This is an interesting article, well researched and well written and well argued. But it absolutely misses the entire point of Qanon, as have most or all mainstream reports.<p>Qanon, at its core, is servile Trump worship. I'm not using "worship" sarcastically or hyperbolicly, but rather more-or-less literally. The core of the Qanon belief system is that Trump is basically correct about everything, can do almost no wrong, and is close to all-powerful.<p>The fact remains that even a generous evaluation of Trump has him looking weak, ineffectual, self-dealing, corrupt, poor at leadership, bad at picking underlings, and for those of us who listened to the House Impeachment Inquiry back in February, almost certainly a traitor. It's very hard to escape the conclusion that Trump is corrupt and not good at being a President.<p>Since Qanon worships Trump, they have to find someone worse than him to revile, to blame for Trump's problems, to scapegoat for Trump's failures. It's tough to do for someone who looks as corrupt and divisive as Trump. So Qanon fantasizes about "elite pedovores", or Luciferian Banking Cabals or Our Pleidian Friends so that there's somebody out there actually worse than Trump for Trump to fight.