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Bryan Cranston’s Tony Award speech: Demagoguery is real ‘enemy of the people’
Cranston won his second Tony Award for portraying Howard Beale in the play Network.
CBS Photo Archive / Contributo
- Cranston portrayed a news anchor going through a mental breakdown after nearly losing his career.
- The play Network was an adaptation of the 1976 Oscar-winning film, written by Paddy Chayefsky.
- President Donald Trump has regularly — and as recently as yesterday (June 9) — called the media the "enemy of the people."
Bryan Cranston won a Tony Award on Sunday for portraying a broadcast journalist in Network, a play adapted from the Oscar-winning 1976 film.
"Finally a straight, old, white man gets a break!" Cranston joked as he accepted the award, for which Adam Driver, Paddy Considine, Jeremy Pope, and Jeff Daniels were also nominated.
Network is a satire about ratings-driven media and, more broadly, corporate-human accountability. In the stage adaptation, Cranston portrayed Howard Beale, a longtime news anchor who learns that network executives plan to replace him due to poor ratings. Beale reacts by telling his live TV audience that he plans to kill himself during an upcoming broadcast. Ratings go up. Executives decide not to fire Beale.
The anchor starts angrily ranting against the ills of society in his regular segments. One of his main targets is the public's apathy and inaction: He challenges viewers to get off the couch, open their windows, and scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Cranston described Beale as a man in search of truth:
"Howard Beale is a fictitious TV newsman who found his way into the line of fire because of his pursuit of the truth, and I would like to dedicate this to all the real journalists around the world. . . in the print media and also broadcast media, who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth."
The 63-year-old actor — who won his first Tony Award in 2014 for playing Lyndon B. Johnson in the play All the Way — also took a swipe at the Trump administration.
"The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people," Cranston said, referencing President Donald Trump's frequent assertion that the media is the "enemy of the people."
.....there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs - But I don’t believ… https://t.co/WiKdxHhsCz— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1560083197.0
It's not the first time Cranston has criticized the president.
Thank you @realDonaldTrump for preventing US commercial airlines from crashing in 2017. Your active participation m… https://t.co/azQ8P6788Q— Bryan Cranston (@Bryan Cranston)1514918491.0
Paddy Chayefsky wrote Network in the 1970s, but its themes and subtext still resonate with audiences today, as Aaron Sorkin told the New York Times in 2011:
"If you put it in your DVD player today you'll feel like it was written last week," Sorkin said. "The commoditization of the news and the devaluing of truth are just a part of our way of life now. You wish Chayefsky could come back to life long enough to write 'The Internet.'"
Take your career to the next level by raising your EQ
Emotional intelligence is a skill sought by many employers. Here's how to raise yours.
06 August, 2020
Gear
- Daniel Goleman's 1995 book Emotional Intelligence catapulted the term into widespread use in the business world.
- One study found that EQ (emotional intelligence) is the top predictor of performance and accounts for 58% of success across all job types.
- EQ has been found to increase annual pay by around $29,000 and be present in 90% of top performers.
