March 4 was a dud -- but QAnon will persist because it is fueled by white entitlement

[marmar]

March 4 was a dud — but QAnon will persist because it is fueled by white entitlement
QAnon is not going away any time soon. The people who believe it simply need it too much

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
MARCH 5, 2021 5:58PM


(Salon) The day of "The Storm" keeps moving for QAnon, the loosely-affiliated cult that sprang up online with Donald Trump as its god-like savior figure. At first, the belief was January 6 was the prophesied day when Trump would supposedly ascend to his true power and have all their political enemies, who QAnon adherents believe are blood-drinking pedophiles, arrested. After all, Trump himself repeatedly signaled that January 6 was "go" time and the faithful did as they were told, storming the Capitol in an effort to turn the prophecy into reality.

That failed and many QAnoners found themselves in handcuffs while their leader, Trump, escaped without consequence. But while some got disillusioned and dropped off, many more just did what cultists do and moved the day of the prophecy down the calendar, to March 4 as the new day for Trump would ride into town and kick Joe Biden out of the White House, kicking off "The Storm" for real.

....(snip)....

The concern is quite clearly that, if another prediction fails to pan out, the QAnon cult will start to grow disillusioned and dissipate, which means that these ringleaders will lose the cash stream they've generated by churning out an endless supply of prophecies and "bread crumbs" to the deeper conspiracies for their followers to gobble up. But, in truth, these grifters shouldn't worry too much. While the prophecies make QAnon exciting, at the end of the day, that's not why people get caught up in the cult.

There's a reason why so few of them left after their failed January 6 coup and why few will leave now that it is clear March 4 was a dud. Much has been written about the phenomenon of people not leaving cults, even after the dates of splashy prophecies come and go without the predicted events happening. A lot of it comes down to rationalization and an unwillingness to admit that they spent so much time and energy on something that turned out to be fake. But a lot of it has to do with the reasons they joined the cult in the first place, whether it's seeking meaning or community or excitement. Those desires don't disappear just because the prophecies failed. And so the believers will continue to find excuses to stick by the cult and continue deriving what they see as a benefit of belonging.

What drives people to the QAnon cult — as well as the other groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, that contributed to the January 6 insurrection — is ultimately a grotesque mix of wish-fulfillment fantasies and an abiding sense of white entitlement. These are folks who are absolutely certain that they deserve to be in charge, no matter what, and that belief feeds their attachment to increasingly complex conspiracy theories that promise that there's a "secret" rule or law that can be activated that will allow them to overcome a democratic election and install their preferred president in his place. They are in a search of a cheat code to defeat the big boss, if you will, and in this case, the big boss is democracy. .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/05/march-4-was-a-dud--but-qanon-will-persist-because-it-is-fueled-by-white-entitlement/

[Cirque du So-What]

1. How many times have end-times predictions from the JWs come and gone?

At least a half-dozen times since the 1870s, by my reckoning, although they have become less frequent in the last 50 years or so. JWs are still around, despite all their fail.

[Runningdawg]

2. I expect to see the type of insurgency we saw in N Ireland

They will avoid the heavily protected targets in favor of "soft" ones. Auto start on a cars, truck and buses is going to become a VERY desirable feature.