Do you think there is a connection between Ghislaine Maxwell

[Home'scool]

and all the news reports lately of missing children being found?

For example, the authorities just rescued 72 missing children across 3 states and 39 missing children were found in Georgia.

I wonder if she is giving up some information to cover herself. Horrible to think that she would be involved in something like that, but a miracle that now these children are being rescued.

[Pawz4me]

No

[Mommalongadingdong]

9 minutes ago, Home'scool said:

Horrible to think that she would be involved in something like tha

No, I have no doubts about the horrible stuff this woman has been/is capable of. 

But I still don't think this is related to her. 

 

[hippiemamato3]

I think things are so messed up right now that anything is possible. 

[NorthwestMom]

No.

[catz]

There is a documentary about Epstein on Netflix that Is a decent overview.  No, I don’t think it is related.  

[Katy]

No, she was involved with older teens who are now ALL adults.  She has nothing to do with this.

The truth is that child trafficking has always been an issue, it got more visible with the advent of the internet, and the government has been increasingly cracking down on it since the Obama administration.  Not that anyone cared less or more about rescuing children, it's simply that databases and computer facial recognition has improved so much it's easier to identify and track child victims than it's ever been.

As a foster parent, the idea floating around on social media and movies like Taken that your middle class child is going to get snatched and stolen and sold is RIDICULOUS.  Most children who are trafficked are trafficked by their own parents.  MANY of the parents who have children in foster care were trafficked by their own parents to support a drug habit. It is generational and it is not new, although it may be more systematic and organized than it used to be. Heck, that stupid Reba McEntire song Fancy practically celebrated it, and country stations still play that dumb song all the time. Children who get sucked into it who AREN'T being sold by their own parents are typically older children who are alienated in some way, runaways, or drug addicts.  I'm glad this is being addressed, but the difference in the reality of parental fears about it and who the actual victims are is disturbing to me.  The victims are mostly children of addicts, the poor ratty kids who no one wants to look at, not average kids.

[Spryte]

No.  I don’t think they are connected.

[teachermom2834]

2 hours ago, Katy said:

No, she was involved with older teens who are now ALL adults.  She has nothing to do with this.

The truth is that child trafficking has always been an issue, it got more visible with the advent of the internet, and the government has been increasingly cracking down on it since the Obama administration.  Not that anyone cared less or more about rescuing children, it's simply that databases and computer facial recognition has improved so much it's easier to identify and track child victims than it's ever been.

As a foster parent, the idea floating around on social media and movies like Taken that your middle class child is going to get snatched and stolen and sold is RIDICULOUS.  Most children who are trafficked are trafficked by their own parents.  MANY of the parents who have children in foster care were trafficked by their own parents to support a drug habit. It is generational and it is not new, although it may be more systematic and organized than it used to be. Heck, that stupid Reba McEntire song Fancy practically celebrated it, and country stations still play that dumb song all the time. Children who get sucked into it who AREN'T being sold by their own parents are typically older children who are alienated in some way, runaways, or drug addicts.  I'm glad this is being addressed, but the difference in the reality of parental fears about it and who the actual victims are is disturbing to me.  The victims are mostly children of addicts, the poor ratty kids who no one wants to look at, not average kids.

The fear of homeschool moms that their child will be snatched from under their noses at park day or Target is way out of control in my world. It is a constant worry and discussion and has children terrified. 

[Farrar]

Good grief, no.

Did you read about the actual recovery of the various missing children? Most of them weren't even connected to EACH OTHER, much less to a larger conspiracy. Many of them weren't even being trafficked. Like, some of them were runaways or taken by a noncustodial parent who were possibly at risk for being trafficked, but had not actually been. The operation in Georgia was a push to devote resources over the course of several days to several of these cases in order to clear a bunch of them. But the cases are all run of the mill and arise constantly. None of it was a big conspiracy.

[J-rap]

No.  I think she was somehow able to justify (to herself) what she actually did as sort of okay...  But this is something that she would probably say is definitely not okay.   I'm not sure how she draws her lines, but people do that.   Like, it's okay to steal $100 because of such and such, but it would be a crime to steal $10,000.

Edited September 9, 2020 by J-rap

[teachermom2834]

Just now, Fifiruth said:

Until it happens in your community, as it did to us.

