Read on Twitter
there's not really a good word for "the set of things, which include Manichaean fundamentalist religious sects, but also includes QAnon and related conspiracy theory shit, and also, like, the worldview of the kind of New Atheist techbro who wants to see the world...
...in black and white, that structures the world as a simplistic game of good versus evil in which you, YES YOU, could be a pawn" and there needs to be, because it's not a /religious/ failure mode in that it is an immediate and inexorable product of *religion* the way...
...it's hard not to -imply- if you call QAnon a religion, even if I know that what you mean is "it is fulfilling a religion-shaped need for structure that people have that could be filled with something better, like Judaism or literary criticism or something"...
...but it definitely tends to crop up in Manichaean-flavoured fundamentalist religions and the atheist cultures that exist in the context of the void formed when the religion is drained away, in a way that seems relevant to the discussion, so it's not *not* religious.
Brought to you by thinking about *this* excellent thread: https://twitter.com/LouisatheLast/status/1353406657439608834?s=20 and the comment in the Reddit AMA:
"...there is a perverse comfort in [conspiracy theories] because of the false sense of order and purpose it brings to the world. Either the world is a boardgame chess match between Good and Evil forces working behind the scenes, and you might be a pawn but at least you are on...
...The Right Side
or you admit that the world is a mess, nobody is in charge, there is no grand battle of good and evil behind the scenes and your life has less purpose and order than you hoped."
or you admit that the world is a mess, nobody is in charge, there is no grand battle of good and evil behind the scenes and your life has less purpose and order than you hoped."
There's lots of religions that don't make the world or death ~less scary~, that aren't even interested in making things less scary, but there's definitely a sense of structure that people come unmoored from, find themselves thirsty, and then drink the sand.
And this is as true for channer atheist types who got tired of performative nihilism as soon as "ethics in game journalism" gave them a taste of what it was like to have something to care about that let you assert your own moral superiority over the world and everyone!
And there's a strict through-line connecting that, the resurgence of deliberately nuanceless "power of positive thinking" / "good vs. evil" models of reality reading Q as a religious Awakening in the grand American tradition, and Trump as a political force.
And I'm not sure we have a word for that? I think we probably need one.
