The psychological trap of QAnon's demented scavenger hunt

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Opinion | chick_in_kiev: How QAnon helps its followers find conspiracy in chaos. - MSNBCDaily

Daniel Zender / for MSNBCSometimes, when I look at the outlet where I insert my computer charger, I can see a sorrowful face looking back at me: two thin slits for eyes and a big, dour, downturned arc of a mouth, surprised and dismayed at its throatful of electricity. There’s a term for the human tendency to see faces where none exist: pareidolia, one of those curious and lovely Greek-rooted words that sounds a bit like a fancy parasol or a rare flower.

We recognize ourselves in a few wisps of nimbus cloud, see the curve of a smile in the night sky and form a man out of moon rock; the religiously inclined might recognize, in the patterns on a Maillard-browned bit of toast, the face of a holy savior.is an ancient phenomenon that’s part of a subclass of a broader set of human behaviors, the tendency to see patterns where none exist..

The term was first used in English in 2001, in an academic book about poltergeists and hauntings. As Swiss psychologist Peter Brugger, outside of descriptions of schizophrenia, apophenia is “the tendency to be overwhelmed by meaningful coincidences.” It’s a motivator for gamblers who see patterns in their wins and losses — and stake ever higher amounts on their false perceptions; it's behind Bible code theological fads and the oeuvre of Dan Brown.

And over the past four years, a manic, messianic apophenia has been the driving force behind the QAnon movement, a delusional set of beliefs so widespread that 1 in 4 social media users say its tenets are at least somewhat accurate. Among registered Republicans, that figure rose to 38 percent in aQAnon has always operated by means of apophenia.

Research into the “truth” of Q — and its associated constellation of beliefs, like the supposedly rampant epidemic of child trafficking or the always-elevated fear of Satan that pulses through the American bloodstream — takes place in the form of identifying isolated incidents or phenomena and imbuing them with probative significance. Chance occurrences of the number 17 are pointed out on social media by seekers of crowdsourced truth.

 

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chick_in_kiev Then why are you working so hard to discredit it? Why give it any coverage? Weird....

chick_in_kiev Is QAnon the new Scientology?

chick_in_kiev Stop promoting hate- I served in Texas and know what those letters mean-Killeen means-Kill each and every Nword. Let’s love one another and stop over flooding social media/news with negativity not good for Spring breakers. They are already stressed.

chick_in_kiev It’s called brainwashing!

chick_in_kiev 👏🏻 Teach 👏🏻 critical 👏🏻 thinking 👏🏻 skills 👏🏻 starting 👏🏻 in 👏🏻 preschool 👏🏻

chick_in_kiev

chick_in_kiev BlueAnon as f*ck

chick_in_kiev DELUSIONAL...............................

chick_in_kiev The extreme left has wokeness. The extreme right has Q. Both sad and lonely groups of people wanting to be a part of something. They are cults.

chick_in_kiev Theres an interesting documentary out about it now. It’s really sad actually

chick_in_kiev Once again 4chan changes the world.

chick_in_kiev this is the person who wrote this piece

chick_in_kiev Daily Faith is surrender, final and palliative. Empirical knowledge is hard and only leaders to more questions. Q needs to write the flock a bible.

chick_in_kiev Daily trash

chick_in_kiev Daily Have been telling you but seems that you don't listen to simple advise... The only guy who can help you out make money through football betting is only betworldwide This others are just pure guesswork managers

chick_in_kiev Daily Looney Tunes.

chick_in_kiev Daily What about the conspiracy that you're trying to use to convince the world that what YOU preach isn't a conspiracy? ... What if they are right and everything you think you know is complete bullshit?...

chick_in_kiev Daily What *methods* could we use - to help us discern: -facts from fiction -truth from lies -real from FakeNews, Propaganda & ConspiracyTheories? What did we learn at school? Richard Feynman - 1 minute video:

chick_in_kiev Daily Too bad the QAnon conspiracy convinced a small group of believers. Thank God QAnon wasn't as big as the largest conspiracy theory of our times - The debunked Trump & Russia collusion conspiracy theory, which fooled 90% of Democrats.

chick_in_kiev Daily BlueAnon is

chick_in_kiev Daily I am looking for new, good friends

chick_in_kiev Daily

chick_in_kiev Daily There’s a mad man in the White House and you write about this? Idiots.

chick_in_kiev Daily I said in 2015 that the conspiracy theorists who support Trump suffer from delusions and paranoia which are symptoms. Now the news is reporting it. They should have listened to me 5 years ago. Maybe we could have done something different.

chick_in_kiev Daily It is a sect of a religious cult period.

chick_in_kiev Daily Look at what QAnon has done to our Congress!

chick_in_kiev Daily wow

chick_in_kiev Daily Race conspiracy is the current

chick_in_kiev Daily I call them Q tips

chick_in_kiev Daily You mean like watching msnbc cnn cbs nbc abc

chick_in_kiev Daily You are aware Q has not posted in months.

chick_in_kiev Daily Being this way helps

chick_in_kiev Daily They murdered an Uber Eats driver in DC.

chick_in_kiev Daily Some people simply cannot handle the truth of life.

chick_in_kiev Daily

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