the easier option is, you know, maybe actually you aren't wrong.
Maybe it's everyone else who's wrong.
You don't have to change anything.
Or you could stare off into the distance and just go, What is theory?
What?
And start to just take apart the pillars of reality.
That's actually maybe an easier one.
Yeah, you can just generate, I mean, what's amazing about people is that they can just generate their own little mind palace that looks any way, any sort of coherent way that they prefer.
Now, what's interesting is that there are multiple ways to reduce cognitive dissonance.
To return to the example of the smoker, the most obvious way they could reduce dissonance is by not smoking anymore.
You know, you realize that smoking is unhealthy, you stop smoking, done.
But, of course, there are other ways.
Alternatively, they could choose to believe that the negative health effects of smoking are exaggerated.
Or they could emphasize the positive effects of smoking, like stress reduction or weight control.
Or they might believe that the health risks of smoking are minor when compared to other health dangers such as car accidents or junk food.
Or they may simply believe that the pleasure of smoking outweighs the health risks.
But the smoker will do something cognitively upon learning that smoking is harmful because, again, reducing cognitive dissonance is a human drive.
One of the surprising claims of Fesslinger's theory is that failed prophecy can lead to doubling down in the belief system.
He actually identified five conditions that have to be present for this to happen.
1.
Belief in the prediction must be held with deep conviction.
2.
Members must have committed themselves to the prediction by engaging in important actions that are difficult to undo, like, you know, separating yourself from your family members, for example.
3.
The prediction must be specified enough that it must be clearly disconfirmed.
4.
There must be undeniable evidence that the prediction was wrong.
5.
Members must have social support from fellow believers.
president after January 20th. Four, there must be undeniable evidence that the prediction was wrong.
And five, members must have social support from fellow believers. Like this is a group project.
Dissonance theory has been critiqued, refined, and built upon for the past 65 years. For example,
Festinger emphasized the role of proselytization in reducing cognitive dissonance.
But as sociologist Lorne Dawson explains, researchers have since described two more strategies, rationalization and reaffirmation.
There's actually some interesting research on how groups rationalize away failed prophecy.
They do this in at least four ways.
Spiritualization, the test of faith, human error, or blaming others.
Now, in the spiritualization rationalization, the group says that the prophecy actually was fulfilled, but in the spiritual realm instead of the physical realm.
So, it was all true, but like true in our hearts or something.
Yeah, right.
It's the Millerites saying, some of the Millerites saying, actually Jesus did come back.
Exactly.
In the Test of Faith, the group states that the prophecy was never supposed to happen because it was actually a spiritual test designed to weed out the true believers from those who are unworthy.
In the Human Error Rationalization, the group argues that it wasn't the prophecy that was wrong, but rather it was the humans who interpreted the prophecy who were wrong.
So like in my experience, actually, QAnon followers do this most frequently.
Like, whenever they get a prediction wrong or something wrong, it's always because they misread the Q drops, not because the Q drops are worthless.
The baker fails.
The baker fails.
In fact, the baker's almost there to be blamed if it fails.
Exactly.
That's why you need the lair.
Yeah, Q didn't let us down.
We let down Q. Ask not what Q can drop for you, but ask what you can drop for Q.
I don't know what this new newsy voice that I've been doing lately is.
I'm really sorry to the listener.
I apologize.
And of course, there is the blaming of others.
In this rationalization, the group argues that they didn't actually get a prophecy wrong.
Instead, it was actually outsiders who misinterpreted their statements, and they're perfect.
The third strategy of cognitive dissonance reduction is reaffirmation.
In this approach, the group doesn't necessarily need to spread the word of their cause or rationalize away failed prophecy.
Instead, the group brushes aside and reaffirms the value and benefits of being part of the group.
So this is literally the, it was the friends we made along the way.
Yeah.
I wanted to open this episode with a quick review of dissonance theory because it's a helpful framework for me to understand what's going on with QAnon followers.
And also because I often see people who are just totally baffled at the behavior of QAnon people.
And the reason they behave like that is because they are human beings, and this is unfortunately how human beings behave.
This is just, I do it, everyone does it.
This is just how we function.
Bearing all of that in mind, let's take a look at how QAnon handled the days leading up to the inauguration and beyond.
There were a flurry of different theories and reactions causing the QAnon community to fragment and weaken, at least temporarily.
Many QAnon followers, as is now a yearly tradition, made a big deal out of the fact that January 19th is International Popcorn Day.
This is of course the reference to the get your popcorn meme.
They just have to sit back and enjoy the show because dramatic happenings are happening through your phone or your television or your computer screen.
Hilariously, the main meme that that comes from is actually a pedophile eating popcorn.
Most of the QAnon theories centered around martial law.
QAnon followers made special note of the fact that tens of thousands of National Guard troops were present in Washington, D.C.
prior to the inauguration.
Now, clearly the troops were there because the government didn't want to risk another embarrassing and dangerous incident like the Capitol insurrection on January 6th.
But just as a quick side note, it was a real shame.
I don't know if you read about how the National Guard troops were forced to sleep in garages and they were packed so tightly that they were forced to spread COVID amongst their ranks.
Thank you for your service.
Now sleep in piles like fucking Boy Scouts and then go find a fucking couch.
Fuck off.
You gotta love the Third Amendment.
I'm going to become like a Third Amendment person.
I'm all for the Third Amendment.
Between Trump not calling them in, and then the Democrats just being like, yeah, come in, but we're not going to look into where you might need to sleep.
Yeah, I know.
The Republicans already accused the Democrats of hating the troops.
You'd think they would overcompensate a little and get them a few cots.
Yeah, a reporter was posting photos of these people and was kind of interacting with them, and they're fucking children.
They're 18 and 19.
Jesus.
Yeah, I know.
And then, yeah, they're getting fucking COVID doing sleepovers with each other in the halls of Congress and then being kicked out with nowhere to sleep the next day.
So just I mean, we should we don't have a better metaphor.
The change of the guard.
And then the first thing they do is just like tell the national make it clear to the National Guardsmen that they are Kleenex.
Yeah.
Yeah.
QAnon followers claim that this military force was actually supposed to arrest Biden.
I know.
That would be so funny.
That would be a surprise, yeah.
Baked Alaska was not able to do it.
We're sending in the National Guard.
Yeah.
One popular post on 8kun explained this theory.
Trump is daring them to enter the fence to finish the coup.
They must all know there is a chance that if they enter the gates and go inside the fence, they never come out.
Even better is they literally made a prison complex out of Capitol Hill in front of everyone's eyes
and the left and MSM cheered them on. Is this why Biden pushed his rehearsal? Are they debating
whether Trump is bluffing? They have to decide. Go inside the fence line and risk never coming out
or concede and try to make a deal. Checkmate. You want the presidency? Come and get it.
I mean, I guess they got it.
In early January, QAnon followers stocked up on food and water on the assumption that
there would be a 10 day long blackout starting on January 20th.
So this is the fabled 10 days of darkness in QAnon lore, which they have been waiting to happen.
They just mean we're gonna party so hard during that period we're all gonna black out.
