... how our Peter Pan is feeling right now. I know he thinks we are evil and he wants to have us summarily shot or if he's in a good mood we might get life in prison. But aside from that, he tried to tell us what was going to happen. Well about that. No "Storm" happened, no sting, not so much as a mosquito bite. No mass arrests and alas we are all disappointed that there will be no firing squads this time. The Kodak Black pardon was good, but hardly makes up for Trump jetting off to Florida to make his afternoon tee time and Biden taking the oath of office. Well, Pan will never bare his soul, but Daily Beast has been kind enough to tell us what he's feeling.
Daily Beast:
As the rest of the country waited for Joe Biden to be inaugurated, believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory thought they were about to see something else: the long-awaited mass arrests of Biden and a host of other “deep-state” Democrats, followed by the restoration of the Trump presidency.
“Trump will walk out during the arrest and thank America for reelection,” one QAnon supporter posted on a forum shortly before the inauguration. “This will be remembered as the greatest day since D-Day.”
As Biden was sworn in, though, the mass arrests that QAnon believers call “The Storm,” stubbornly refused to happen. Trump really did appear to have left office, rather than springing the sly trap as they had all hoped. The Democrats really did have control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
The tens of thousands of National Guard soldiers QAnon believers thought would help Trump retake Washington instead appeared to be there for a more obvious purpose: protecting the city from the same crazed QAnon believers who had violently attacked the Capitol two weeks earlier.
“I’m about to puke,” one QAnon fan watching Biden take the oath of office wrote.
For more than three years, tens of thousands of QAnon believers have pinned their hopes for the future on a second Trump term. They’ve become convinced that the government is run by a cabal of satanic pedophile-cannibals and that Trump is the only way to restore justice. Many of them, egged on by promises that Trump’s “plan” included the eradication of diseases and personal debt, pinned their dreams on QAnon as well, alienating friends and family with their ideas.
Then, on Wednesday afternoon, the QAnon future vanished, presenting the ever-expanding conspiracy theory with its greatest challenge yet.
As Biden’s inauguration became ever more certain on Wednesday, QAnon believers rapidly cycled through rationalizations. They claimed that Trump was stepping down as the head of the United States “corporation”—an idea borrowed from fringe sovereign citizen legal theories—to become the head of a restored republic. Some QAnon leaders claimed that Biden himself was in on the scheme, and would soon help Trump carry out the arrests.
As Biden finally took office, however, the mood changed quickly on QAnon forums. QAnon channels on messaging app Telegram filled with gifs of far-right mascot Pepe the Frog crying, as believers claimed they had been duped. Believers said they felt sick, or wanted to throw up.
“Trump fooled us,” complained one Telegram commenter.
“All my family and co-workers think I’m crazy,” wrote another.
“I feel stupid,” wrote a third.
Even major QAnon boosters saw their faith in the bizarre conspiracy theory shaken on Monday. QAnon booster Roy Davis co-authored a bestselling book promoting QAnon under the alias “Captain Roy,” even getting his sports car painted with a giant, blazing “Q” on the hood.
As Biden was sworn in, Davis initially told The Daily Beast he didn’t want to comment until he was sure Biden was really president. But as Biden’s new title became official, Davis said he was ready to move on from Q—something his doctor has long urged him to do anyway.
