BILL LEE
February 12, 2021
The phenomenon of QAnon has come to dominate so much of the political and social world (particularly the social media world) in the USA over the last four years (and has crept into some parts of the Canadian right-wing scene). It is almost a daily item in USA News. Though it is ubiquitous in general, I find however that it is a downright puzzle to me.
The thing itself has put out a wide range of strange and weird ideas, most relate to a series of fact-less, odd and even bizarre notions. Some have become well known and relate to conspiracy theories like the one suggesting that there is a cabal of Democratic Party luminaries, like Hilary Clinton, joining with celebrities to form a top-secret club of “elites who are running a ring which kidnaps young children and babies and uses them for satanic rituals. It was supposed to have been run out of a basement in a pizza place in DC (Wendling, 2021). “QAnon supporters also believed the claim the Mueller's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election was really an elaborate cover for an investigation into paedophiles. Another, more recent piece of misinformation was that Trump, who they believe has all along been waging a secret “war” against the bad guys, was somehow going to appear on Inauguration Day and have a bunch of Democratic legislatures and leaders (among them I presume the ones running that kidnapping ring) arrested for “stealing the presidential election” (Nation World, 2021). He would then somehow, be himself sworn in as President on March 4. (Gilbert 2021) You just cannot make this up!
Pretty strong and weird stuff. But it is not so much the actual overall absurdity of the beliefs in the nonsense that stymies me. That so many people believe strongly in counterfactual stories is what puzzles me. There have been been those who espouse the notion that the earth is flat for example. As Rick Salutin (2021) recently pointed out, “… the ridiculous or counterfactual” (17) can be seen in many myths. The Christian story of Jesus’ resurrection may be “absurd”, but most early adherents understood its absurdity, and recognized that as part of its power. “The difference between them and QAnon is that these Christians admitted their story was absurd”.1 I agree with Salutin on this. I also agree when he suggests that their “messiah”, Trump is an empty one who seems to keep demonstrating his emptiness.
Why Do These QAnoners Believe What They Believe?
So, how do we account for this phenomenon, that a large number of people go about their daily lives while believing the most outrageous and malign bafflegab? There are a few theories. In a fairly recent article (Edelman, 2021), a University of Miami political scientist named Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami is quoted, “People are generally resistant to ideas that don’t fit their existing worldviews, so simply asking a question isn’t going to turn them into QAnon people, … Rather, there is a stable subset of the population that is drawn to conspiratorial ideas.” The problem with this analysis is that it doesn’t tell us much other than certain people are drawn to conspiracy. Psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen (2018) suggested a couple of reasons for the tendency to get caught up in these wild theories. First, “Conspiracy theories reinforce a belief that nothing in the world happens through coincidence. This refusal to recognize the role of chance leads people to develop a worldview in which hostile and secret conspiracies permeate all layers of society.” In other words some people are uncomfortable with uncertainty and somehow conspiracy theories provide them with a more “firm” ability to make sense out of things. Second, he suggests that marginalized groups, “ethnic minority groups” for example, come to believe the social and political system is stacked against them and thus are susceptible to conspiracy theories.
Problems with the Theories
Both of these seem thin to me. The first article suggests that what is at the base of conspiracy, the weakness for the muck, is that adherents are susceptible to being gulled. Ok, but that’s simply circular reasoning and gets us, or me at least, no further in understanding. The second article is somewhat meatier. Van Pooijen’s first suggestion, that the need for certainty drives the phenomenon, makes some sense. Except, I am not sure it does in this particular case. Put briefly, the sheer pain and malignity of their acceptance of such a dark, unhappy understanding of life seems an odd way to build certainty. Their beliefs are made up of a depressing farrago of misery and suffering. They seem to see the world in Hobbesian terms, as “Nasty, brutish and short2, needing some manner of ruthless strongman who will enforce order to their lives. And the second one, marginalized groups feeling that the system is screwing with them, is hardly unreasonable. Marx’s proletariat coming to understand capitalist perfidy and oppression is hardly a conspiracy, it is the stuff of their lives. The history of the Union movement was not built on a belief of wild conspiracies that the captains of industry were treating them in a miserable manner. It was a fact that even the governments of the USA, Canada and many other western countries understood. The history of the Civil Rights movement did not somehow get taken in by a mistaken belief that White supremist oppression was real. And women did not dream up the notion of patriarchy and the fundamental inequality between the sexes. We don’t need conspiracy theories to explain the exitance of capitalist oppression or sexism. But somehow, we are to understand that a significant amount of the population of the USA has come to connect the
damage to their concrete lives, not to capitalist greed and neoliberalism, but to dark forces of a cabal of Jewish Bankers and baby eating Democrats. Hmmm.
