Hello and thank you for being a DL contributor. We are changing the login scheme for contributors for simpler login and to better support using multiple devices. Please click here to update your account with a username and password.

Hello. Some features on this site require registration. Please click here to register for free.

Hello and thank you for registering. Please complete the process by verifying your email address. If you can't find the email you can resend it here.

Hello. Some features on this site require a subscription. Please click here to get full access and no ads for $1.99 or less per month.

Why is the US So Obsessed with Pedophilia and Child Sex Trafficking?

The whole QAnon things reminds me of the satanism hysteria of the 80s and 90s with everyone claiming that their parents sexually abused them and performed human sacrifices.

Don’t misunderstand me, I know pedophilia and sex trafficking does exist but it’s reached the point of hysteria.

There must be a profile of the people who are obsessed with this. I’m guessing middle-aged white fraus?

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 53August 3, 2020 11:48 PM

[quote] There must be a profile of the people who are obsessed with this. I’m guessing middle-aged white fraus?

Correct.

And they’re the most dominant group in society.

That’s the answer.

by Anonymousreply 1August 1, 2020 9:29 AM

The Satanism hysteria was real psychosis. Qanon is purely a political operation by the alt-right.

by Anonymousreply 2August 1, 2020 9:32 AM

I've noticed this too among Fox leaning types on social media; sex trafficking is a terrible thing, but given the shit storm we're in now, it doesn't really seem like it should be the "10 Top List of Things To Worry About" - and yet, they post article after article about this shit

by Anonymousreply 3August 1, 2020 9:41 AM

It's been a problem for over a century though, OP. The "white slavery" panic of the 1880s seems to have started it, and there were a host of claims that alcohol lead to sex trafficking which is partly how Prohibition got passed decades later. The panics died down until the mainstream Middle Americans got hold of second-wave feminist rhetoric in the 1970s, which they and the media fueled into a Satanic Panic of the 1980s. That never really died down, there's always been some kind of To Catch A Predator shit going on since then.

As long as the media can stoke fear in viewers, they're going to exploit it. As long as politicians can use the fear of sex trafficking to push conspiracy theories and make their constituency scared, they're going to exploit it. I don't really see a solution other than educating the public bur for whatever reason we can't seem to manage that.

by Anonymousreply 4August 1, 2020 9:52 AM

It’s the right that’s obsessed with this Op. What’s funny is that they go on and on about this yet their MAGA members of Congress haven’t proposed any significant legislation besides that draconian bill that killed Craigslist. Us members that loved servicing married and discrete cock still weep.

This is simply a reaction to social media bitting conservatives in the ass. Popular social media sites, outside of Facebook, tend to chastise Conservatives’ bs. It’s driven them crazy since the Obama years only because under his term social media exploded thanks to smart phones.

So they need a way to justify the attacks in an even more salacious manner. Sex trafficking and pedo sins of the wealthy for the bill. It’s one of the worst crimes outside of murder, which they always link to these types as a coverup storyline. No different than the outlandish, though sometimes true, accusations made against the Court of Versailles before the revolution.

The left engaged in this based on more realistic accusations. For instance Op, many of the migrant children placed in cages were minors that Trump’s WH placed with private businesses outside of the Fed’s preview. In front of congress they admitted that they did not accurately track the location of some of the detained minors. Well, unaccompanied minors are prime targets for trafficking. Q followers always leave out these very real dangers in their quest to take down liberals.

It’s madness.

by Anonymousreply 5August 1, 2020 10:22 AM

media driven, as it all is, sells papers and is clickbait.....horrible tho it is...its a proven attention getter.

by Anonymousreply 6August 1, 2020 10:41 AM

Projection.

by Anonymousreply 7August 1, 2020 10:54 AM

yes, its a projection of the media moguls lives:::::sordid no doubt

by Anonymousreply 8August 1, 2020 11:06 AM

Why dismiss it out of hand? I question the judgment or motives of anyone who does. Where there's smoke there's fire.

by Anonymousreply 9August 1, 2020 11:10 AM

r9 = Roseanne

by Anonymousreply 10August 1, 2020 11:15 AM

A pro athlete I follow posted something about the government kidnapping and trafficking 800,000 children every year and why isn’t is a bigger story.

I was like, oohhhhhh, you crazy girl.

Unfollow.

by Anonymousreply 11August 1, 2020 11:22 AM

There's something wrong with people who think that, if you question obviously political accusations of pedophilia made with no proof whatsoever, you're saying pedophilia doesn't happen at all.