The 7 yr old was kidnapped two blocks from her home as she walked to school by herself. Her mom worked nights and had gone to bed. I suppose that you would have admired the mom for allowing her child to have independence instead of over-protecting her. Unfortunately, the girl was found the next day, having been raped and dismembered, and dumped in a field a few miles from our home. A cop in our church congregation was one of the ones who searched for her. His wife told me that the #1 age range for abductions is 8-12. 

My own nephew was the target of unwanted interest from a man in Walmart when he was about 9 yrs. old, and his mom was just six or seven feet away from him.

Poo-pooing the idea that children and adults are taken against their will, even in broad daylight, is naive. It happens. 

I know it happens and I keep a very sharp eye on my 12 yo dd. 

However, I do not tell her to hide below the windows when an unknown car drives down our street. I had a 15 yo tell me they were not going Black Friday shopping because of sex trafficking. So, yeah, I'll stand on the fact that terrifying your children holds some damage too. I do not think we have to discuss sex trafficking in front of the children at every park day. I just don't. 

This is getting off topic and I'm not going to argue. Of course bad stuff happens.

[Corraleno]

3 hours ago, Home'scool said:

and all the news reports lately of missing children being found?

For example, the authorities just rescued 72 missing children across 3 states and 39 missing children were found in Georgia.

I wonder if she is giving up some information to cover herself. Horrible to think that she would be involved in something like that, but a miracle that now these children are being rescued.

There is ZERO connection, this isn't even a possibility. This was not a "sex trafficking" sting, and the vast majority of those 72 children were runaways or with noncustodial parents. Several were only "missing" because they were wanted by police — 3 of the "rescued children" were arrested in connection with murder and 11 had known gang affiliations. Only 1 of the adults that were arrested was charged with a sex crime, and the rest were charged with probation violations, prior DUI charges, and things like that. 

[Corraleno]

d/p

Edited September 9, 2020 by Corraleno

[TCB]

I think all the posts on social media about human trafficking  at the moment may well be a manipulation attempt to distract from other things. That probably sounds like a conspiracy theory right there lol.

The people sharing them on my social media are the same people sharing the Covid denial, and the anti-vax stuff, so I’m kind of wondering if it  may be coming from the same sources. It has been quite interesting to see the change in focus.

[Katy]

16 minutes ago, TCB said:

I think all the posts on social media about human trafficking  at the moment may well be a manipulation attempt to distract from other things. That probably sounds like a conspiracy theory right there lol.

The people sharing them on my social media are the same people sharing the Covid denial, and the anti-vax stuff, so I’m kind of wondering if it  may be coming from the same sources. It has been quite interesting to see the change in focus.

 

It's not a conspiracy theory at all.  There's been plenty of journalism about it, it's the QAnon "movement" that's taken the place left in the political vacuum of evangelicals as that has declined, both as a religious movement and as a political power.  Literally thousands of current and former evangelicals have latched on to it, and it's incredibly frightening how LITTLE critical thought goes into evaluating it. It seems like last week DH was telling me how some idiot got arrested for storming the original pizza restaurant pizzagate was based on, and breaking into every door looking for a nonexistant basement containing enslaved children.

[Pawz4me]

14 minutes ago, Katy said:

 

It's not a conspiracy theory at all.  There's been plenty of journalism about it, it's the QAnon "movement" that's taken the place left in the political vacuum of evangelicals as that has declined, both as a religious movement and as a political power.  Literally thousands of current and former evangelicals have latched on to it, and it's incredibly frightening how LITTLE critical thought goes into evaluating it. It seems like last week DH was telling me how some idiot got arrested for storming the original pizza restaurant pizzagate was based on, and breaking into every door looking for a nonexistant basement containing enslaved children.

So much this.

The Q-Nuts do much harm to the true fight against human trafficking.

[Alicia64]

6 hours ago, FuzzyCatz said:

There is a documentary about Epstein on Netflix that Is a decent overview.  No, I don’t think it is related.  

I agree. The Netflix documentary was way, way better than I thought it would be.

W.

[TCB]

29 minutes ago, Katy said:

 

It's not a conspiracy theory at all.  There's been plenty of journalism about it, it's the QAnon "movement" that's taken the place left in the political vacuum of evangelicals as that has declined, both as a religious movement and as a political power.  Literally thousands of current and former evangelicals have latched on to it, and it's incredibly frightening how LITTLE critical thought goes into evaluating it. It seems like last week DH was telling me how some idiot got arrested for storming the original pizza restaurant pizzagate was based on, and breaking into every door looking for a nonexistant basement containing enslaved children.

