By: Jason Hansen, Guest Writer
Jason Hansen is a graduate student majoring in information assurance. He is originally from Yonkers, New York, but is proud to have called many places home. He is a former bartender, one-time community organizer, University of Memphis alumnus, founding company member of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, and former sergeant in the United States Army. He currently works as a cybersecurity analyst. He knows how to ride a bike, play the ukulele, and do the Macarena. He lives with his wife in Brighton, Colorado.
My first job out of college was working as a community organizer for a small environmental group. We’d head out twelve deep in a beat-up old van and spend hours going door to door, canvassing for petition signatures and letters from entire communities to their elected officials about issues directly affecting them. I learned a lot on that job, but one of the most important things was that questions can sometimes be better than answers when trying to connect with people. If someone answered the door and I started telling them why I was there, it could turn into a standoff. If someone answered the door and I asked them what they thought about something, it might turn into a conversation. Sometimes, those conversations would blossom into a true exploration of an issue of importance. Rarer still, they might even change their mind.
Over time, I saw how our day-to-day work came together. Letters and petitions were sorted based on topic and district. People who received responses from their representatives sent them back to our office, allowing us to allocate resources based on legislative support. Lobbyists would use them in meetings with legislative staff to show support for an issue with their constituents. Towards the end of my time there, I got to sit in on of these meetings. I saw the effect that those letters can have first-hand, especially in mass. To a politician, a letter from a constituent doesn’t just represent the views of an individual in their district. It represents the views of someone motivated enough to write them, and certainly motivated enough to vote. When this is compounded, it gets their attention.
The last job I had before coming back to Regis was as a MI Systems Maintainer/Integrator in the Army. The position involved setting up and repairing different computer systems, and I had a lot of training on how they worked. One thing that was constant, regardless of the platform, was the way we were taught to fix problems. Figure out the logical flow of a fault, and then start at an end until you identify the issue. Particularly talented soldiers could even recognize which end to start on based on the symptoms. Applying this method saved hours of work, as another technician could trace through an entire system before ending up at the same place these soldiers were starting. Moreover, there were some problems that could only be fixed from one end. Simply put - if a computer is shooting sparks, it might be easier to start with the power cord than the keyboard.
Now, as I get ready to graduate again, I’ve been thinking these lessons and how they might be applied to the problems of the present. There is certainly no shortage of them. However, there is one that I would like to focus on, because you are uniquely suited to do something about it. Namely, the role of objective truth in our society, undermined by movements such as QAnon (If you have not heard of QAnon, I recently published a piece on it that can be found here). Considering one-in-three Americans believe at least some QAnon tenants[i], it may seem like an impossible task. However, I would argue that efforts may be better spent on the other end of the problem.
The front of QAnon is a “big-tent conspiracy theory”, meaning people associated with the movement don’t necessarily believe the same things[ii]. Some of them have committed acts of violence, such as that at the US Capitol riots. Others have used it to recruit members into more extreme paramilitary organizations[iii]. However, there is a significant portion who are guilty of nothing more than being deceived by people who would use them for political gain. The only thing that holds them all together is a 4chan/8chan account called “Q”, which they believe is managed by a high-ranking military official who is fighting a shadow war on behalf of the American people. Since 2017, this account has posted almost 5000 times, a steady stream of increasingly incendiary rhetoric which continues to radicalize Americans unimpeded[iv]. Until “Q” is prosecuted for their part in these tragedies around the country, it won’t stop. This is where you can help.
What I would ask of you is to be contemplative in action and write your elected representatives. When you write, be specific and ask: “What are you doing about ‘Q’”? Make them understand that this is a specific question. You are not asking them what they are doing about QAnon or other extremist organizations. You are asking them about “Q” and what they are doing to bring the individuals behind it to justice. If someone robs a bank while wearing a mask, they have still committed a crime. Inciting a riot should be no different just because you do it with a pseudonym[v]. Ask them how they are using the powers of their position to ensure these individuals are brought to justice and prevented from radicalizing anyone else. Recognize that, until these people are held to account, QAnon will only continue to grow.
Part of our strength as a student body is that we have the capability to take a message wide and deep at the same time. To go deep, recognize the campus as a place of collective community. As members of that community, we all share the same representatives. For the Regis campus, the people you should be writing are:
The Honorable Ed Perlmutter
United States House of Representatives
1226 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Write Representative Perlmutter Online
The Honorable Michael Bennet
United States Senate
261 Russell Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable John Hickenlooper
United States Senate
Russell Senate Office Building Suite SR-B85
Washington, DC 20510
Write Senator Hickenlooper Online
At the same time, we come to this community from a variety of different places, which gives us the opportunity to go wide. Write the elected officials who represent the places you come from. To find them, follow this link and enter your home address. Information about your senators can be found here. If you’ve never written an elected official before, here are some additional pointers on how to effectively communicate with legislators. Be direct, be specific, and tie it to your personal experiences wherever possible. Also, if you are so inclined, please share any letters you send or responses you receive with me at jhansen005@regis.edu. There is power in numbers.
When I encouraged people to write letters like this in the past, it was usually to advocate for a bill or policy vote. This time, there is only an idea – the idea that the best way to save our fellow Americans from an increasingly prominent and conspiratorial organization is to target the person who radicalized them in the first place. There are efforts right now to hold politicians responsible for their part in inciting people to extremism, and they should be applauded. Regrettably, we should also recognize that these individuals are the output of a radical movement, not the cause of it. By targeting “Q”, we can focus on cutting off future extremists and stemming the tide of zealotry. By prosecuting “Q”, we can take the wind out of many different sails at once. Perhaps most important is that we give others the chance to see they’ve been used, and the opportunity to get out. Despite all that’s happened, I hope we still owe each other that.
[i] Newall, Mallory. (2020, December 30). More than 1 in 3 Americans believe a ‘deep state’ is working to undermine Trump. Ipsos. Retrieved from https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020
[ii] Roose, K. (2021, January 17). What is QAnon, the viral Pro-Trump conspiracy theory?. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-qanon.html
[iii] Washington Post Staff. (2021, January 15). Identifying far-right symbols that appeared at the U.S. Capitol riot. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/far-right-symbols-capitol-riot/
[iv] QALERTS. (2017-2021). QALERTS. Retrieved from https://qalerts.app/
[v] U.S. Code. (1996, October 11). 18 U.S. Code § 2101 – Riots. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2101