Re: <nettime> THE Q IN QONSPIRACY: QAnon as a Paradigm for Future Social-media-driven Conspiracism

[James Wallbank <james@lowtech.org>]

I echo David's enthusiasm for this subject. It may also be worth 
considering the question of the nature of belief.

Many apparent extremists (I'm aware of both Brexit super-fans and 
Q-adjacent Trump enthusiasts, who say, "Well, we know that such-and-such 
isn't literally true, but we sympathise with the spirit of it."

This sort of fluid, post-rational quasi-belief is extraordinarily 
difficult to challenge - it's not about the facts, it's about the 
"vibe". The difference between actual insurrection and playing the part 
of a fantasy insurrectionist as live action role-play is, from the 
outside, imperceptible, and it may not be a distinction made by the 
activists themselves.

Best Regards,

James
=====

On 11/03/2021 13:13, d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk wrote:
> Very much looking forward to this discussion...
>
> The approach of Q's followers (along with myriad other conspiracy 
> theorists) reflects
> the Ninth lesson from historian Timothy Snyder’s text ‘On Tyranny: 
> Twenty Lessons for the 20th Century’
> which begins with the sentence: ‘Investigate. Figure things out for 
> yourself.’ Worryingly that is precisely
> what Q's followers feel they are doing.
>
> The epistemology of these movements could be characterised as a 
> hermeneutics of un-quenchable suspicion in
> which “every official narrative and mainstream institution is suspect 
> […] and in which real knowledge is
> produced by like-minded strangers working together on the internet “to 
> do their own research”.”
>
> These are potent grass roots research orientated sub-cultures who 
> experience the sheer excitement of feeling that they are unmasking a 
> world of lies and revealing through their own research efforts a 
> network of hidden causes. This fact that makes it particularly hard 
> terrain those on the left to contest.
>
> Although not exactly an activist I find it useful to recall Roland 
> Barthes's evolution thinker from the early days as an unmasker of 
> 'mythologies' to a later understanding that you can’t get rid of a 
> mythology by telling or demonstrating that it’s a 'myth'. It can only 
> ever be replaced it with a better myth. Faith in evidence and exposure 
> is not enough.
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