"Trump's conspiratorial base are hugely and reliably animated by stories about impunity for elite sex predators. As well they should be! Elite sex predators get away with all kinds of crimes -- not just Epstein, but the whole universe of powerful men, from Harvey Weinstein to Donald Trump, who systematically abused women for decades and got away with it -- bragged about it, even!

"But despite these very real abusers, the conspiracists in the Trump base are mostly concerned with _imaginary_ abusers -- Qanon's shadowy cabal of adrenochrome-guzzling pedophiles, tirelessly freighting trafficked children from one nonexistent pizza parlor basement to the next, packed inside of very mid Wayfair home furnishings.… "

— @pluralistic
pluralistic.net/2025/07/19/sys