Everything is Connected: The Influence of the Internet on...

[elfismiles]

Everything is Connected: The Influence of the Internet on Conspiracy Theory, its Communities and Culture

Late last year a friend reached out to tell me they had been interviewed by a young lady doing grant funded research on the influence of the internet on conspriacy communities. After looking into her public work I took the plunge. Then earlier this year she told me the NYTimes wanted her to do an article on her project but focused on one of her interviewees to give it a more personal angle. So we did another interview and continued our discussions. The article was published online earlier this month and appeared in the physical print version of the NYTimes.

Everything is Connected
https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/eic/

Even Conspiracy Theorists Are Alarmed by What They’ve Seen
(Originally titled: How QAnon and Jan. 6 Ripped the Conspiracy Theory World Apart)
by Annie Kelly, NYTimes OpEd, August 4th, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/opin ... qanon.html

This is an interview Annie did about the article and project a few days ago...

For old-school conspiracy theorists, QAnon crossed a line - Think kera.org
https://think.kera.org/2023/08/18/for-o ... ed-a-line/


Full size version of Illustration by Sammy Harkham....
https://smileslewis.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/04kelly-superjumbo-v3.jpg

[Joe Hillshoist]

I enjoyed reading that.

So what do you reckon Smiley?

How or when did it all go so pear shaped?

[drstrangelove]

What is the point of conspiracy theory? If there is any point to it politically, it is to expose corrupt institutions. What happens when you achieve this? Institutional authority becomes destabilized.

Mission successful. The movement got so out of hand they now have to actively platform conspiracy theory podcasts to try and tame it like wildfire. At this point JFK, 9/11, and UFOs are basically Noam Chomsky talking points from the 1980s. You have Presidential candidates questioning 9/11 for clout. Things have moved on. If you are no longer comfortable with the term conspiracy theorist, perhaps you aren't actually a conspiracy theorist anymore.

To follow things these days you need to be able to draw upon economics, politics, religion, science, philosophy, and process it all at a breakneck rate. That, or be a mindless idiot. A lot of the old schoolers who specialized in specific conspiracies got left behind because it's all too much and they aren't mindless idiots.

There is one old school conspiracy theory institutions still fear though. Exposing what they do to children. Quoting from that NYTimes article:

When I asked Mr. Lewis when he first heard of QAnon, he told me a story about a family member who’d sent him a video that began with what he saw as a fairly unobjectionable narrative of government abuses of power. “I’m nodding my head, I’m agreeing,” he said. Then it got to the satanic pedophile networks.

QAnon has been a positive development. It's like having an extremist sect in your religion. You don't want them in power and they'll corrupt your teachings, but they'll also carry out daring attacks against your enemies.

I think a lot of the old school conspiracy theorists got too used to being contrarian in an era dominated by neocons. When neocons made the switch to false opposition in 2008, conspiracy theory switched as well to remain contrarian, but many couldn't handle this because it meant siding with neocons. 2008 was also the beginning of social media era.