What is crucial is less why someone believes than what that belief allows them to do
Ask a nonbeliever to describe the QAnon conspiracy theory, and they almost immediately reach for metaphors of madness: batshit insane, fucking crazy, bonkers, etc. Bracketing the real question of stigma attached to these metaphors, the point the speakers are making is the great gap in perception between those who believe in the conspiracy and those who don’t. That which is hard to imagine, outside the bounds of normal mental contexts, is insane.
Put simply, extreme beliefs allow for the breaking of social norms.
For instance, it makes no sense that this very American conspiracy theory is going global:
The resilience of QAnon narratives after the election shows just how far and deep this made-in-America conspiracy has spread — and hints at its staying power around the globe.Continue reading Eschatological Conspiratorialism
Absalom, Absalom! 
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