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If you really want to #SaveTheChildren, stop sharing QAnon conspiracy theories

Apparently, I’m being paid off by pedophiles. This payoff is news to me, but it’s what Some Random People on the Internet are saying, so it must be true, right? That’s how this works? What other reason would I have for sharing factual information about the very real issue of child sex trafficking and calling…

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Annie Reneau

Array
Array – Photo credit: Daniel Funke/Twitter

Apparently, I’m being paid off by pedophiles.

This payoff is news to me, but it’s what Some Random People on the Internet are saying, so it must be true, right? That’s how this works? What other reason would I have for sharing factual information about the very real issue of child sex trafficking and calling out false stories of Satanic pedophile rings in which famous evil overlords like Tom Hanks, Oprah, and Hillary Clinton torture and sacrifice children to increase their own power? I simply must be “in on it” somehow.

That seems to be more plausible in some people’s minds than the idea that the wild “Pizzagate” child sex ring theory, which has already been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked, could be fabricated by online trolls and perpetuated by politically-motivated players. People believe Pizzagate is real because they’ve been convinced that the entire media industry is in cahoots and because fringe “sources” with no oversight and no accountability—who insist they’re the only ones telling the truth—said so.

Here’s the thing about such conspiracy theories. (Yes, I know. Some of you think the term “conspiracy theory” was coined by the CIA—read this and stay out of my inbox, please.) Some conspiracy theories are goofy, but harmless. The “flat earth” thing, for example, or the idea that we faked the moon landing. Those beliefs are easily disproven and obviously ridiculous, but no one is being hurt by them. We can all laugh, shake our heads, and move on.

But these outrageous child sex trafficking conspiracy theories like those pushed by QAnon are harmful. Child sex trafficking is a very real, very serious, and very lucrative industry that organizations and governments have been battling for a long time. But QAnon isn’t just saying “child sex trafficking is real and important and we need to shed a light on it.” They’re saying “There is a secret, global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who control everything—including politicians, the media, and Hollywood—and who engage in child sex trafficking and ritual sacrifice to harvest adenochrome from children, and Trump is here to save us all from their evil and it’s only a matter of time before they all go down.”

Those are two very different things—the issue of child sex trafficking (which is real) and the idea that Hillary Clinton literally sucking the lifeblood out of children in a pizza parlor basement (which doesn’t even exist). The fact that we’re nearly four years into Trump’s presidency and none of these supposed Satanic pedophiles have actually been arrested—despite Trump supposedly knowing all about their dastardly deeds, according to Q—is more than a little weird. But that isn’t stopping people from believing this stuff.

It’s also not stopping people from hijacking perfectly good hashtags associated with perfectly good organizations and using them to “raise awareness” about this evil. This is why the #SaveTheChildren hashtag is suddenly showing up everywhere. As Kevin Roose wrote in the New York Times:

“The idea, in a nutshell, is to create a groundswell of concern by flooding social media with posts about human trafficking, joining parenting Facebook groups and glomming on to hashtag campaigns like #SaveTheChildren, which began as a legitimate fund-raising campaign for the Save the Children charity. Then followers can shift the conversation to baseless theories about who they believe is doing the trafficking: a cabal of nefarious elites that includes Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey and Pope Francis.”

Some unsuspecting people are using this hashtag to talk about child sex trafficking in general, but many posts refer to the evil Hollywood elite and include various QAnon hashtags along with it. And by evil Hollywood elite, they don’t mean the legitimate issue of Jeffrey Epstein and investigations into his sleazy, slimy, sick habits. They mean “The Cabal.”

Some #SaveTheChildren posters are surely unaware that they’ve been sucked into a conspiracy theory web of disinformation, but those of us who have been following the QAnon phenomenon recognize the virtual fingerprints of a QAnon push. Some of it is obvious, like seeing the #WWG1WGA (a QAnon acronym—”Where we go one, we go all”) accompanying many of these posts. But it’s also the fact that #SaveTheChildren was soon changed to #SaveOurChildren. Why? Because QAnon followers got wind that Bill and Melinda Gates financially support the actual Save the Children organization that the hashtag originally was used for. And Bill Gates, of course, is one of those “evil global elites” who, according to QAnon, created the coronavirus on purpose in order to push his vaccine agenda and depopulate the planet.

So yeah. The #SaveTheChildren thing is a big effing mess.

What’s the big deal, though? Isn’t it just important that we raise awareness about child sex trafficking in general? Of course it is. But unfounded conspiracy theories are not only unhelpful to that cause, but actively harmful.

The Polaris Project is an organization that provides social services to victims of sex trafficking, works with law enforcement to perform crisis interventions for possible victims of trafficking, and runs the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline. In a blog post, the organization explained how these unfounded conspiracy theories actually do harm to the child sex trafficking cause.

