The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family

by Jesselyn Cook

“I could teach you all the media literacy tips in the world,” says Dr. Joanne Miller, an expert in political psychology and a professor at the University of Delaware, “but if you’re feeling uncertain; if you’re feeling a lack of control; if you’re feeling socially isolated; if you’re feeling helpless and searching for answers, because answers will make you feel better, then media literacy won’t help you. You’ll throw it all out the window.” Miller’s years of research into the motivations behind conspiracy theory belief had been of growing interest to me as I worked through the book. She’d found that people with a weaker ability to “bounce back” from adversity were more susceptible, supporting her understanding that conspiracy theories were, for many, a coping mechanism—a more easily accessible and ostensibly less harmful one than others, like drugs or gambling. “If you really, really want to believe, then you’ll find a way, regardless of facts and evidence,” Miller says. “So the question is: Why do so many of us want to believe right now?”