What Is New About the QAnon Conspiracy Theory? Unfulfilled Prophecies, Influencers, and New Conspiracies
Abstract
Since the United States Capitol Attack, which took place at the beginning of 2021, QAnon conspiracy theory was given a lot of attention by the media and general public even outside the United States. Although many believed that the frustration of the unfulfilled prophecy claiming redemption from the conspirators and consequently the defeat of Donald Trump in the presidential election foreshadowed the last days of QAnon, its narrative seems to be far from ceasing.
Undoubtfully, QAnon has transformed and adopted some of the currently popular conspiracy narratives. That also gives him the means to maintain a significant base of followers and appeal to new listeners.
Although QAnon's mythology is closely linked to the premillennial eschatology of American evangelicals and "American apocalypticism", it is not limited to a specific notion of salvation but as the "superconspiracy" extends over a wide variety of conspiratorial interpretations of the world and its history. However, that also makes it difficult at the same occasions to distinguish QAnon from other conspiracy theories, which may lead to simplification and reduction of current manifestations of the Western conspiracism to QAnon.