Well that’s interesting to know! I thought maybe I had an overactive imagination. It is a very clever distraction though, because who is going to not agree with you about children’s safety.

[Acadie]

4 minutes ago, TCB said:

It is a very clever distraction though, because who is going to not agree with you about children’s safety.

 

That's exactly why it's being deployed to distract and pivot away from discussion of any pressing issue, like Covid, climate change or the election. Try to bring discussion back to the topic at hand on social media and someone may accuse you of supporting pedophiles. 

It's absolutely not your imagination that you're seeing it everywhere. The creepiest part to me is that I'm seeing it from friends and acquaintances who have no idea where it comes from. They're finding it in various social groups, reposting and repeating the same arguments as QAnon without realizing it. 

If I were a Russian bot trying to sow confusion, chaos and division in the US, I'd use this strategy because it's working.

[Pawz4me]

1 minute ago, Acadie said:

 

That's exactly why it's being deployed to distract and pivot away from discussion of any pressing issue, like Covid, climate change or the election. Try to bring discussion back to the topic at hand on social media and someone may accuse you of supporting pedophiles. 

It's absolutely not your imagination that you're seeing it everywhere. The creepiest part to me is that I'm seeing it from friends and acquaintances who have no idea where it comes from. They're finding it in various social groups, reposting and repeating the same arguments as QAnon without realizing it. 

If I were a Russian bot trying to sow confusion, chaos and division in the US, I'd use this strategy because it's working.

I wouldn't assume that it's not a Russian(s) inspiring the Q-Nuts.

[Acadie]

Just now, Pawz4me said:

I wouldn't assume that it's not a Russian(s) inspiring the Q-Nuts.

 

Totally agree. 

[TCB]

19 minutes ago, Acadie said:

 

That's exactly why it's being deployed to distract and pivot away from discussion of any pressing issue, like Covid, climate change or the election. Try to bring discussion back to the topic at hand on social media and someone may accuse you of supporting pedophiles. 

It's absolutely not your imagination that you're seeing it everywhere. The creepiest part to me is that I'm seeing it from friends and acquaintances who have no idea where it comes from. They're finding it in various social groups, reposting and repeating the same arguments as QAnon without realizing it. 

If I were a Russian bot trying to sow confusion, chaos and division in the US, I'd use this strategy because it's working.

The slightly amusing thing for me, now that I know it is a manipulation, is that the people posting these things are largely the ones who kept saying the people concerned about Covid were sheep who needed to wake up because they were being deceived.

[katilac]

4 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

The fear of homeschool moms that their child will be snatched from under their noses at park day or Target is way out of control in my world. It is a constant worry and discussion and has children terrified. 

On my FB feed, it's not even limited to fearing their child will be snatched. Apparently Target and Walmart are bustling hubs of human trafficking, constantly on the lookout for adult women to snatch as well. This man was staring at me in Target and talking to someone on an earpiece, I'm sure he was a human trafficker! Or, y'know, a store security guard looking for shoplifters. 

If they think a car circles around in the parking lot, they take a picture of the car and post it! Sometimes including the license plate! This car kept circling around and staring at me as I unloaded groceries. They were (of course) talking to someone, they'd listen and then look back at me like they had a checklist. Just as I was putting in the last bag, they came around again, going really fast! I jumped in my car and escaped! White Ford Bronco, middle aged white man with a mustache and sunglasses, be on the lookout. And then a picture of the car if they have it. 

No, just . . . no. 

 

3 hours ago, Fifiruth said:

Until it happens in your community, as it did to us.

The 7 yr old was kidnapped two blocks from her home as she walked to school by herself.  A cop in our church congregation was one of the ones who searched for her. His wife told me that the #1 age range for abductions is 8-12. 

My own nephew was the target of unwanted interest from a man in Walmart when he was about 9 yrs. old, and his mom was just six or seven feet away from him.

Poo-pooing the idea that children and adults are taken against their will, even in broad daylight, is naive. It happens. 

She didn't say no child ever got kidnapped, ever. She implied that there's probably not an army of human traffickers at Target or the park, trying to grab your child even though you're standing right there. 