<script async="true" src="https://widgets.stackcommerce.com/js-deal-feed/0.1/widget.js" type="text/javascript"></script><p>Emotional intelligence helps us to recognize how our emotions affect our behavior and how to adjust our reactions in stressful work and life situations.<br></p><p>This matters more in the workplace than you may realize. One <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/emotional-intelligence-career-life-personal-development/#:~:text=It's%20a%20powerful%20way%20to,in%20all%20types%20of%20jobs." target="_blank">study</a> found that EQ is the top predictor of performance and accounts for 58% of success across all job types. This skill has even been found to increase annual pay by around $29,000 and be present in 90% of top performers.</p><p>In other words, emotional intelligence is a skill sought by many employers. So, how do you build yours?</p><p><a href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle&utm_term=scsf-419766&utm_content=a0x1P000004spmhQAA&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong>The Emotional Intelligence and Decision-Making Bundle</strong></a> is a great place to start. This 10-course bundle is on sale now for just $34.99.</p><p>The introductory course explains the fundamentals of EQ over 38 lessons. You'll gain insights into other people's emotions, learn how to improve relationships, and recognize how to better understand your own emotions and habitual behavioral patterns.</p><p>You'll also learn an essential career skill: conflict management. In this 68-lesson course, you'll be taught how to build rapport, listen, and understand empathy.</p><p>Emotions are the drivers behind anxiety and stress. In another knowledge-packed course, you'll be given all the tools to build your emotional resilience. Learning how to adapt to stressful situations is a skill everyone needs in all facets of life. And yes, of course EQ plays a big role in decision-making. One 53-lesson course asks you to investigate your rationality in decision-making, your objectiveness when working with others, and your problem-solving skills.</p><p><a href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle&utm_term=scsf-419766&utm_content=a0x1P000004spmhQAA&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Emotional Intelligence and Decision-Making Bundle </a>is taught by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/in/robinhills/?challengeId=AQGgaETR9NXKUQAAAXOR5uKPXznaBgDT-DSZ-uwNnFJm5z_pgcTN3r_ZJXOm_EgbIFQFeSGd2j2YXl0elXY3hTy_c5jzDuXhEQ&submissionId=803f7333-09b5-2516-3ae5-ac8b6f21d23e" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Robin Hills</a>, an emotional intelligence coach, trainer, and facilitator with over 35 years of business and commercial experience. He has taught over 57,000 students the art of EQ.</p><p><a href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle&utm_term=scsf-419766&utm_content=a0x1P000004spmhQAA&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong>The Emotional Intelligence and Decision-Making Bundle</strong> </a>is on sale now for just $34.99, a 96% discount from the original price. </p><p><em>Price subject to change. </em></p><div data-react-checksum="1473071600" data-reactid="1" data-reactroot="" style="position: relative;"><a data-reactid="2" href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral-cta&utm_campaign=the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle&utm_term=scsf-419766&utm_content=a0x1P000004spmhQAA&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank"> </a>
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<div data-reactid="7"><strong data-reactid="8">The Emotional Intelligence & Decision-Making Bundle - $34.99</strong><br data-reactid="9"><br data-reactid="10"><a data-reactid="11" href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral-cta&utm_campaign=the-emotional-intelligence-decision-making-bundle&utm_term=scsf-419766&utm_content=a0x1P000004spmhQAA&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Raise Your EQ Today</a></div>
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Google’s Sycamore beats top supercomputer to achieve ‘quantum supremacy’
The achievement is an important milestone in quantum computing, Google's scientists said.
24 October, 2019
Google
Technology & Innovation
- Sycamore is a quantum computer that Google has spent years developing.
- Like traditional computers, quantum computers produce binary code, but they do so while utilizing unique phenomena of quantum mechanics.
- It will likely be years before quantum computing has applications in everyday technology, but the recent achievement is an important proof of concept.
<p><br></p></div>
<p>A quantum computer developed by Google achieved "<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5" target="_blank">quantum supremacy</a>" after taking 200 seconds to solve a complex problem that the company says would take a supercomputer 10,000 years to solve.</p><p>In a <a href="https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-programmable.html" target="_blank">blog post</a> published Wednesday, scientists at Google described the achievement as an "important milestone" in quantum computing, one that demonstrates that the company's designs are "going in the right direction." Still, the success of Google's quantum computer, dubbed Sycamore, doesn't mean that we're all going to be switching to quantum computers anytime soon. That's partly because the term "quantum supremacy" is somewhat misleading.</p><p>But first, a quick look at how quantum computers function. </p>
How quantum computers differ from traditional computers
