A Quasi-Fideist Approach to QAnon

Bibliographic Data

ID21503589
AuthorsNicholas Smith (0000-0002-4989-4792, Department of Philosophy/Humanities, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume36
Issue3
Pages360-377
Publication date2022-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Epistemology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-1728 • E-ISSN: 1464-5297
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02691728.2022.2025947
OpenAlexW4214735482
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited32

QAnon, the view that Donald Trump is the last line of defense against a secret group of Satanic child traffickers, has garnered a great deal of traction and attention. A growing number of people describe themselves as having lost friends and relatives to QAnon, and many of us are unsure of how to interact with QAnon adherents. Intuitively, QAnon is a conspiracy theory. This might suggest that the right strategy is to debunk QAnon, because conspiracy theories are generally considered epistemically flawed views. However, this perspective may leave us ill-prepared to appreciate just how committed QAnon adherents are. To interact with them, we must find a way to take QAnon seriously, rather than dismissively. In this spirit, I argue for an alternative framework: we should treat QAnon as a religion. I first show that QAnon can reasonably be thought of as a religion. This opens the door to using tools from philosophy of religion to understand the epistemology of QAnon adherents. I use a quasi-fideist account of religious epistemology to explain why QAnon is a particularly recalcitrant worldview, and to develop an account of how one might ‘convert’ a QAnon adherent to a different worldview

Epistemology · Philosophy of science · Sociology · Computer Science · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Theology and Philosophy of Evil

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