Be a blackout.
And they're right!
Well, which they've also said has come and gone in other areas.
They said it applied when 8kun went down or 8chan went- They use it all the time.
It's a good explainer.
Yeah, to explain anything.
A thing is down.
Ah, days of darkness!
QAnon followers assumed that the only national communication systems would come from the emergency broadcasting system.
Ben Collins of NBC News reported that QAnon followers even bought ham radios for themselves and others so that they could still communicate with their loved ones after everything went dark.
Mr. President, please turn me into a radio beacon.
One theory going around was that all communications would get shut down, like the internet and radio and television and everything, and then what would happen is that they would play basically all the horrendous evidence of crimes against humanity that the cabal did on a loop on the emergency broadcast system.
It is like a Fallout mission, honestly.
Like an Amber Alert.
So your phone becomes a speaker phone and Donald Trump just tells you what the cabal has done to it.
Basically, it's a fantasy of Donald Trump brainwashing the entire country by having total control of all communications.
It's not communist China unless there's a pole and a speaker at the top.
And instead, of course, Trump would just complain about petty grievances.
Yes, of course.
It's me.
It's me again.
It's me again.
It looks like Lady Gaga's done it again, folks.
She's a mess.
Oprah, are you hearing me?
Don't return my calls.
I bet you hear me now.
He would definitely use the system by mistake to broadcast his private calls.
I'm seeing my Uber Eats order was cancelled.
I didn't receive a message from the courier.
One viral message initially posted to Parler on January 10th claimed falsely that Trump was at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, which is currently a Space Force installation.
I didn't know.
Apparently, this is one of the installations that they gave to the Space Force.
Oh, they're confusing it with Space Mountain.
Yeah.
I can't fucking believe there's a Space Force and it's real and it's going to be like a lasting legacy of Donald Trump.
Yeah.
I'm just mad they didn't call it Space Marines, like the Special Forces.
That would have been cooler.
That would have infringed on aliens IP.
Here's what that viral message said.
Things are moving today.
Trump is at Cheyenne Mountain as we speak, looking at the evidence taken from Pelosi's laptop real time.
My sources say Pelosi was stopped at the border last night at 1155 and will be headed to an undisclosed location pending the tribunals and trials.
Sidney Powell and Lin Wood are in front of military judges today.
195,000 sealed indictments.
I know, there are higher numbers out there, but not all are related to this op.
And there will be sweeping arrests before the weekend is over.
They're like, let's make the number realistic so people believe it.
And explain to them, I know you're expecting higher.
This is unbelievable.
Just this part of the op is 200,000 simultaneous arrests.
I think it's a good acknowledgement that maximalism is our main aesthetic now.
It's like, I know this isn't a million, and so it seems paltry.
Everyone should stock up today and be prepared to hunker down for 10 to 12 days while the Trump team takes action and the new government is put in place.
For those wondering, Pence did his duty.
He did not betray Trump.
Without his actions, there would have been no insurrection.
Now Trump has them where he wants them.
Share this.
Share on Twitter and other social media outlets so Real Patriots stay strong and stay the course and keep faith in Pence.
The storm is upon us.
What I thought was amazing about this message is that it's openly pro-insurrection.
It basically says that what happened was that horrible incident that accomplished nothing and was a disaster was good.
QAnon followers on TikTok openly fantasized about a mass arrest event happening on the 20th.
So on January 20th, when the inauguration takes place, and Trump's there and Biden's there, and Trump gets up during the inauguration, And shakes Biden's hand, says, you're fired.
And the helicopters come and they're swarming and the feds are there and
they arrest Biden and all the congressional people that have committed
treason and you're thinking, wow, did that just happen?
He just opened up his phone and he started fantasizing into the camera.
And he got thousands of people who liked his open improvisational fantasy about mass arrests.
What I love most is that they want the arrest.
They don't want Joe Biden to be arrested in a straightforward way.
They want it to be cool, right?
They want Trump to say, you're fired, and then there's fireworks.
They shoot Joe Biden out of a cannon at the moon.
It's literally like TV, right?
Because he says that on The Apprentice.
Exactly.
They want it to be like TV.
They want politics to be like the TV.
Tom Clancy meets The Apprentice is where they're heading here.
That's where they've always been, I think.
Since QAnon followers were booted off of every platform, Telegram became a popular way to LARP and spread disinformation.
There was one highly popular Telegram channel impersonating General John Hyten, who is the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the country's second highest ranking military officer.
This Telegram channel attracted more than 220,000 subscribers in 24 hours, Which, I mean, this is not work.
You could open up a Telegram channel and then claim that you are a real-life general and then start posting as that general and then get hundreds of thousands of people to just play along with you and believe you.
The product was placed on the market and the customers did rejoice.
That's right.
Provide a better alternative product!
Or be gone.
Yeah, I was just thinking, like, it would be so smart to grift with this and be like, also, you know, if you're a patriot and you want to contribute to the cause, here's my, like, Venmo.
Yeah.
General Three Stars.
How much money you'd get.
QAnon.
Real Q. Now, that channel's popularity was probably boosted by the fact that posts from it were shared and discussed on Twitter and Facebook.
So, like, this spread out quickly, like, screenshots of, like, oh, like, what, do you see what General Hyten said?
Kind of stuff.
Mm-hmm.
Several posts from the fake General Hyten channel spread QAnon terms including Great Awakening and The Storm.
Another included an image of Trump with the caption, It'll be over soon.
While another post asserted, They all know what is coming.
One of the comments included an image of armed, uniformed soldiers alongside the caption, Stay in your homes.
On the day before the inauguration, Hyten's real-life spokesperson told CNN that the Pentagon was actively working to get the account removed, describing it as an absolute fake.
Can you imagine the scrambling in the Pentagon trying to get this stupid LARPer on Telegram shut down?
No, actually, when I searched for that channel recently, I wasn't able to find it.
I don't know if it's because it was deleted or because it can't be found in the search function anymore.
But I did find lots of smaller accounts claiming to be General Hyten that had a few thousand followers.
We are Hyten.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, interestingly, even before the big day arrived, some QAnon followers were already explaining why Trump wouldn't actually be inaugurated on that date.
The true date of Biden's inauguration, they claimed, was going to be March 4th.
What?
I know, right?
They just they pushed the... Has that ever happened in history?
Yes, that had happened in history.
That was the original date of the inauguration prior to the 20th Amendment.
Wow.
So that's what they were basing it on?
Yep.
They're going back.
They're rolling it back, baby.
Exactly.
Gold standard.
The Great Reset.
So concerningly, they actually arrived at this date by borrowing arguments from the sovereign citizen movement.
So they claimed that the 20th Amendment, which set the current inauguration date, isn't valid and therefore the original inauguration date is the true one.
I wonder how long they had that prepared.
You know, like, when this happens in three months, we're going to have to, to get more clout or whatever, we're going to delay it.
Well, at least the cynical ones.
Because I'm assuming at this point that a lot of the higher-ups, in terms of Q influencers, are, like, cynical.
Or at least they understand their grift is leaving, and it's like, how do I continue?
