“No Reason[.] [I]t /Should/ Happen here”: Analyzing Flynn’s Retroactive Doublespeak During a QAnon Event

ABSTRACT

As digitally organized, conspiratorial extremist groups gain more attention in the United States, researchers face increasing calls to better understand their in-group and out-group communication strategies. Using the QAnon conspiracy community as a case study, we use data from news coverage, social media, and ethnographic field work surrounding a prominent QAnon conference to analyze the uptake and aftermath of a controversial comment made by a public figure at the event. Our mixed methods analysis finds that QAnon’s efforts to use retroactive doublespeak produced mixed results, persuading some members to re-interpret the comment; however, there was a limit to its effectiveness. Our findings contribute to the literature on political extremism and digital media by elucidating how anti-publics within the QAnon movement reconstruct events and thread the rhetorical needle to reconcile contradictory messages. In particular, we highlight the factors that precede anti-publics’ use of retroactive doublespeak and discuss its use to negotiate the tension between in-group and out-group interpretations of events.

KEYWORDS:

• QAnon
• hybrid media system
• anti-public

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Knight Research Network—especially, the Center for Media Engagement; the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics; the Center for Civic Renewal; and the Media & Democracy Data Cooperative—for their support and collaborative efforts. Special thanks to Samuel Woolley, Caroline Murray, Gina Masullo, and Lew Friedland for providing feedback. We are also grateful to our reviewers, and to the reviewers at the International Communication Association, for their helpful suggestions.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2023.2185332

Notes

1. Anti-publics are not secret societies or hidden cults; they recruit supporters and build alliances in the public sphere. Historically, anti-publics such as the Ku Klux Klan solicited membership via bloc recruitment (McVeigh, 2009). Now, anti-publics recruit through online communication (Gaudette, Scrivens, & Venkatesh, 2022).

2. While we sought to study data from YouTube, 13 of the 14 videos we collected were removed within a month of being uploaded. None of the videos remain on YouTube.

3. Though the event was originally set to be held at a venue called Gilley’s, the venue dropped the event (Vaughn, 2021), causing organizers John and Amy to relocate the event to Eddie Deen’s Ranch.

4. The 1st Amendment Praetorians were later subpoenaed by the January 6th committee.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Omidyar Network UT Austin Bridging Barriers Social Science Research Council

Notes on contributors

Josephine Lukito

Josephine Lukito is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the School of Media and Journalism. She is also affiliated with the Center for Media Engagement.

Jacob Gursky

Jacob Gursky is an affiliate fellow at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for Media Engagement.

Jordan Foley

Jordan Foley is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Production at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.

Yunkang Yang

Yunkang Yang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication & Journalism at Texas A&M University. He is also affiliated with the Data Justice Lab at Texas A&M and Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics at the George Washington University.

Katie Joseff

Katie Joseff is an affiliate fellow at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for Media Engagement.

Porsmita Borah

Porismita Borah is an Associate Professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University. Borah primarily studies message effects in digital environment in the context of both politics and health.