100 years of Hollywood and TV have systematically destroyed many people's ability to apply Occam's Razor. Instead of seeking the most parsimonious explanation for things, people seek the most exciting, to get that dopamine rush they get from watching a good Thriller🧵
Before mass entertainment, people were not regularly transported to fantasy worlds, vastly more interesting than their lives. The desire (and means) to "join" the more interesting fantasy worlds is, I believe, a big contributor to the mass adoption of conspiracy theories 2/
A good (juicy! exciting!) conspiracy theory is a kind of interactive version of a good thriller on TV or at the movies. Take the #QAnonCult. The web allows you to LARP your way into it on many different levels: as a true believer OR as a self-aware role-player. 3/
An interesting aspect of the #QAnonCult is that it has very low barriers to entry. In a strange way, it fits the definition of a Carsian #infinitegame while appealing to a crowd that thinks they are playing a finite game with victory conditions. 4/ amazon.com/Finite-Infinit…
QAnon fits the definition of an infinite game: it is amorphous, has few rules, blurred boundaries with reality, and no victory conditions. Like Tantalus, the closer "victory" appears, the further away it gets. It's a perfect model for an infinite game pretending to be finite. 5/
The QAnon game is able to support multiple types of players at the same time. 6/
The 4-Chan crowd plays for the Lulz, for the in-group social capital they gain from gulling the plebs, and as a way to take their puerile instincts mainstream in society. (E.g. Social acceptance and status gain for Incel / man-o-sphere ideology). 7/
The politicians and other power aggregators like mega-church pastors play because anywhere a fired-up crowd of "their kind of people" gathers is a place to go and get power, money, status, votes etc. It's purely transactional for them: another day at the office. 8/
The "true-believer" crowd plays for the powerful shared experience. It's their own personal Hollywood with no casting director or beauty standard to hold them back. #QAnonCult is a mash-up of a right-wing megachurch, and people snorting coke and riffing their best ideas 9/
Even I am playing this game. Right now. I'm like a broadcaster who's calling a sports game. At times I'm commenting on how the game is going, who's winning, who's playing well. At other times (like now) opining about the rules, refereeing, etc. END/
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