Kids and adults alike do get kidnapped, of course. But stranger abduction is rare: the Polly Klaas Foundation states that only about 100 cases per year fit the stereotypical stranger abduction that has most parents worried. Out of that number, about 40% are known to be killed, which is tragic but obviously means they weren't taken for human trafficking purposes. 

I think his wife got the age range wrong; on every reputable site I see, including the one linked above, teenagers listed as the most frequent victims by far, for both stereotypical kidnappings and other non-family abductions. 

When a young child disappears, it is big news precisely because it so rarely happens. But, if you list all the cases you can remember, both past and present, I bet you will not think of a single one that has been even remotely tied to human trafficking. Human trafficking victims, whether child or adult, are almost always people on the margins of society. Human traffickers are actively trying to not trigger massive publicity or nationwide manhunts. Stranger abduction is rare, and stranger abduction for the purposes of human trafficking is even more so. 

[Corraleno]

2 hours ago, TCB said:

Well that’s interesting to know! I thought maybe I had an overactive imagination. It is a very clever distraction though, because who is going to not agree with you about children’s safety.

The underlying theme that runs through all of the QAnon stuff is that the world is being run by a powerful cabal of liberal pedophiles and the only person who can stop them is Donald Trump. So the liberals  are faking the numbers of Covid cases and deaths in order to destroy Trump, so they can keep pushing their globalist agenda and continue to abuse and traffic children. Which would seem ironic since Trump & Epstein were good friends, and he said after Maxwell's arrest that he "wished her well." But the Q-nuts just see it as proof of their theory rather than refuting it — he had to be close to them so he could get the info he needs to ultimately destroy the pedophile rings.

[Ausmumof3]

2 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

I wouldn't assume that it's not a Russian(s) inspiring the Q-Nuts.

It’s amazing how many Twitter comments on this kind of stuff come from names with a whole string of numbers and have only had an account for two months 

[TCB]

48 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

The underlying theme that runs through all of the QAnon stuff is that the world is being run by a powerful cabal of liberal pedophiles and the only person who can stop them is Donald Trump. So the liberals  are faking the numbers of Covid cases and deaths in order to destroy Trump, so they can keep pushing their globalist agenda and continue to abuse and traffic children. Which would seem ironic since Trump & Epstein were good friends, and he said after Maxwell's arrest that he "wished her well." But the Q-nuts just see it as proof of their theory rather than refuting it — he had to be close to them so he could get the info he needs to ultimately destroy the pedophile rings.

It’s bizarre! Some of the people that post this stuff have also told me I shouldn’t live in fear lol - of a real virus that I am looking after people suffering from! 

[Farrar]

4 minutes ago, kdsuomi said:

 

To each their own.

So... since you're not making fun of them, you're calmly trying to reach out and explain the damage they're doing by believing this nonsense, right? Because it's nonsense.

[Paige]

18 minutes ago, kdsuomi said:

 

That's not entirely true. QAnon says that both sides of the political spectrum are involved in the cabal, and Trump isn't the savior, JFK, Jr. is.

I have a number of friends who believe in the theory, but I'm not going to go around making fun of them because I think they're wrong. 

What? Is JFK, Jr hiding out with Elvis somewhere? Is he the only one alive or did his wife survive too?

[Corraleno]

7 minutes ago, Paige said:

What? Is JFK, Jr hiding out with Elvis somewhere? Is he the only one alive or did his wife survive too?

They believe he faked his death. And no, I'm not kidding:

"

Believers in the bizarre pro-Trump conspiracy theory called QAnon were out in force at the president’s rally in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday, waving signs and cut-outs of the letter “Q” in front of the television cameras. 

The surprisingly large number of Trump supporters who believe in the off-the-wall conspiracy theory and the attendant media attention marks a new height for QAnon, which grew from the internet swamps of 4Chan and 8Chan. 

It’s there, starting in October 2017, that an anonymous poster dubbed “Q” began leaving cryptic clues that Trump supporters used to construct an alternate interpretation of current events where Trump is constantly battling evil forces. 

For QAnon believers, special counsel Robert Mueller isn’t really investigating the Trump campaign—he’s actually working with Trump to take down a cabal of deep-state plotters and pedophiles. Soon, QAnon fans believe, Trump will team up with the military to throw top Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama into Guantanamo Bay.

