Ears vs. Eyes: QAnon Edition

From the NYTimes:

The audio chat offers a clearer picture of these believers than the Facebook pages and Telegram channels where they also gather. The all-caps screeds of the internet give way to gentler moments, like when they talk about their pets or babysitting their grandkids. Many members were struggling in some way — financially or emotionally, with legal troubles or addiction. As Covid-19 swept their states, many got sick, and some family members died. A few members were recently out of prison. Another was living in a sober house.

“I don’t think they understand that we’re not all evil,” one member said about how the left views them. “Like you said, we’re not evil. We’re not bad people.”

Audio chat is expository. But how have radio stations indoctrinated so many hard-liners? The article's conclusion suggests the "right to respond" from the now-defunct Fairness Doctrine was a door through that wall:

One woman had an idea for how to solve some of these problems. They could try hearing from their opponents directly. Maybe they could understand their point of view, learn what motivates them.

Of course, if she hears out the other side, she's risking abandonment from her new compadres. So she backs off.


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Further Reading:

"And more important, how one can lessen the appeal of a conspiracy that gives so much purpose to people’s lives."   nytimes.com

Voice chat app Clubhouse raises $100 million:   axios.com






This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.