Decoding QAnon: Building an Adaptive Alternative Reality at the Crossroads of American Conspiracism, Cultic Commodification, and Schizogenic Hyperreality

Abstract

QAnon has grown beyond a single conspiracy theory to become a self-perpetuating conspiracist alternative reality, one whose impact on the American political and cultural landscape will long outlive the influence of its cryptic figurehead. As bizarre as the practices of QAnon and its decoding rituals may seem, this dissertation argues that QAnon is a reflection of the techno-cultural milieu of its creation, an emergent consequence of the intersection of three key techno-cultural trends: America’s deeply entrenched cultural tradition of conspiracist narrativization, the commodification of culture under neoliberalism, and the predatory affordances of corporate media platforms optimized for the attention economy. Drawing from an array of interdisciplinary research and discursive examples drawn directly from the QAnon community, this dissertation presents a framework that can explain QAnon’s viral success within the American techno-cultural context and offer insight into the ongoing renaissance in hyper-individualistic reactionary conspiracism that QAnon has catalyzed. Only by understanding how these three trends have mutually reinforced and influenced each other can we begin to understand QAnon’s uniquely protean narrative structure and decipher the symbolic map of cultural dysfunction it represents.