"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing

When critics admonish their opponents for circulating mere conspiracy theories, they are disparaging them for subscribing to facile accounts of socio-historical phenomena that are more sophisticated and aleatory than such heavy-handed narratives apprehend. Unfortunately, this kind of disavowal has t...

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Autor principal:	Daniel Adleman
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	ScholarWorks @ UMass Amherst 2021
Materias:	Language and Literature P Communication. Mass media P87-96
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8989162fa63b4a2f911e47f4bed8a0cd
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8989162fa63b4a2f911e47f4bed8a0cd2021-11-17T15:48:59Z"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing10.7275/68x8-fx912380-6109https://doaj.org/article/8989162fa63b4a2f911e47f4bed8a0cd2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cpo/vol8/iss1/9/https://doaj.org/toc/2380-6109When critics admonish their opponents for circulating mere conspiracy theories, they are disparaging them for subscribing to facile accounts of socio-historical phenomena that are more sophisticated and aleatory than such heavy-handed narratives apprehend. Unfortunately, this kind of disavowal has the side-effect of precluding conspiracy theories from more serious philosophical consideration. Arguably the most notorious information age conspiracy theory of the moment is QAnon, a byzantine, messianic truther echo-system that has recently irrupted into mainstream public consciousness. QAnon derives its name from “Q,” a lurid, anonymous, putatively omniscient insider who has been dropping missives on message boards about Donald Trump’s clandestine war with a satanic, sex-trafficking, election-fixing cabal that lurks beneath the liberal establishment. In order to engage with QAnon as a cultural phenomenon, my article probes the rhetorical coordinates of the popular concept of conspiracy theory through optics provided by Kenneth Burke and Jodi Dean. Drawing on the recent media scholarship of Carrie Rentschler, Kate Starbird, and John Durham Peters, I then examine QAnon culture as a misguided activist modality of witnessing (what Alain Badiou might call a “pseudo-Event”) precipitated, in no small part, by rhetorical and algorithmic architecture that subtends an ever-increasing proportion of human subjectivity. I conclude with some reflections on the viability of what media theorist Jonathan Sterne terms an "intervention."Daniel AdlemanScholarWorks @ UMass AmherstarticleLanguage and LiteraturePCommunication. Mass mediaP87-96ENcommunication +1, Vol 8, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Language and Literature P Communication. Mass media P87-96
spellingShingle	Language and Literature P Communication. Mass media P87-96 Daniel Adleman "Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing
description	When critics admonish their opponents for circulating mere conspiracy theories, they are disparaging them for subscribing to facile accounts of socio-historical phenomena that are more sophisticated and aleatory than such heavy-handed narratives apprehend. Unfortunately, this kind of disavowal has the side-effect of precluding conspiracy theories from more serious philosophical consideration. Arguably the most notorious information age conspiracy theory of the moment is QAnon, a byzantine, messianic truther echo-system that has recently irrupted into mainstream public consciousness. QAnon derives its name from “Q,” a lurid, anonymous, putatively omniscient insider who has been dropping missives on message boards about Donald Trump’s clandestine war with a satanic, sex-trafficking, election-fixing cabal that lurks beneath the liberal establishment. In order to engage with QAnon as a cultural phenomenon, my article probes the rhetorical coordinates of the popular concept of conspiracy theory through optics provided by Kenneth Burke and Jodi Dean. Drawing on the recent media scholarship of Carrie Rentschler, Kate Starbird, and John Durham Peters, I then examine QAnon culture as a misguided activist modality of witnessing (what Alain Badiou might call a “pseudo-Event”) precipitated, in no small part, by rhetorical and algorithmic architecture that subtends an ever-increasing proportion of human subjectivity. I conclude with some reflections on the viability of what media theorist Jonathan Sterne terms an "intervention."
format	article
author	Daniel Adleman
author_facet	Daniel Adleman
author_sort	Daniel Adleman
title	"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing
title_short	"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing
title_full	"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing
title_fullStr	"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing
title_full_unstemmed	"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing
title_sort	"where we go one, we go all": qanon and the mediology of witnessing
publisher	ScholarWorks @ UMass Amherst
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/8989162fa63b4a2f911e47f4bed8a0cd
work_keys_str_mv	AT danieladleman wherewegoonewegoallqanonandthemediologyofwitnessing
_version_	1718425427216695296

"Where We Go One, We Go All": QAnon and the Mediology of Witnessing

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