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

2021-03-16 Thread Keith Sanborn
Thanks!

> On Mar 16, 2021, at 10:11 AM, Tatiana Bazzichelli  wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I answer to Keith's question writing to the whole list because it might
> interest other people, too. If you would like to listen to the
> conversation of last Friday, THE Q IN QONSPIRACY, with Wu Ming 1,
> Florian Cramer and myself, you can find the video here:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD9U9bQUlSs
> 
> More info about the event (scroll down):
> https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays
> 
> All the best, and enjoy!
> 
> Tatiana
> 
>> On 13.03.21 05:21, Keith Sanborn wrote:
>> Dear Tatiana:
>> 
>> Was there supposed to be a live feed of that conversation? I couldn’t find 
>> it when accessing your site by phone. Wd like to keep up with the series.
>> 
>> Keith Sanborn
>> 
 On Mar 11, 2021, at 4:41 AM, Tatiana Bazzichelli  
 wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear all,
>>> 
>>> I would like to invite you to take part in a conversation with Wu Ming
>>> 1, Florian Cramer and myself tomorrow afternoon (March 12), as part of
>>> our Disruptive Fridays series, at 5PM CET. We can get questions from the
>>> audience via chat.
>>> Read more here (and go to the chat): https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays
>>> 
>>> Since 2020 we have been experiencing two pandemics at once: Covid-19 and
>>> conspiracy fantasies about Covid-19. The pandemic emergency accelerated
>>> a process that had been going on for years: the rise of a new kind of
>>> hyper-charged, social-media-driven conspiracism. In this respect, QAnon
>>> is a paradigmatic case.
>>> 
>>> What is QAnon, or what was it? A political movement, a game, a cult, a
>>> terrorist threat? All that and more.
>>> 
>>> In this conversation QAnon is discussed as a template for contemporary
>>> social-media-driven conspiracy fantasies that work simultaneously as
>>> games and a new kind of cults. By focusing on the mutation of conspiracy
>>> myths from countercultural phenomena to contemporary meme and influencer
>>> culture, Florian Cramer and Wu Ming 1 will focus on three conspiracy
>>> narratives: "The Great Replacement" (from Renaud Camus to
>>> Charlottesville), QAnon (from Pizzagate to the Capitol storming) and
>>> "The Great Reset" (as a set of pandemic-inspired variations on the old
>>> New World Order trope).
>>> 
>>> The conversation is centered around Wu Ming 1's forthcoming book "La Q
>>> di Qomplotto" [The Q in qonspiracy], to be published end of March in
>>> Italian by Edizioni Alegre, which describes how conspiracy fantasies
>>> help legitimise systems of control (find here the index in English
>>> https://edizionialegre.it/notizie/the-q-in-conspiracy/).
>>> 
>>> Join us tomorrow here at 5PM CET:
>>> https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays
>>> 
>>> Get reminders from here (Facebook video):
>>> https://www.facebook.com/disruptionlab/posts/2664839330428196
>>> 
>>> This is a pre-event of our upcoming conference (March 18-20):
>>> BEHIND THE MASK: WHISTLEBLOWING DURING THE PANDEMIC
>>> Whistleblowers, human rights advocates, journalists, activists, artists,
>>> lawyers and researchers denouncing abuses and wrongdoing in the course
>>> of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
>>> https://www.disruptionlab.org/behind-the-mask
>>> 
>>> All the best, and see you there!
>>> 
>>> Tatiana
>>> -- 
>>> Tatiana Bazzichelli // Founder & Artistic Director
>>> Disruption Network Lab
>>> http://disruptionlab.org
>>> Twitter: @disruptberlin // @t_bazz
>>> Fingerprint: A87C 3637 03ED 1D1C E6FE E828 1F55 2B2F F5A5 C9A0
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> 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
>>> #  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
>>> #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
>>> #  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
>>> #  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
>>> #  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
>>> #  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 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
> #  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
> #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
> #  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
> #  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
> #  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
> #  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
#  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
#is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot 

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

2021-03-16 Thread Tatiana Bazzichelli
Dear all,

I answer to Keith's question writing to the whole list because it might
interest other people, too. If you would like to listen to the
conversation of last Friday, THE Q IN QONSPIRACY, with Wu Ming 1,
Florian Cramer and myself, you can find the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD9U9bQUlSs

More info about the event (scroll down):
https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays

All the best, and enjoy!