"Where there's smoke there's fire" inevitably means "this guy on Twitter spun the Epstein court documents to make it sound like Clinton fucked two little girls on the island and I believe it because I hate the Clintons."

by Anonymousreply 12August 1, 2020 11:51 AM

it's a little hard to ignore when our President is in the middle of it.

by Anonymousreply 13August 1, 2020 11:54 AM

The QAnon batshit craziness reminds me of the history of the 1950's "Reds under the bed" communist witch hunts.

Trump is playing along with QAnon for all he's worth.

by Anonymousreply 14August 1, 2020 12:01 PM

#7 is right. They have dirty thoughts about kiddies and throw it on other people.

Most adults want to crawl back in the crib and be toddlers again. They peaked in grade school. That's why they have kids, so they can go back to childhood.

by Anonymousreply 15August 1, 2020 12:13 PM

I think there’s some hysteria about “sexual trafficking”. It’s kind of hilarious to see Websleuths of the frau variety suggest it as the culprit in any female or child missing persons case.

But there are plenty of perverts and pedos out there, looking for kids to violate. I’m certain that 3/4 of us have a story about a predator, whether it’s a one-time scare or pervasive and sustained.

by Anonymousreply 16August 1, 2020 12:19 PM

that poor family with the old granny that was accussed yrs ago, forgot their name, eventually found not guilty, but the media ruined them, mcmartin! was their name i think.

by Anonymousreply 17August 1, 2020 12:30 PM

Yes, r17, the McMartin Preschool Trial. I believe it was the longest and most expensive criminal trial in US history

by Anonymousreply 18August 1, 2020 12:36 PM
Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 19August 1, 2020 12:39 PM

They watch too many Lifetime movies, and have zero critical thinking skills.

It reminds me of those hoax chain emails that used to do the rounds in the late 90s. You know, “Rebecca was in a Wal*Mart parking lot in Bumblefoot Ohio when someone in a van stopped her to ask for directions then bundled her into the van and sold her into white slavery! If someone asks you for directions, run!!”

Sex traffickers don’t target 30-something white women, and they don’t go around randomly grabbing people off the street. Human trafficking victims are typically from extremely impoverished and vulnerable backgrounds, nearly all from third world or former communist countries. Westerners only get trafficked if they are highly vulnerable eg homeless teens or kids in ICE camps. They are nearly always trafficked through grooming, not violently snatched.

To combat trafficking we have to understand the underlying risk factors like poverty, and understand how grooming works. But that’s not glamorous and exciting like scare stories about middle class white children being snatched at the playground.

I bet loads of the white women spreading nonsense like the Wayfair conspiracy get their nails done at a place that uses human trafficking, and would probably be judgy cunts to actual trafficking victims. Look at the girl who Prince Andrew rapes, she was street homeless at 13 or something and was groomed into “agreeing” to go with Epstein. He didn’t violently grab her off the street. The amount of victim blaming in the media and online by people who think child sex trafficking is creepy guys crawling through playgrounds with ropes is terrifying. Her story is absolutely the classic example of how human trafficking operates.

by Anonymousreply 20August 1, 2020 12:43 PM

One weird thing I recently learned that I think make people freak out beyond measure and panic more is that videos are counted by individual frames, so when they say someone was found with 50,000 images of child porn it sounds terrifying and out of control. Otherwise I was thinking there must be extensive abuse going out to generate that much content. But at standard 24 frames per second, a 2 minute video would have 2,880 frames or 14,400 for ten minutes.

by Anonymousreply 21August 1, 2020 12:48 PM

We had a case of this hysteria here in Malden, MA.

The Amirault family, mother, daughter and son, were accused and convicted of horrible things they never, ever did. No evidence whatsoever and the lies those kids were coached into were beyond science fiction.

The place was called Fells Acres and is one of the worst cases of a miscarriage of justice ever.

Those poor peoples' lives were ruined.

by Anonymousreply 22August 1, 2020 1:03 PM

Not to defend a bunch of trashy, reich wing Rumpsters, but pedophilia, particularly in Hollywood, is the big open secret that hasn't been discussed yet. Some of their conspiracy theories are batshit crazy and absurd, but, as we've discussed for years, there are big predators like Spielberg and Lucas who just operate in the open without any pushback. I'm shocked they haven't gone after them yet. Taking them down would probably cause one of the biggest earthquakes Hollywood has ever faced.

by Anonymousreply 23August 1, 2020 1:07 PM

For which, R22, I worked hard to make sure Martha Coakley (then the prosecuting DA in Middlesex County, later MA Attorney General) never won another office despite running for Governor and Senator and who now enjoys the anonymity she so richly deserves. There's a place in hell for her, one I trust she'll soon occupy.

by Anonymousreply 24August 1, 2020 1:23 PM

It's a profitable political slander method and distraction.

