Official "Look How Insane and Shitty ALL GOP Officials Are" Thread

[Captain Pickle]

Wow. A lot of humble and not so humble brags up in this thread

[stepee]

5 hours ago, marioandsonic said:

The difference is the legality regarding prostitution.  If it was as legal and readily available as buying anything else, hardly anyone would give a shit.

 

Yeah, it’s that the guy is using corporation funds to illegally pay for prostitutes, he’s essentially the Robin Hood of sex, that’s why he is cool.

[TUFKAK]

7 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I just gotta roll my eyes at the notion that paying a prostitute for sex somehow makes Hunter "cool".

 

Actually paying a prostitute for their services is on the same level of "cool" as paying for office supplies.

Depends, a 10k one totally cool. 100 one, not so cool. 😂

[stepee]

1 minute ago, TUFKAK said:

Depends, a 10k one totally cool. 100 one, not so cool. 😂

 

Yeah, with a 10k asking price, you are just looking at a couple rich people both being very efficient with their time.

[TUFKAK]

14 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah, with a 10k asking price, you are just looking at a couple rich people both being very efficient with their time.

I call it the Charlie Harper rule. In two and half men when Charlie bangs an escort, it’s cool, when Alan does it’s sad.

[thewhyteboar]

The GOP: 

 

[Spork3245]

I hate to even ask, but wtf is this shit looking movie that every conservative cult-member is raving about?

[MarSolo]

40 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

I hate to even ask, but wtf is this shit looking movie that every conservative cult-member is raving about?

Glad you asked! It’s called the Sound of Freedom, starring right wing religious nut Jim Caviezel. There’s a really good chance conservative groups are just buying out theaters to bump up the box office, because it’s somehow grossing a butt load of money.
 

Some fun facts about Jim on the set of his old show, Person of Interest:

 

 

Hindsight, I think I get why Taraji Henson left the show.

[Spork3245]

4 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

Glad you asked!

[GeneticBlueprint]

3 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

I hate to even ask, but wtf is this shit looking movie that every conservative cult-member is raving about?

It’s another grift and if you don’t buy into the grift you are a pedo. It’s just science.

 

I’ve actually got a longer rant I’ll type up when I’m at a computer about the Utah-based organization the movie is about.

[CastletonSnob]

Texas begins withdrawal from multistate partnership to clean voter ro…

WWW.TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG

---

A new GOP-backed state law requires Texas to create its own version of a cross-check program or find a vendor that doesn’t cost more than $100,000.

 

[GeneticBlueprint]

7 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

I hate to even ask, but wtf is this shit looking movie that every conservative cult-member is raving about?

 

4 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

It’s another grift and if you don’t buy into the grift you are a pedo. It’s just science.

 

I’ve actually got a longer rant I’ll type up when I’m at a computer about the Utah-based organization the movie is about.

 

@b_m_b_m_b_m @stepee

Typing up this rant between things at work so it's probably a little disjointed.

 

I haven't seen the movie. I don't care to see the movie. But you don't need to see the movie to know of the underlying issues with it and its subject matter.

 

The Sound of Freedom is the latest conservative circle jerk propaganda piece that gullible people who can't separate criticism of something they like from criticism of them as people are hyping. It was filmed around 2018 or so and then shopped to various studios and streaming services. Repeatedly rejected likely because of the problematic figure at the center of the movie--more on that in a bit--until it was finally picked up by "Angel Studios", which of course sounds like a porn studio, but is actually a streaming service for Puritans that started out as a service that let you on-the-fly skip/edit-out content you didn't want to see. Founded by a couple of Mormon dudes, their fellow Mormons loved it. They could finally watch Game of Thrones! Of course, the episodes wound up being like 15 minutes long after editing out all of the violence, swearing, and sex. But I digress. The service was taken to court over copyright claims or something like that. I can't remember the details and don't care to look them up. But the plaintiffs won and Angel Studios basically had to shift what their business does. They started producing original content. Maybe you've heard of The Chosen. It's a drama about Jesus or something I don't know.

 

Anyways, Angel Studios decided to distribute The Sound of Freedom because of course they did. It did really well on its release. Lots of headlines from places like Breitbart and their ilk were touting how the movie that the establishment doesn't want you to see beat Indiana Jones on July 4th or something in box office draw. Neat. Who cares? Oh, and also, it sure seems like it's doing as well as it is because people who can buy extra tickets are doing so with the intent on giving them away. And the distributor is also likely buying out theaters in some places. Plenty of reports out there of people going to see it and seeing a full theater when selecting their seats, but being basically alone in the theater when the movie started playing.

