I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're basically saying that people are using this issue for political gain, and YOU'RE NOT saying the issue of sex trafficking itself is "overhyped". In the same vein of the saying "Never let a good crisis go to waste" (when a real catastrophe hits and politicians try to take advantage of it for their gain)
I'm assuming this is what you're saying, and I hope you're not saying that sex trafficking in this country is an "overhyped" topic. ????
I am saying several things:
1. Sex trafficking is real
2. Sex trafficking has been hyped for multiple reasons, including mainly of late A. conspiratorial political BS and B. police looking for a notch in the belt, some of whom are also convinced by "A." above.
These people are hurting real victims in multiple ways.
They have stolen real slogans of real organization of real people fighting real trafficking. This interferes with fundraising, which is often redirected to political conspiracy nuts instead of those real organization fighting real trafficking. It also causes many false reports that then by necessity must be investigated, pulling resources from real crime investigations.
One guy shot up a pizza place because he thought Pizzagate was real.
They distract from the real problem and then cause doubt to be cast on real victims.
How can you reach someone who's starting to believe conspiracies? "Part of QAnon is to completely reject reality ... you have to get to people before they get there," says NBC's Ben Collins.Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions...
www.npr.org
Fans of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory are clogging anti-trafficking hotlines, infiltrating Facebook groups and raising false fears about child exploitation.
www.nytimes.com
The truth about child sex trafficking, these experts told me, is much less salacious than QAnon would have you believe.
Many victims are trafficked by relatives, teachers or other people they know. Trafficking usually doesn’t involve kidnapping or physically forcing minors into sex.
“This is not happening in some secret cabal. It’s happening in every single community,” said Lori Cohen, the executive director of ECPAT-USA, an anti-trafficking organization. “But it’s easier to focus on public figures than to think about the reality that trafficking is happening in our midst, among people we know, to children we know.”
3. Most people overestimate how much sexual trafficking there is, especially of minors and especially when many people are under the impression that the majority of it occurs as a child kidnapping by a stranger who then traffics the kids. Most of it is actually family members doing the trafficking and also runaways on the street who get into it to get food, drugs, and a warm place to sleep away from violence on the streets.
I gave real FBI statistics that show the problem is most likely nowhere near as prevalent as many people think it is, especially if they've been caught up in the conspiratorial political bunk.
So, bottom line: Although sex trafficking is real and the harm caused by it is immense some hype it up for their own gain an purposes. Additionally many people believe the problem is more common than it is and believe wrongly that most often stranger kidnap kids and traffic them when the truth is the problem is closer to home, most often. Conspiracy BS amplifies these problems and distort the truth in many ways for their own selfish gain and to the detriment of real victims and actually creates new victims (see Pizzagate).
Yeah, I got his meaning. If everyone forgot the Robert Kraft "massage parlor" thing, sex trafficing was the excuse for raiding the place to begin with. Turns out that wasn't true.
This is one example of police hyping it up for whatever their reasons. Prosecutors do it as well. The Kraft example is not the only one, but is one of the more prominent.
So yeah, when some yahoo vigilante kills a young man without a trial or even a real investigation then I have questions and serious doubts, for better or worse.