Sound of Freedom - Guardian linking anti Child Trafficking to Right Wing

[CuriouslyDifferent]

I have a distasteful view of the Guardian. However, this is a new low.

I’ve attached the article but I can’t believe somehow the Guardian is linking the success of an anti Child Trafficking film, to the right wing.

Like that’s a bad thing?

https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/06/sound-of-freedom-movie-qanon-jim-caviezel

Every side should be anti trafficking, never mind child trafficking…. But the Guardian doesn’t want you to see this film.

As always, I ask the question Why?

From what I’ve heard, the film is a hard watch, but why minimise it in this manner. why link it to Qanon (who suggest there’s some powerfull people involved in peado rings). Why talk about it being a right wing issue.

I’m not a fan of Minor attracted People or whatever term theyvare using to normalise child abuse. Maybe that’s a problem for the guardian. I believe we should have the death sentence for child abusers. If that makes me right wing. sign me up.

Sorry, which "nonsensical, paranoid, hysterical fantasy" is this?

Also, could you provide any evidence for your claim that "the claims made about the scale of this and numbers affected are grossly inaccurate", @J1J2?

I personally can't see any way to state as fact that there are definitely no more than X number of children being trafficked each year. But perhaps you know more? In which case, please share.

I've referred to this above - the often quoted figure of "800,00 children go missing each year" actually being closer to 100 (in the USA - where this film and the Q phenomenon come from)
If 8000 times higher than reality isnt hysterical, paranoid, nonsensical and grossly inaccurate, then nothing is.

" the often quoted figure of "800,00 children go missing each year"

As far as I can tell, you're the only person who has quoted this figure. Can you provide a source for this?

And in any case, as has been pointed out several times already, this film is not about the relatively small number of 'known' children who go missing from the US; it is about the huge numbers of 'unknown' children who go missing globally, usually from poorer countries, often correlated with natural/political disasters which may result in large numbers of orphaned or otherwise vulnerable children who are then easy meat for traffickers.

Why are you trying to minimise this issue, and blackball a film that's trying to shed light on it?

@J1J2 maybe it would be more helpful for you to argue against the actual claims made by the organisation?
I found a 2019 fact sheet that claims:
There are 40.3 million modern day slaves
25% of these are children
2 million children are sexually exploited in the sex trade.

Can you point me to why this is incorrect and why you are so hell-bent on claiming this to be the case?

I've not disputed those figures so I'm not sure how you leapt to that conclusion, but if you honestly cant see how this film is quite deliberately playing into the Q phenomenon (and look at Pizzagate for what that kind of fear-stoking can lead to) and the danger that brings, then I dont know what else there is to be said.

@J1J2 but OUR have been fighting against the sale of people, especially women and children for years and far before any conspiracy theories such as Qanon.

I'm really struggling to follow your logic. It seems that you agree that the organisation is not making false claims and is doing good, but that a film should not be made, that makes no false claims, because it might play into conspiracy theories of which it is in no way affiliated with?

The film is about a very real issue and based on real operations conducted. It is dramatised and about religion and righteousness, which you may or may not agree with. It is not a documentary but is about raising awareness. There is also going to be a documentary in addition. But none of this should happen because, what? There are conspiracy theories about trafficking and sexual abuse of children? And so we cannot feed into these?

Yes its a real issue, but this is highly fictionalised (rather than just 'dramatised') and there are many widely published concerns around Ballard, sensationalism, his motives and how this stuff literally hinders the work of other groups attempting to do a lot more on the ground - just ask some of the survivors (and those 'resuced' by Ballard to be then forgotten about weeks after the cameras are all gone)
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/sound-of-freedom-child-trafficking-movie

More from those on the ground about how deeply unhelpful this kind of sensationalist fiction is to this very dire task.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sound-of-freedom-child-trafficking-experts-1234786352/

Neither the film, nor watching the film, is remotely tainted with any kind of conspiracy theory.

What about the director's promotional tour which does tout conspiracy theories like pizzagate and organ harvesting?

The film has been very much affiliated with conspiracy theories. By the director:

https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/jim-caviezel-pushes-qanon-bizarre-media-blitz-new-anti-trafficking-movie

@J1J2 both articles come from a Vice article. I wouldn't trust anything from that source.

@Randomnamehere can you provide links?

@Randomnamehere that's talking about an actor. Im more concerned with the actual organisation

https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/jim-caviezel-pushes-qanon-bizarre-media-blitz-new-anti-trafficking-movie

That pic is of the director alongside the former chief strategist for Trump, white nationalist Steve Bannon.

Apologies, that guy is the actor promoting the film. What do you think of the comments from the film's supporters in that article?

Could you link to the organisation who made the film? Can't seem to find it myself.

Haven't had a chance to read yet but will do later @Randomnamehere
It's our rescue - ourrescue.org

"What about the director's promotional tour which does tout conspiracy theories like pizzagate and organ harvesting?"