That seems like it was, it was, like, at least relatively researched.
Again, like, it borrowed from, like, in the sort of a weird kind of established theory.
that argued basically every single amendment after the 14th didn't count.
And basically they believe this because in 1871 the United States was incorporated and was no longer actually a country.
So one QAnon promoter named Michelle Ann Titler, who is most famous for videos of herself dancing in a Q shirt, broke this theory down in a video.
A peaceful transition is coming.
Trump will not be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20th.
Trump will take office as the 19th President of the United States on March 4th under the Restored Republic.
Let me explain.
You believe you live in a nation called United States of America.
This nation hasn't existed since 1871, when this country ceased to be a nation and became a corporation belonging to the city of London.
Every time you see an American flag with a gold fringe and gold tilt attached to it, It represents the corporation, not the country.
This is the reason you can never make progress financially.
This is why the law always seems to be against the average citizen, while the rich and the elite literally get away with murder and worse things.
If Biden, Harris, Pence, Pelosi, etc.
are arrested for their crimes before January 20th, there will be no one to assume the presidency.
Since Trump has not been certified as the presidential winner by Congress, he cannot remain president.
If there is no president on January 20th, the corporation known as the United States of America will be dissolved.
The military will then become the guardians of the nation during the transition.
People will then have irrefutable proof that the election was stolen by foreign entities and that Trump was chosen by a landslide.
Trump then assumes the presidency as the 19th president of the United States.
The last president elected before America became a corporation was Ulysses S. Grant.
Republic restored.
It's interesting how it's like, because, you know, the Make America Great Again, the response is like, when was America great?
And I guess for them, it's like, you know, the late 19th century, like right after, you know, right after reconciliation or, you know, Reconstruction, which I mean, I guess it's good that at least there's the 13th Amendment in there.
If you think that giving these people a time machine is not going to result in a very short stop at that period so they can go before the Civil War and change the outcome, you are wrong.
These people will absolutely do South Rises again when they're bored of fucking late 19th century.
Sovereign citizens, they're incrementalists.
They'll chop off... They'll take everything from you slowly, though.
They'll get to the 13th eventually.
Knuckle by knuckle, they'll chop off all your fingers.
Christ, her energy is amazing, though.
She is...
So full of life.
She's so joyful.
She's so happy.
Glowing!
She is glowing thinking about the military rule of the nation in the absence of any president.
Oh God, the boot on my neck.
Literally thinking about the gleam of the boot on your neck.
Just how shiny it will be and how dazzling.
Yeah, like she really wants it.
It's not even a thing where she's being tricked into it.
She thinks of it and she's like, yes.
Well, because for them, they see themselves as the camera looking at the boot on the neck of the person they don't like.
They don't understand that they're going to be looking from camera, maybe like a pointed upwards in a way, a kind of upward angle from beneath the boot.
Right.
It's the, the, I didn't think that the lions would eat my face says person who voted for lions eating people's faces party, essentially.
It is interesting, though, because this is sort of what QAnon has always done, which is incorporate conspiracy theories from other movements, just whenever it is possibly useful.
So it's interesting to see like a sovereign citizen QAnon crossover.
Yeah, yeah.
There are a bunch of tools in their mind, spiritual tools, tools of understanding, epistemological tools.
And so it's very easy just to just look over in someone else's playset and pick one, pluck that out.
Hey, that'll work.
I mean, yeah, there was like a little bit of Sovereign Citizen QAnon crossover before.
Like, Neely Blanchard was a QAnon following Sovereign Citizen.
But recently, in terms of content, I've noticed a lot more QAnon followers just regurgitating Sovereign Citizen stuff without even really knowing where it comes from, which is worrying.
I wonder if the final great disappointment is just going to be them going, OK, well, the world is ending then.
Yeah.
OK, so Biden's still up there.
OK, fine.
Well, then the next date is not Trump's back in office.
It's the world will actually end.
When are they going to get blackpailed from this shit?
And how many?
Yeah, that is the big question.
Yeah, I do also wonder, because sovereign citizen stuff is anti-cop, right?
At least ostensibly?
It's pro-sheriff and anti-federal cop.
Yes, that's right.
They think the sheriff is the only person who can assert authority of jurisdiction.
Because that that would relate to like the not liking the Capitol Hill cops, right?
They can reconcile why those cops were bad.
Yeah, because they're feds.
Well, also, I mean, another fucking they're feds.
Exactly.
They're feds.
In fact, they many of the followers were like, the actual police in Washington is Antifa.
Yeah, right.
So, you know, I saw this video on TikTok, which repeated some sovereign citizen ideas and had the caption, a storm is coming.
Can somebody tell me why I just learned, I just learned, I'm 22 years old and I just learned that the United States is not a country.
It's a corporation.
I've been deceived my whole life.
Is that why I have to pay taxes on debt that I didn't cause?
Because I'm just a slave?
Like, Like, for real, if you think about taxes, how is any of that fair?
I don't even get to say where my money goes, but they take it anyway.
They take it.
Why didn't I know that?
Why don't people look into it?
Well, I found a really good article on it, so if you want it, text me, I'll send it to you.
It's called Act of 1871.
It's wild.
I can't get over it.
It is sad to watch someone who should be at the age where they're becoming critical enough to understand maybe their teachers were hiding a part of history because of the way that the curriculum is designed.
To go a little beyond, to read some deeper books about certain organizations that seem to run the world.
Instead, they're just like, God damn, I just opened 8chan and found myself a great explanation!
And it's better, it's simpler, it's easier, it's more fun than understanding the web of corporations and their intermarriages with the global economy and all of these different nations.
The conclusion that she comes to is like, well, I'm a slave, so I'm oppressed, so I'm not racist.
It's like, you know, it's just... And she actually secretly is, but she just still does not understand.
This is the most dangerous type of explanation because it almost, it's parallel to reality.
And it's like they took reality and put it into a word salad generator, and that's what you get.
That's the end result.
And it's like, oh great, I just read an entire book about the CIA.
Nope, we actually scrambled it, and now it's just Q-drops, basically.
It's like Julian took painstaking time to rearrange the magnetic poetry on the refrigerator to a very cohesive and comprehensive understanding of where this country has really steered off the tracks, and I Uh, you know, an anarchist came in and scrambled the letters and moved them around and turned it into an action movie.
What I'm trying to tell this girl is my corkboard is better than yours.
Yeah, I mean, it's basically like the danger of it is that it tells you, confirms that something is wrong and then says, here's what you do about it.
And the things that you do are actually the things that are making it wrong in the first place.
They neutralize you.
QAnon neutralizes you immediately.
It is designed to take in profound frustration with a system we can no longer understand and neutralize it and then transform it into, in fact, something that reinforces the darkest parts of that system.
Yeah, it's so cool that she's my age.
Yes!
Yes.
Yes, she is.
And you know what?
She's probably on a sports team, Liv.
You need to get your act together.
Yeah, what am I doing?
She's 22 and she's having her political awakening through extremist propaganda online.
Meanwhile, Liv is like, volleyball hurts my wrists.