 

The movie centers around a non-profit organization called Operation Underground Railroad and its founder Tim Ballard, portrayed by a poorly bleached and Q-Anon brainwormed Jim Caviezel. OUR's stated mission is to rescue children from sex trafficking. They raise money to accomplish this mission. But, OUR is problematic for several reasons. The least of which is actually their dumbass name trying to associate a problem with a past injustice.

 

OUR’s claims about the efficacy and extent of their operations has been well-documented to be exaggerated, ineffective, and at times even detrimental to actual operations trying to help actual victims of human trafficking. When OUR goes into an area for a "drop mission", they find a trafficker and request children for a "party". Reports abound that on many occasions, the targeted trafficker will find new and never exploited children to fulfill the order. So at least some of the children "rescued" by OUR were only being exploited because of the sting operation itself. OUR used to be very vocal about how many operations they've conducted with stats to show their impact. They now sponsor a fraction of what they used to do largely due to the issue of creating victims to rescue them.

 

Several of the traffickers that OUR has conducted operations against are small scale members of large drug cartels. So these stings that they conduct are doing very little to tackle the actual issues. Another fun thing you hear about this organization and their stings is that many local police departments in South America facilitated some of these operations just to make room for the expansion of rival gangs… because those police were corrupt! Fun!

 

They’ve also “rescued” people and extracted them from certain circumstances they were in consensually—ironically making the organization guilty of the very thing they claim to be fighting. They’ve run around various areas in South America and Eastern Europe waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves, making it difficult for agencies working to help victims to do so.

 

OUR frequently appears to take credit for successful operations that law enforcement in host countries executed. Ballard has even claimed in front of Congress to have been personally involved in the rescue of a girl who actually rescued herself, and didn’t meet with anybody from OUR until years after the fact when she was preparing to testify against her abusers in court.

 

Should we talk about the likely financial impropriety? It's a non-profit that just appears to be flying celebrities around to participate in “operations” (re: waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves), making movies, and hiring psychics to help them find victims they can rescue. There's a fun story that floats around about a local car dealership here donating a luxury SUV to OUR for use in their operations. It was used once but now it's just Tim Ballard's personal vehicle. OUR also contracts various services for their operational needs. These services are not non-profit. And many appear to be run by various Ballard family members and close acquaintances.

 

Here's what an actual expert on human trafficking has to say about OUR:

 

Quote

Anne Gallagher, "the leading global expert on the international law on human trafficking", wrote in 2015 that O.U.R. had an “alarming lack of understanding about how sophisticated criminal trafficking networks must be approached and dismantled” and called the work of O.U.R “arrogant, unethical and illegal".

 

What do competent law enforcement agencies say about OUR? Let's ask the Washington State Patrol.

 

Quote

When asked about OUR’s partnership with the Washington State Patrol, a spokesperson for the state agency told The Spokesman Review in May that, “it became increasingly apparent that OUR needed us more than we needed them. And they were using our success in the promotion of their activities.”

 

All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. And under all of that, is a Q-Anon fueled conspiracy theory that there is a secret cabal of elites that kidnaps children, rapes them, drains their brains of a certain element, and then harvests their organs. Tim Ballard frequently flirts with those ideas and the people who propagate them. The people who made this movie (including the main actor) all buy into that nonsense and talk about it ad-nauseam.

 

None of that is to say that sex trafficking doesn’t happen. But OUR isn’t doing anything to help stop it. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of victims of sexual abuse and rape will suffer those experiences because of somebody in their family or trusted social group that they’ve known for years. Funny how Tim doesn’t seem at all outraged about his church’s habit of protecting abusers and shaming victims in those circumstances. You'll also notice people use the cause of OUR to deflect away from other societal issues. "How can you possibly care about Black Lives Matter when children are being sold as sex slaves?" "Why should we put any energy into social justice when children are being raped?" "The queer community is so entitled. How could they possibly have any grievances when children are being trafficked?" Etc. etc.

