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| “QAnon is a conspiracy theory with messianic overtones…. It’s legions of followers are growing. It’s a harbinger of a world where facts and reality don’t matter.” |
I’ve heard of QAnon, of course. First, I think, when that guy, Edgar Welsh, tried to shoot up a Comet Pizza parlour which someone called “Q” claimed was the base of a worldwide pedophile ring run by Hillary Clinton! That was “Pizzagate” and it did it for me. How could anyone possibly believe such arrant nonsense? But it turns out millions do.
The latest print version of The Atlantic dropped on my doorstep with The Prophesies of QAnon on the cover. I believe you can access it by registering email (ie, no need to pay).It makes fascinating and sometimes unbelievable reading. Eg: Michelle Obama is a man. Bet you didn’t know that! Or that JFK Jr faked his death in a plane crash, is actually alive, a secret Trump supporter and will return as Trump’s running mate! Nothing at all crazy there.
Compared with QAnon conspiracy theories, believing the Moon Landing didn’t happen seems pretty mainstream…. (I have an acquaintance doesn’t believe the moon landing happened. No amount of logic will shift her belief. It’s immune to logic).
We seem to be in a golden age of conspiracy theories. For which we can largely thank social media.
Thanks, Zuck. Thanks @Jack. Not…
ADDED: /Snip:
VI. REASON VERSUS FAITHin a miami coffee shop last year, I met with a man who has gotten a flurry of attention in recent years for his research on conspiracy theories—a political-science professor at the University of Miami named Joseph Uscinski. I have known Uscinski for years, and his views are nuanced, deeply informed, and far from anything you would consider knee-jerk partisanship. Many people assume, he told me, that a propensity for conspiracy thinking is predictable along ideological lines. That’s wrong, he explained. It’s better to think of conspiracy thinking as independent of party politics. It’s a particular form of mind-wiring. And it’s generally characterized by acceptance of the following propositions: Our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places. Although we ostensibly live in a democracy, a small group of people run everything, but we don’t know who they are. When big events occur—pandemics, recessions, wars, terrorist attacks—it is because that secretive group is working against the rest of us.QAnon isn’t a far-right conspiracy, the way it’s often described, Uscinski went on, despite its obviously pro-Trump narrative. And that’s because Trump isn’t a typical far-right politician. Q appeals to people with the greatest attraction to conspiracy thinking of any kind, and that appeal crosses ideological lines.