But what QAnon believers actually believe is constantly changing. After taking advantage of the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich and promoting dangerous ideas like Pizzagate, QAnon supporters have found a new tragedy to exploit: the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late president.

Until July, QAnon supporters believed that “Q,” the anonymous online forum poster whose cryptic clues make up the conspiracy theory, was a high-ranking Trump administration official, or maybe even Trump himself. But now, a good portion of QAnon believers have become convinced that Q is none other than JFK Jr, even though he died in a plane crash nearly 20 years ago.

.....

 [An] anonymous poster, who was soon dubbed “Ranon,” posited that Kennedy hadn’t actually died in a plane crash off the coast of Massachusetts. Instead, he’d faked his death to avoid the supposed deep-state cabal that is at the center of QAnon and teamed up with Trump to kick off a decades-long strategy. While Trump had laid the groundwork for his presidential bid, QAnon believers posited, Kennedy had become Q.

[Corraleno]

53 minutes ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

Nope. Not with this. This is a bunch of idiots who don’t give a damn about truth or logic or reality. These people are beyond the pale. They need to be called out, whatever it takes. Because they are what America is not. What we can’t ever be. They’re stupid. They’re dangerous. They’re being conned so hard and they’re loving that feeling. 

What's really scary is that there are nearly 80 Congressional candidates on the ballot this November that are QAnon believers, and the ones in deep red districts are all but guaranteed to be in Congress next year. One of the most vocal and off-the-wall QAnon candidates, Marjorie Greene, is fully expected to win a House seat in November and was heartily endorsed by Trump, who called her a rising star in the Republican Party. VP Pence and other members of the administration are scheduled to speak at a fundraiser next week organized by QAnon supporters. The folks running the Russian bot farms must be laughing their asses off at how easy their job is. 

[gardenmom5]

Maybe some - but not most.  S3x trafficking is more common than people think.  In the homeless camps in Seattle - it's a BIG problem. (A long with the drug dealing.) There's a guy who quit the CIA because he was required to turn a blind eye to it in other countries - so he founded an organization to rescue trafficked kids.

 

[ktgrok]

12 hours ago, Katy said:

 

As a foster parent, the idea floating around on social media and movies like Taken that your middle class child is going to get snatched and stolen and sold is RIDICULOUS. 

Ugh, yeah...my mom is always worried about this - sharing anonymous facebook posts about middle aged women narrowly escaping being sold into slavery while loading groceries, etc. 

[Pawz4me]

I've thought for a couple of decades that ignorance and lack of critical thinking skills would be this country's downfall. Nothing dramatic like a nuclear war or an asteroid hit or a global pandemic.

And with a little help from Russian sponsored trolls -- we're there, folks. We. Are. There.

Two people on my FB friends list shared a meme last night. Not Q-Nut related, but the same "side." It contained several "facts," one of which immediately jumped out at me as being a very quick, easy check. It took me no more than a minute. And it was indisputably false. And both men who shared it are very well educated, but so incredibly blinded by their political bias. Or perhaps they've been subtly brainwashed into somehow believing it's a good, fun thing to make themselves look like blithering idiots in order to "own the Libs"? It's easy to blame social media, but SM is just a vehicle. People are doing this to themselves. Who knows how people who should know better, people who have the mental/intellectual capacity to know better, can be coerced into regularly sharing patently false stuff? But . . . what do we do when we're at this point?? We're being eaten alive by the useful idiots.

 Despairing this morning. 😞 

[J-rap]

I only started really paying attention to QAnon a few weeks ago because, I thought, no one really believes this crazy stuff -- right?  

I've been trying to understand how educated people can fall for this.  My church Zoom group was discussing this yesterday...  Well, we got off-topic, but were discussing why some churches have reacted so strongly against the pandemic safety measures.   Even small things that could help others during this pandemic, like wearing masks:  if the government tells them to do it, their automatic reaction is to be against it.  Whereas if the idea had been first introduced from within the church community, they very likely would have supported it.  But, it's a built-in knee-jerk reaction leftover from the days (and from countries) where Christians really were persecuted by the government.  So their church theology is wrapped around a subtle message of "following God = being anti-government" (assuming one of the government's objectives is to be do away with religion altogether).   Over time that has been re-focused toward one particular political party.