 

For all of those reasons everybody should take Tim and OUR’s claims with a huge grain of salt and funnel their donations to competent organizations with rational people at their helms. But if you point any of this out, you're labeled a pedophile by people with brainworms. Said people like seeing OUR-produced videos of dudes in tactical gear cosplaying action heroes bringing violence down on alleged traffickers. They don't like to hear or contemplate the long, slow, careful, and quiet work it takes to tackle the underlying issues that cause trafficking.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Thank you very much @GeneticBlueprint!

 

I was previously aware that these "amateur" anti-human trafficking organizations seriously impeded the efforts of both the legitimate groups and law enforcement, but to see it written so cogently truly elevates my ire and disgust towards them.

[GeneticBlueprint]

4 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Thank you very much @GeneticBlueprint!

 

I was previously aware that these "amateur" anti-human trafficking organizations seriously impeded the efforts of both the legitimate groups and law enforcement, but to see it written so cogently truly elevates my ire and disgust towards them.

 

Yeah. And when I said that was just the tip of the iceberg I was serious. There are so many problematic issues and stories about OUR it's mind boggling. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

1 hour ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

 

@b_m_b_m_b_m @stepee

Typing up this rant between things at work so it's probably a little disjointed.

 

I haven't seen the movie. I don't care to see the movie. But you don't need to see the movie to know of the underlying issues with it and its subject matter.

 

The Sound of Freedom is the latest conservative circle jerk propaganda piece that gullible people who can't separate criticism of something they like from criticism of them as people are hyping. It was filmed around 2018 or so and then shopped to various studios and streaming services. Repeatedly rejected likely because of the problematic figure at the center of the movie--more on that in a bit--until it was finally picked up by "Angel Studios", which of course sounds like a porn studio, but is actually a streaming service for Puritans that started out as a service that let you on-the-fly skip/edit-out content you didn't want to see. Founded by a couple of Mormon dudes, their fellow Mormons loved it. They could finally watch Game of Thrones! Of course, the episodes wound up being like 15 minutes long after editing out all of the violence, swearing, and sex. But I digress. The service was taken to court over copyright claims or something like that. I can't remember the details and don't care to look them up. But the plaintiffs won and Angel Studios basically had to shift what their business does. They started producing original content. Maybe you've heard of The Chosen. It's a drama about Jesus or something I don't know.

 

Anyways, Angel Studios decided to distribute The Sound of Freedom because of course they did. It did really well on its release. Lots of headlines from places like Breitbart and their ilk were touting how the movie that the establishment doesn't want you to see beat Indiana Jones on July 4th or something in box office draw. Neat. Who cares? Oh, and also, it sure seems like it's doing as well as it is because people who can buy extra tickets are doing so with the intent on giving them away. And the distributor is also likely buying out theaters in some places. Plenty of reports out there of people going to see it and seeing a full theater when selecting their seats, but being basically alone in the theater when the movie started playing.

 

The movie centers around a non-profit organization called Operation Underground Railroad and its founder Tim Ballard, portrayed by a poorly bleached and Q-Anon brainwormed Jim Caviezel. OUR's stated mission is to rescue children from sex trafficking. They raise money to accomplish this mission. But, OUR is problematic for several reasons. The least of which is actually their dumbass name trying to associate a problem with a past injustice.

 

OUR’s claims about the efficacy and extent of their operations has been well-documented to be exaggerated, ineffective, and at times even detrimental to actual operations trying to help actual victims of human trafficking. When OUR goes into an area for a "drop mission", they find a trafficker and request children for a "party". Reports abound that on many occasions, the targeted trafficker will find new and never exploited children to fulfill the order. So at least some of the children "rescued" by OUR were only being exploited because of the sting operation itself. OUR used to be very vocal about how many operations they've conducted with stats to show their impact. They now sponsor a fraction of what they used to do largely due to the issue of creating victims to rescue them.

 

Several of the traffickers that OUR has conducted operations against are small scale members of large drug cartels. So these stings that they conduct are doing very little to tackle the actual issues. Another fun thing you hear about this organization and their stings is that many local police departments in South America facilitated some of these operations just to make room for the expansion of rival gangs… because those police were corrupt! Fun!

 

They’ve also “rescued” people and extracted them from certain circumstances they were in consensually—ironically making the organization guilty of the very thing they claim to be fighting. They’ve run around various areas in South America and Eastern Europe waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves, making it difficult for agencies working to help victims to do so.

