The Prophecies of Q American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.
Story by Adrienne LaFrance
JUNE 2020 ISSUE
SHADOWLAND
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If you were an adherent, no one would be able to tell. You would look like any other American. You could be a mother, picking leftovers off your toddler’s plate. You could be the young man in headphones across the street. You could be a bookkeeper, a dentist, a grandmother icing cupcakes in her kitchen. You may well have an affiliation with an evangelical church. But you are hard to identify just from the way you look—which is good, because someday soon dark forces may try to track you down. You understand this sounds crazy, but you don’t care. You know that a small group of manipulators, operating in the shadows, pull the planet’s strings. You know that they are powerful enough to abuse children without fear of retribution. You know that the mainstream media are their handmaidens, in partnership with Hillary Clinton and the secretive denizens of the deep state. You know that only Donald Trump stands between you and a damned and ravaged world. You see plague and pestilence sweeping the planet, and understand that they are part of the plan. You know that a clash between good and evil cannot be avoided, and you yearn for the Great Awakening that is coming. And so you must be on guard at all times. You must shield your ears from the scorn of the ignorant. You must find those who are like you. And you must be prepared to fight.
You know all this because you believe in Q.
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The Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints are thriving religious movements indigenous to America.
Do not be surprised if QAnon becomes another.
It already has more adherents by far than either of those two denominations had in the first decades of their existence.
People are expressing their faith through devoted study of Q drops as installments of a foundational text, through the development of Q- worshipping groups, and through sweeping expressions of gratitude for what Q has brought to their lives.
Does it matter that we do not know who Q is? The divine is always a mystery. Does it matter that basic aspects of Q’s teachings cannot be confirmed? The basic tenets of Christianity cannot be confirmed.
Among the people of QAnon, faith remains absolute.
True believers describe a feeling of rebirth, an irreversible arousal to existential knowledge.
They are certain that a Great Awakening is coming. They’ll wait as long as they must for deliverance.
Trust the plan. Enjoy the show. Nothing can stop what is coming.
This article appears in the June 2020 print edition with the headline “Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming.” It was published online on May 14, 2020.
ADRIENNE LAFRANCE is the executive editor of The Atlantic. She was previously a senior editor and staff writer at The Atlantic, and the editor of TheAtlantic.com.
Poster Comment:
deep sTaTE
vs
Trump / God