<p>Like traditional computers, quantum computers produce binary code to execute computing functions. But instead of using transistors to represent the ones and zeroes, as traditional computers do, quantum computers like Sycamore use quantum bits, or "qubits."</p><p>Qubits are extremely tiny pieces of hardware that act like subatomic particles, utilizing quantum phenomena like entanglement, superposition, and interference. Qubits can represent ones and zeroes. But thanks to superposition, qubits are also able to represent multiple states at the same time, meaning they can make calculations much faster than traditional computers. That's what helped Sycamore recently outperform a supercomputer.</p><p>Sycamore achieved "quantum supremacy," which occurs when a quantum computer can do something that a traditional computer cannot. To pass this benchmark, Google engineers pit Sycamore against the world's leading supercomputer, Summit, which is housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.</p><p>"Summit is currently the world's leading supercomputer, capable of carrying out about 200 million billion operations per second," William Oliver, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03173-4" target="_blank">"News and Views" piece</a> for <em>Nature</em>.</p><p>But the contest between Sycamore and Summit involved a highly specific task, one that was specifically designed to give a competitive edge to a quantum computer like Sycamore.</p>Beating the world's leading supercomputer
<p>The task involved estimating how likely it was that a processor would produce some "bitstrings" more often than others. As you continue to add information to the equation, it becomes exponentially difficult for traditional computers to conduct the calculations. (You can read more about the experiment <a href="https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-programmable.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</p><p>"We performed a fixed set of operations that entangles 53 qubits into a complex superposition state," Ben Chiaro, a graduate student researcher in the Martinis Group, which conducted the experiment, told <em><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191023133358.htm" target="_blank">Science Daily</a></em>. "This superposition state encodes the probability distribution. For the quantum computer, preparing this superposition state is accomplished by applying a sequence of tens of control pulses to each qubit in a matter of microseconds. We can prepare and then sample from this distribution by measuring the qubits a million times in 200 seconds."</p><p>"For classical computers, it is much more difficult to compute the outcome of these operations because it requires computing the probability of being in any one of the 2^53 possible states, where the 53 comes from the number of qubits -- the exponential scaling is why people are interested in quantum computing to begin with," Brooks Foxen, another graduate student researcher in the Martinis Group, told <em>Science Daily</em>. "This is done by matrix multiplication, which is expensive for classical computers as the matrices become large."</p><p>But the specific nature of this task has led some to question the utility of quantum computers like Sycamore.</p><p>"One criticism we've heard a lot is that we cooked up this contrived benchmark problem—[Sycamore] doesn't do anything useful yet," Hartmut Neven, a Google engineering director said at a press event on Wednesday. "That's why we like to compare it to a Sputnik moment. Sputnik didn't do much either. All it did was circle Earth. Yet it was the start of the Space Age."</p>A proof of concept for quantum computing
<p>Although it could be decades until we see quantum computing powering everyday devices, Sycamore serves as a proof of concept that there exists a form of computing that has the potential to be vastly superior to traditional computing.</p><p>"This demonstration of quantum supremacy over today's leading classical algorithms on the world's fastest supercomputers is truly a remarkable achievement and a milestone for quantum computing," Oliver wrote in his piece for <em>Nature</em>. "It experimentally suggests that quantum computers represent a model of computing that is fundamentally different from that of classical computers. It also further combats criticisms about the controllability and viability of quantum computation in an extraordinarily large computational space (containing at least the 253 states used here)."</p>
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Face mask study reveals worst material for blocking COVID-19
A study published Friday tested how well 14 commonly available face masks blocked the emission of respiratory droplets as people were speaking.
14 August, 2020
Fischer et al.
Coronavirus
- The study tested the efficacy of popular types of face masks, including N95 respirators, bandanas, cotton-polypropylene masks, gaiters, and others.
- The results showed that N95 respirators were most effective, while wearing a neck fleece (aka gaiter) actually produced more respiratory droplets than wearing no mask at all.
- Certain types of homemade masks seem to be effective at blocking the spread of COVID-19.
<p>Which face mask best protects against COVID-19? To find out, a team of researchers at Duke University recently conducted a pretty straightforward experiment.</p>
<p>The team measured how well 14 popular face masks blocked respiratory droplets from exiting people's mouths while speaking. To measure the droplets, the researchers used "a black box, a laser, and a camera," Martin Fischer, one of the authors of the study, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/08/us/duke-university-face-mask-test-trnd" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">CNN</a>. </p>
<p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The laser beam is expanded vertically to form a thin sheet of light, which we shine through slits on the left and right of the box."</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU1OTMxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTg0MTAwOX0.bST_CrtQaRTP4nSkQYhJRxH_03v1mBCaKZXBGc9qc2g/img.jpg?width=980" id="6b6c7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a7acfe7e6f657b78485dec4eefc7aceb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Fischer et al.
<p>A smartphone camera recorded video of the participants, and a computer algorithm counted the number of droplets they emitted. To establish a control trial, the participants spoke into the box both with and without a mask. And to make sure that the droplets weren't in fact dust from the masks, the team conducted more tests by "repeatedly puffing air from a bulb through the masks."</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU1OTMxNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzc2MDY1N30.yQB1xnxFdVTab51z5fv5CCBtF7t9twJiSITJAnI8XZw/img.jpg?width=980" id="e6405" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="43fad870377a5848f84a64c257d32daa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Face mask study for COVID-19" />
Fischer et al.