Yeah, I'm gonna stay inside and post.
Get radicalized by extremist propaganda, but the other way.
Yeah, the volleyball hurts my wrist.
Not my own personal experience in high school, so I'm not, uh...
On the actual day of the inauguration, the main narrative in Q circles was that the military couldn't actually do anything until Biden was officially sworn in.
The reasoning was that at 12 noon, Biden becomes the illegitimate president and therefore the military somehow had the authority to swoop in and arrest him.
Can you imagine if Biden even got jostled, he might die.
If they tried to arrest him.
Yes, the slightest breeze could offset his functionality.
It would be cool to do like a cute conspiracy that like the way they're going to get Biden is to just get like a very large fan at the other side of the stadium to just blow him over.
Someone's coming in with a giant feather.
They're going to stand very near Biden.
Other QAnon followers began speculating that, and this was my favorite theory of the day, that Biden was a white hat.
We called it.
Folks, we're always here for your future predictions.
And so the belief was basically that Biden would be the one to do the D-class and then initiate the storm and then do everything else that QAnon followers wanted to.
So even better, apparently, like a Trump left Biden a letter as a tradition.
Well, this letter apparently includes all the instructions on what what what Biden is supposed to do.
Oh, yeah.
Here's how it just says.
Arrest yourself, Mr. Biden.
Step one.
Here's how this theory was explained by one QAnon influencer on Telegram.
I'm happy to be wrong, but the more I think about it, I do think that it's very possible Biden will be the one who pulls the trigger.
The letter left includes instructions on what to do next.
Joe Biden does it immediately after being sworn in today or tomorrow or Thursday.
Biden could tweet the storm is upon us still as he's still on Twitter with all eyes about to be on.
Can you imagine if Biden sent out a tweet that said the storm is upon us?
Just a guy being like, hey Biden, have you thought that you've got a pretty good platform?
You could push some cute stuff up there.
You could really get some really good cute content to a lot of eyes at this point.
A lot of people.
A lot of asleep people.
It's because they always respect views and likes so much, and they're like, Biden's going to get so many.
So suddenly he's incredibly powerful.
Maybe even a white hat.
Not like the mortal enemy who's working for communist China to protect his pedophile son.
How do you transform that?
That is beautiful.
It's like those laundry detergent commercials.
You put in a demonic pedophile and out comes a white hat.
I do love how this implies that presidential orders are as strong as his Twitter account.
They're worth equal praise and ability to change the world.
Well, what is Congress except a post goes up and people go, I like or I dislike it?
They count the likes and dislikes and if the post did okay, then I guess it's passed.
It's law now.
I mean, what are executive orders other than posts that are written by one president and then deleted by another president when they control the board?
And they're also the type of ones where you can't retweet or dislike or whatever.
Those are just, you have to only like.
Yeah, the presidency has just been one long 200 year long mod war, basically.
We're in an algorithm.
The military is there already.
Friday and Saturday deliver on the MAGA promise.
Keeps the liberals from rioting because Biden did it.
Trump looks like a fucking genius.
Of course.
Finally.
Of course.
Finally, yeah.
Nothing can stop what's coming because Q team knew Biden was the deep state fall guy, and so Biden agreed.
No matter what you have to throw at them, they will still find a way through.
They will connect the dots until it makes sense again and they're right again.
You'll never be right.
Plus he and Hunter get to avoid the death penalty for the deal.
Biden admits he was part of the plan which forces the MSM to cover it when he speaks.
No censorship during.
Biden declasses.
Everyone protecting Biden is fucked.
And there's nothing they can do.
Like I said, happy to be wrong.
But it fits.
Let's see what happens.
I love happy to be wrong from a Q person.
I'd be super happy to be wrong.
You know, if I'm wrong, I'll admit it.
It fits.
It totally makes sense.
I can't think of any alternative explanation of what's going on.
Yeah, I looked at the keyhole and this is what worked to fill it.
Yeah, that is the most pure breakdown of QAnon ideology is, hey, it fits the thing that I already believe.
Yeah.
Of course, you can just inject liquid into any keyhole.
If it's goopy enough, it will fill that keyhole.
Still not the key.
Trump delivered his final presidential address at Joint Base Andrews while standing in front of 17 American flags.
And this is real.
I counted them, which is really frustrating to me because I'm not saying that Trump is really signaling to the QAnon community by saying 17 equals Q, but he did stand in front of 17 American flags.
That's got it.
I'm a truther.
I think they did it on purpose.
Finally, the moment of truth arrived.
A few minutes before noon, Joe Biden placed his hand on his hefty and worn family Bible and Chief Justice John Roberts began to administer the constitutionally mandated oath of office.
All over the country and the world, QAnon followers waited for something to happen.
Perhaps a blackout.
Perhaps a lightning-fast military strike.
Just anything besides the routine pageantry of the presidential inauguration.
But then...
I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear.
I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear.
That I will faithfully execute.
That I will faithfully execute.
The office of President of the United States.
Office of President of the United States.
And will, to the best of my ability.
Will, to the best of my ability.
Preserve, protect, and defend.
Preserve, protect, and defend.
The Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution of the United States.
So help you God?
So help me God.
Congratulations, Mr. President.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
And then the Obamas were hanging out with George Bush and Nancy Pelosi.
Fun.
I love these events.
Who doesn't love them?
Makes you dream.
Nice guys hanging out, having a good time.
To my surprise, on Telegram, I saw rank-and-file QAnon followers actually express anger and disillusionment and frustration with Q, like they are actually encountering a failed prophecy that they don't have an answer for.
And I gotta say, it was thrilling.
It was like, you know, it's like seeing, you know, a phoenix out in the wild.
It's just this mythical, because usually they always have a rationalization at hand.
But in this moment, I saw so many people who just were bewildered.
I spotted these comments just 12 minutes after noon on a QAnon Telegram channel.
This is a joke.
No way this is our future.
It's literally mocking us on purpose.
I believe it's set up now more than I did yesterday, seeing it live.
Anyone watching Chinese news?
I wonder if they are celebrating the Biden win.
Just saw this.
Some hope, maybe?
Quote, few more days is horseshit, considering the National Popcorn Day and all the hype leading up to today.
I mean, I get it.
Military action timetables are fluid and not always on your schedule, but the leading needs to stop.
Enough of the fucking gangs.
Lin Wood and many others let America down with all of their hype.
It was fucking wrong on so many levels.
For fuck's sake people, quit looking for mysterious signals in everything you see.
It's 12 11 p.m.
and not a fucking has happened!
Don't tell me...
Don't tell me to wait for another fucking sign or ask me to decipher some more bullshit.
This is, uh, drill-level tweeting.
It is.
Yeah.
Now, it's funny, this poster probably meant to say, not a fucking thing has happened.
Yeah, of course.
But as a sort of a perhaps subconscious expression of their blue balls, they said that not a fucking has happened.
That's right.
Some QAnon followers just continued to watch expectantly as nothing happened.
Like this man from TikTok, for example.
Well, Patriots, we're all probably doing the same thing watching this inauguration.
