Steller column: Sex-trafficking conspiracy catches fire despite lack of evidence

[Ptah]

At this stage, you will never be able to convince some people that Tucson is not the epicenter of a newly uncovered child sex-trafficking ring.

That theory has been burning across the internet for a week, spearheaded by a local advocate for homeless veterans and aided by credulous local TV news reporting. They pointed to a homeless camp near I-19 and West Valencia Road where there were mysterious straps on trees and a buried septic tank as evidence of child rape.

But there was never any evidence that the claim was anything more than the product of an overactive imagination and online conspiracists. Certainly there were no victims. And when Tucson police came to investigate, they said they found no sign of trafficking in children for sex or anything other than a homeless camp.

Then, on Thursday, Lewis Arthur, leader of the group Veterans on Patrol, went live on the internet to announce that they’d found a skull in the desert. As if they were forensic scientists, they concluded it was the skull of an approximately 9-year-old child. This, to Arthur and the 6,000 people watching live online, looked like the hard evidence they’ve been waiting for of sickos shipping kids through our desert.

https://tucson.com/news/local/steller-column-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-catches-fire-despite-lack-of/article_b6b6c798-22a3-5ccb-9fb2-99cdccfc73d9.html

[jberryhill]

1. You know that old expression "he's been out in the sun too long"?

What's the origin of that?

Is there some sort of correlation between too much sunshine and not being entirely right in the head?

[TimeSnowDemos]

2. The messed up thing...

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, lived through the Russian Revolution and WW1. He became extremely scared of the irrational mob, and spent the rest of his life concerned that the mob was not only dangerous and irrational, but extremely easy to manipulate.

Ironically, his nephew, Edward Bernays, would take Freud's teaching and use it to create propaganda which lead to increased US War. This includes using propaganda to get US citizens to support US entry into WW1, and a US coup in Guatemala, which was designed to protect slave labor for a US corporation.

He also then used these services for other corporate interests, like convincing women that they'd be empowered if they started smoking cigarettes, which lead to millions of deaths.

At any rate, the same tools he used, based on the research of his Uncle Sigmund, is now being used to manipulate the same masses Freud was scared of in the first place.

Humans - especially groups of humans - are extremely easy to manipulate. The internet has made it almost childishly simple to convince people to believe, and even agitate for, lies.

Guess what would stop this.

Top notch education, a media that was universally trusted, and faith in gatekeepers in general..

In other words all things that Americans don't have access too.

And as the cult of alternative facts metasticizes online, it will play a larger and larger roll in US society.

Trump is just the beginning of this. And the lesson of Trump is that the US is a soft target.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Great post, much appreciated ... (nt)

[Canoe52]

4. But how can you have a child sex ring without pizza?

Must be a hidden pizza place in the basement of the homeless camp!

Or am I mixing my conspiracy theories?

I’m so confused!!!