 

OUR frequently appears to take credit for successful operations that law enforcement in host countries executed. Ballard has even claimed in front of Congress to have been personally involved in the rescue of a girl who actually rescued herself, and didn’t meet with anybody from OUR until years after the fact when she was preparing to testify against her abusers in court.

 

Should we talk about the likely financial impropriety? It's a non-profit that just appears to be flying celebrities around to participate in “operations” (re: waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves), making movies, and hiring psychics to help them find victims they can rescue. There's a fun story that floats around about a local car dealership here donating a luxury SUV to OUR for use in their operations. It was used once but now it's just Tim Ballard's personal vehicle. OUR also contracts various services for their operational needs. These services are not non-profit. And many appear to be run by various Ballard family members and close acquaintances.

 

Here's what an actual expert on human trafficking has to say about OUR:

 

 

What do competent law enforcement agencies say about OUR? Let's ask the Washington State Patrol.

 

 

All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. And under all of that, is a Q-Anon fueled conspiracy theory that there is a secret cabal of elites that kidnaps children, rapes them, drains their brains of a certain element, and then harvests their organs. Tim Ballard frequently flirts with those ideas and the people who propagate them. The people who made this movie (including the main actor) all buy into that nonsense and talk about it ad-nauseam.

 

None of that is to say that sex trafficking doesn’t happen. But OUR isn’t doing anything to help stop it. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of victims of sexual abuse and rape will suffer those experiences because of somebody in their family or trusted social group that they’ve known for years. Funny how Tim doesn’t seem at all outraged about his church’s habit of protecting abusers and shaming victims in those circumstances. You'll also notice people use the cause of OUR to deflect away from other societal issues. "How can you possibly care about Black Lives Matter when children are being sold as sex slaves?" "Why should we put any energy into social justice when children are being raped?" "The queer community is so entitled. How could they possibly have any grievances when children are being trafficked?" Etc. etc.

 

For all of those reasons everybody should take Tim and OUR’s claims with a huge grain of salt and funnel their donations to competent organizations with rational people at their helms. But if you point any of this out, you're labeled a pedophile by people with brainworms. Said people like seeing OUR-produced videos of dudes in tactical gear cosplaying action heroes bringing violence down on alleged traffickers. They don't like to hear or contemplate the long, slow, careful, and quiet work it takes to tackle the underlying issues that cause trafficking.

Thank you. This is about what I expected based on the little information that I’ve read online. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Yeah, I've seen several conservatives on my FB feed post about this movie and how it beat Indiana Jones or something at the box office and how the media elite want to push it under the rug or something. Not surprised to read that.

[Jason]

You'll all be shocked to learn that the NYT reviewed Sound of Freedom like it's a normal movie. 

 

‘Sound of Freedom’ Review: In the Land of Child Traffickers - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

---

Starring Jim Caviezel, this movie tells a story of child trafficking and the people combating it. But its muted tone ultimately undercuts its solemn sense of mission.

 

[Uaarkson]

What’s the deal with this movie anyway? I can’t figure out why it’s supposed to be “bad”?

[GeneticBlueprint]

3 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

What’s the deal with this movie anyway? I can’t figure out why it’s supposed to be “bad”?

[Jason]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

You'll all be shocked to learn that the NYT reviewed Sound of Freedom like it's a normal movie. 

 

‘Sound of Freedom’ Review: In the Land of Child Traffickers - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

---

Starring Jim Caviezel, this movie tells a story of child trafficking and the people combating it. But its muted tone ultimately undercuts its solemn sense of mission.

 

 

lol they also disabled comments on the article, gee I wonder why 

[stepee]

5 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

 

@b_m_b_m_b_m @stepee

Typing up this rant between things at work so it's probably a little disjointed.

 

I haven't seen the movie. I don't care to see the movie. But you don't need to see the movie to know of the underlying issues with it and its subject matter.