Perhaps a Left Analysis is Better
There is another analysis, from the left, and even the centre-left, that the working class and racialized groups have been screwed to such an extent that they have lost all faith in the institutions that are supposed to make life more democratic and equal. This certainly makes more sense. The neoliberal onslaught has wrought terrible pain, uncertainty and downright misery on huge numbers of people while making a very small percentage of people (the less than 1.00%) rich, and as arrogant, as Croesus. The problem for me is similar to the one above, that it seems that this insight, by the downtrodden, would make the people less, not more, resistant to ridiculous notions like the arrogant, wealthy mendacity machine, like Trump, was leading a secret crusade to strike back at the elites. Even more difficult to understand is that they would buy into the notion that he was making his crusade public through some mysterious guy on social media named Q.
Still not satisfied
So, the explanatory rationale (or rationales) for these beliefs don’t solve the mystery, at least for me. I am wondering if there may be some sort of glitch in the brain functioning of a significant number of these people. Their unfounded beliefs don’t seem to have much to do with basic intelligence. They are generally able to speak and write in sentences, something with which the former President of the USA seems to struggle. Nevertheless, they have entered into this dark, weird and malign QAnon alternative reality and stick to it like a hysterical gang of drowning individuals trying desperately to hang on to a bit of floating detritus. No matter what concrete evidence confronts them, they only grip more desperately. My sense is that they, or many of them, are deliberately, willfully deluding themselves, literally choosing to envelop themselves in a thick dark miasma of senseless mendacities and impossibilities, all of which are suggestive of a world of total degradation and immorality. No logic or sanity seems able to shake their attachment to the god-awful twaddle and the heinous degenerate codswallop. I have no idea as to why anyone would choose to adhere to, and live in, such a frightening and vile “reality” unless there was something wrong with their emotional or rational brain chemistry. It must be a quite uncomfortable, even tortured existence. Psychology is not my field so I don’t know if there is some other theory that would address this phenomenon. But if anyone is able to point me in the direction of any material that addresses the issue, research or theory, I’d much appreciate it.
___________________________________________________
Resources
Edelman, G. (2020). “QAnon Supporters Aren’t Quite Who You Think They Are” WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/qanon-supporters-arent-quite-who-you-think-they-are/. Oct. 6.
Gilbert, D. (2021). “QAnon Thinks Trump Will Become President Again on March 4”. Vice News. QAnon Thinks Trump Will Become President Again on March 4 (vice.com). Jan. 25 Nation/World (2021) “QAnon followers believed that inauguration day would bring mass arrests and executions of Trump’s enemies. It didn’t.” Oregonlive. https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2021/01/qanon-followers-believed-that-inauguration-day-would-bring-mass-arrests-and-executions-of-trumps-enemies-it-didnt.html?fbclid=IwAR1QJWSbcw1JyhaxxjVr-VJ7v0Yf3eGXyylhxFtKh4n1xMgpfHl9Z7K-LRI
Salutin, R. @021) “The problem isn’t the absurdity”. Toronto Star, February 5. (p.A17)
van Prooijen, J-W. (2018). “The psychology of Qanon: Why do seemingly sane people believe bizarre conspiracy theories?” NBC Think. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/psychology-qanon-why-do-seemingly-sane-people-believe-bizarre-conspiracy-ncna900171. Aug. 13.
Wending, M. (2021). “QAnon: What is it and where did it come from?” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/53498434. Jan. 6.
1 In other words, Salutin is saying that they recognized that their belief seemed unbelievable but that it, for them, confirmed the divinity of Jesus. Salutin, goes on to suggest that “atheistic Marxism (vs, its sociological and economic insights)” is in the same category in terms of the “myth … that social justice is bound to triumph via the messianic agency of the proletariat … It’s sheer unproven faith” (17).