“A barrage of conspiracy-related reports from people with no direct knowledge of trafficking situations can overwhelm services meant for victims,” the site states, pointing out that the recent Wayfair child sex trafficking conspiracy theory flooded their hotline with more calls than they could handle, with zero real leads to real victims, clogging the line so that real victims couldn’t get through. They also point out that such theories can lead to loss of privacy or safety for victims or innocent bystanders. (Check out the threats and violence the owner of Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor in Washington D.C. has had to deal with over “Pizzagate.”)

In addition, and perhaps most importantly, “Conspiracies distract from the more disturbing but simple realities of how sex trafficking actually works, and how we can prevent it.” In other words, all this Pizzagate and Wayfair and adenochrome-sucking nonsense actually pulls people away from the reality of child sex trafficking and interferes with the work people could actually be doing to help prevent it. Most children aren’t kidnapped out of the blue to be sold and abused, but are trafficked or abused by people they know. (See this article written by a woman who was trafficked by her father throughout her childhood.) Polaris encourages people to learn more about what trafficking actual is, what it looks like, and how it generally happens, rather than circulating misinformation.

The bottom line: While #SaveTheChildren might seem like a righteous thing to share, we have to recognize that there’s a boatload of misinformation that is being shared along with it, and such misinformation can do more harm than good.

What should we do then to actually fight for children who are wrapped up in sex trafficking? Follow legitimate organizations that have been doing this work for years. Pay attention to what they say, as well as what they don’t. (You won’t find any of them endorsing QAnon conspiracies. If there were truth to them, these are the folks who would be first in line to shed light on it and do something about it.) Here are some to check out:

Polaris Project

Love146

The Exodus Road

ECPAT-USA

Thorn

Operation Underground Railroad

International Justice Mission

You can also learn more about child sex trafficking on the United States Department of Justice website.

Child sex trafficking is worthy cause to get behind. Just makes sure you’re getting behind the real issue, supporting real organizations with the expertise to help, and avoiding conspiracy theories that only serve to distract from the real work being done to actually #SaveTheChildren.

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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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    “It’s a staggering amount and I was speechless,” said Yokoyama. “Tackling aging water pipes requires a huge investment, and I cannot thank enough for the donation.”

    Osaka is home to more than three million people and is the third-largest city in Japan. While it’s bustling, it’s also an aging city. Its water system has had more than 90 reported cases of leaking pipes beneath its streets. As a major commercial hub, tourist destination, and home to so many residents, the donor was motivated to make such a large gold donation. Reportedly, the same donor had previously donated 500,000 yen to the municipal waterworks.

    Aging public water pipe systems aren’t just an issue in Japan, but also in the United States. With much of the country’s piping installed 50 or more years ago, the system is deteriorating. This has led not only to water leaks, but to contamination within the pipes as well.

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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.

    In 2009, a mystery donor approached 14 colleges throughout the U.S. and donated a total of $81.5 million. Each college received the same note and instructions: Don’t try to figure out the identity of the donor, and use the money for financial aid for women and minority students.

    In 2021, a package sent to City College of New York contained $180,000 in cash. Delivered to the physics department, it sat unopened for more than a year. The donor remained a mystery, but a note inside said they had enjoyed a “long, productive, immensely rewarding to me, scientific career.” The money was ultimately used to fund undergraduate scholarships.

    In 2025, a charity bucket at a Salvation Army location in Vermont contained a gold coin wrapped in a dollar bill. The coin was worth $4,100.

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    Boomers and Generation Jones share the meals and foods they miss the most from the 1960s

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

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    Gen X is sometimes referred to as “the Sesame Street generation,” a moniker many of us wear with pride. Sesame Street was a childhood staple, along with Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and The Electric Company. Countless Gen Xers owe a great deal of our early childhood education to those public television programs.

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

    “It was just really good music and really good animation, and it fired up my creativity like crazy,” he said. “And it inspired me.”

    How the Pointer Sisters helped create one of the most iconic Gen X memories

    The catchy little ditty was composed and produced by Walt Kraemer, whose company, Imagination, Inc., produced many animation pieces for the Children’s Television Workshop. He shared details of the 1976 recordings of the pinball countdown pieces in an email to blogger Matt Jones:

    “Those were indeed the Pointer Sisters. All four of them. At the time only three were performing regularly and I recall budgeting for just the three when June showed up at the session with the rest. It was a bonus. The basic track was performed by San Francisco Bay Area musicians and since there were to be eleven pieces of animation I had the track structured to accomodate three different lead instrument overdubs to give the pieces some variety. On some numbers Andy Narell plays a steel drums solo, on others Mel Martin plays a soprano sax solo, on the rest… I forget. Much credit should go to Ed Bogas for interpreting my melody ideas and for the musical arrangements.”

    “The concept and design was devised by our animation director, Jeff Hale. It was his idea that I create basic tracks then record as ‘wild-lines’ the Pointers shouting the various 2-11 numbers in different intensities and different compliments of voices. Then, each time the pin ball hit a selected number he would drop in these (off-key—couldn’t be helped) wild lines.”

