Overview

Q-Anon and Other Replacement Realities: How Religious Emotion Threatens Free Society but Can Also Contribute to a Progressive Future examines the historical and theological origins and the social-psychological effects of American conspiracy fantasies that Q-Anon and other right-wing beliefs foster. The authors argue that as progressive social change moves groups of people and the natural world from the margins to the mainstream, this inclusiveness “threat” mobilizes reactionary forces that embrace wild fantasies of Satanic sacrifice, Jewish global control, racial replacement, communism, cannibalism, pedophilia, orgies of rape and murder, and manipulations to steal elections and enslave the “normal” white population. To counter such gratifying myths, and replace violence with mutually reinforcing social interaction, the authors challenge the rhetoric that abuses power. The book maps out an alternative to destructive, hateful, polarizing, and conspiratorial discourse, with new more life-giving rational, emotional, and spiritual orientations. The authors hope this will move American society towards a new collective national identity, based on inclusiveness and equality, around a social character defined by compassion, gratitude, reverence, and love.

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9781666931884

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Reviews

"""In Q-Anon and Other Replacement Realities, George Lundskow and Sarah Louise MacMillen make an important contribution to the study of conspiracy theories and offer new and novel hypotheses about why people believe conspiracies. The connection the authors make between conspiratorial beliefs and violence is one that should concern us all as we move inexorably toward elections that could very well erupt in violence as trust in our institutions is at an all-time low."" -- Michael Shermer, publisher of <i>Skeptic Magazine</i> and author of <i>Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational</i>"

Author Information

George Lundskow is professor of sociology at Grand Valley State University. Sarah Louise MacMillen is associate professor of sociology at Duquesne University.

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