I was mostly convinced we were cooked but was holding on to a sliver of hope, it’s all gone now though. So many people are treating this as a win because they can prove the other side is bad, as if the files don't show that 1. Getting to Prove that means there were real victims that had to go through horrific things for your “win” and 2. Proof this has nothing to do with party lines, which honestly should have been clear years ago, but especially now, there’s no red team blue team here.
On top of that the horrific and disgusting things in the files aren't exciting enough for them, they have to believe there was cannibalistic infant sacrafice, satanic rituals where they hunted children. The files themselves are so stomach churning I can't understand why people need to make stuff up. Why isn't trafficking and raping bad enough for you? It feels like people want this to entertain them they need to see something that only happens in the movies, and somehow don't realize that means they are also sickos.
Lastly I have not seen class mentioned one god damn time when we already know almost all trafficking victims are poor and desperate. People want to focus on Joan Bennet Ramsey instead, because they can't have sympathy for a troubled teen that ran away from an abusive foster home and was willing to do anything for a roof over their head, for some reason they need to believe their kids are in danger, they want that to be the case as if it’s exciting. They can't understand snatching kids out of target parking lots creates country wide man hunts. ‘How come nobody looked for these kids? Why weren't they reported missing?’ they were dumbass, the cops decided they were a delinquent runaway that had whatever trouble they dealt with coming to them. That’s why they took them instead of doing a very public snatching of your kid that people will actually care about. Criminals don't like being caught.
That last part really pisses me off, this would honestly be a great subject to bring up class disparities and how damaging it can be, but a desperate homeless teen willingly going with somebody because they’ve been so hungry and so cold for too long isn't sick enough for them. They need to believe their good, undamaged, kid that lives in their cushy upper middle class neighborhood is at risk of being violently snatched. Being in the sex industry has honestly made the topic of trafficking impossible to deal with so maybe I just can't handle this discourse, but fuck. At this point I genuinely believe most people cannot sympathize with what trafficking actually looks like, they have to center ‘good kids’ that were taken by force to actually feel bad about it, even though that makes up 0.05% if trafficking. Maybe it’s a lack of empathy for those they see as lowly, or maybe they just can't stomach the fact that we as a society make trafficking possible by not giving a shir about those we see as lowly.