Prior to your QAnon meet-up, Reg, you might want to listen to Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Magazine, as he just interviewed a writer who really knows her conspiracy groups. Her recent work with the Flat Earth folks offers parallels to the Q crowd.
In general, conspiracy groups provides an identity, a community, a sense that you are privy to some important secret that the rest of humanity isn't. Basically, it gives meaning to otherwise utterly forgettable and probably mediocre lives.
When they get together they have self-reinforcing discussions, and the in-group/out-group dynamic is on full display. Should you challenge the group's established orthodoxy, you are a heretic and banished. Interestingly, there are schisms with these groups.
How do you engage with these people? Michael's guest advises that one show respect, no one wants to be humiliated. It's sometimes impossible to outwit the cognitive dissonance that these folks are engaging in. It often isn't about evidence.
Flat Earth really took off with the arrival of Youtube in 2014.
Finally, one big takeaway from the discussion was that holding one conspiracy theory is the best indicator that you believe in multiple conspiracy theories.
Good luck, be safe, and report back, Reg!
Peter T.