Tatiana

On 13.03.21 05:21, Keith Sanborn wrote:
> Dear Tatiana:
> 
> Was there supposed to be a live feed of that conversation? I couldn’t find it 
> when accessing your site by phone. Wd like to keep up with the series.
> 
> Keith Sanborn
> 
>> On Mar 11, 2021, at 4:41 AM, Tatiana Bazzichelli  wrote:
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I would like to invite you to take part in a conversation with Wu Ming
>> 1, Florian Cramer and myself tomorrow afternoon (March 12), as part of
>> our Disruptive Fridays series, at 5PM CET. We can get questions from the
>> audience via chat.
>> Read more here (and go to the chat): https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays
>>
>> Since 2020 we have been experiencing two pandemics at once: Covid-19 and
>> conspiracy fantasies about Covid-19. The pandemic emergency accelerated
>> a process that had been going on for years: the rise of a new kind of
>> hyper-charged, social-media-driven conspiracism. In this respect, QAnon
>> is a paradigmatic case.
>>
>> What is QAnon, or what was it? A political movement, a game, a cult, a
>> terrorist threat? All that and more.
>>
>> In this conversation QAnon is discussed as a template for contemporary
>> social-media-driven conspiracy fantasies that work simultaneously as
>> games and a new kind of cults. By focusing on the mutation of conspiracy
>> myths from countercultural phenomena to contemporary meme and influencer
>> culture, Florian Cramer and Wu Ming 1 will focus on three conspiracy
>> narratives: "The Great Replacement" (from Renaud Camus to
>> Charlottesville), QAnon (from Pizzagate to the Capitol storming) and
>> "The Great Reset" (as a set of pandemic-inspired variations on the old
>> New World Order trope).
>>
>> The conversation is centered around Wu Ming 1's forthcoming book "La Q
>> di Qomplotto" [The Q in qonspiracy], to be published end of March in
>> Italian by Edizioni Alegre, which describes how conspiracy fantasies
>> help legitimise systems of control (find here the index in English
>> https://edizionialegre.it/notizie/the-q-in-conspiracy/).
>>
>> Join us tomorrow here at 5PM CET:
>> https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays
>>
>> Get reminders from here (Facebook video):
>> https://www.facebook.com/disruptionlab/posts/2664839330428196
>>
>> This is a pre-event of our upcoming conference (March 18-20):
>> BEHIND THE MASK: WHISTLEBLOWING DURING THE PANDEMIC
>> Whistleblowers, human rights advocates, journalists, activists, artists,
>> lawyers and researchers denouncing abuses and wrongdoing in the course
>> of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
>> https://www.disruptionlab.org/behind-the-mask
>>
>> All the best, and see you there!
>>
>> Tatiana
>> -- 
>> Tatiana Bazzichelli // Founder & Artistic Director
>> Disruption Network Lab
>> http://disruptionlab.org
>> Twitter: @disruptberlin // @t_bazz
>> Fingerprint: A87C 3637 03ED 1D1C E6FE E828 1F55 2B2F F5A5 C9A0
>>
>> -- 
>> 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
>> #  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
>> #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
>> #  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
>> #  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
>> #  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
>> #  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
> 


-- 
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
#  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
#is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:

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

2021-03-12 Thread Max Herman

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-boun...@mail.kein.org  on 
behalf of d.gar...@new-tactical-research.co.uk 

Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2021 7:13 AM
To: Tatiana Bazzichelli 
Cc: nettime 
Subject: Re:  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 

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

2021-03-12 Thread Tatiana Bazzichelli
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-boun...@mail.kein.org
>  on behalf of
> d.gar...@new-tactical-research.co.uk 
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 7:13 AM
> *To:* Tatiana Bazzichelli 
> *Cc:* nettime 
> *Subject:* Re:  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 

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

2021-03-11 Thread James Wallbank
I echo David's enthusiasm for this subject. It may also be worth 
considering the question of the nature of belief.