You know, we've been told to watch it carefully because a lot of it could be nonsense, fakes.
You know, only time will tell.
But, you know, Simon, Scott McKay, they've all told us that this thing has to go all the way through for it to be completed before Trump makes a move.
So, I think we're all sitting here waiting.
Waiting for something to happen.
I don't think this is over yet, fellas.
Guys and girls, be safe.
I love that line he says, that we're all waiting here, waiting for something to happen.
This isn't over yet.
I mean, that literally could be like a line from Waiting for Godot or something.
It's existential.
Some QAnon followers opted for the test of faith rationalization for their failed prophecy.
Here's one message.
These last few years, we've been trained by Q to think logically and to see.
Now our patience is being tested.
It is uncomfortable.
It is for us to watch and never forget so we can pass this on to our children.
It could have been worse.
It could have been a physical war instead.
We have to feel this or we wouldn't realize how close we've come to losing our freedom or our humanity.
We have to prove ourselves to God.
We aren't being left out of this judgment either.
Wow.
The thing's not happening to me because I didn't please the God.
Yeah, I didn't get swept up in the rapture like I was sort of hoping.
I guess I'm a sinner.
I guess I'm a sinner.
I didn't make the proper sacrifice.
Yeah, I stepped on the magic cloud and I fell right through like Bulma.
Some were more open about their disappointment.
As it sunk in that the military wasn't going to save the day, some QAnon followers became erratic as the justice they were promised wasn't coming.
Y'all have to stop saying hold the line.
Stop commenting that because some of us have been holding the line for over a year now.
I can't look at stuff like Follow the Kabbalah and see what is happening to children and what's happening to people and to see what these people can do in this country and nothing happened about it.
Nothing get done about it.
I can't.
I can't.
So why release it?
Why show it to us?
Why show it to us if there's nothing going to be done about it?
Why do we have all this military here and for nothing?
That was so anti-climatic.
It was like Game of Thrones.
It was just a letdown.
We feel played.
We so feel played.
And you're still saying hold the line!
I just want to see people pay for things that they've done.
They're evil people.
Most people don't take a military takeover lightly.
Yeah.
However, in America, we have been fucking bombarded with entertainment to say that the military is our friend and that a takeover would be in our best interest, potentially.
I mean, but that is it.
What other country is so comfortable that they don't think an event like the military taking over would be a bad sign broadly for the country no matter what fucking belief system you're in?
Yeah, it is bizarre.
I mean, she is experiencing a lot of cognitive dissonance in this video.
When I talk about cognitive dissonance being painful, I mean, this, I think, is an example of how that manifests.
And at the same time, she's vamping for the camera.
She's holding her hair back.
She's doing, like, timing stuff with her voice.
She has written, I don't care what I look like, but she's put a filter on her face to completely smooth everything over.
Just, everything is this...
Vanity and kind of ebullient fascist fantasizing.
I think there's this weird belief that this we're I guess this fascist belief that the military basically solves all problems, including the problem of evil.
Yeah, the military.
The military is a good, powerful.
That's right.
Just force.
And then on one hand, and on the other hand, we have the presence of powerful elites who do unspeakable evil.
And so therefore, obviously, the military is going to solve the evil problem.
Why aren't they doing it?
Why do we have this military, even, if they're not going to swoop in and cleanse the world of evil?
It's like they are just, they deeply, deeply crave something that would actually be ruinous and horrifying for them.
Because they usually, like, she doesn't seem to be a powerful person.
I've commented on this before, but it's amazing how, like, as much as these people say that Hollywood is a satanic pit of pedophiles, how much their psyche is basically in the shape of a feature film.
And that's the filter through which they understand everything.
Well, but they also are like pre-woke Hollywood.
They want Jerry Bruckheimer and they don't want to fucking hear what he, you know, did to some 16-year-old girl or whatever.
I'm not accusing Jerry Bruckheimer.
Allegedly.
No, I'm not allegedly not accusing him.
I am not accusing him what he did to that girl is alleged.
Yes, exactly.
Shortly after the inauguration at 12.36 p.m.
Eastern Time, which happens to be 2.36 a.m.
Japan time, the longtime 8-kun administrator and probable author of some Q-drops, Ron Watkins, appeared to throw in the towel for the movement, just kind of like give up, walk away, which is...
I mean, I don't believe him.
Ron Watkins is a bullshitter.
Don't trust a word he says.
Everything is an op.
But everything's an op.
Never take any of these people on face value.
No, no, yeah.
Don't trust him.
But this is what Ron posted on Telegram.
We gave it our all.
Now we need to keep our chins up and go back to our lives as best as we are able.
We have a new president sworn in and it is our responsibility as citizens To respect the Constitution regardless of whether or not we agree with the specifics or details regarding officials who are sworn in.
As we enter into the next administration, please remember all of the friends and happy memories we made together over the past few years.
I'll have more to say in a few days regarding a new project I'm currently fleshing out.
God bless.
Incredible.
It was the friends we made along the way.
Yeah.
This is the reaffirmation method of reducing cognitive dissonance.
And Ron Watkins is just a stone cold sociopath.
I mean, over the past couple of months, he's pumped so many election fraud conspiracy theories.
Which led to the Capitol riot?
He also helped organize Caravans to DC on January 6 probably funneling a lot of people there and then once like, you know He gets all these people's hopes up.
And then of course it doesn't happen.
It's like well, bye peace out I wonder if this is just to have this entered on the record because he knows people are 100% looking into him now.
In fact, Dominion Voting is suing Powell Liddell.
Right now, yes, it was recently announced that they are suing Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion with a B.
And I think now that the transition has happened and he knows that the actual power to prosecute has shifted, maybe he just wants one thing on the record that just says, new government, I accept.
And then he can point to that when they go, well, why have you been an active op for months?
Well, and to add to it, I mean, if you're a QAnon person, essentially, you know, one of your trusted sort of influencers, let's say, is basically saying, like, hey, you know what?
We don't agree with the satanic, pedophile, child-eating cabal, but, you know, that's democracy, and, you know, we're just gonna have to, you know, accept them.
I mean, it's so funny, he frames it as if they hadn't sort of pegged the opposition.
It's because it's all strategic.
Yeah, of course, I know it is.
It's completely strategic.
I know it is, but if I'm a QAnon person and I'm looking at that, I'm like, Oh, the feeling is bad.
For the QAnon people, by the way, the most mistreated people to ever follow anyone.
Just dogshit.
They're treated like dogshit by every baker.
They're treated like dogshit by Q. They're treated like subhumans with no intelligence.
And by the libs, for sure.
They use insane and very questionable words to describe these people, but by the actual people who support their movement, they are also treated like dog shit and like they're stupid.
It's only like really the pedestrian QAnon follower who can be friendly to another pedestrian QAnon follower, because the grifters don't care.
Jordan Sather, you can see the pain in his face that he has to deal with these fucking idiots.
Same with Jim.
Yeah.
It reminds me a lot of like Alex Jones when he and Infowars sort of got like press passes in the White House and they were like allowed to be essentially around George Bush at certain events and they didn't do anything.