The thing itself has put out a wide range of strange and weird ideas, most relate to a series of fact-less, odd and even bizarre notions. Some have become well known and relate to conspiracy theories like the one suggesting that there is a cabal of Democratic Party luminaries, like Hilary Clinton, joining with celebrities to form a top-secret club of “elites who are running a ring which kidnaps young children and babies and uses them for satanic rituals. It was supposed to have been run out of a basement in a pizza place in DC (Wendling, 2021). “QAnon supporters also believed the claim the Mueller's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election was really an elaborate cover for an investigation into paedophiles. Another, more recent piece of misinformation was that Trump, who they believe has all along been waging a secret “war” against the bad guys, was somehow going to appear on Inauguration Day and have a bunch of Democratic legislatures and leaders (among them I presume the ones running that kidnapping ring) arrested for “stealing the presidential election” (Nation World, 2021). He would then somehow, be himself sworn in as President on March 4. (Gilbert 2021) You just cannot make this up!
Pretty strong and weird stuff. But it is not so much the actual overall absurdity of the beliefs in the nonsense that stymies me. That so many people believe strongly in counterfactual stories is what puzzles me. There have been been those who espouse the notion that the earth is flat for example. As Rick Salutin (2021) recently pointed out, “… the ridiculous or counterfactual” (17) can be seen in many myths. The Christian story of Jesus’ resurrection may be “absurd”, but most early adherents understood its absurdity, and recognized that as part of its power. “The difference between them and QAnon is that these Christians admitted their story was absurd”.1 I agree with Salutin on this. I also agree when he suggests that their “messiah”, Trump is an empty one who seems to keep demonstrating his emptiness.
Why Do These QAnoners Believe What They Believe?
So, how do we account for this phenomenon, that a large number of people go about their daily lives while believing the most outrageous and malign bafflegab? There are a few theories. In a fairly recent article (Edelman, 2021), a University of Miami political scientist named Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami is quoted, “People are generally resistant to ideas that don’t fit their existing worldviews, so simply asking a question isn’t going to turn them into QAnon people, … Rather, there is a stable subset of the population that is drawn to conspiratorial ideas.” The problem with this analysis is that it doesn’t tell us much other than certain people are drawn to conspiracy. Psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen (2018) suggested a couple of reasons for the tendency to get caught up in these wild theories. First, “Conspiracy theories reinforce a belief that nothing in the world happens through coincidence. This refusal to recognize the role of chance leads people to develop a worldview in which hostile and secret conspiracies permeate all layers of society.” In other words some people are uncomfortable with uncertainty and somehow conspiracy theories provide them with a more “firm” ability to make sense out of things. Second, he suggests that marginalized groups, “ethnic minority groups” for example, come to believe the social and political system is stacked against them and thus are susceptible to conspiracy theories.
Problems with the Theories
Both of these seem thin to me. The first article suggests that what is at the base of conspiracy, the weakness for the muck, is that adherents are susceptible to being gulled. Ok, but that’s simply circular reasoning and gets us, or me at least, no further in understanding. The second article is somewhat meatier. Van Pooijen’s first suggestion, that the need for certainty drives the phenomenon, makes some sense. Except, I am not sure it does in this particular case. Put briefly, the sheer pain and malignity of their acceptance of such a dark, unhappy understanding of life seems an odd way to build certainty. Their beliefs are made up of a depressing farrago of misery and suffering. They seem to see the world in Hobbesian terms, as “Nasty, brutish and short2, needing some manner of ruthless strongman who will enforce order to their lives. And the second one, marginalized groups feeling that the system is screwing with them, is hardly unreasonable. Marx’s proletariat coming to understand capitalist perfidy and oppression is hardly a conspiracy, it is the stuff of their lives. The history of the Union movement was not built on a belief of wild conspiracies that the captains of industry were treating them in a miserable manner. It was a fact that even the governments of the USA, Canada and many other western countries understood. The history of the Civil Rights movement did not somehow get taken in by a mistaken belief that White supremist oppression was real. And women did not dream up the notion of patriarchy and the fundamental inequality between the sexes. We don’t need conspiracy theories to explain the exitance of capitalist oppression or sexism. But somehow, we are to understand that a significant amount of the population of the USA has come to connect the
damage to their concrete lives, not to capitalist greed and neoliberalism, but to dark forces of a cabal of Jewish Bankers and baby eating Democrats. Hmmm.
