[Xmca-l] Re: Trust networks

[Greg Thompson]

Along the lines of trust networks, one of the most fascinating trust
networks I've seen these days is "QAnon" (or just "Q"). This is a trust
network that has formed which circulates all kinds of conspiracy theories
(it was the origin of the Comet ping-pong story about the Clintons running
a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor in DC - the attached story begins
there):
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/__;!!Mih3wA!XodDuXDN2dGqPJt4wnT7x0cGNt4ezMjNLSCM1qqqPMRE5H9uU1HOUKvrhR-VFsLIybQJ3w$ 

I was particularly struck by the repeated refrain of the QAnon folks who
say "do the research" and if you do, you'll find what they find (research =
truth). I'm most curious what in the world these folks mean by "do the
research". If anyone out there in XMCA land is interested, I'd love to do a
phenomenology of what these folks mean by "do the research". What are they
actually doing when they "do the research?" (I'm guessing that it is quite
different from what you or I might do when "doing research"). It would be
most helpful if someone out there has connections to QAnon people (there is
a cottage industry out there of people who are making money off of these
conspiracy theories - assemblages sustained by the current
communicative/political ecology!). Anyone interested? Or perhaps you know
someone who is in this world and who I (or one of my students) could shadow
to see how they go about "doing research"?

-greg

On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 10:01 AM Anthony Barra <anthonymbarra@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Andy Blunden weighs in honorably on the topic of trust networks:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/3vziqz__;!!Mih3wA!XodDuXDN2dGqPJt4wnT7x0cGNt4ezMjNLSCM1qqqPMRE5H9uU1HOUKvrhR-VFsIB4saRnA$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/3vziqz__;!!Mih3wA!QQxo6r_Mg3U-WTDWbL8wvKN6U4JgO8YnSc-JS9gXRZWXutKAEgw4Q2Tpwt9gdcw56DrZAA$>
> --------------
>
> Lately, I've been posting more often than intended and thus will slow it
> down henceforth.
>
> That said, one subtext to recent conversations and threads, which Andy
> called my attention to offline, is this notion of trust networks.
> Surprisingly, an xmca archive search yielded zero results for the phrase,
> so I figured it's worth sharing Andy's thoughts with you all.
>
> [I would have shared them anyway -- it's Andy after all.]
>
> Thank you, I value the interactions here.
>
> Anthony
>
>

-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!XodDuXDN2dGqPJt4wnT7x0cGNt4ezMjNLSCM1qqqPMRE5H9uU1HOUKvrhR-VFsI9oCL4iQ$ 
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson__;!!Mih3wA!XodDuXDN2dGqPJt4wnT7x0cGNt4ezMjNLSCM1qqqPMRE5H9uU1HOUKvrhR-VFsL-U88HGQ$ 
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