It's like you thought he did 9-11 and you're like, hey George, you know, on my way to talk to Trump.
Some QAnon followers resigned themselves to the possibility that they were duped and that actually Trump is part of the deep state.
What's up guys?
I wanna say that I think that us Patriots got played as bad as I hate to say it.
I think that everything that we've seen over the past couple years about Deep State and our leaders and what they do behind closed doors, and I think all of that's true.
And I think they did it to, one, divide us, and two, for us to hold the idea that a plan was in the making and coming together.
I think that it was always trust the plan, don't do anything, and then by the time we figured out, like now, the day before Inauguration Day, it's too late.
Democrat mayors and governors are the ones who sent the National Guard in.
Trump authorized it.
I think Trump's a part of the deep state now.
Because now that we've realized it's too late for anything to happen, we can't get through 25,000 National Guardsmen to do anything about it.
Basically, they pacified me until it was too late to do a coup, because that's what I ought to be doing.
And this is the other option.
Not Biden is actually a white hat.
Trump is actually a black hat.
Black hat.
Now everyone's a black hat.
This is the worrying part, is people taking the black pill, you know.
To close Inauguration Day, Tom Hanks hosted a star-studded television special called Celebrating America.
Did you catch?
I assume you watched every minute of this, Julian.
Not a fucking second of this annoying spectacle.
Honestly, some of the worst production values I've seen in a while.
I mean, if I didn't know better, it might have seemed to me like they were directly trolling the QAnon community with some of their talent choices.
That is magnificent.
Of course, there's Tom Hanks.
Today we'll have the Lady Gaga and Tom Hanks blood drinking ceremony.
Exactly.
A reminder, this is only cranberry juice.
There was Lady Gaga.
Eat it, conservatives!
We will do some spirit cooking.
I mean, they didn't have John Podesta, which was, I think, a missed opportunity.
That was a big one, yeah.
That poor guy.
I miss you, Johnny.
The day after the inauguration, QAnon followers started in with the new rationalizations.
They argued, for example, that the White Hats had to allow Biden to be inaugurated because they have to wait until Biden completes the crime of becoming president before he can be convicted.
Let's think about this for a second, guys.
A crime had to be completed before it got caught.
What I'm saying by that You can't formally charge anybody with treason or fraud without the completion of the crime.
Yesterday was the completion of the crime.
The military is in charge and will be in charge for 30 days.
Then Trump will take control again.
Step back and watch.
The crime had to be completed all the way around.
We saw part of it on January 6th.
The inauguration was the second part.
That's why they had the military there.
They wanted it to be complete.
They wanted to make them believe that they were in control.
There was also a lot of policing going on within the QAnon community, because as QAnon followers started to express doubts, there were some other QAnon followers who shepherded them back into the fold.
Every community has the fucking middle siblings that just want peace.
That's right.
It's like, don't you start having doubts now.
That led to lots of encouragement from the faithful to hold the line.
Hold the line, patriots.
Hold the line.
Everyone, for some reason, thought that something was going to happen a day ago.
And when it didn't, they all of a sudden turned their backs and lost complete faith in the entire process.
We need to learn patience.
Okay?
Be patient.
Wait.
Keep your faith.
Love God.
And watch what he can do for us.
Just wait.
You have poisoned me, Travis.
These are such bad vibrations.
I know.
You're harshing my buzz.
It is.
Awful vibes.
It is.
This is a stressful, ugly, confusing time for the QAnon community.
Really?
They look exhausted.
Yes.
They're struggling with a high level of cognitive dissonance and they're dealing it with it in a variety of different ways.
Yeah, no guys What do you think hold the line like means in this context?
I always like it's like it's like it makes sense of like in the battle.
There's like a line We're going to prevent the enemy from advancing a past this line We're going to hold the line, but there's not a physical battlefield that they're that they're working with there's no actual ground. It means like it means like, you know,
basically keep posting, basically posting. Don't stop posting. It's actually about more. I
ever that it's purely just a morale issue for them. So it's the line is like a feeling.
The line is a feeling of optimism, right? It's a level of it's an attitude of positivity,
which has always defined the American contribution to the world. They're going to bring you a
bomb and call it Peacemaker. There's also a popular theory going around that we are basically
right now ruled by the military because because they argue that Biden's inauguration was
illegitimate, that actually the military is secretly in charge.
Yeah.
For example, QAnon lawyer and all-around lunatic Lin Wood promoted this theory.
I think if people will do their research, they will find that back in the 50s, When communism was first really seen as a threat in the McCarthy era, a flawed man, but he understood communism.
I think you'll find that laws were enacted consistent with our constitution that gave America protection against an illegitimate government coming into power through the insidious communism that creeps in when you're not paying attention or creeps in and you don't see it.
So if you ask me, Do I know who's in charge?
No.
I know I'm not.
I know God is.
But in the terms of the three choices, I believe that the rule of law is being followed, and it's my belief that the military is in charge of this country right now.
Some conspiracists simply asserted that actually Trump is still president.
Just, just, just say that.
Because you can just say anything if you want.
Yeah.
There's like, for example, there was this guy on TikTok.
4th, 2020, Donald Trump signed our new Declaration of Independence.
I bet you guys didn't even know that.
We revert back to our original Constitution.
You see, if you paid attention to anything that Donald Trump said, you understand and know that he is still the President.
He's not going anywhere.
You watch and see.
The defunct United States of America Corporation is what Joe Biden's got his hands on the reins of.
It's unbelievable that everything that he has said has come to fruition and his speech was so telling when he said that it will be done exactly by the Constitution.
Wake up, America.
Absolutely out of his fucking face.
He is.
Unlike opiates, probably.
He is not.
America's not looking great these days when it comes to QAnon believers.
No.
It's a tired, restless, awful time.
Rough time.
They are running on fumes, I'm going to say.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They still have some more in them.
Here's what happened is that it looks like he recently learned about the sovereign citizen theory that it's going to be March 4th, his new inauguration day, and he screwed it up and he said July 4th because he has no idea what he's talking about.
He's just such a patriot, he can't not think about July 4th.
I think he was saying that on July 4th of this year, Trump signed something that was a new declaration.
I've seen other nominators talking about this, that Trump signed something and there was some clause about something.
You know, they pick one sentence that doesn't mean what they want it to and they interpret it in the way that it needs to be.
Yeah.
Now, some of the sadder and more desperate theories claim that Biden's inauguration was faked, possibly with a Biden lookalike.
And all the images that you saw of Biden in the Oval Office immediately afterwards were actually from a movie set.
And so you often saw this.
They did the thing where they, like, take one picture of Biden with a different picture of Biden, like compare the earlobes.
Yes.
This is always, this is the common trick.
The idea for some of them as well was that they were clones.
That Kamala Harris, Biden were clones.
So it's part of a larger piece of theater.
And what's interesting is once again the parallel reality that this is one big piece of theater and that everyone gets together and hugs each other even though one has committed war crimes and the other one's supposedly a good president on the left.
So they're aware of that, that unreality.