    He also said that he realized after the fact that he “may have stolen the first five notes of the Woody Woodpecker Song.” Pretty sure no one noticed.

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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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    Who deserves the honorary title of “fifth Beatle“? You could make a case for several people: guest keyboardist Billy Preston, early drummer Pete Best, even manager Brian Epstein. But on a musical level, no one was more crucial to The Fab Four than producer George Martin, who worked on all of their albums.

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    “What a beautiful, brilliant human he was”

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    “My god, the beauty of this moment… I’m weeping.”

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    “This guy wrote a history! There’s no musician or a Beatles fan that wouldn’t cry to this. Tears with goosebumps!”

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    “When you realize that what you’ve achieved with your friends (and what friends!) is truly remarkable”

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    “I am moved by the performance as well. What a beautiful brilliant human he was. I am grateful he existed in my lifetime.”

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

    “Because,” a highlight from 1969’s Abbey Road, was an ideal choice as a Martin tribute. The recorded version, built on lush vocal harmonies, opens with one of his signature instrumental contributions: a chiming electric harpsichord.

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    If you see a person and two dogs in this photo, look again. It’s an optical illusion.

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    Annie Reneau

    Upworthy Staff

    Optical illusions are wild. The way our brains perceive what our eyes see can be way off base, even when we’re sure about what we’re looking at. Plenty of famous optical illusions have been created purposefully, from the Ames window that appears to be moving back and forth when it’s actually rotating 360 degrees, to the spiral image that makes Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” look like it’s moving.

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    The popular Massimo account on X shared a photo that appears to be a person and two dogs in the snow. The more you look at it, the more you see just that—two dogs and someone who is presumably their owner. Turn the photo every which way and it’s still the same conclusion.

    That’s a person and two dogs, right?

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    Full confession time: I didn’t see it at first. Not even when someone explained that the “human” is actually a dog. My brain couldn’t see anything but a person with two legs, dressed all in black, with a furry hat and some kind of furry stole or jacket. My brain definitely did not see a black poodle, which is what the “person” actually is.

    Are you looking at the photo and trying to see it, totally frustrated? The big hint is that the poodle is looking toward the camera. The “hat” on the “person” is the poodle’s poofy tail, and the “scarf/stole” is the poodle’s head.

    Once you see it, it fairly clear, but for many of us, our brains did not process it until it was explicitly drawn out. This outline helps somewhat:

    As one person explained, the black fur hides the contours and shadows, so all our brains take in is the outline, which looks very much like a person facing away from us.

    People’s reactions to the optical illusion were hilarious.

    One person wrote, “10 years later: I still see two dogs and a man.”

    Another person wrote, “I agree with ChatGPT :)” and shared a screenshot of the infamous AI chatbot describing the photo as having a person in the foreground. Even when asked, “Could the ‘person’ be another dog?” ChatGPT said it’s possible, but not likely. Ha.

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    This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

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

    “Humans at their finest. It’s freezing and they made art.”

    Cecily Knobler

    Art is magical because it can be found anywhere at any time. So when New Yorkers got close to three feet of snow dumped on their city, many dug deep into their creative sides. They took to the parks and contributed to building a winter wonderland of whimsical snow creatures.

    Of course, this wasn’t just any snowfall. It was a full-on blizzard causing travel bans, school and street closures, and power outages in all five New York City boroughs and the surrounding cities and states in the Northeast.

    NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced an old-fashioned snow day by FaceTiming an 8th-grade student named Victoria. “So my only ask to you is that you just stay safe, stay indoors during the height of the storm,” he told her. “Once that has passed, feel free to go out and sled.”

    Artists got creative

    For many residents, the powdery, white snow became a sculpting canvas. Photographer Matthew Dean Stewart took to a park in Brooklyn to show off some of the most adorable creations. Captioning the video, “I LOVE BROOKLYN,” we first see a puppy snowman who looks not unlike a Pixar character begging for love.

    Then he moves on to a more traditional snowman, complete with an orangey pink nose that he, of course, “boops.” Another snowman has an orange hat. Yet another is just basic snowballs piled atop one another.

    Stewart also points out a detailed pyramid that someone built. “How did they even DO that? That’s pretty impressive.”

    We next see a woman on the ground stirring strawberry ice cream in a silver bowl. “She’s making ice cream in the snow!” Stewart exclaims. She gives him a spoonful to which he replies, “This is so good. This is the best day of my life.”

    Aside from traditional snowmen (giant, faceless, tiny carrot-nosed), some sculptures were clearly made by potentially professional artists. One snowperson is wrapped around a tree, complete with hair made from leaves. “It has hair! And it has a butt!” Stewart points out.

    Another is a “study” Hello Kitty snow-cat. Then we get to the duck. “It’s a duck. What else would it be? That’s like super detailed,” Stewart quips.

    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.

    Perhaps coolest of all: other artists built an actual igloo on which they’ve written “The people’s igloo.” They sit inside, illuminated by a light (possibly from a smartphone!).

    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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