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Detangling wild conspiracy theories about politicians convicted of child sex crimes

I’ll say this up front so that there’s zero confusion: Child sex trafficking is real, it’s heinous, and it’s been going on for a long time. Everyone who buys or sells a child or partakes in harming a child in any way should be prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law. There…

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Annie Reneau

Array
Array – Photo credit: Brenna Huff on Unsplash

I’ll say this up front so that there’s zero confusion: Child sex trafficking is real, it’s heinous, and it’s been going on for a long time. Everyone who buys or sells a child or partakes in harming a child in any way should be prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law. There is no place in civil society for people who sexually abuse children or who profit off of the abuse of children. Full stop. No question.

But we have careened into some twisted waters in our social discourse around child sex trafficking, to the point where the real issue of is being conflated with outrageous conspiracy theories that deflect from the real work being done to save children, put innocent people in harm’s way, and interfere with the integrity of our elections.

I wrote about this issue recently and was met with accusations of being paid off by powerful pedophiles (ugh, seriously?), a flood of people saying “No, you’re wrong!” while offering zero evidence, and a bunch of YouTube and Facebook videos that people seem to think are credible sources. I got fake screenshots of supposed Wikileaks emails that aren’t actually on Wikileaks when you search for them. I got people who only listen to fringe outlets that have no oversight or accountability claiming that my well-cited, real news sources were a part of the whole conspiracy. All of that stuff I could ignore. Whackadoodles are gonna whackadoodle no matter how many facts you throw at them.

But I also got a few people sharing a list of nearly 100 politicians and other powerful people who have been convicted of child sex crimes. That was different, because it was factual.

There have been dozens of politicians who have been convicted of sex crimes involving children, and the list itself was accurate. (One particularly viral version of the list linked the people with Ghislaine Maxwell—that part is false, but the crimes are real.) Politifact, in a fact-check of the Facebook post, even put together a Google doc with a news story corroborating each one on the list.

However, that list is not evidence of some sort of global cabal of evil, pedophilic overlords who are engaged in coordinated rituals of child sacrifice and child sex trafficking.

When you see a list of name after name and crime after crime, it’s easy to think “Wow, this is insane! So any politicians and powerful people are involved in this stuff!” It looks like a huge number. You have to scroll and scroll to get through all of those names and headlines. But let’s put our ability to reason to good use here.

That list —which includes around 60 politicians and 30 people adjacent to politics—includes elected officials at the local level all the way up to the federal government. And as far as I can see, based on the news stories, the convictions take place as far back as 1983. So we’re talking about 60 politicians over a span of 35+ years.

Do you know how many elected officials serve in the United States at any given time? Around 520,000. And over 35+ years, the total number individuals serving in those positions would actually be double or triple that number (or more) due to turnover (different people get elected, people retire, terms run out, etc.) But let’s just go with a nice, round, safely conservative 520,000.

60 out of 520,000 is 0.012%. That’s twelve-thousandths of a percent.

Of course, there are people who never get caught, much less convicted. So let’s say there were twice as many politician pedophile abusers as actually get caught. That would still only be 0.024%.

But let’s say it’s way bigger than that. Let’s say that there are actually ten times more pedophile politicians than the number who have been caught. Even then, that would be 0.12% at most. Twelve-hundredths of a percent.

Considering the estimates for pedophilia (depending on what ages are included) range from 1% to 5%, it doesn’t appear that politicians are any more likely than anyone in the general population to be pedophiles.

And how about those 30 who were not elected officials at all, but activists, donors, celebrities, and more? The list included people like Harvey Weinstein (who was a slimy sexual predator, but no evidence of being a pedophile), director Roman Polanski, Jared Fogle the Subway guy, radio host Ben Ward, some anti-abortion activists, a few political aides, a campaign chairman, a Christian Coalition leader, a pastor, and others.

If you take the categories those other people belong to—political aides and activists, celebrities, Christian leaders, etc. who are politically active—and add up all of the well-known people who fit those categories, what percent are these 30 people do you suppose? My guess is a tiny fraction, similar to the politicians.

There is no doubt that there are powerful people who abuse children. There is no doubt that there are famous people who abuse children. There is no doubt that there are people at every strata of society who abuse children. And though most sexual abuse is perpetrated by friends and family of the abused, there are definitely organized child trafficking operations. There are also legitimate questions about the extent to which individuals in Jeffrey Epstein’s social sphere were involved with his own well-documented sexual escapades with young teenage girls.

