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

[Tatiana Bazzichelli <tbazz@disruptiv.biz>]

Dear all,

thank you for this great feedback, I hope to see you online later today
so we can bring some questions over :)

All the best!

Tatiana

On 11.03.21 17:38, Max Herman wrote:
> 
> Hi David,
> 
> Myth is game is play.  It's the use of the imaginative faculties upon
> completable tasks.  The first instinct!  It's where we get our dopamine
> and, when groups are involved, our oxytocin.  
> 
> Conservatives always fed their base a pack of lies and expected infinite
> docile consumption.  That fizzled in 2015.  Every audience reaches a
> "boredom point."  After that, people start grumbling, fidgeting, or as
> we say now, "looking at their phones."  Talk radio used to scratch the
> itch but it no longer does.  Their fans were restless and needed to
> stretch their legs.  They wanted nothing more than an outdoor spring
> ritual in the green grass where treats are hidden everywhere.  (This
> terminology is used in video game design to indicate the warm embrace of
> in-jokes hidden in the game-world, bonding user to designer).  Some of
> us remember the kindly teacher's voice reassuring us "You've Got Mail"
> -- same thing.
> 
> It is absolutely correct that you cannot oppose today's conspiracy
> theology by saying "that's factually incorrect."  Its adherents merely
> say "aha, you are one of the enemy agents whose devious plan is to tell
> me my facts are not true.  But I've seen these facts with my own eyes!" 
> (By which they mean they saw it on the internet.)  Fact is no more the
> point in conspiracy theology than it is in Herodotus, Dali, a beautiful
> sunset, or a delicious apple.  There is a kind of algebra in imaginative
> play, such as "let A=1, B=2, and C=4.5," as well as the innocent
> make-believe of children: "you be the dragon and I'll be the kitty-cat."  
> 
> There's risk in underestimating the lengths to which such conspiracy
> buffs will go for fun, like mobbing the Capitol, but there's also risk
> in overestimating.  Barthes' good buddy old pal Calvino knew what Roland
> knew and took steps in art to respond.  We are far from starting at
> zero.  If we abandon the city because of one kitchen fire we may lose
> the city.
> 
> Indirection is sometimes key -- as Calvino made clear on the first page
> of /Six Memos -- /or in a long-trusted image, the moon.  In chess you
> don't place all your pieces to defend against a checkmate toward which
> your opponent has made only the first of ten moves.  You interdict with
> lesser, more achievable measures along the way until the checkmate
> attempt simply loses momentum; or in a different context, "their
> currents turn awry."
> 
> A major part of such lunar exploration is to look in the mirror.  
> 
> All best,
> 
> Max
> 
> PS -- a current hypothesis of mine is the phrase "Meditation Not
> Violence," as a safety token around the George Floyd trials which have
> now begun here.  It's merely an idea, with no guarantee and no
> certainty.  It's based on the below poem I wrote on March 7th, retitled.
> 
> +++++
> 
> March 2021
> 
> Today while driving to a park I saw
> The Second Precinct double-ringed in fence
> Up on big concrete blocks, the inner wreathed
> In shining helixes of razor wire.
> A bramble more filled up the space between.
> Something about the heavy mixed with sharp
> And bright with dull, the tangle and the wall
> Seemed natural, however it was not.
> 
> The algorithm choosing war or peace
> (Because we humans lack the confidence)
> Is blind to what our hearts may wish to do.
> It only knows the actions and the fruit.
> The partisans of January Six
> No longer guard foundations of a state;
> In fear of fading myths they turn to ruin.
> 
> What terrifies them simply is the vote,
> The right of each to have a voice their hell.
> Destruction’s what they want!  There's nothing left
> But wrack to stem the even steps of peace.
> When we stay calm, their rabid hatred shows;
> Not violence but meditation wins.
> 
> +++++
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org
> <nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org> on behalf of
> d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk <d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk>
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 7:13 AM
> *To:* Tatiana Bazzichelli <tbazz@disruptiv.biz>
> *Cc:* nettime <nettime-l@kein.org>
> *Subject:* Re: <nettime> THE Q IN QONSPIRACY: QAnon as a Paradigm for
> Future Social-media-driven Conspiracism
>  
> 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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-- 
Tatiana Bazzichelli // Artistic Director
Disruption Network Lab
http://disruptionlab.org
Twitter: @disruptberlin // @t_bazz
Fingerprint: A87C 3637 03ED 1D1C E6FE E828 1F55 2B2F F5A5 C9A0
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