 

The Sound of Freedom is the latest conservative circle jerk propaganda piece that gullible people who can't separate criticism of something they like from criticism of them as people are hyping. It was filmed around 2018 or so and then shopped to various studios and streaming services. Repeatedly rejected likely because of the problematic figure at the center of the movie--more on that in a bit--until it was finally picked up by "Angel Studios", which of course sounds like a porn studio, but is actually a streaming service for Puritans that started out as a service that let you on-the-fly skip/edit-out content you didn't want to see. Founded by a couple of Mormon dudes, their fellow Mormons loved it. They could finally watch Game of Thrones! Of course, the episodes wound up being like 15 minutes long after editing out all of the violence, swearing, and sex. But I digress. The service was taken to court over copyright claims or something like that. I can't remember the details and don't care to look them up. But the plaintiffs won and Angel Studios basically had to shift what their business does. They started producing original content. Maybe you've heard of The Chosen. It's a drama about Jesus or something I don't know.

 

Anyways, Angel Studios decided to distribute The Sound of Freedom because of course they did. It did really well on its release. Lots of headlines from places like Breitbart and their ilk were touting how the movie that the establishment doesn't want you to see beat Indiana Jones on July 4th or something in box office draw. Neat. Who cares? Oh, and also, it sure seems like it's doing as well as it is because people who can buy extra tickets are doing so with the intent on giving them away. And the distributor is also likely buying out theaters in some places. Plenty of reports out there of people going to see it and seeing a full theater when selecting their seats, but being basically alone in the theater when the movie started playing.

 

The movie centers around a non-profit organization called Operation Underground Railroad and its founder Tim Ballard, portrayed by a poorly bleached and Q-Anon brainwormed Jim Caviezel. OUR's stated mission is to rescue children from sex trafficking. They raise money to accomplish this mission. But, OUR is problematic for several reasons. The least of which is actually their dumbass name trying to associate a problem with a past injustice.

 

OUR’s claims about the efficacy and extent of their operations has been well-documented to be exaggerated, ineffective, and at times even detrimental to actual operations trying to help actual victims of human trafficking. When OUR goes into an area for a "drop mission", they find a trafficker and request children for a "party". Reports abound that on many occasions, the targeted trafficker will find new and never exploited children to fulfill the order. So at least some of the children "rescued" by OUR were only being exploited because of the sting operation itself. OUR used to be very vocal about how many operations they've conducted with stats to show their impact. They now sponsor a fraction of what they used to do largely due to the issue of creating victims to rescue them.

 

Several of the traffickers that OUR has conducted operations against are small scale members of large drug cartels. So these stings that they conduct are doing very little to tackle the actual issues. Another fun thing you hear about this organization and their stings is that many local police departments in South America facilitated some of these operations just to make room for the expansion of rival gangs… because those police were corrupt! Fun!

 

They’ve also “rescued” people and extracted them from certain circumstances they were in consensually—ironically making the organization guilty of the very thing they claim to be fighting. They’ve run around various areas in South America and Eastern Europe waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves, making it difficult for agencies working to help victims to do so.

 

OUR frequently appears to take credit for successful operations that law enforcement in host countries executed. Ballard has even claimed in front of Congress to have been personally involved in the rescue of a girl who actually rescued herself, and didn’t meet with anybody from OUR until years after the fact when she was preparing to testify against her abusers in court.

 

Should we talk about the likely financial impropriety? It's a non-profit that just appears to be flying celebrities around to participate in “operations” (re: waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves), making movies, and hiring psychics to help them find victims they can rescue. There's a fun story that floats around about a local car dealership here donating a luxury SUV to OUR for use in their operations. It was used once but now it's just Tim Ballard's personal vehicle. OUR also contracts various services for their operational needs. These services are not non-profit. And many appear to be run by various Ballard family members and close acquaintances.

 

Here's what an actual expert on human trafficking has to say about OUR:

 

 

What do competent law enforcement agencies say about OUR? Let's ask the Washington State Patrol.

 

 

All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. And under all of that, is a Q-Anon fueled conspiracy theory that there is a secret cabal of elites that kidnaps children, rapes them, drains their brains of a certain element, and then harvests their organs. Tim Ballard frequently flirts with those ideas and the people who propagate them. The people who made this movie (including the main actor) all buy into that nonsense and talk about it ad-nauseam.

 

None of that is to say that sex trafficking doesn’t happen. But OUR isn’t doing anything to help stop it. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of victims of sexual abuse and rape will suffer those experiences because of somebody in their family or trusted social group that they’ve known for years. Funny how Tim doesn’t seem at all outraged about his church’s habit of protecting abusers and shaming victims in those circumstances. You'll also notice people use the cause of OUR to deflect away from other societal issues. "How can you possibly care about Black Lives Matter when children are being sold as sex slaves?" "Why should we put any energy into social justice when children are being raped?" "The queer community is so entitled. How could they possibly have any grievances when children are being trafficked?" Etc. etc.