Perhaps a Left Analysis is Better
There is another analysis, from the left, and even the centre-left, that the working class and racialized groups have been screwed to such an extent that they have lost all faith in the institutions that are supposed to make life more democratic and equal. This certainly makes more sense. The neoliberal onslaught has wrought terrible pain, uncertainty and downright misery on huge numbers of people while making a very small percentage of people (the less than 1.00%) rich, and as arrogant, as Croesus. The problem for me is similar to the one above, that it seems that this insight, by the downtrodden, would make the people less, not more, resistant to ridiculous notions like the arrogant, wealthy mendacity machine, like Trump, was leading a secret crusade to strike back at the elites. Even more difficult to understand is that they would buy into the notion that he was making his crusade public through some mysterious guy on social media named Q.
Still not satisfied
So, the explanatory rationale (or rationales) for these beliefs don’t solve the mystery, at least for me. I am wondering if there may be some sort of glitch in the brain functioning of a significant number of these people. Their unfounded beliefs don’t seem to have much to do with basic intelligence. They are generally able to speak and write in sentences, something with which the former President of the USA seems to struggle. Nevertheless, they have entered into this dark, weird and malign QAnon alternative reality and stick to it like a hysterical gang of drowning individuals trying desperately to hang on to a bit of floating detritus. No matter what concrete evidence confronts them, they only grip more desperately. My sense is that they, or many of them, are deliberately, willfully deluding themselves, literally choosing to envelop themselves in a thick dark miasma of senseless mendacities and impossibilities, all of which are suggestive of a world of total degradation and immorality. No logic or sanity seems able to shake their attachment to the god-awful twaddle and the heinous degenerate codswallop. I have no idea as to why anyone would choose to adhere to, and live in, such a frightening and vile “reality” unless there was something wrong with their emotional or rational brain chemistry. It must be a quite uncomfortable, even tortured existence. Psychology is not my field so I don’t know if there is some other theory that would address this phenomenon. But if anyone is able to point me in the direction of any material that addresses the issue, research or theory, I’d much appreciate it.
___________________________________________________
Resources
Edelman, G. (2020). “QAnon Supporters Aren’t Quite Who You Think They Are” WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/qanon-supporters-arent-quite-who-you-think-they-are/. Oct. 6.
Gilbert, D. (2021). “QAnon Thinks Trump Will Become President Again on March 4”. Vice News. QAnon Thinks Trump Will Become President Again on March 4 (vice.com). Jan. 25 Nation/World (2021) “QAnon followers believed that inauguration day would bring mass arrests and executions of Trump’s enemies. It didn’t.” Oregonlive. https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2021/01/qanon-followers-believed-that-inauguration-day-would-bring-mass-arrests-and-executions-of-trumps-enemies-it-didnt.html?fbclid=IwAR1QJWSbcw1JyhaxxjVr-VJ7v0Yf3eGXyylhxFtKh4n1xMgpfHl9Z7K-LRI
Salutin, R. @021) “The problem isn’t the absurdity”. Toronto Star, February 5. (p.A17)
van Prooijen, J-W. (2018). “The psychology of Qanon: Why do seemingly sane people believe bizarre conspiracy theories?” NBC Think. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/psychology-qanon-why-do-seemingly-sane-people-believe-bizarre-conspiracy-ncna900171. Aug. 13.
Wending, M. (2021). “QAnon: What is it and where did it come from?” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/53498434. Jan. 6.
1 In other words, Salutin is saying that they recognized that their belief seemed unbelievable but that it, for them, confirmed the divinity of Jesus. Salutin, goes on to suggest that “atheistic Marxism (vs, its sociological and economic insights)” is in the same category in terms of the “myth … that social justice is bound to triumph via the messianic agency of the proletariat … It’s sheer unproven faith” (17).
2 The quote comes from the famous poem by Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan (1651). He believed that the absolute power of a sovereign (i.e., a strongman), was justified by the consent of the people. They agreed, he thought, in a hypothetical social contract, to obey the strongman in all matters in exchange for a guarantee of peace and security. The alternative was to live in world of "the war of all against all" where life would be “nasty, brutish and short
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