The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World – James Ball
Our first book review! People who might know me know I much I love reading and books in general. I truly believe there is a book for everyone. Nonetheless, there are books I feel people should read and dive into, which is why we started Book Reviews on the International Risk Podcast.
QAnon demonstrates the ability of online culture to repurpose old ideas, old conspiracies, old plots, to new audiences and new times.
James ball – the Other Pandemic
The Other Pandemic by James Ball
It is simply a book I believe everyone should read. Extremely well written, James Ball dives into QAnon. He not only discusses the rise of QAnon but also the different strands that flowed from it. James also shows us how much of our daily news websites and our language has been inspired by QAnon, which is a scary thought! But think about it, the term ‘snowflakes’ comes from QAnon, which is now widely known amongst Gen-Z and the Millennials.
QAnon is not a cult in the classical sense, though it shares many characteristics with cults. It doesn’t have set beliefs or a set leader it is not just a conspiracy theory – it is something that consumes and combines conspiracy theories, joining ever more dots into an ever-larger plot.”
JAMES BALL – THE OTHER PANDEMIC
We’ve discussed the far-right, extreme right, and alt-right quite a bit on this podcast. We’ve had Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware on to discuss Far Right Terrorism in America, we’ve had Roger Burrows on discussing the NRx and the ALT-Right in relation to the US Elections as well as discussing Neo-Reactionalism (NRx), the Alt-Right and Emerging Technology. We have also had Julia Ebner on, discussing Modern Extremism.
Feel free to catch-up on those episodes if you haven’t listened to them yet!
Quotes That Might Make you Read the Book:
The tiny core Q-community, the die-hards who would spend their time on 8chan – and follow a conspiracy obsessed with uncovering mass child abuse while spending their time on a forum that hosted it, seeing no contradiction between those two things.
James Ball – The other pandemic
QAnon was rapidly becoming something of a choose-your-own adventure. By encouraging people to come to their own conclusions and to do their own research, Q was already suggesting that people picked the parts of the conspiracy that most appealed to their initial beliefs.
james ball – the other pandemic
One critical thing to remember is that what happens online is greatly affected by what happens offline, and vice versa.
james ball – the other pandemic