But none of that equals a secret Satanic child sex trafficking ring involving ritual child sacrifice among America’s most powerful politicians and celebrities using “pizza” as a code word for children. (And yes, I’ve searched the Wikileaks emails and read the pizza references. It’s literally just people talking about eating pizza, like all of us do.) The idea that high-profile people with full-time jobs who live their lives with a spotlight shined on them are spending their limited spare time running underground child abuse rings and using official email channels to secretly discuss pedophilic torture is just ludicrous on its face.

Yet the conspiracy theorists say, “Connect the dots!” But that’s exactly the problem. Anyone can connect disconnected dots to create whatever picture they want. That’s how we ended up with constellations named after animals and mythical gods, despite not really looking anything like the things they are named after. Conspiracy theories are like constellations—loosely constructed connections, blanks filled in with imaginary lines, and shapes that require you to ignore everything that interferes with the picture you’re trying to paint.

For instance, the sheer number of people who would have to be “in on” something like the Pizzagate theory makes it mind-bogglingly impossible. Let’s start just with the media element. I know that the QAnon people have convinced their followers that “the media” can’t be trusted, but the media is not one monolithic thing. “All mainstream media outlets are owned by four giant corporations!” I’ve been told. Well, no, that’s not actually true. But lets pretend that it is. The nature of corporations in a capitalist system is competition, right? So those media corporations would be in competition with each other, each one vying to break big news first. If there truly were news legs to something like Pizzagate, don’t you think one of them would have picked it up by now?

How about the politicians who pay investigators good money for opposition research so they can smear each other all the time over every little thing? Wouldn’t those in opposition to those who are supposedly part of this Satanic child sex trafficking cult be turning them in to the authorities if there were truth to it? Why, after four years, is all the Pizzagate “evidence” still confined to internet chatrooms and random YouTube videos and Twitter posts?

And how about law enforcement? Surely after four years, and with all the evidence people claim exists, law enforcement would be taking action against these people. And yet the Washington DC Metro Police Department has called Pizzagate “a fictitious online conspiracy theory.” Are they in on it too?

So people actually believe that huge numbers of politicians, celebrities, the media, corporations that own the media, and law enforcement are all part of some big web of conspiracy to traffick and hurt children? This, despite the fact that the many organizations that have been battling actual child sex trafficking for years and years have yet to endorse any of these outrageous theories?

This post by a woman who founded an organization that specializes in child welfare within the entertainment industry thoroughly addresses the vast majority of the false info floating around out there, differentiating between the nuggets of truth (which are always present in a conspiracy theory) and the many falsehoods. Politically-motivated individuals and groups are working overtime to get people sharing this garbage, so we have to counter it by spreading real, verified information far and wide as much as possible.

Child sex trafficking is an important issue, but it’s not new and it’s not what the Pizzagate and other theories describe. Getting attention on the issue is important, but not at the expense of truth. Kooky conspiracy theories pull vital resources and energy away from the real work being done to battle it and do real harm to people whose names get caught up in the web of it all. (Read this account by the man who owns Comet Ping Pong, the basementless pizza parlor where the Pizzagate sex trafficking ring was supposedly being run out of its basement.) This stuff is not harmless and it needs to be called out for the garbage it is.

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    Mayor of Osaka visibly stunned after stranger donates $3.6 million in gold bars to fix city’s water pipes

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    When living in a community, people are expected to chip in to improve it. This is typically done through taxes or donation checks—or sometimes through anonymous gifts. In Osaka, Japan, however, an anonymous donor sent 46 pounds of solid gold to help fix the water system.

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    Other bizarre anonymous donations

    Osaka’s golden donation isn’t the first odd or eccentric mystery donor case—and likely won’t be the last.

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    50 years later, the iconic ‘Sesame Street’ counting song is overwhelming Gen X with nostalgia

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    Then he sang the counting part with his signature Jack Black flourish.

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    In 1997, Beatles producer George Martin was stunned by this Brazilian all-girls choir rendition of ‘Because’

    He was walking through the Brazilian airport with his wife.