And yet, of course, once again, they've arrived to the perfectly wrong conclusion.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, Travis, this is all very silly.
How long can they keep doing this?
How long can QAnon followers just move the goalposts over and over again?
Now, I can't predict the future.
But I can cite one of my favorite studies related to cognitive dissonance to help answer that question.
So this study was published in 1997 and was called 15 Years of Failed Prophecy, Coping with Cognitive Dissonance in a Baha'i Sect.
In this study, a group of sociologists from the University of Montana closely examined this small sort of apocalyptic sect of the
Baha'i Faith.
So what happened was that between 1980 and 1995, this group's leader, Dr. Leland Jensen,
sets 20 dates for the Battle of Armageddon or lesser disasters that would lead up to
the ultimate apocalypse.
So that's 20 failed prophecies over a 15 year period.
And this is a small kind of sect of about 200 people.
The first of these supposed disasters occurred on April 29th, 1980, when members of the sect entered a fallout shelter to await a nuclear holocaust that they believed would wipe out a third of the world.
Now, That obviously didn't happen, and then they just kept on, over the years, being wrong over and over again.
Interestingly, the researchers noted that something changed in 1993 after 13 years of being constantly wrong.
They started adding disclaimers to their predictions, saying that they might be off.
No.
Dude, Twitter's like, oh, we haven't verified this tweet by Donald Trump.
It's great, though, because Q has already done that, basically, with the banking stuff.
They've already done the, like, this might be wrong.
They're progressing much faster.
By 1996, the researchers found that only one of the members of the cult still took the prophecy seriously, and the rest of the members stuck with the group even though they knew that these predictions were worthless.
For example, one cult follower told this to the researchers.
This is really telling.
to it now. We've been desensitized. The dates come and they go and they come and they go
and they come and they go. I think that's why there isn't much preparedness. I think people
mostly really don't believe them. I think mostly people would be really shocked if a prediction
came true. This is really telling. This is someone who is still a member of this group,
a dedicated member, and they're still a true believer because the predictions are the point.
I'm enjoying membership.
The membership is what matters.
So I suppose my point is that if a small Montana cult with less than 200 members can stick with constant failed predictions for a decade and a half, so how long do you think a three-year-old worldwide movement with millions of adherents can tolerate failed predictions?
I'm not going to predict the future, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be a lot longer than 15 years.
Mhm.
And like, the reason they were in here in the first place was because they like Trump.
Because he's cool.
Yeah.
So as long as that still happens, I don't see any reason they'd leave, really.
As long as cool people still exist, you mean?
Yeah, as long as they still think Trump is cool, or maybe some replacement to Trump somewhere.
Some replacement, yeah.
Moving forward, there's actually one other concerning possibility for how QAnon followers will react to accepting that Biden is president.
Some of them, they may become blackmailed, and this means that they'll lose faith in Trump making the world right, and lose faith in Q, and lose faith in conventional politics entirely.
Instead, they'll adopt a meme that is popular with white nationalists and far-right accelerationists, which is, there is no political solution.
And this would be a concerning development because it would create an ideological pretext for violence.
Now, right now, actually, neo-Nazis know that QAnon followers are frustrated and are in a vulnerable state.
In fact, on the 20th, one neo-Nazi telegram channel organized raids into QAnon channels as part of a recruitment effort.
These raids included pushing very ugly Nazi propaganda, like Siege by James Mason, which is not good.
Not good.
I mean, I mean, right now, I mean, QAnon followers are like, like, like we saw through the Out There episode, they are in a harried, vulnerable state.
So if you know one, now is a good time to, like, reach out and invite them back to a healthier mindset because they may be being preyed upon by people with really malicious intentions for them.
Yeah, just remind them it's not a Tibetan sign for luck.
Now, while QAnon followers were doing all of that, some parts of the Republican Party continued to cozy up to QAnon, which is, I gotta say, mind-blowing to me.
Like, I had assumed, like, the Capitol riot would make it clear that QAnon is indefensibly toxic, and then official sort of party structures would not want to Coddle with it.
Coddle it and flirt with it and these kinds of things.
But I was wrong.
So the Texas Republican Party, for example, continued to promote their party slogan, We Are the Storm, which sounds like a QAnon reference to me.
Now, Texas GOP Chair Allen West has insisted that it's a reference to a quote he likes and not QAnon, but come on.
That's right.
The Hawaii Republican Party, on the other hand, decided to echo Trump by praising QAnon followers.
On January 23rd, the Hawaii GOP Twitter account made a long thread about Q that included this tweet.
We should make it abundantly clear the people who subscribe to the Q fiction were largely motivated by a sincere and deep love for America.
Patriotism and love of country should never be ridiculed.
Okay.
That's not how I personally would describe, you know, QAnon.
No, they think that the majority of the country is kidnapping babies and eating their faces to, you know, inject their blood into their brain stems.
Also... That's not a good, you know... We're not like a pro-mocking podcast, but if you look at QAnon stuff on face value, you can't stop people from laughing.
You're going to have to institute like the emperor has no clothes if you want people to stop making fun of and or disrespecting such a ridiculous system.
No, it's absurd.
And like that absurdity is going to generate at least some level of humor.
That's like a coping mechanism, if anything else.
Yeah.
Aloha!
We're pilled down here!
Now, those tweets were apparently hastily deleted, but this made me realize, like, this is actually something we're probably going to have to worry about when it comes to QAnon followers.
That is Republicans openly winking at them and courting them, because the Republican Party is the minority party at the federal level now, which means they can't Afford to alienate a single vote even if those votes come from people who are pilled or extremist or anything like that So, you know, they may still you know, encourage these people even though they were responsible for driving insane misinformation that led to the Capitol riot
They see it as an opportunity to refresh their voter base with younger voters.
And what we saw with people who were apolitical or liberal and switched over is that they immediately were willing to vote for the GOP candidate, which was Donald Trump, even though they told themselves a story about how that wasn't allegiance to the GOP in and of itself.
But that was the result.
So that's basically how QAnon has been handling things.
Not very well, I have to say.
Dark.
But before we go on to something a little bit lighter, which is our treat from Jake, I'm told.
Yeah, I have an exclusive.
We'll get into it.
It's breaking news.
Don't say it's a story.
Yeah, this is pretty insane.
It's a big drop.
I'm looking forward to that.
Before we get to that, I do want to give another update on my fight with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She still has me blocked.
When are we gonna get there, Dad?
She has to be blocked and this is a clear violation of my First Amendment rights.
Oh my God.
So consequently, my lawyer, Benjamin Gold, has sent a letter to Representative Green's office notifying her that if she does not unblock me by February 1st, I will have no choice but to vindicate my rights in court.
Yes.
It's serious business.
It's a six page letter with a nine page addendum just full of Marjorie tweets.
You said six and then nine?
Yes.
Nice!
Nice.
So it's serious business.
Now obviously nothing's guaranteed but I am willing to see this through.
I hope it doesn't come to that.
Unblock Marjorie.
We can avoid wasting the court's time.
Firmly addressing Marjorie to an audience of three staring blankly at him.
