Like that impossible-to-buy-for person on your holiday gift list, it’s hard to know how to keep a QAnon cultist happy. When a bunch of them flocked to Dallas in November to witness the resurrection of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (and possibly his dad and mom) and he didn’t show up, they didn’t bitch and moan—they simply decided that the former George publisher, who died in 1999, had instead decided to reemerge at a Rolling Stones concert. When—gasp!—that didn’t happen either, they opted to hang around Dallas a little bit longer, sing “We Are the World,” and drink from a communal bowl of disinfectants to keep from getting COVID. Meanwhile, they haven’t been willing to give the same sort of leeway to another one of their heroes, former President Donald Trump.
As Newsweek reports, followers of Q are really pissed that the former president has not only been vaccinated against COVID, but gotten a booster shot as well. Trump made this now-controversial admission on Sunday while chatting with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on the final stop of their ill-fated “History Tour” at Dallas’ American Airlines Center. Upon hearing this seemingly devastating news, some members of the audience began booing the former president. While he played it off in true Trump style, noting that it was “a very tiny group” that was jeering him, O’Reilly apparently had to later console him.
Still, as Newsweek writes, the message boards of conspiracy theory-heavy social media site Telegram were flooded with reactions to Trump’s admission. As Anders Anglesey wrote:
Newsweek found several comments on Telegram from QAnon followers who had turned on Trump and were left frustrated by his comments while others who claimed to be unvaccinated proudly called themselves “pureblood.”
One major QAnon influencer with 58,800 followers attempted to reassure their followers and explain Trump’s comments to them.
In a Monday Telegram post: “We don’t always understand everything. I love President Trump. I disagree here. I think we may find out something about this soon imo [in my opinion] either way, think for yourself. You are in the right spot here. Just don’t cuss up a storm, we have so many twists and turns already.”
The influencer continued: “I believe the end will explain the middle. But, we are all to think for ourselves and most of you guys are still with me on this vax crap. If we are confused by Pres Trump’s comments, I’m sure Deep State is. Maybe he would be a danger to society arrested otherwise idk [I don’t know] but I’m gonna continue locally and here doing what we all must every day.”
Still, it doesn’t seem as if Trump’s willingness to get a booster has influenced others to act as he did. Newsweek shared the results of a Telegram poll of more than 18,000 people who answered the question: “Now that President Trump had a booster, are you comfortable taking the vax and boosters?” A whopping 97 percent of respondents answered with an outright no, while one percent said yes and two percent weren’t sure.
Cultists gonna cult.
(Via Newsweek)