What QAnon, Descartes, and Brains in Vats Have in Common

BY GUY ELGAT

RECENTLY, CNN SENT THEIR REPORTER TO COVER YET ANOTHER Trump rally (in Pennsylvania), but this time reporter Gary Tuchman was assigned the more specific task of interviewing Trump supporters who were carrying signs or large cardboard cut-outs of the letter “Q” and wearing T-shirts proclaiming “We are Q” (https://bit.ly/2IO7TrV). These Trump supporters were professing their belief in the existence of a person known as Q or QAnon, believed to be an anonymous, high-level activist who works from inside the administration with the goal of supporting Trump’s agenda by squashing “deep-state” anti-Trump forces and removing any other obstacle that might stand in the way of consummating the president’s revolutionary vision.

At one point in the interview, in his attempt to probe the beliefs of the Q-ers (as I shall call them), Gary Tuchman challenged one of them: “So you don’t have any proof [that Q exists] but that’s what you’re guessing.” To which the interviewee responded: “you don’t have any proof there isn’t.” In another exchange Tuchman again tried to interrogate a Q-er about her beliefs, saying “Maybe it is not true [that Q exists] because there is no evidence of it.” In response to which the interviewee shot back: “There hasn’t been any non-evidence yet!”

Upon hearing these retorts many might react with a baffled scoff and dismiss them as not worthy of serious consideration. But though this reaction is ultimately warranted—or so I shall argue—it is important (albeit difficult) to explain exactly what is wrong with the Q-ers’ response and why Q-ers might think that it serves their purpose and is thus perfectly legitimate. As we shall see, once we start to reflect on these questions we will find ourselves pretty quickly knee-deep in philosophy, which will bring out again the importance and relevance of philosophy to our everyday lives.