Putin was behind Pizzagate.

But the Epstein case is real and there's a legit prosecution going on, so it's just going to make the loons loonier.

by Anonymousreply 25August 1, 2020 3:43 PM

It’s a case of if you spot it you’ve got it. All those evangelicals are creepy and perverted about sex. There are HUGE incest/molestation problems in fundie communities and this is their way of deflecting. “Ooh look, Hollywood perverts! Bad!” is a way of everyone ignoring the Conservacunt youth pastors and closet cases who finger the younger members of their congregations. Notice how nobody is talking about priests anymore? As well, as is the Russian custom, whatever they have problems with, they project onto others. Paranoid schizophrenia, pedophilia and cannibalism are their greatest hits.

by Anonymousreply 26August 1, 2020 4:01 PM

You know your stuff r24.

Ms. Coakley was also directly involved in the escape of pedo collaborator Bernard Law.

They said they didn't have the evidence to go after him, he escapes to the Vatican and it turns out they had the goods on him the whole time.

PBS (WGBH) even included letters and documents on a program that aired before Law left for Rome.

There's no way she didn't know.

by Anonymousreply 27August 1, 2020 4:30 PM

the goddam shrinks convince the kids sumpin happened...gravy train for them, the attorneys, judges, media. creeps all.

by Anonymousreply 28August 1, 2020 4:40 PM

The people I know who are obsessed with this subject are dumbass Trumpers looking for stuff with which to entertain themselves and blame on liberals. They ignore when a conservative or Republican is found to be a kiddie diddler. Their obsession is spiraling out of control now because they're stuck inside ("Wahhhhh! You can't tell me what to do! Wahhhhh!!!") and Dump plummeting poll numbers.

by Anonymousreply 29August 1, 2020 5:01 PM

I'd be surprised if that were the case, R27, because Tom Reilly was the Attorney General at the the time Law fled Boston in 2002 (by means of having a seminarian drive him to Newark for the flight to Rome despite Alitalia having direct service from Logan that night, out of fear that a member of F Troop at the airport would recognize and possible detain him as he boarded the plane) and Coakley was the Middlesex DA then busy prosecuting Father Geoghan - just another of hundreds of pedo priests in the Boston Archdiocese Law tried to cover up for.

AG Reilly was investigating the Archdiocesan attempts to cover it up and since the-then HQ of the Archdiocese was located on Lake Street in Brighton (adjacent to and now part of the BC campus) Coakley could not be involved with the case against Law: Boston is in Suffolk County. She was then the DA of Middlesex County.

I am also friends with a woman who arranged Law's travel to Cuba along with a former member of the Harvard faculty working to increase dialogue with Castro. She was used to dealing with "difficult" members of the Harvard faculty but said they were nothing compared to Law. He was, in her words, a "twenty-four karat jackass."

There may well have been some overlap between Coakley's office and the AG's, but it was a Statie from Reilly's office who tipped off the people on Lake Street that Reilly was planning to subpoena Law the next day. And who, despite being a very religious Catholic, ended up regretting it until the day he died. He admitted he was giving them a heads-up but said he didn't expect a cardinal to flee in the middle of the night.

That does nothing to mitigate Coakley's guilt - she persecuted the Amirault's despite subsequent testimony that the kids (on whose allegations without any basis in fact or even corroborating evidence they were convicted) testimony could not be relied upon. It's a disgrace and so is she. She continues to disgrace herself: last I heard, she was lobbying for Juul - the e-cigarette people.

by Anonymousreply 30August 1, 2020 5:10 PM

Coakley was ADA working in the same office (that's more than a little overlap) at the time of the Law scandal. She knew.

And Tom Reilly was rewarded with a job at B.C. for his efforts.

Don't try to white wash this. They were both complicit.

by Anonymousreply 31August 1, 2020 5:43 PM

I have been thinking this myself about the pedophilia and human trafficking hysteria. Not saying neither one exists but I wonder just how prevalent it actually is. The “satanic panic” didn’t ever turn up any of the dead babies etc. it claimed had been sacrificed, but people literally believed it when it was going on...is this completely or mostly made up.

