The QAnon conspiracy cult is facing a leadership crisis as the person known as Q has not posted for a year.
The change in the movement in the year since was the focus of a new, three-part exposé by the Financial Times.
Correspondent Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan reported the "mega conspiracy" has three main sections now.
"First there is “QAnon proper, still rooted in a Make America Great American mentality. This strand continues to focus on the deep state and Donald Trump’s heroic stance against it, with fantastical concepts like the return of JFK Jr for the next election cycle. Then there is a pastel or lower-case Q," he explained. "The new form, which emerged last November, is linked to the Stop The Steal movement. Just like with ‘QAnon proper’, this focuses on the US election being rigged by the Democrats, but includes even whackier elements like the belief that Joe Biden has actually been replaced by a clone."
READ MORE: QAnon cultist complains to Trump about failed predictions: 'This is starting to get very old'
The movement has had trouble growing in Q's absence.
"The absence of QAnon as a central, undisputed text for followers to believe, however, has had an impact," he reported. "The recent gathering of Q followers at Dallas’ Dealey Plaza to greet John F Kennedy Junior’s triumphant return on the basis his death was faked is both evidence of the continued power of QAnon’s ideology, and the pressures of factionalisation."
JFK, Jr. died in a 1999 plane crash.
The Dallas vigil has been spearheaded by Michael Protzman, who believes in numerology and thinks Trump is speaking in code.
READ MORE: This psychological factor explains the QAnon movement better than political ideology: scientists
“It wouldn’t have happened if there wasn’t a power vacuum going on,” explained Joe Ondrak of Logically.
Venkataramakrishnan interviewed Mike Rains who runs the Adventures in HellwQrld podcast tracking QAnon. He said the situation is harming the cult's growth.
“The things that radicalised people were either the actual Q drops and the movement burgeoning from 2017 to 2020, and then it got a secondary shot in the arm in 2020 when you had Covid and you had the presidential election. In 2021, there really hasn’t been anything to push people into it — politics is basically cut and dry," he explained. "Nobody’s joining the movement right now because there’s no incentive."
Read the full exposé.
