This is a thread about the syncretism in conspiracy theories and other esoteric belief systems and why I don't think the Great Disappointment (as it was styled by @QanonAnonymous) of Biden's inauguration will end the Qanon movement.

So the Vice documentary about Qanon is not good. The hosts don't know how to journalism and they just sit there looking vaguely uncomfortable letting bad people have a platform. But there was one detail that caught my eye, almost like an easter egg for fans of weird beliefs.

One of the guys who maybe, maybe? who knows? was involved with early Q posts is a guy called Schoenberger. He apparently wrote a film score for a film he dreamed up about the Comte St. Germain. http://www.thomasschoenberger.com/blog/the-untold-story-of-count-st-germain-thomas-schoenberger-with-christos-christodoulou/

St. Germain happens to be one of the main characters in any number of cults and religions related to theosophy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Germain_(Theosophy)

Most notably, a dude named Guy Ballard claimed to have met St. Germain in 1930 when he was hiking on Mt. Shasta in Northern California. St. Germain explained he was an "Ascended Master." Ballard then started the "I AM" group, which is still going. https://www.saintgermainfoundation.org/ 

Ballard also added to his I AM cult the pre-existing idea that Mt. Shasta was the home of a secret underground city inhabited by survivors of the lost continent of Lemuria. This kind of syncretism is very common in cults and conspiracy theories.

The idea that Shasta is full of Lemurians dates back to a 1899 book about Atlantis, A Dweller on Two Planets, supposedly written by "Phylos the Thibetan"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dweller_on_Two_Planets

Mt. Shasta is still a key location for woo woo beliefs of many flavors. Last time I was there, I snapped this photo of the bulletin board outside the grocery store.

The point here is that these kinds of esoteric belief systems do not arise de novo. They cannibalize each other. Theosophy, in particular, has has a huge influence. The kind of people who will believe one wild story will gladly believe another, and then they meld.

It is in part for this reason that of the inauguration will do much to slow down Qanon. Rampant syncretism means there are always new threads to pull, new narratives to glom onto.

The movement need not all believe the same core premises to still act as a powerful force. Indeed, they already are all over the map, with some believing the JFK Jr. stuff and some not, some into lizard people, some not. It will be very interesting to see where they go next.

I predict that at least some adherents will double-down on the apocalyptic Christian elements of the story, in which the fight between Trump and the deep state is literally the fight of Good vs. Satan. History shows you can run a Christian End-Times cult pretty much indefinitely.

These are just my thoughts as an amateur who is interested in these things. My great-grandfather was obsessed with the occult and astrology. He self-published books and ran a zodiac-based stock-picking operation (to very little profit). Here are some of his creations.