It's Not Q. It's You

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Mike Rothschild
@rothschildmd
Great story about what's really going on with QAnon. Everything I found in writing my book was that the people who found Q were extant conspiracy theory believers, and algos only pushed them further down a road they were already on.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump fly a U.S. flag with a symbol from the group QAnon as they gather outside the U.S. Capitol January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress will hold a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators have said they will reject the Electoral College...

It's Not Q. It's You
Belief in conspiracy theories is not growing. Some people have always been this crazy — but now we build political coalitions around them.
rollingstone.com
10:35 AM · Oct 16, 2021

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-expert-joesph-uscinski-1242636/

No paywall
https://archive.is/2aaPR


Truth be told, we are a nation of spectacular liars. We lie to ourselves about our origin, our exceptionality, that our wealth and power stems from that exceptionality rather than from economic systems of exploitation. Lies are embedded in our founding and our growth and probably our eventual doom. Spurred on by Sam Adams, a riotous mob stormed the Massachusetts governor’s mansion because they believed outlandish theories about how he was conspiring with the Brits. Spurred on by Trump, a riotous mob stormed the Capitol because they believed outlandish theories about how Nancy Pelosi was conspiring with Joe Biden. Or Mike Pence. Or Satanic deep state baby eaters. Or whatever the hell.

Not all lies are conspiracy theories, but probably most conspiracy theories are lies. And according to Joseph Uscinski, arguably the country’s foremost expert on the topic, it’s possible we’re even lying to ourselves about the nature of conspiracy theories.

As a professor of political science specializing in public opinion and mass media at the University of Miami, co-author of American Conspiracy Theories, and editor of Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them, Uscinski spends a great deal of time pondering the untrue beliefs of others. With careful data, polling, and research, he has been tracking dozens of conspiracy theories — and the general mindset that drives them — for over a decade. He’s the guy every expert you talk to says you need to talk to. And when I reached out to him wanting to understand the psychological effects of a conspiracy theory like QAnon, he kindly let me know that I was probably getting it all wrong.

As Uscinski explains it, conspiracy theories don’t affect people so much as people affect them. And those people aren’t unwittingly sucked by powerful algorithms down a rabbit hole of dis- and misinformation but rather are drawn there by what they already believe — or want to believe — is true. “This discussion is often framed backwards,” Uscinski tells me. “It suggests that internet content, or the algorithms, have magical powers of persuasion. But [a QAnon adherent] wasn’t looking at recipes on YouTube then slipped on a banana peel and got inadvertently pulled down the QAnon rabbit hole. Maybe they were on YouTube looking for fringe conspiracy theories or extremist religious stuff; maybe they were already into all sorts of Bible conspiracy nonsense. The internet didn’t persuade them of some foreign idea. It gave them exactly what they already believed.”

*snip*

[Wounded Bear]

1. The internet and social media has allowed them to monetize and weaponize...

their conspiracy theories and bullshit.

[FakeNoose]

8. The internet has also helped them find each other

Formerly, the nutcases were isolated by time and space. Each small town in the USA only had a handful of them, and the cities maybe had a few more but not too many.

Now thanks to the internet, they're all finding each other on these weird-o websites and they're trading their crazy ideas back and forth. It all gets magnified a hundredfold, and then the journalists start reporting this crap like it's news.

[LuckyCharms]

2. Damn, that's a good read. Thanks, Nevilledog.

[Nevilledog]

3. ...

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. The internet gives them a great chance to group together...

... after finding similar wackos.

I agree with the article that they were already prone to such thoughts.

Heck, several evangelical churches and right-wing talk radio hosts already persuaded them that liberals were evil. Not just people with different political values, but actually evil.

[Nevilledog]

17. The internet is a huge amplifier

[Buckeye_Democrat]

18. Absolutely.

It emboldens several of them, convincing them that it's normal behavior.

[dalton99a]

5. Kick

[Hortensis]

6. I've seen at least hints of this in everyone I've known well enough to observe them.

At least after I became more aware. Before this period when they've become emboldened and act out proudly, I was shocked when a smart, rational person turned out to believe what "no one" could. No more.

[Silent3]

7. Yes, the CS-thinking tendency is already there, but that doesn't mean Q isn't particularly dangerous

I'm not sure when reading this article where Uscinski's supposedly solid and well-respected data end, and his own extrapolations from that data begin.

So, 5-7% believe in "a certain type of anti-establishment conspiracy theory". Okay, but what additional percentage believe in other types of conspiracy theories? Does something like QAnon cover a range of types?

I didn't see anything in the article to account for the huge number of Republicans who believe the election was stolen from Trump. That's pretty nutty conspiracy thinking, and that's believed by well more than 5-7% of our adult population in the US, and it's driving dangerous and ugly changes in elections laws, driven both by CT believers themselves and exploiters of CT believers.

Another thing that isn't covered in this article is the harm of many people (whether they'd be believing crazy shit on their own anyway, no matter what Fox News and Facebook do) coalescing around one big, well-known and popular CT like QAnon rather that having their individual craziness diffused across multiple smaller CTs which can't provide them as large a sense of broad social support and confirmation in numbers.

[OneGrassRoot]

9. And that's precisely why I refuse...

to call the cultists victims. They were predisposed to be drawn to right-wing extremist hate. And that includes many of the woo, crunchy granola crowd.

[Skittles]

10. thank you

Q is not a new thing, these fucked up assholes have always been around.....burning "witches", supporting nazis, drinking the Koolaid - but now they have the media and the internet to help feed their delusions. I am sick to death of being told I need to "understand" these folk.....I understand them all to well, which is why I despise them. We need to stop coddling them and make life very difficult for them. Seriously, fuck these assholes.

[peggysue2]

11. Fascinating article

A different spin on the whole Q mania. Not sure which is worse: a conspiracy-laden, pseudo-game craze or a bunch of crazed citizens all drinking from the same poisoned well.

And then we have the Salem witch trials.

Another underscore to the ole adage: All things old are new again.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

[rickyhall]

13. Christians are already required to believe in the fantastic.

So belief in conspiracy theories would hardly be a problem, I would think.

[SunSeeker]

14. 20% of Americans are mentally ill. Could explain some of QAnoners.

https://www.nami.org/mhstats#:~:text=20.6%25%20of%20U.S.%20adults%20experienced,represents%201%20in%2020%20adults.

[OMGWTF]

15. One-third of our county is mentally ill.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. I found a lot of those associated with the left during Bush's presidency flipped and joined QAnon...

But many of these same people were conspiracy theorists to begin with - believing that 9/11 was an inside job. I think once you start opening yourself to one conspiracy, you pretty much walk through a door that allows for you to believe a bunch of other conspiracy theories. It's sad.