this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
701 points (99.2% liked)
Political Memes
1757 readers
401 users here now
Non political memes: !memes@sopuli.xyz
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I significant amount has changed over the last 10 years, including how Trump has engaged with QAnon and the conspiracy-element of his base. Early on, he didn't address or acknowledge Q, and only started dropping small dog whistles towards the community late into his first term. It was enough to keep them holding on without making direct promises.
The Q account evolved as well; they started off making bold predictions, like the imminent arrest of Clinton and other Democrats. When that became less tenable, they pivoted to vague, meaningless predictions like, "Watch the Water," or just throwing out a date with no context. The account functionally died after Trump's 2020 loss, and hasn't really been relevant since.
During the Biden years, the community pivoted towards Epstien, with promises of unredacted files, flightlogs, client lists, and video evidence proving that prominent Democrats were all part of a Q-like conspiracy. The problem is, unlike the original Q conspiracy, which was based on imagined, malleable nonsense, this was based on real events with tangible evidence, which Trump directly promised to reveal. That means that, while the conspiracy has more credibility, its goal posts are harder to move.
This is already making it hard to keep the conspiracy-pilled MAGAs happy. Early on, Bondi gave a bunch of Q influencers copies of, "the Epstien files," and when it turned out to be a bunch of information that had already been disclosed, they got pissed. They've also ripped Kash Patel and Dan Bongino apart for saying Epstien didn't kill himself and Bondi for claiming she already had the client lists. So far, it hasn't trickled up to Trump yet, but if he doesn't figure something out, it will eventually. The only thing more important to these people than Trump is the conspiracy they created around Trump, and if he doesn't find away to keep that alive, they will leave him.
I like your optimism but most MAGAts aren't conspiracy theorists. Sure, they will believe the conspiracy when it's regurgitated by Faux News and the like, but probably the vast majority don't even know what 4chan is or think that "he's a hacker" if they have heard of it.
Yes Conspiracy brained MAGAts have been focused on Epstein, but because they could use that information to 'own the libs', not because they actually give a fuck about children. If they did they wouldn't have spent the last 10 years trying to prop up a sexual predator and probable pedo.
Even if the Q Cult turns on Trump, it's unlikely that the right wing media MAGAts consume will report on it, or if they do they'll make it look like he's being attacked by evil degenerate 'hackers' online. It's not like it would be at all hard to make the case that 4chan is full of degenerates.
I think its a little more nebulous than you're making it out to be. I think there are a of factions within the conspiracy MAGAs with different degrees of dedication. Some of them are just entertaining the idea because they like calling Democrats pedophiles, while others are QAnon true-believers that have been investing in this for the better part if a decade. I'm not sure what percentage of MAGA are true-believers, but they are his most loyal followers, and I do believe he might lose them if he can't find a way to keep feeding them breadcrumbs. Plenty of MAGAs won't give a shit, but I think they're also more fickle and more likely to abandon him over something like his tariff policy fucking up their 401K.
This is just my gut feeling as someone who's been following the Q movement fairly closely since the pandemic. I could be wrong, and we'll see how it shakes out.
Maybe, I highly doubt it though. He'll just blame that on Joe Biden and the smooth brains will claim it makes sense.
Out of curiosity, why would you follow the Q movement? Like, it's clearly based on horseshit. Flat Earth theory seems almost reasonable by comparison. Seems like a giant waste of time to me.
I've always found conspiracy theories and cults interesting, and I had started hearing more about Q during lock down (I think it was the mole-children under Central Park story that caught my attention). I found a podcast called QAnon Anonymous that I started following because it was funny and informative. Over time, I started gaining a better understanding of MAGA and the right-wing ecosystem by following them. Then, in the lead up to the 2020 election, it started becoming less funny and more newsworthy, and now it just seems important towards understanding how we ended up with a fascist government.
WTF, lmao. God damn it now I'm going to have to look that one up.
I honestly think it has less to do with anything conspiracy theory related and everything to do with good old fashioned racism, bigotry, and hypocrisy. The only thing that could be considered a conspiracy theory type deal that contributes is "somehow"* a large number of so-called Christians have been led to believe that the U.S. was founded on Christianity. Well that and that Jesus would somehow approve of denying people healthcare and housing, the prison industrial complex, and hating foreigners.
These things aren't as disconnected as you might think. Conspiracy theories often create a permission structure for bigotry. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion made the internment and extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany acceptable. QAnon conspiracies about child trafficking are creating the same permission structure for the persecution of immigrants (there's a reason Kilmar Abrego Garcia is facing trumped-up human trafficking charges now).
Conspiracy theorists are also often on the front-line of fascist movements, and following Q has kept me ahead of the curve on some of this stuff. While everyone was wondering who the hell the buffalo guy was on Jan 6, I was thinking, "Of course the QAnon Shaman is here."
Sure propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation (which includes conspiracy theories) play a role in 'justifying' the actions of disgusting politicians in the eyes of bigots. I've already said that Trumpets will swallow up just about any bit of horseshit fed to them if it fits their worldview. I'm just not convinced it works the other way around. Once you have used such tactics to get a fascist in power I think it's much harder to 'reverse course' on that and use those tactics against the fascist. Especially in our current climate where people already have zero trust in 'the other side'.
The people advancing the whole Epstein Democrat pedo-ring 'conspiracy' were doing it to harm Democrats, not Trump. If they believed Trump had anything to do with it, they likely would have kept their mouths shut about it. They are clearly just fine with him being a sexual predator. I can almost guarantee the response by the majority of MAGAts will be 'Well if Trump says there is no conspiracy, then there is none". He's already acting as if this is 'old news' and that it's a settled matter. You really think a significant portion of his base is going to even try to hold him accountable for this?
He is currently wiping his ass with the constitution, up until this administration most so-called conservatives have been adamant that the constitution is a fantastic document that should be preserved at all costs. Once Trump was like "the constitution doesn't mean shit if it disagrees with me" what did they do? Did they demand he follow it? No, they did not.
Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to see a large percentage of his base flip on him and finally demand accountability for his criminal actions- I've just seen no evidence whatsoever that they are willing, able, or have the moral fiber to bother doing so.
I mean, I mostly agree. I would say that most Trump supporters don't actually know what's in the constitution beyond the 2nd amendment, and that's why Trump is able to wipe his ass with it. If he were to directly say, "I don't care about the constitution," a lot of his supporters would denounce that. Similarly, I think a lot of his conspiracy supporters are willing to fold any contradictions he makes in the Epstien stuff into their conspiracy, but if he tries to denounce the conspiracy, he will be denounced. But only time will tell if they will, or if he even needs them now that he's in power.
That is almost certainly true. Good point.
“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social
IDK how many MAGAt's actually read Truth social, but that can't be any more clearly stated.
He has denounced it, and it doesn't seem like he's going to reverse that position. I hope you end up being right by the way. I'm admittedly a pessimist.
I just looked the "Mole Children" thing up and it's almost as stupid as it sounds like. I guess it says something about the quality of their conspiracies when I was expecting actual half mole half human hybrids.
How do these Q idiots reconcile the fact that neither Fox News or Donald Trump has said a peep about the story? You and I both know that if he had led a rescue of 35k abused children he would NEVER shut the fuck up about it. Yet he never brought it up even in his rallies where people unaffiliated with the news could have recorded him saying it.
Well, like I said, it was easier when Q was active and there were a bunch of influencers crafting a narrative. If I remember right, the public Trump was mostly an act, while behind the scenes he was a more solemn man working with, "white hats," to free children. That's where all those memes about Trump's, "sacrifice," come from.