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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow QAnon Creates a Dangerous Alternate Reality
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/opinion/qanon-conspiracy-theory-arg.htmlIn 2019, the F.B.I. cited QAnon as one of the dangerous conspiracy theories posing domestic terrorist threats to the United States and cited past incitements of violence from its adherents. Despite its fringe origins, the conspiracy movement continues to grow in troubling ways. QAnon-supporting candidates are running for office in surprising numbers (Media Matters Alex Kaplan reports that at least 14 candidates made it out of primaries to the ballot in November or to primary runoffs.) The movement has been tacitly embraced by President Trump and his re-election campaign, whove amplified QAnon accounts and even some of their memes.
For those who havent paid attention to the community since the early days, the movements growing popularity is alarming and often confusing. Some have compared it to a budding religion. Personally, the phenomenon has always struck me as a dark iteration of vigilante investigations that grew popular on message boards in the 2010s citizen journalism gone wrong.
Perhaps the best explanation Ive heard for the movements popularity comes from Adrian Hon, the chief executive of the gaming company Six to Start and a designer of alternate reality games or ARGs. Unlike video games, alternate reality games arent played on a console they use the world as their storytelling platform. Theres no one particular medium. The story takes place in real time and seems to exist in the world. So game designers hide clues and puzzles in websites, apps and even newspaper advertisements. Its a bit like a networked treasure hunt that turns the world around you into a game.
For Mr. Hon, that phenomenon resembled the dynamics governing QAnon. In a viral Twitter thread and follow-up post, he argued that QAnon pushes the same buttons that ARGs do, whether by intention or by coincidence. In both cases, do your research leads curious onlookers to a cornucopia of brain-tingling information.
*snip*
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How QAnon Creates a Dangerous Alternate Reality (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Aug 2020
OP
Just_Vote_Dem
(2,790 posts)1. I could be wrong
but I thought the guy who claimed to have started QAnon gave an interview and admitted it was an elaborate troll?
Delarage
(2,182 posts)2. I know a guy
Who is a teacher and thinks Q is the greatest thing ever. I remember him trying to convince me that Q was some kind of insider who knows the inner workings of everything....and "you can tell b/c he knows stuff that only an insider would know and predicts things that only an insider could" or something along those lines. It sounded bat-shit crazy to me and I disregarded it. Now it's a thing among the rethuglicans. Go figure.