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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/
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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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