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    “Because” exemplifies George Martin’s connection with The Beatles

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    Annie Reneau

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    Man walks around Brooklyn after blizzard to show off the most wonderful snow creatures

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    Some people got incredibly creative and used trees as the actual canvas and snow as the “paint.” “That is adorable. It looks like it has hair,” he says about one. Another artist used a similar idea to “paint” a snow lizard climbing a tree.

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    It’s Stewart’s joyous giggling and earnest commentary that gives the snow creature tour that extra delightful touch. “That s–t was whimsical as f$%$,” he concludes.

    The comment section agrees. The clip already has over 265,000 likes and thousands of comments. One notes, “The fact that I know without a doubt that every single one of them was made by fully grown adults and not one actual kid was around for the making of these snowmen is hilarious.”

    Others simply marvel at the whimsy of the city. “What a display of joy!” “This is incredible – so New York!” one writes. “Humans at their finest. It’s freezing and they made art. AI could never,” said another.

    A few of the artists eventually came forward to claim their work: Dori Miller (@dori.miller) writes, “I made that lizard!” And when asked who designed the “tree hugger,” Michael Galligan (@Michael_galligan) chimed in, “That was me and Maddy Rosaler (@maddyrosaler).”

    Dazed by the igloo, one Instagrammer writes, “I’m sorry, but there aren’t enough people in these comments talking about that igloo. A WHOLE IGLOO! WHAT? Incredible.”

    Perfect conditions for snowmen

    As terrific as these snow creations are, it takes a certain temperature and snow type to make it all work—even for the most brilliant artists. A 2015 article in Smithsonian Magazine explains the science behind it, citing perfectly-named physicist Dan Snowman, who says, “Snow can be either too wet or too dry.”

    “Scientists actually classify snow based on its moisture content—the amount of free water relative to ice crystals—not to be confused with the amount of water the snow would produce if melted. Snow comes in five categories: dry (zero percent water), moist (less than 3 percent), wet (3 to 8 percent), very wet (8 to 15 percent), and slush (more than 15 percent).”

    For snowman-building weather, it’s best to have moist snow. “Dry snow is like a loose powder with particles that don’t stick together very well, while slush is too fluid to hold a shape.”

    Temperature-wise, the weather needs to be just a bit above freezing. As for the “where” of it all: “Once the raw material is on the ground, it’s time to select your snowman-building surface. Level ground is best, but asphalt absorbs and holds heat from sunlight, so avoid driveways. A flat spot near the bottom of a large hill could provide shade and keep your creation safe from direct warmth from the sun—although it may wind up as a target for sleds.”

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  • Philosophy expert shares the 300-year-old rule to tell if someone is a good or bad person
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and a scene at a restaurant. – Photo credit: via Canva/Photos and G.Meiners/Wikimedia Commons
    , , , ,

    Philosophy expert shares the 300-year-old rule to tell if someone is a good or bad person

    It was true then, and it’s even more true now.

    Tod Perry

    Upworthy Staff

    What makes a ‘good person’ is hard to quantify, but sometimes, you just know it when you see it. But that’s the problem, you can’t always see it. Have you ever met somebody new and wondered if they were a good person with a mischievous streak or a bad person who can turn on the charm and behave occasionally? Determining someone’s true moral character is important, especially if you start dating them or have a business relationship. It is crucial to get to the core of who they are and know whether they can be trusted.

    Popular TikTok philosopher and Substack writer Juan de Medeiros recently shared a great way to determine whether someone is good or bad. His rubric for judging someone’s moral character comes from a quote commonly attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German poet, playwright, novelist, and intellectual known for works like Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther.

    How can you tell if someone is a good or a bad person?

    “Here’s a pretty good indicator that somebody is a bad person and vice versa, how you can spot a good one. And this goes back to a simple rule, a moral aphorism by Goethe in which he writes, ‘Never trust someone who is unkind to those who can do nothing for him,’” de Medeiros shared in a TikTok video with over 45,000 views.

    “Never trust someone who is unkind to those who can do nothing for him.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    @julianphilosophy

    Good vs. bad #good #bad #wisdom

    ♬ original sound – Julian de Medeiros

    De Medeiros then provided real-world ways to determine whether the person you have questions about is good or bad. “A bad person is unfriendly to strangers, to the elderly, to children, to service staff, to anybody they’re not trying to impress,” he said. At the same time, the good person treats people equally, no matter what they can do for him. They’re good for goodness sake, not to get anything out of it.

