>maybe until now, BO and BV's couldn't see that he was an irreplaceable symbol of free speech for us all.
No doubt he did this for us, and did it well. Just as Q is a symbol of Justice for us. But I think the point of this board, of all Q's "Trust yourselves" and "You are the news now" messaging, is to allow us to break from dependency on outside authority and learn to discern and manifest it within ourselves:
News and Truth by and for the people.
Q's thanked BO and bakers (and autists/anons) a number of times, but he never said "Trust BO" or "Trust Autists" as though we were to sit back and let them make decisions for us that we couldn't make ourselves. POTUS, Sessions, Kansas, etc., these are key figures doing things as authorities that we can't, and doing it behind the scenes, non-transparently. That's why Q had to reassure us that those figures should be trusted as individuals. But here, it's always been about transparency and doing things as a Band of Anons, where no one's opinion has greater status bc of title, but simply on the merits of its argument and information. BO himself always stressed that.
Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, and losing him as a figurehead is a loss. But we won't lose his input as an Anon, and we won't lose the fact that this place, that all of you as Anons, will always be a symbol of Free Speech.
We are all Q.