I want to read the conclusion of that letter just so everyone understands how serious it is.
By the way, you've seen the stream.
Travis is, you know, can be a subdued presence on the stream, but he was raising his finger to the sky throughout that entire speech and shaking his hand like an Italian.
The letter says, In sum, you have created a public forum in your capacity as a government actor, and you are restricting Mr. View's access to that forum due to his opinions.
In doing so, you are violating the First Amendment.
You recently observed that the framers of the First Amendment, quote, understood how important free speech really is.
It is so important, in fact, that even if political speech causes, quote, feelings to be terribly hurt, the government may not restrict it.
Any feelings that Mr. View's speech may have provoked do not give you the right to restrict it.
Accordingly, please unblock Mr. View by February 1st, 2021, or he will be constrained to seek relief in court.
Oh, fantastic.
What a fantastic new chapter for us.
Yes, I am excited.
This is so good.
Yeah, Travis is going to be leaving the podcast.
He's turned every episode into some sort of personal soapbox.
Now, after I post this letter, my mentions were full of support.
Thank you so much.
So much love.
All the love for my civil rights battle.
Thank you for snitching, sir.
Thank you.
But I also received comments from right-leaning Twitter users who seem to imply that this was a trivial battle I was fighting.
Whoa, what?
They mocked you on those terms?
That's right.
Ridiculous.
The pro-Trump communications strategist Caleb Hull, for example, called my letter to Representative Greene cringe.
Well, well Caleb, perhaps you find constitutional rights cringe, but I, I think they're worth defending.
Mr. Haleb Kull, if that is your real name.
I've seen your tweets, you're less than dog shit, sir.
Oh man, well that brings us to the final segment of our show today.
I do.
I have a QAnon Anonymous exclusive.
I have obtained a Xerox copy of the letter that Donald Trump left incoming President Joe Biden on the desk, as is tradition for presidents to do at the time of peaceful transition.
And so I thought that I would just... I haven't really looked at it either.
It came to me in sealed manila envelope via a USB key shaped...
Shaped like the Constitution, and so I thought I would just read it here live for all of you today.
Dear Joe, If you are reading this letter, it can only mean that I am still President, and you are not.
I would congratulate you on a hard-fought campaign, but since your body double was the only one actually campaigning, I have sent a letter congratulating him instead.
I regret to inform you that the historic walls upon which you are gazing right now, where so many losers and haters once stood, are not in Washington, D.C., but rather the inside of a soundstage owned by Castle Rock Entertainment.
It has been determined by many doctors and scientists that liberal brains are far too fragile to comprehend the imminent storm, in which, as you may or may not know, you've already been arrested.
Therefore, in an effort to keep our beloved country safe, it has been determined that you will be videotaped speaking pre-scripted lines, fed to you via an earpiece, and penned by a talented staff of Hollywood writers who have also been arrested.
Hope you're comfortable with that.
Haha, JK, I know you are.
The video feeds will be piped straight to our great government prison in Guantanamo Bay, where we've painstakingly recreated the offices of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, so as to keep the journalists imprisoned there from losing their tiny, terrified brains.
They will continue to report on all of your quote-unquote accomplishments, and no liberal will be the wiser.
It's quite brilliant, actually.
Finally, real media outlets such as OAN and Newsmax will be able to report on the truth, uninterrupted and with zero pushback.
I've already spoken with my new Department of Labor Secretary, Mark Zuckerberg, and Joe, he's got some inspiring ideas on how to unite this great country of ours, by ensuring that your supporters and my supporters are completely unaware of one another.
We will funnel them into different groups on different platforms so that they may never have to hear the horrible
truth of each other's existence.
It will be sad as many of your followers will be missing out on practically a utopia,
hearkening back to the golden years of this great nation shortly after the Second World War.
I have also been working closely alongside great motion picture director Jerry Bruckheimer on how we can create new, realistic-looking conflicts in the Middle East in an effort to make your term as believable as possible.
We've already put an agreement in place with Kamala Harris and the writing staff from the popular HBO show Veep to continue generating scripted liberal content following your sentencing.
Scripted liberal content.
We got a great deal, of course, after my lawyers agreed to take the death penalty off of the table.
I suppose that leaves you wondering how I fit into all of this.
Well, I'll remain president, of course, and for the first time, with the media preoccupied on all of your quote-unquote terrific policies, I'll be free to run the other half of the country, the real half.
Even as I write this, I am sitting in the Oval Office with two gentlemen wearing animal skins and helmets, enjoying an ice-cold Diet Coke straight from the can.
It's going to be great, Joe.
We'll have rallies, cookouts, shootouts, and all the things I did during my first term, but bigger, better, and with far less oversight.
With a good portion of the country believing you're president, I'll finally be free to do exactly what I want.
You know, Nazi stuff.
I do not envy you being a fake president with no power whatsoever.
I do not envy you being a fake president with no power whatsoever will have its challenges, but I reserve faith that the pathetic low IQ Americans who are in total denial will nourish you in times of hardship.
There will be days when the set decorations and dialogue are so believable you'll swear that you actually are president.
I can assure you this is not the case.
Nevertheless, I do wish you very best as you enter this terrifying new chapter in your life.
Godspeed and may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Sincerely, Donald John Trump, still the 45th President of the United States of America.
Wow.
Wow.
Damn.
That was part of the laptop leaks?
Yeah.
Well, no, it was a government insider took a picture, a photograph of the letter as it lay on the desk waiting for President Biden.
And the pen was the proof, right?
The pen was sitting next to it.
The pen was at a 17 degree angle and then they, you know, mistaking our show for a pro QAnon.
Right.
That happens a lot.
you know, pro-QAnon account.
They sent it to me in hopes that I would read it over the airwaves to all of you dear listeners.
And here you are platforming the toxic, misogynistic president.
That's a yanks from me.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the QAnon Anonymous Podcast.
You can subscribe to us at patreon.com slash QAnonAnonymous, where for five bucks a month, you get a whole second episode every single week.
We usually stream twice a week at twitch.tv slash QAnonAnonymous.
Come hang out.
It's a good time.
And for everything else, there's QAnonAnonymous.com, which has a link to our Discord, merch, music from the show, access to the lost episodes and all sorts of other fun stuff.
Listener.
Until next week, may the Deep Dish bless you and keep you.
It's not a conspiracy, it's a fact.
And now, today's Auto-Tune.
I don't know.
Again, there's all these fantastic, like, theories about clones and body doubles.
Corporate US versus non-corporate US versus all this stuff.
I don't know.
Flynn said, what, 30 days?
So that would be at the end of next week.
This upcoming week that we might see something happen.
At what point do you guys just accept the fact that they stole the country and we have to fight like hell to get it back?
At what point do we give up on the fantastical theories out there?
Just curious.
I mean, I still have hope too that something here, we have something else up our sleeve.
But at some point, at some point, we have to stop waiting for a miracle and start grinding, right?
I mean, a year from now, if Biden's still in the White House, do we give up on Santa Claus?
I love your spirit and that you want to believe in some higher From above solution that's going to come and save us all.