As I said in another thread, I can’t actually grasp the Qanon “conspiracy” or how it’s supposed to make sense.

by Anonymousreply 32August 1, 2020 6:54 PM

Not trying to whitewash anything. Just properly reporting the blame. The Amirault case - although she didn't prosecute it: they were indicted in 1985 before she joined the Middlesex County DA's office in 1986 - was a disgrace. Her efforts to impede the Amirault's releases were improper (Judge Bornenstein said the prosecution was outrageous when, later as the Middlesex DA, Coakley tried to defend it) and probably illegal.

She wasn't directly involved in the investigation of Cardinal Law's role in covering up sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Boston being conducted by the Attorney General. She was then involved in the prosecution of John Geoghan, a priest accused and convicted of molesting as many as 130 youngsters and no doubt there was some overlap between their offices, but Law's role in the coverup was AG Reilly's case all the way - he gets all the blame, among other things for having investigators working for him leak information to someone about to be subpoenaed. Coakley WAS in dirty with Reilly in trying to defend the earlier actions of the Middlesex DA's office (which he ran as DA before she did, although Scott Harshbarger was the Middlesex DA when the Amiraults were tried in '86-'87) towards the Amiraults and later succeeded in impeding their releases. She was trying to get Violet Amirault's conviction reinstated at the time she died. These efforts in the late 1990's were also a disgrace but separate cases entirely and prior (1999-2000) to Law's embarrassing escape in 2002.

Nothing I wrote was intended or could reasonably be construed as a whitewash. And no less an authority than you, in R27, wrote of me, "You know your stuff."

Among that stuff is that Coakley was not an "ADA" in 2002: she was the Middlesex County DA in Cambridge. Tom Reilly was then the state's Attorney General with an office on Ashburton Place on Beacon Hill. It's confusing because all three of them (Harshbarger, Coakley, and Reilly) were first Middlesex County DAs and later Attorneys General of the Commonwealth.

And the Amirault case cursed all of them: none, despite trying, ever went on to higher office after their term as AG was up.

by Anonymousreply 33August 1, 2020 7:08 PM

It all reminds me of one of those internal memos from the Scientology folks. If they didn't have any dirt on a "suppressive person" they would just accuse them of being pedophiles. What better way to cast doubt on a person than to suggest they may be a kid toucher? That's the play here.

Unfortunately, all the idiots who bought into this nonsense took it way too literally, and now we have reptilians alien who eat babies for a rare brain chemical.

by Anonymousreply 34August 1, 2020 8:39 PM

Well, if you apply the same logic for why some people are so virulently anti-gay and so vocal about how terrible being gay is...

by Anonymousreply 35August 1, 2020 8:58 PM

Middle age white guys projection fantasies.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 36August 1, 2020 9:18 PM

R22 r24 Yes it was a truly appalling story and I shudder when I wonder how many falsely accused people were never vindicated . When we discuss prosecuting legitimate predators and protecting abuse victims (a noble and important cause it goes without saying ) there needs to be room to talk about the dangers and terrible damage that false accusations do. TV and movies always love the stereotype of the slimy defense lawyers vs the noble and moral prosecutors but some of these district attorneys can be as psychopathic and power hungry as their defense counterparts.

by Anonymousreply 37August 2, 2020 1:19 AM

I recommend the podcast Conviction: American Panic. A lot of us know about the Satanic Panic, but the podcast is really well-research and lays out all of the information, so it’s easy to follow. It made my blood boil, hundreds of people’s lives ruined for nothing. Americans are so stupid sometimes.

by Anonymousreply 38August 2, 2020 2:31 AM

There was a case of a computer science teacher being accused of molesting his students. The claims were beyond outrageous and the patents in the community were then in competition with each other claiming their kid was molested more times than the other. The claims were insane. Things that weren’t even humanly possible. I think the woman that wrote the book debunking Sybil wrote about it.

by Anonymousreply 39August 2, 2020 2:38 AM

R39 Are you talking about the documentary Capturing the Friedmans?

