Read on Twitter
X : Thoughts on QAnon?
Me : Misinformation and conspiracy theories?
X : Why is it spreading.
Me : Ah, it's playing to fears that are rooted in everyday life that we need to listen to - fear of a loss of control, fear for the future, fear of unfairness and fear of being forgotten.
Me : Misinformation and conspiracy theories?
X : Why is it spreading.
Me : Ah, it's playing to fears that are rooted in everyday life that we need to listen to - fear of a loss of control, fear for the future, fear of unfairness and fear of being forgotten.
... if you look at the UK then entire communities over the last decade have been exposed to constant loss of control (employment etc) with ever more draconian demands (universal credit), a loss of hope, a visible gross inequality of the have and have nots and few listening ...
... take Brexit. Many who had been ignored were finally reached by one party (in this case Brexit) and decided to vote. The result, years of being told they were stupid and / or racist or the vote was wrong and their voice wasn't welcome. We created the breeding ground for QAnon.
X : You think it'll spread more?
Me : Probably. But mostly because those who do tend to get listened to (the "enlightened") will throw fuel on the fire by mocking the conspiracies without understanding that the conspiracies are just a symptom. You need to tackle the causes.
Me : Probably. But mostly because those who do tend to get listened to (the "enlightened") will throw fuel on the fire by mocking the conspiracies without understanding that the conspiracies are just a symptom. You need to tackle the causes.
X : The causes? Poor education?
Me : Try fear of loss of control, fear for the future, fear of unfairness and fear of being forgotten. The one you give is just one of many excuses that we use to continue ignoring parts of the population.
Me : Try fear of loss of control, fear for the future, fear of unfairness and fear of being forgotten. The one you give is just one of many excuses that we use to continue ignoring parts of the population.
X : We don't ignore them.
Me : Really? After brexit vote there was an awful lot of people talking about how only the "intelligent" should get to vote i.e. people like "Us". Yes, we continually ignore huge chunks of the population. Hence all the fears they have, hence QAnon.
Me : Really? After brexit vote there was an awful lot of people talking about how only the "intelligent" should get to vote i.e. people like "Us". Yes, we continually ignore huge chunks of the population. Hence all the fears they have, hence QAnon.
We really do need to have that "Me" vs "We" discussion in our nation, to give a chance for the haves to apologise to the have nots, to repair some of the damage and rebalance society.
X : How about fact checking?
Me : Oh god. How daft are you? Fact checking does nothing. You're attacking the symptom (conspiracy) not the cause (e.g. fear of loss of control). The conspiracy is bull but they believes it because it gives hope to the cause, they feel empowered
Me : Oh god. How daft are you? Fact checking does nothing. You're attacking the symptom (conspiracy) not the cause (e.g. fear of loss of control). The conspiracy is bull but they believes it because it gives hope to the cause, they feel empowered
... the only thing fact checking will do, is polarise views even more. The conspiracy gives false hope based upon misinformation. you need to give them real hope not "nah, nah, nah, you're wrong". Muppet.
X : There's no need to be rude.
Me : There are 14 million people living in poverty in the UK. That's an awful lot of fear of loss of control, fear of the future, fear of unfairness and fear of being forgotten that needs to be managed. There's no room to be stupid.
Me : There are 14 million people living in poverty in the UK. That's an awful lot of fear of loss of control, fear of the future, fear of unfairness and fear of being forgotten that needs to be managed. There's no room to be stupid.
X : This is all the fault of brexit.
Me : I'm sure that makes you feel good but if anything, brexit took the steam out of what was an ongoing change. It slowed it down. It bought us time to tackle the issues except that was wasted. Alas physical isolation has now ramped it up.
Me : I'm sure that makes you feel good but if anything, brexit took the steam out of what was an ongoing change. It slowed it down. It bought us time to tackle the issues except that was wasted. Alas physical isolation has now ramped it up.
X : Did brexit slow austerity?
Me : No. It slowed down the pressure cooker because suddenly voices mattered, there was a renwed sense of belonging with the forgotten ... of course, we didn't capitalise on that, instead lots of people spent time telling them they were wrong.
Me : No. It slowed down the pressure cooker because suddenly voices mattered, there was a renwed sense of belonging with the forgotten ... of course, we didn't capitalise on that, instead lots of people spent time telling them they were wrong.
We should have been building bridges, discussing the causes (e.g. fear of loss of control) ... what we ended up with was a bunch of people used to getting their own way lecturing a bunch of mostly forgotten people about why their vote shouldn't count and we should re-run it ...
... this was always about that fear of loss of control, future, unfaireness and of being forgotten. The line which says it all - "If you've got money, you vote in - if you haven't got money, you vote out" - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2016/jun/24/divided-britain-brexit-money-class-inequality-westminster
4 years on, we still haven't learned the lesson.
4 years on, we still haven't learned the lesson.
Tackle the causes not the symptoms. Brexit, QAnon are just symptoms of deeper fears that are being exploited.
