What started as a surreal conspiracy theory claiming former president Donald Trump was battling a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles may soon take a turn for the worse. As per CNN, the FBI is warning lawmakers (or trying to, anyway) that, in the wake of the failed insurrection of Jan. 6, QAnon adherents may turn even more violent in the wake of the failed Jan. 6 insurrection that some of them still think is a setup.
In a new report, the agency is warning that those who subscribe to the theory — which at least at one point included Georgia representative and headline-maker Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Trump lawyer Sidney Powell — may move from mere “digital soldiers” into committing more real world atrocities. It refers to them as “domestic violent extremists.”
Oddly, the shift may happen because they realize the theory is bull. The elusive person known simply as “Q” laid out a series of predictions, among them that Trump would reclaim power. None of them have come true. As such, the report claims, supporters “can no longer ‘trust the plan” set forth by its mysterious standard-bearer.” But instead of abandoning a crackpot theory altogether, they may, as CNN puts it, feel the “need to take greater control of the direction of the movement than before.”
Of the hundreds arrested for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, over 20 self-identified as QAnon adherents, among them Jake Angeli, better known as the scantily-clad, headpiece-wearing “QAnon Shaman.” They may, the FBI believes, go even farther, targeting people they believe are part of the alleged cabal, rather than wait for Q to spout more nonsense that never comes true.
In other words, it’s more proof that both the internet and electing Donald J. Trump were great ideas that won’t negative affect the nation for years.
(Via CNN)