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A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon - Playing with reality (20min+ read. A bit lengthy, but it worth)
In brief - apophenia. Just a tad more elaborated - induced/guided aphonenia.
What's fascinating is the buttons of human psyche that are pushed to sink people deep into the rabbit holes:
- Follow The Breadcrumbs - don't tell, just select the dots that are to be connected
- The Eureka Effect - the rush of the Aha! moments and the feeling of being rewarded
- Lamestream Media - passivate against the reality that's not supportive to the agenda
- Community - sense of belonging, behavior reinforcement; a population large and motivated enough to adopt an evolutionary strategy in selecting the best CT-es
All the above are exemplified - and these examples is how I got to get WTF Beyoncé has to do with QAnon.
So, if all it's an Alternate Reality Game, there's no harm, right? Not so fast, the US Military Academy ran the The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making? article in its "Combating Terrorism Center" journal, stating
QAnon represents a public security threat with the potential in the future to become a more impactful domestic terror threat. This is true especially given that conspiracy theories have a track record of propelling terrorist violence elsewhere in the West as well as QAnon’s more recent influence on mainstream political discourse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @07:28PM
While I appreciate the 30,000 foot view, I think it important to remember that there are actual human beings involved.
And the "alternative reality" game is hurting not just those who go down those rabbit holes, but the people who care about them as well.
An interesting parallel is to radicalized religious/white supremacist groups and street gangs.
People need connection and a feeling of belonging. This is a powerful drive for humans as a social species. Such groups focus strongly on the "us," making members and prospective members feel protected, cared about and embraced. For many people that's the important part. The "them" bits are there to define the group, as if we're *all* "us" there is no *distinct* group.
Perhaps we should talk about that dynamic as well?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/23/qanon-conspiracy-theories-loved-ones [theguardian.com]
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/qanon-families-friends [buzzfeednews.com]
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwnjx4/people-tell-us-how-qanon-destroyed-their-relationships [vice.com]
https://narratively.com/my-father-the-qanon-conspiracy-theorist/ [narratively.com]
https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/i9suqq/losing_my_marriage_to_qanon/ [reddit.com]
One of the things that make "QAnon" so virulent is that it's not dogma. It's an ever-changing set of conspiracy theories, some of which resonate with one set of folks and some of which resonate with others. The main driver is what goes viral.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/tech/qanon-believer-how-he-got-out/index.html [cnn.com]