 

For all of those reasons everybody should take Tim and OUR’s claims with a huge grain of salt and funnel their donations to competent organizations with rational people at their helms. But if you point any of this out, you're labeled a pedophile by people with brainworms. Said people like seeing OUR-produced videos of dudes in tactical gear cosplaying action heroes bringing violence down on alleged traffickers. They don't like to hear or contemplate the long, slow, careful, and quiet work it takes to tackle the underlying issues that cause trafficking.

 

This was wonderfully informative, thank you!

[CastlevaniaNut18]

54 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

What’s the deal with this movie anyway? I can’t figure out why it’s supposed to be “bad”?

GBP made an entire post about it!

[stepee]

Not supporting though that the party that ran a pedophile for Senate just 5 years ago and currently nests a child trafficker within their congress seems to be really gun-ho about a group that makes catching child traffickers more difficult.

[TUFKAK]

40 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

GBP made an entire post about it!

But those were a lot of words bro.

[Uaarkson]

1 hour ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

GBP made an entire post about it!

Oh! I didn’t even see it.

[MarSolo]

All the money this movie is making should be given to Indiana Jones out of principle. Right wingers went out of their way to trash the new Indy flick for being “woke” and then propped this one up.

[Jason]

6 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

GBP made an entire post about it!

 

tl;dr

[Spork3245]

 

[Spork3245]

17 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

 

@b_m_b_m_b_m @stepee

Typing up this rant between things at work so it's probably a little disjointed.

 

I haven't seen the movie. I don't care to see the movie. But you don't need to see the movie to know of the underlying issues with it and its subject matter.

 

The Sound of Freedom is the latest conservative circle jerk propaganda piece that gullible people who can't separate criticism of something they like from criticism of them as people are hyping. It was filmed around 2018 or so and then shopped to various studios and streaming services. Repeatedly rejected likely because of the problematic figure at the center of the movie--more on that in a bit--until it was finally picked up by "Angel Studios", which of course sounds like a porn studio, but is actually a streaming service for Puritans that started out as a service that let you on-the-fly skip/edit-out content you didn't want to see. Founded by a couple of Mormon dudes, their fellow Mormons loved it. They could finally watch Game of Thrones! Of course, the episodes wound up being like 15 minutes long after editing out all of the violence, swearing, and sex. But I digress. The service was taken to court over copyright claims or something like that. I can't remember the details and don't care to look them up. But the plaintiffs won and Angel Studios basically had to shift what their business does. They started producing original content. Maybe you've heard of The Chosen. It's a drama about Jesus or something I don't know.

 

Anyways, Angel Studios decided to distribute The Sound of Freedom because of course they did. It did really well on its release. Lots of headlines from places like Breitbart and their ilk were touting how the movie that the establishment doesn't want you to see beat Indiana Jones on July 4th or something in box office draw. Neat. Who cares? Oh, and also, it sure seems like it's doing as well as it is because people who can buy extra tickets are doing so with the intent on giving them away. And the distributor is also likely buying out theaters in some places. Plenty of reports out there of people going to see it and seeing a full theater when selecting their seats, but being basically alone in the theater when the movie started playing.

 

The movie centers around a non-profit organization called Operation Underground Railroad and its founder Tim Ballard, portrayed by a poorly bleached and Q-Anon brainwormed Jim Caviezel. OUR's stated mission is to rescue children from sex trafficking. They raise money to accomplish this mission. But, OUR is problematic for several reasons. The least of which is actually their dumbass name trying to associate a problem with a past injustice.

 

OUR’s claims about the efficacy and extent of their operations has been well-documented to be exaggerated, ineffective, and at times even detrimental to actual operations trying to help actual victims of human trafficking. When OUR goes into an area for a "drop mission", they find a trafficker and request children for a "party". Reports abound that on many occasions, the targeted trafficker will find new and never exploited children to fulfill the order. So at least some of the children "rescued" by OUR were only being exploited because of the sting operation itself. OUR used to be very vocal about how many operations they've conducted with stats to show their impact. They now sponsor a fraction of what they used to do largely due to the issue of creating victims to rescue them.

