I disagree with several of the premises of the article. There are lots of interesting things to learn that are well within the intellectual horsepower of avera

I disagree with several of the premises of the article. There are lots of interesting things to learn that are well within the intellectual horsepower of average people, esp if you give people a short primer or refresher on experiment design. For example, there is a guy “Project Farm” on YouTube that does practical experiments to see which hand tool is better. Are his experiments rigorous enough for a scientific journal? Probably not, but he’s transparent about the design and conduct of his experiments and develops useful information in an entertaining way. Put another way, just as there are precious few people to lead the NBA in scoring or discover the Higgs boson, doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for the rest of us to do our own corresponding modest things. For every person who patents a process for the economical industrial scale production of graphene there are scores of relatively normal people who invent practical stuff like wrenches and paper clips. If I have convinced you that this premise is wrong, then the argument against QAnon falls apart, as the argument posits that the only way for normies to get their intellectual itch scratched is to invent conspiracies. Personally I think the argument is wrong for other reasons: I’ve met some QAnon people and there are way more consumers than producers; it appears that QAnon is not only or even primarily about “solving” the conspiracy. My opinion is that QAnon is about as serious as anything else that emerged from 4Chan and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was an elaborate hoax with some giggly drunk people writing posts now and then. The people I know who subscribe to QAnon theories are people who feel powerless but desperately want there to exist a “5th column” who will take down the tyrannical forces of evil that they perceive but don’t know how to effectively fight. They really do believe that the generals are about to March in and arrest Biden for (insert latest crazy legal theory here) and re-install Trump. It’s a form of political fantasy.