I'd guess that this makes for an easier step for some people to latch on to the QAnon ideas, which also supposedly involves being persecuted and standing up for what's right, and which uses spiritual-sounding language to make it seem like a far bigger battle they're up against.

Well I'd say more but I guess it would veer too much into politics...

[ktgrok]

Yeah...I can't grasp the mindset that you can't trust the media, because they will lie, but you CAN trust random dude in a tank top broadcasting from his mother's basement or whatever. I mean, if you want to say you are a skeptic and you don't trust anything without verifying it, fine. But that's not the case - they don't trust vetted sources, but do trust random nobodies who are anonymous. 

Same with those who say doctor's can't be trusted because they have only X number of hours of education on say, vaccines...but then go on to spread "information" they read on a facebook meme as the gospel truth. I'm like, okay, even IF a doctor has only that many hours of professional training on immunizations, it's still MORE hours than the lady at the juice bar who told you that acai berry will cure polio, you know? Like, if X number of hours is not enough, how is ZERO hours enough??? It's mind boggling. 

[Pam in CT]

As multiple pp have noted and documented above, #savethechildren is QAnon.

My girl Molly  McKew has a new piece up on how conspiracy theory disseminates, focusing first on the Jade Helm incident in 2015 (in which a plot seeded by the then-marginal QAnon was amplified by the then-not-well-understood Infowars... and went quickly on to build an IRL following of believers who actually showed up at IRL town halls throughout Texas and got the governor to call out the National Guard, in response to a conspiracy theory that the then-POTUS was imminently about to declare martial law.)

Quote

Pushed and seeded by Kremlin information operations and amplified by InfoWars and other online conspiracy sites, the Jade Helm conspiracy caught fire on social media and gained coverage in local media outlets. Very quickly, vocal Texans were calling on their local governments to intervene to stop the exercise. So fervid did this energy become — so deep the local belief that the US military might actually be up to no good during the exercise — the Governor of Texas eventually called up the Texas state guard to observe the exercise. 

From the time the conspiracy appeared until the moment the governor responded was about six weeks total. Six weeks from a random online document to angry locals calling a US Army officer a liar at a packed townhall meeting. Needless to say, the summer went on, and the exercise happened, and the mass arrests never came. I don’t think most Americans living outside the area (or living outside the InfoWars terrarium) were even aware of it at the time...

But I think it’s safe to say the US military didn’t forget about it, since the conspiracy created a serious operational problem for them within the United States. They studied it, and analyzed it, and looked at the research that others were doing about it... it was a test for the type of information warfare Russia would use in the 2016 elections. A test that encouraged the Kremlin, because we flunked it with flying colors. Six weeks — six! — for the population of a “patriotic” state to turn on the US military. 

 

The fertile Texan ground on which *those particular* QAnon seeds germinated so fast was, of course, deep distrust of/ hatred toward the then-sitting POTUS.

The recurrent message of McKew's work, however, is: don't focus on the specific seeds, focus on the tools and techniques.  The HOW rather than the what.

 

Conspiracy Theory 2016 played on ONE set of divisions, fears, anxieties. Conspiracy Theory 2020 will look somewhat different in the specifics; everyone's horrified about little kids being trafficked!

But it's the HOW that matters.  Why are *these particular* social media users being targeted for the #savethechildren message? In what geographic, religious, socioeconomic segments did it flare first and most virulently? Why are those segments perceived to be fertile ground for these specific seeds? What interest groups / Pinterest pins / fun survey questionnaires / "likes" and shares have driven which algorithms to push QAnon in their direction?   When #savethechildren memes and stories are "shared," who's datamining that behavior and how is that data being used? How many weeks between its initial emergence and the inevitable Comet Pizza (to which this is clearly related in subject matter as well as neural distribution network on SM) response?

[Amira]

To be fair, #savethechildren (the hashtag) was started by Save the Children, a legitimate organization advocating for children for 100 years.  Their organization was already co-opted once by the CIA who attempted to use their vaccination program as a cover which resulted in major problems in getting children vaccinated in Pakistan.  What happened in Pakistan makes my head want to explode.

Save the Children recently had to put out a statement to disassociate itself from QAnon junk.

[Pam in CT]

4 minutes ago, Amira said:

To be fair, #savethechildren (the hashtag) was started by Save the Children, a legitimate organization advocating for children for 100 years.  Their organization was already co-opted once by the CIA who attempted to use their vaccination program as a cover which resulted in major problems in getting children vaccinated in Pakistan.  What happened in Pakistan makes my head want to explode.

