The phenomenon was very much like the whole Q thing. The Xers started out as people who thought they were investing in a diamond exploration/mining company. While DD should have shown them it was a scam, many--especially those who learned about the company at the NASCAR races--had no understanding of mining or stocks.
But for the first year and a half or so--from late 2002 to the summer of 2004--the focus was on the "investment", and on the possible success of CMKX's exploration efforts. But then, as Urban Casavant issued hundreds of billions of shares of stock, the Team CMKX pumpers introduced the specter of Shorty. Everything was Shorty's fault, up to and including the SEC suspensions of USCA and CMKX, and the initiation of the admin proceeding to revoke registration.
Even that was somewhat normal. But when the giant cert pull--the biggest ever done--failed to show any naked shorting, things began to get wacky. Increasingly crazy theories were introduced. All that culminated with the appearance of Krazy Al Hodges and his promotion of truly insane conspiracy stuff involving a descendent of Billy the Kid (or Wild Bill Hickok; I no longer remember which) and the Queen of England.
By then, the Xers were busily "reading between the lines", as the Q people do, and came to believe in a vast international conspiracy involving them. They developed incredibly elaborate explanations of how and when they'd "get paid", involving precise dates that always had to be postponed. Now, as I said, many have become Q adherents.
Of course, along the way, many believers gave up and accepted the fact that they'd been scammed, and stopped hoping for riches. But a hardcore group of Xers hung on.
What was startling at the time, and is very relevant to the popularity of QAnon, is that nearly all those people had been passably normal to begin with. Somewhere along the line, something tipped them into what I think can fairly be described as mental illness.
btw, for anyone who didn't know, Krazy Al died recently.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
