Pizzagate. The Deep State. Bloodsucking Democrats.
For anyone who’s been on the internet during the last decade, there’s a decent chance that at least pieces of these political conspiracy theories will seem familiar.
But for Matthew Hannah, an associate professor of digital studies in the Department of Communication Arts and Director of the Digital Scholarship Hub in the UW–Madison Libraries, these stories are more than that. They’re a symptom of a larger problem facing the American public.
Hannah’s research focuses on the intersection of digital platforms and people’s political identities — specifically how the internet accelerates the spread of conspiracy theories and extremism.
One of his most recent projects involved putting together a toolkit on effective ways to talk to those who have become entrenched in conspiracy theories. Hannah believes these types of undertakings could be the first step toward fostering more productive political conversations, both online and off.
Hannah is largely focused on QAnon, a political movement that gained popularity during Donald Trump’s first presidency. QAnon ideologies stem from a primary narrative that President Trump is a hero fighting a mysterious cabal of Satanic pedophiles that have infiltrated the government and media.
Hannah’s interest in conspiracy theories predates both the internet and the QAnon philosophy. His memories of watching “The X-Files” with his dad spurred an initial curiosity that never left.
His focus on QAnon developed during the pandemic. As the world’s collective screen time rose, Hannah took note of the seemingly sudden appearance of the belief system.
“I was really fascinated by where this was coming from and why people were actually believing it, because when you first encounter it, it is so weird and strange,” says Hannah.
That perception of QAnon as a disorganized absurdity didn’t last long.
“I got onto the dark web, and I started exploring some of the QAnon pages,” describes Hannah. “There are thousands and thousands of posts about how to do QAnon internet research and how to talk to other people about QAnon. I realized that these are not people with tinfoil hats who live in their moms’ basements. These are really sophisticated, engaged people who have a theory of politics that on the surface seems really crazy, but actually when you start to dig into it, they’ve developed it together over time.”
Hannah’s initial attempts to dive deeper into the world of QAnon brought him to the realization that there was very little academic research being done on the philosophy, which at the time was largely being dismissed as internet nonsense.
“So, I started writing about it,” says Hannah. “And the rest is history. I’ve become the QAnon guy.”
Delving into a new field forced Hannah to get creative in his research tactics. Most of the work he’s done has been qualitative examinations of internet posts.
What he’s found is a community that is far more self-aware than most people outside of QAnon give them credit for.
“I studied conversations that revealed QAnon people had this capacity to think ‘If I start talking about Satan or UFOs, you’re going to think I’m insane, so I’m going to slowly introduce you to some of these ideas,’” says Hannah. “That to me was really striking and also kind of frightening — how sophisticated some of these tools are.”
Hannah now understands that QAnon’s growth was the result of a perfectly timed collision between the public’s increasingly desperate search for explanations and the quick dopamine rush provided by the internet.
“Things like QAnon are people’s attempts to explain why the world isn’t working the way it should,” says Hannah. “But they’re substituting a critique of things like global capitalism, which is really nebulous, with a much more immediately satisfying story.”
Why is the economy so bad? Why am I losing my job? Why are people failing to find work that means something to them? Why is our healthcare so bad?
Hannah argues that these are the types of questions that QAnon answers without forcing citizens to deep dive into a more complicated conversation about economics, politics and capitalism.
“The QAnon conspiracy narrative is that Democrats are vampires sucking the youth out of children through Satanic rituals,” he says. “It’s a misdirected attempt at political critique. Because, yes, the Democrats do things wrong, but it’s called taking lobbying money from ExxonMobil or whatever else, right? It’s not this Satanic secret cult.”
As time has gone on, the QAnon narrative, rather than dispersing, has continued to find new life by seeping further into mainstream media.
Examples of this include former U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene making references to the Democratic Party’s child trafficking activities and businessman Elon Musk posting a Trump campaign ad featuring a QAnon “Q” symbol.
This is the driving observation of the book that Hannah is currently writing. It aims to take a closer look at QAnon’s immersion into mainstream political rhetoric, specifically as part of the public’s broader search for understanding.
“What makes conspiracy theories so attractive is that they give you that story,” says Hannah. “You can easily understand it. The reason everything is bad is because there’s a secret conspiracy happening. All the powerful people want to oppress you and suck the lifeblood out of you. It’s a good versus evil story.”