Save the Children recently had to put out a statement to disassociate itself from QAnon junk.

Yes, I should have included that in the above.  In no way do I mean to undermine the legitimate longstanding good work by Save the Children, the organization.

At THIS POINT, it is a QAnon meme, well and good co-opted.

[Lady Florida.]

21 hours ago, kdsuomi said:

 

To each their own.

No. Because when the emperor has no clothes people need to speak up.

[katilac]

21 hours ago, kdsuomi said:

I have a number of friends who believe in the theory, but I'm not going to go around making fun of them because I think they're wrong. 

Okay, I get not wanting to make fun of people. But do you disagree with them? Let them know you don't believe? 

[J-rap]

On 9/9/2020 at 2:36 PM, TCB said:

I think all the posts on social media about human trafficking  at the moment may well be a manipulation attempt to distract from other things. That probably sounds like a conspiracy theory right there lol.

The people sharing them on my social media are the same people sharing the Covid denial, and the anti-vax stuff, so I’m kind of wondering if it  may be coming from the same sources. It has been quite interesting to see the change in focus.

I think you might have something there...

[TravelingChris]

No I do not believe there is a connection 

 

Now can someone tell me if this is a Qanon thing?  I think someone I know forwarded s Facebook post about Wayfair and Human trafficking and some really expensive junk that was supposedly listed?  I was absolutely confused as to the story and didn't believe it but thought it was really strange.  It also talked about thar awful sex cult in NY (that was a true story) but then tied up tge Dali Llama and Hilary Clinton into it (which again I thought bizarre and untrue and I am not a HC fan but that seemed over the top).

[mom2scouts]

7 hours ago, Amira said:

To be fair, #savethechildren (the hashtag) was started by Save the Children, a legitimate organization advocating for children for 100 years.  Their organization was already co-opted once by the CIA who attempted to use their vaccination program as a cover which resulted in major problems in getting children vaccinated in Pakistan.  What happened in Pakistan makes my head want to explode.

Save the Children recently had to put out a statement to disassociate itself from QAnon junk.

I actually saw a post that said not to use #savethechildren because that's being used by the traffickers. You need to use the hashtag saveOURchildren.🙄

I have a friend on Facebook who believes a lot of this stuff. I had to unfollow her because she seems to have gone crazy. I haven't seen her for years, but she left her church, divorced her husband, took the two youngest of her eight children, moved in with a new man, became an antivaxxer, doesn't take any Covid precautions while she and the new boyfriend take multiple vacations and nights out, and posts bizarre stuff.

[katilac]

1 hour ago, TravelingChris said:

Now can someone tell me if this is a Qanon thing?  I think someone I know forwarded s Facebook post about Wayfair and Human trafficking and some really expensive junk that was supposedly listed?  I was absolutely confused as to the story and didn't believe it but thought it was really strange.  It also talked about thar awful sex cult in NY (that was a true story) but then tied up tge Dali Llama and Hilary Clinton into it (which again I thought bizarre and untrue and I am not a HC fan but that seemed over the top).

The Wayfair thing makes me despair of humanity. 

Wayfair sells various items of furniture. Sometimes items in the same line will have a retail version and an industrial version, with the industrial version being much sturdier, often made of steel, and thus much more expensive. 

They also sells items that are sometimes branded with a first name - you know, like Billy Bookcases at Ikea.

Some of their items seem really overpriced. Sometimes they have pricing errors. 

These all seem like fairly normal things that we have all seen in various stores, but no, Wayfair is using them as a way to traffic children. One of their items has an unusual name, and a girl with that same unusual name is a missing child! Except she's not - the girl in question was reported missing over a year ago, quickly found, and is pretty annoyed with everyone trying to 'save' her. Another name that got them all hot and bothered was that of a boy who went missing for a single day in spring. 

It's just ridiculous. There's a great quote in  this article, bolding by me,   “I think the real answer here is that people are unwilling to see trafficking as it actually happens yet are eagerly willing to make up stuff about it," Bridgette Carr, a professor of law at the University of Michigan and head of the Human Trafficking Clinic, told USA TODAY. And from the same article, Sandy Skelaney, an anti-trafficking expert, "It’s, unfortunately, so much easier to traffic somebody than to create an entire furniture catalog around it."

It's like people don't understand reality versus fiction; they think real life criminals are like movie super villains, with elaborate and unnecessary plots, rubbing their hands together in glee, those fools! they think I am selling a ruffled duvet, when I am actually selling a child! mwa ha ha! and we have to hope that Batman or youtube watching suburbanites show up and save the day.  

And  a quote from one of the youtubers that pushed the theory and got a lot of views: "I didn't really have all the facts for that video, I just kind of made it on impulse because I was so scared," said Jeremiah Willis in a later video. "I personally have no knowledge, no evidence, nothing."

If people would quit having deep, passionate beliefs about things peddled by people who have no knowledge, no evidence, nothing, that would awesome. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by katilac

[rebcoola]

A newish member to our community group and church is totally into this stuff. Unfortunately others are definitely listening.  One of them posted that ridiculous wayfair trafficking story.

[Farrar]

I know people who work next to the pizzagate place. It was scary for them when someone went there to terrorize it. I have no idea where Wayfair’s hq is, but I hope they have added security. Of course, if they have, I’m sure it “proves” they are protecting traffickers. 

[easypeasy]

On 9/9/2020 at 10:06 PM, Dotwithaperiod said:

Then she puts up pics of droopy eyed kids to prove that we can’t tell which one is safe vs which one has just been kidnapped by  a Democrat.

 

The subject isn't funny at all - but I'm literally laughing out loud at this sentence. 😵 It's all so ridiculous - and yet! People are saying things like this in all earnestness. Boggles the mind.

My cousin posts nonsense like this and I'm like, "Cousin? Do you honestly think I've got a hoard of small children locked up in my barn with the horses? Stop it with this nonsense!!" I've snoozed him for months and have to pop over to his feed once a week or so and correct a few things and then I run away again until the next week...

3 hours ago, katilac said:

It's like people don't understand reality versus fiction; they think real life criminals are like movie super villains, with elaborate and unnecessary plots, rubbing their hands together in glee, those fools! they think I am selling a ruffled duvet, when I am actually selling a child! mwa ha ha! and we have to hope that Batman or youtube watching suburbanites show up and save the day. 

 

Like, my MIL ordered something for us from Wayfair last year for Christmas (I'd never heard of the company before). When it arrived, was there supposed to be a child in the box? Cuz it was just a pillow or side table or something unmemorable. It's all so utterly ridiculous, I tell my husband almost every single day that we seem to have slipped into a parallel universe (or "the Darkest Timeline") and I WANT TO GO BACK TO MY UNIVERSE/TIMELINE!!!!

Edited September 11, 2020 by easypeasy

[Soror]

Well, now it is making sense. I thought all this child abduction talk was crazy, considering the actual statistics for abduction (why don't people look that up is beyond me), I didn't realize that it has been pushed by the far right extremists. Dh and I were talking to a couple last night and the husband started in about how abductions are increasing and they are only going to keep increasing (I took that as the queue we needed to leave as I didn't want to hear the bs behind why that is the case). It is rather smart as it preys on people's worst fears. Besides the damage to real efforts to save trafficked children and the lies perpetuating that are further dividing our country- what about the lose of independence for our children based on this crap? I've already felt against the current for allowing my kids freedoms that many don't but add this in and I shudder to think what kind of ridiculous rules and laws are going to be adopted based on made up crap.

[TCB]

3 hours ago, soror said:

Well, now it is making sense. I thought all this child abduction talk was crazy, considering the actual statistics for abduction (why don't people look that up is beyond me), I didn't realize that it has been pushed by the far right extremists. Dh and I were talking to a couple last night and the husband started in about how abductions are increasing and they are only going to keep increasing (I took that as the queue we needed to leave as I didn't want to hear the bs behind why that is the case). It is rather smart as it preys on people's worst fears. Besides the damage to real efforts to save trafficked children and the lies perpetuating that are further dividing our country- what about the lose of independence for our children based on this crap? I've already felt against the current for allowing my kids freedoms that many don't but add this in and I shudder to think what kind of ridiculous rules and laws are going to be adopted based on made up crap.

The other thing that is very clever about choosing this subject is that if anyone should question it at all, or question any of their “facts,” they can say that they are heartless and don’t care about children and the horrendous people who prey on them.