 

Several of the traffickers that OUR has conducted operations against are small scale members of large drug cartels. So these stings that they conduct are doing very little to tackle the actual issues. Another fun thing you hear about this organization and their stings is that many local police departments in South America facilitated some of these operations just to make room for the expansion of rival gangs… because those police were corrupt! Fun!

 

They’ve also “rescued” people and extracted them from certain circumstances they were in consensually—ironically making the organization guilty of the very thing they claim to be fighting. They’ve run around various areas in South America and Eastern Europe waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves, making it difficult for agencies working to help victims to do so.

 

OUR frequently appears to take credit for successful operations that law enforcement in host countries executed. Ballard has even claimed in front of Congress to have been personally involved in the rescue of a girl who actually rescued herself, and didn’t meet with anybody from OUR until years after the fact when she was preparing to testify against her abusers in court.

 

Should we talk about the likely financial impropriety? It's a non-profit that just appears to be flying celebrities around to participate in “operations” (re: waving cameras around and drawing attention to themselves), making movies, and hiring psychics to help them find victims they can rescue. There's a fun story that floats around about a local car dealership here donating a luxury SUV to OUR for use in their operations. It was used once but now it's just Tim Ballard's personal vehicle. OUR also contracts various services for their operational needs. These services are not non-profit. And many appear to be run by various Ballard family members and close acquaintances.

 

Here's what an actual expert on human trafficking has to say about OUR:

 

 

What do competent law enforcement agencies say about OUR? Let's ask the Washington State Patrol.

 

 

All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. And under all of that, is a Q-Anon fueled conspiracy theory that there is a secret cabal of elites that kidnaps children, rapes them, drains their brains of a certain element, and then harvests their organs. Tim Ballard frequently flirts with those ideas and the people who propagate them. The people who made this movie (including the main actor) all buy into that nonsense and talk about it ad-nauseam.

 

None of that is to say that sex trafficking doesn’t happen. But OUR isn’t doing anything to help stop it. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of victims of sexual abuse and rape will suffer those experiences because of somebody in their family or trusted social group that they’ve known for years. Funny how Tim doesn’t seem at all outraged about his church’s habit of protecting abusers and shaming victims in those circumstances. You'll also notice people use the cause of OUR to deflect away from other societal issues. "How can you possibly care about Black Lives Matter when children are being sold as sex slaves?" "Why should we put any energy into social justice when children are being raped?" "The queer community is so entitled. How could they possibly have any grievances when children are being trafficked?" Etc. etc.

 

For all of those reasons everybody should take Tim and OUR’s claims with a huge grain of salt and funnel their donations to competent organizations with rational people at their helms. But if you point any of this out, you're labeled a pedophile by people with brainworms. Said people like seeing OUR-produced videos of dudes in tactical gear cosplaying action heroes bringing violence down on alleged traffickers. They don't like to hear or contemplate the long, slow, careful, and quiet work it takes to tackle the underlying issues that cause trafficking.

This was a very good post, I finally got around to reading it. Thank you for writing it, it answered my questions and then some.

[Chadatog]

Also QAA did an episode the week the movie came out doing  a deep dive into the story of the movie and everything GP talked about.  The craziest thing in my mind are the for profit companies Ballard has under OUR.  One is a CrossFit gym which continues to prove only the worst people do CrossFit.

[GeneticBlueprint]

13 minutes ago, Chadatog said:

Also QAA did an episode the week the movie came out doing  a deep dive into the story of the movie and everything GP talked about.  The craziest thing in my mind are the for profit companies Ballard has under OUR.  One is a CrossFit gym which continues to prove only the worst people do CrossFit.

What’s QAA? Would love to check out the episode. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

42 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

What’s QAA? Would love to check out the episode. 

Q anon anonymous I’m guessing. Pretty good for conspiracy stuff iirc

[MarSolo]

I forgot just how nuts Jim Cavaziel really is.

[Chadatog]

52 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Q anon anonymous I’m guessing. Pretty good for conspiracy stuff iirc

Yep that's the one.

 

    

        19 minutes ago, MarSolo said:     

    

        

            I forgot just how nuts Jim Cavaziel really is.         

    

     They have another episode called Into the Cavortex that really goes into that as well.

[GeneticBlueprint]

Haha and there I was looking on Hulu like a moron. I thought it was a TV show.