@Randomnamehere do you have any primary source material to back up this claim?

(I know nothing about Qanon, nor what pizzagate is.)

Unfortunately organ harvesting at the cost of desperately poor people is not a conspiracy theory. I wish it was.

This is correct.

Also the film’s accusation that it is “the left” who sexualize and abuse children is, of course, a kind if sleight of hand. The big sexual abuse scandals, with hundreds of known victims, have traditionally been in those bastions of the left like the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church, the Orthodox Jewish community, the Boyscouts, and wrestling (google Jim Jordan or Dennis Hastert) and girl’s sports (google Larry Nasser) It is performed by conservative pillars of the community sho have commanding access to children because of their high position.

"...the film’s accusation that it is “the left” who sexualize and abuse children is, of course, a kind if sleight of hand."

Have you seen the film?
Does it make this accusation?

I'm pretty sure that the sexual abuse of children is not a party-political issue, in either direction.

STATISTICS
•Human trafficking is the 2nd largest illicit industry in the U.S., 2nd only to the drug trade(UNICEF, nd)
•There are 40.3 million trafficked persons globally today and 25% of them are children(Liberate Children, International Labour Organization) Forms of Child Trafficking include forced marriage, begging, sweatshops, pornography, migrant farming domestic labor, sextourism, armed groups (commonly known as child soldiers) (Unicef)
•Sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the US. In North America 72% of detected survivors were trafficked for sexual exploitation. (UNODC, HTIP report 2020)
•70 million CSAM files are estimated in 2019. 78% of this file are children under the age of 12(Thorn)
•The extent of family involvement in child trafficking 4x higher than in cases of adult trafficking(CTDC)
•53% of all male victims trafficked into sexual exploitation are children. (CTDC)
•Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 U.S. States. (NCMEC)
•A higher percentage of identified children are trafficked for sexual exploitation than for forced labor(UNODC)

Care to comment, @J1J2? Are all these reputable sources grossly over exaggerating the scale of the problem?

Personally, I'd rather overdo than underdo the fight against child abuse.

The view of child trafficking given by this film is totally inaccurate and does not help. That is what the article is saying.

This is very important to understand

@askmeonemoretime but why is that the important thing to understand rather than the 10million trafficked children, 2 million of whom who are exploited in the sex trade?

@askmeonemoretime how is the picture of child trafficking given by the film inaccurate?

I'm really struggling because I've followed OUR and Tim for years, and I've never got wind of any scent of conspiracy theories or Qanon. The USA is the biggest consumer of sex trafficking which is a 150 billion industry. That is why the USA is important, not these baseless accusations of 800,000 children going missing which no one affiliated with OUR has claimed.

@pikkumyy77 I don't feel that the claim is that the left are the ones who are behind the abuse, but that leftist ideas are enabling it through the sexualisation of children- such as teaching notions of sexuality to prepubescent children under the guise of lgbtq+ inclusivity. Tim is also very anti the pornography industry (see organisations such as Fight the New Drug) - the idea of 'sex work is real work' and all about female empowerment- which are part of the wider problem of the sexualisation of society and human sex trafficking. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and YES Qanon is in some way connected, because it relates to these areas. But they are not the same and you cannot argue that because Qanon exists we should ignore the real issue of human trafficking.

@pikkumyy77 I also don't see how child sex abuse in the church means anything? Religion can be abused or used for good- same as anything. All positions of power (police, school) are abused by those who wish to do depraved things and get away with it. And if we want to find a link, these are more often than not (within churches) gay men. So is it religion or is it being gay? Or more likely is it just sick people hiding under a suitable cover that enables them to do what they want to?

But my main question is, why are you trying to focus on all these things rather than the fact that, right now, 2 million children are potentially being raped and sold??? But you want to argue that... well... they aren't from America?

If you bother to actually read the articles I posted, it goes into detail how Ballard (and Cavaziel) are both quite aligned with the more outrageous claims of QAnon, AND how Ballard's grandstanding has actually hindered the work of getting children out of these situations.

It's not a 'leftist' idea to EDUCATE children about their own bodies.
Its a well-known and DOCUMENTED fact that the more educated pre-pubsescent children are about sexuality and what's about to happen to their bodies, that they are more likely to have their first sexual experience later, have lower rates of pregnancies, abortions & STIs but the real clincher - they are way, WAY less likely to be groomed and/or suffer abuse.

Your abhorrent, twisted attempt at apologism about 'gay men in the church' say enough about your hypocrisy and revolting bias to to actually attempt to explain away the well documented over-representation of church figures in child abuse that I'm not going any further with you on this.
Those men are abusers, using their power to target vulnerable children (notwithstanding that as many girls are abused by clergy/ministers/pastors and there are women abusers in these positions) its got zero to do with gayness and all to do with the power - and all the more hypocritical for what the church preaches about sex generally.