    “A good person carries grace within them and shares it freely with abundance. A good person treats other people as they would like to be treated as well. And it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what your status is, they will treat you and see you as their equal,” de Medeiros said.

    What is ‘The Waiter Rule’?

    Goethe’s quote echoes the common red/green flag test that many people have on dates. Sure, it’s important if your date is courteous and treats you well on the date, but you really want to watch how they interact with the server. The rule is often called “The Waiter Rule,” outlined by William Swanson. Swanson, the former chairman and CEO of Raytheon Company, wrote in his book, 33 Unwritten Rules of Management, “A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter—or to others—is not a nice person.” Boxer Muhammad Ali is also known for saying something similar: “I don’t trust anyone who’s nice to me but rude to the waiter. Because they would treat me the same way if I were in that position.”

    Rudeness toward the waitstaff also indicates that the person isn’t very smart. It’s not wise to be rude to someone who is in charge of your meal for the night.

    Conversely, a good person is kind to others without looking for anything in return because they want to spread joy and believe that others deserve respect. You are what you do, not what you think or believe, and when someone treats others with goodness, it’s a clear indicator of the type of person they are.

    In the end, we are all a mixed bag of behaviors and attitudes, and even the most perfect of us has a devil on their shoulder telling them that it’s okay to occasionally get into a bit of mischief. However, when it comes down to determining someone’s core character, how they treat those who can do nothing for them says everything.

     

    This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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  • A man at a bar bought a rude stranger a drink and used it as a brilliant lesson about consent
    An uncomfortable woman is approached by a man at a bar – Photo credit: Canva
    ,

    A man at a bar bought a rude stranger a drink and used it as a brilliant lesson about consent

    “One person noticed. That was enough.”

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    The situation was familiar enough to be exhausting. A man at a bar had bought a woman a drink. She didn’t want to go home with him. He apparently felt those two things were in conflict.

    “You are not going to come home with me?” he said, audibly frustrated. When she said no, he pushed back: “But I bought you a drink.” She got up and walked away.

    A TikTok user who goes by @tripptokk10 was standing nearby when this happened, already at the bar ordering his own drink. He watched the woman leave, looked at the man still standing there working through his grievance, and made a decision. He ordered two shots.

    @tripptokk10

    But I bought you a drink??? #men #respectingboundaries #barconversations #fyp #foryoupage

    ♬ original sound – Tripp

    “I slide it over to him,” he explained in his TikTok video, posted December 20, 2025. They took the shots together. Then he leaned in and made his point: “So are you going to come home with me or what?”

    The logic was the same. The conclusion was absurd. That was exactly the point.

    In the video, filmed casually at home in a robe and bonnet, he explained what he was responding to: “This one’s for the boys who think buying a woman a drink at the bar means that she should go home with you. No, it doesn’t. She doesn’t know you.”

    A man stares at a woman at a bar.
    A man stares at a woman at a bar. Photo Credit: Canva

    The same creator posted a second video about another night, different bar, same basic dynamic. This time a man had approached one of his female friends, put his hands on her shoulders without asking, and kept going despite her visibly trying to shrug him off. When she tried to walk away, he reached for her hand. The TikTok user stepped in and told him to back off.

    What happened next is the part that stayed with people. The man started apologizing, directing the apology not at the woman he’d been grabbing, but at the guy who’d intervened. “You didn’t do anything to me,” the creator told him. “You were harassing her.”

    The man’s response: “I respect you so much.”

    He described how confused and frustrated he felt in that moment. “Go apologize to her and change your behavior,” he said in the video, “because an apology without changed behavior is just a manipulation tactic.”

    That line hit harder than the shot glass moment for a lot of viewers. The dynamic he was describing, where a man harms a woman and then seeks absolution from another man rather than the person he actually hurt, is one that gets talked about in academic gender studies literature but rarely gets explained so plainly in a 60-second video in a bathrobe.

    Neither incident is complicated. Nobody got arrested, nobody threw a punch, nobody did anything that required a news alert. What spread was simpler than that: one person noticed something wrong, said something proportionate, and kept his head on straight when the whole thing got weird. Apparently that’s still worth talking about.

    This article originally appeared earlier this year.

    Keep Reading →
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