Many apparent extremists (I'm aware of both Brexit super-fans and 
Q-adjacent Trump enthusiasts, who say, "Well, we know that such-and-such 
isn't literally true, but we sympathise with the spirit of it."


This sort of fluid, post-rational quasi-belief is extraordinarily 
difficult to challenge - it's not about the facts, it's about the 
"vibe". The difference between actual insurrection and playing the part 
of a fantasy insurrectionist as live action role-play is, from the 
outside, imperceptible, and it may not be a distinction made by the 
activists themselves.


Best Regards,

James
=

On 11/03/2021 13:13, d.gar...@new-tactical-research.co.uk wrote:

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.

#  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
#    is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:

#  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
#is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:

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

2021-03-11 Thread d . garcia

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.

#  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
#is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:

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

2021-03-11 Thread Tatiana Bazzichelli
Dear all,

I would like to invite you to take part in a conversation with Wu Ming
1, Florian Cramer and myself tomorrow afternoon (March 12), as part of
our Disruptive Fridays series, at 5PM CET. We can get questions from the
audience via chat.
Read more here (and go to the chat): https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays

Since 2020 we have been experiencing two pandemics at once: Covid-19 and
conspiracy fantasies about Covid-19. The pandemic emergency accelerated
a process that had been going on for years: the rise of a new kind of
hyper-charged, social-media-driven conspiracism. In this respect, QAnon
is a paradigmatic case.

What is QAnon, or what was it? A political movement, a game, a cult, a
terrorist threat? All that and more.

In this conversation QAnon is discussed as a template for contemporary
social-media-driven conspiracy fantasies that work simultaneously as
games and a new kind of cults. By focusing on the mutation of conspiracy
myths from countercultural phenomena to contemporary meme and influencer
culture, Florian Cramer and Wu Ming 1 will focus on three conspiracy
narratives: "The Great Replacement" (from Renaud Camus to
Charlottesville), QAnon (from Pizzagate to the Capitol storming) and
"The Great Reset" (as a set of pandemic-inspired variations on the old
New World Order trope).

The conversation is centered around Wu Ming 1's forthcoming book "La Q
di Qomplotto" [The Q in qonspiracy], to be published end of March in
Italian by Edizioni Alegre, which describes how conspiracy fantasies
help legitimise systems of control (find here the index in English
https://edizionialegre.it/notizie/the-q-in-conspiracy/).

Join us tomorrow here at 5PM CET:
https://www.disruptionlab.org/fridays

Get reminders from here (Facebook video):
https://www.facebook.com/disruptionlab/posts/2664839330428196

This is a pre-event of our upcoming conference (March 18-20):
BEHIND THE MASK: WHISTLEBLOWING DURING THE PANDEMIC
Whistleblowers, human rights advocates, journalists, activists, artists,
lawyers and researchers denouncing abuses and wrongdoing in the course
of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
https://www.disruptionlab.org/behind-the-mask

All the best, and see you there!

Tatiana
-- 
Tatiana Bazzichelli // Founder & Artistic Director
Disruption Network Lab
http://disruptionlab.org
Twitter: @disruptberlin // @t_bazz
Fingerprint: A87C 3637 03ED 1D1C E6FE E828 1F55 2B2F F5A5 C9A0

-- 
Tatiana Bazzichelli // Artistic Director
Disruption Network Lab
http://disruptionlab.org
Twitter: @disruptberlin // @t_bazz
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