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"Mind control. Satanic rituals. Unspeakable sexual perversions. Supervillains eating children's brains. A divine mandate to keep Donald Trump in the White House, no matter what. This surreal combination of horror-movie shocks and fascist marching orders is the signature of QAnon, which emerged from the dark corners of the internet in 2017 and soon became the galvanizing force behind Trump supporters, both during Trump's presidency and in the volatile, ongoing aftermath of the 2020 election. Unraveling its patchwork quilt of recycled material, from 1940s pulp fiction to Hunter S. Thompson-style pranks to Nixon-esque dirty tricks, Robert Guffey's Operation Mindfuck diagnoses QAnon as a highly engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lockstep loyalty of its audience. Will its followers ever realize they've been had? Can this new American religion be dispelled as a cult like any other? The answers, Guffey reveals, are hidden in plain sight."--
About the author
Robert Guffey is a lecturer in the Department of English at California State University – Long Beach. His most recent books are
Widow of the Amputation and Other Weird Crimes (Eraserhead Press, 2021) and
Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Crossroad Press, 2021). Guffey’s previous books include the darkly satirical, apocalyptic novel
Until the Last Dog Dies (Night Shade/Skyhorse, 2017), the journalistic memoir
Chameleo: A Strange but True Story of Invisible Spies, Heroin Addiction, and Homeland Security (OR Books, 2015), which Flavorwire called, “By many miles, the weirdest and funniest book of [the year],” the novella collection
Spies & Saucers (PS Publishing, 2014), and
Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form (2012). A graduate of the famed Clarion Writers Workshop in Seattle, he has written for numerous publications, among them
The Believer, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, The Evergreen Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Mailer Review, Phantom Drift, Postscripts, Rosebud, Salon, The Third Alternative, and TOR.com.
Summary
Mind control. Satanic rituals. Unspeakable sexual perversions. Supervillains eating children’s brains. A divine mandate to keep Donald Trump in the White House, no matter what.
This surreal combination of horror-movie shocks and fascist marching orders is the signature of QAnon, which emerged from the dark corners of the internet in 2017 and soon became the galvanizing force behind Trump supporters, both during Trump’s presidency and in the volatile, ongoing aftermath of the 2020 election. But despite the strange pervasiveness of QAnon, its origins remain obscure. Who is behind QAnon’s messaging, and what do they want? And why do they pair their extreme political agenda with such obviously made-up, phantasmagorical beliefs?
In Operation Mindfuck, Robert Guffey argues that this is not as mysterious as QAnon’s anonymous “drops” of cryptic directives seem to be. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of conspiracy theories and mixing deep-dive research, political analysis, and firsthand notes from QAnon’s underbelly, Guffey insists that we’ve seen it all before.
Unraveling QAnon’s patchwork quilt of recycled material, from pulp-fiction spook stories to Hunter S. Thompson-style pranksterism to Nixon-esque dirty tricks, Guffey diagnoses QAnon as a highly engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lock-step loyalty of its audience. Will its followers ever realize that they’ve been had? Can this new American religion be dispelled as a cult like any other? The answers, Operation Mindfuck reveals, are hidden in plain sight.
Foreword
- Conduct dynamic social media campaign, running giveaways, offering discounts during publication week, and more.
- Pitch reviews and excerpts to wide array of publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian, The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement, The London Review of Books, The Washington Post, Guernica, Slate, Literary Hub, The Baffler, Harper’s, Bookforum, The Nation, The New Republic, Flavorwire, and more.
- Pitch television, radio, and podcast interviews to shows including QAnon Anonymous, The Higherside Chats, Conspiranormal, The Farm, Independent Riot, and more.
Additional text
“Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential.” — Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen