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 40August 2, 2020 2:45 AM

[quote]I recommend the podcast Conviction: American Panic. A lot of us know about the Satanic Panic, but the podcast is really well-research and lays out all of the information, so it’s easy to follow. It made my blood boil, hundreds of people’s lives ruined for nothing. Americans are so stupid sometimes

I listened to all episodes of that podcast a couple of weekends ago and it totally pissed me off. I wish some TV miniseries would be made about the case.

by Anonymousreply 41August 2, 2020 3:28 AM

[quote]It all reminds me of one of those internal memos from the Scientology folks. If they didn't have any dirt on a "suppressive person" they would just accuse them of being pedophiles. What better way to cast doubt on a person than to suggest they may be a kid toucher? That's the play here.

I recall there was a video on youtube years ago of Scientologists calling an ex-Scientologist a pedophile.

by Anonymousreply 42August 2, 2020 3:46 AM

I remember the infamous McMartin case in CA where some kindergarten teachers were charged with molesting hundreds of kids. The kids were put thru hours of gestapo like interrogations by fanatical child psychologists until they just told the questioners what they wanted to hear to make them stop. The poor teachers lives were ruined and they went to jail for years. Turns out it was all hysteria and ambitious prosecutors They were perfectly innocent. Of course the real child abusers were the child psychologists. This lead to a rash of psychiatrists "regressing": their patients and telling them the reason their lives were fucked up is that their parents sexually molested them and they repressed the memory for years.. I know several families were wrecked when the grown children accused their elderly parents of this. It was quite the vogue in the 90's.Seems like America repeats the Salem witch trials every generation. Weird country.

by Anonymousreply 43August 2, 2020 5:04 AM

Most sex trafficking in this country doesn’t involve children but young women, who are sometimes underage. Think of all the Asian women working in brothels and massage parlors. Some are tricked into prostitution and others are sold by their poverty-stricken families. Imagine selling your daughter to feed yourself and your other children. And imagine having parents who would do that to you. It’s really ugly. I know this from when i interned at the DA’s office in NYC.

by Anonymousreply 44August 2, 2020 7:23 AM

In Dubai, rich people don’t have to follow laws. Children are often kept as servants and sex slaves. I hate Dubai; it has a high concentration of assholes with Trumpy taste and Trumpy values. The attitude of the ruling class is “fuck the environment”, “fuck the poor” and “who the fuck cares about education?!”

I wish the fraus there cared about children.

by Anonymousreply 45August 2, 2020 7:32 AM

SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX!

... and let me tell you how I can feel self-righteous about some version of it, now that I can’t pick on the gays as much anymore.

by Anonymousreply 46August 2, 2020 7:44 AM

The McMartin pre-school trial was absolutely insane. I know it doesn't involve any celebrities, but I wish Ryan Murphy would make a season of American Crime Story about it because I think it would shed a lot of light on how insane all of the pedophilia/sex trafficking conspiracy theories today are.

I also think the whole "stranger danger" and "if you see something, say something" mentality needs a slight rethink. Most kids who are kidnapped or molested are the victims of people they know, not strangers. And the issue has never been people not saying something, it's been people not taking the accusations seriously.

by Anonymousreply 47August 3, 2020 11:20 PM

because it happens. if they'll kidnap and kill that ugly jayme girl, who knows what they are doing with the good looking ones.

by Anonymousreply 48August 3, 2020 11:25 PM

It's interesting to me that although the 70s and 80s had higher crime rates in cities than now, kids were more free. It didn't seem that most parents were constantly obsessed with the idea of their child being kidnapped or molested. Now, urban crime rates are much lower overall but even in the suburbs, parents are so cautious. What happened to change the previous attitude?

by Anonymousreply 49August 3, 2020 11:33 PM

R49, sociologists have suggested this is related to the 24-hour national news cycle and needing content. The crime rate (at least previous to the last few months) has been on the decline across the country for decades, but we hear more about crime in different places and the more sensational, the better. So parents receive more scary information now and are therefore more scared.

by Anonymousreply 50August 3, 2020 11:44 PM

What became of the German revelations in the McCann case?

by Anonymousreply 51August 3, 2020 11:46 PM

What we’re talking about right now, r49. All the coverage of the fringe cases.

by Anonymousreply 52August 3, 2020 11:46 PM

R50, good point, I"m sure smartphones have made it even worse.

by Anonymousreply 53August 3, 2020 11:48 PM
Loading
Need more help? Click Here.

Yes indeed, we too use "cookies." Take a look at our privacy/terms or if you just want to see the damn site without all this bureaucratic nonsense, click ACCEPT. Otherwise, you'll just have to find some other site for your pointless bitchery needs.

×

Become a contributor - post when you want with no ads!