How we like to mock the credulity of Americans. Especially when that credulity manifests itself in paranoiac conspiracy theories.
The latest, reported with amazement across the world, is QAnon, a social media-fuelled campaign, which claims the U.S. has been controlled by elite members of a paedophile gang with a penchant for the sex-trafficking of children.
Many of its believers were among those who last month stormed the Capitol — most spectacularly in the form of Jacob Chansley, known to some as QAnon Shaman. He wore, for the occasion, a furry hat with horns.
Then there is Marjorie Taylor Greene, who in a 2017 video supported QAnon's claims, declaring: 'There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles out and I think we have the president to do it.'