QAnon, possibly deliberately, helped pave the way for Trump’s attempt to steal the election: by training the MAGA crowd into developing a passion for complicated, angry, nonsensical and evidence-free conspiracies - in which no premise is ludicrous if it supports the conclusion.

Whoever concocted QAnon, and Trump, both understand the core principle of conspiracy: as Umberto Eco put it in Foucault’s Pendulum - “Believe there is a secret and you will feel like an initiate. It costs nothing.” MAGA is fierce with the zealous pride of the self-made initiate.

The fact there is no secret doesn’t matter. In fact, it only makes it better. If there is no secret, then your secret can never be found out - which means only you know the answer, because there isn’t one. All Q and Trump have to do is avoid ever actually admitting that. Simple.