<p>The results, published Friday in <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/07/sciadv.abd3083" target="_blank">Science Advances</a>, showed that some masks are pretty much useless. In particular, neck fleeces (also called gaiters) actually produced more respiratory droplets compared to the control trial — likely because the fabric breaks down big droplets into smaller ones.</p><p>The top three most effective masks were N95 respirators, surgical masks, and polypropylene-cotton masks. Bandanas performed the worst, but were slightly better than wearing no mask at all.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU1OTMxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTg1NTg3MH0.eWOSSQzfjcX8dicgHEdJfkF74I5u6IOMlKOkdx0NE7g/img.jpg?width=980" id="0902f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0493fa450b52867bd6b6182209fb1e9d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Fischer et al.
<p>Research on mask efficacy is still emerging. But the new results seem to generally align with <a href="https://newsroom.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2020/04/Testing-Shows-Type-of-Cloth-Used-in-Homemade-Masks-Makes-a-Difference" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">prior tests</a>. For example, a study from June published in <a href="https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0016018" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Physics of Fluid</a> found that bandanas (followed by folded handkerchiefs) were least effective at blocking respiratory droplets. That same study also found, as <a href="https://newsroom.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2020/04/Testing-Shows-Type-of-Cloth-Used-in-Homemade-Masks-Makes-a-Difference" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">others have</a>, that masks made from multiple layers of quilter's fabric were especially effective at blocking droplets.</p><p>The researchers hope other institutions will conduct similar experiments so the public can see how well different masks can block the spread of COVID-19.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"This is a very powerful visual tool to raise awareness that a very simple masks, like these homemade cotton masks, do really well to stop the majority of these respiratory droplets," Fischer told CNN. "Companies and manufacturers can set this up and test their mask designs before producing them, which would also be very useful."</p>
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You want to stop child abuse? Here's how you can actually help.
Sharing QAnon disinformation is harming the children devotees purport to help.
14 August, 2020
Photo: Atjanan Charoensiri / Shutterstock
Politics & Current Affairs
- The conspiracy theory, QAnon, is doing more harm than good in the battle to end child trafficking.
- Foster youth expert, Regan Williams, says there are 25-29k missing children every year, not 800k, as marketed by QAnon.
- Real ways to help abused children include donating to nonprofits, taking educational workshops, and becoming a foster parent.
<p>Though Marjorie Taylor Greene is scrubbing her social media conspiracy theory mongering clean after her <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/12/901628541/qanon-supporter-who-made-bigoted-videos-wins-ga-primary-likely-heading-to-congre" target="_blank">victory</a> in Georgia's 14th Congressional District's Republican primary, the internet's graveyard is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rtYok4fdbQ&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">vast</a>. Greene appears to be distancing from her belief in QAnon, an online "movement" founded on the idea that Donald Trump is secretly battling an elite cabal of pedophiles. She went so far to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/11/marjorie-taylor-greene-georgia-qanon/" target="_blank">call</a> the secretive Q "a patriot."</p><p>Media Matters <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/here-are-qanon-supporters-running-congress-2020" target="_blank">counts</a> at least 75 current or former GOP congressional candidates that support the QAnon conspiracy theory. Thus far, 600,000 Americans have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/01/nearly-600000-people-have-voted-candidates-who-support-qanon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">voted</a> for Q-endorsing candidates. As with "Pizzagate"—the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/technology/qanon-save-the-children-trafficking.html" target="_blank">origin myth</a> of QAnon—there have been real-world consequences. Q adherents have been tied to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/nyregion/gambino-shooting-anthony-comello-frank-cali.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">murders</a> and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-mom-charged-with-kidnapping-her-kids" target="_blank">kidnappings</a>. The group also traffics in <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-dark-virality-of-a-hollywood-blood-harvesting-conspiracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">anti-Semitic rhetoric</a>. </p><p>While our president is tied to an <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/why-are-right-wing-conspiracies-so-obsessed-with-pedophilia/" target="_blank">actual pedophile ring</a> via his longtime friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ("<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2020/jul/22/donald-trump-on-ghislaine-maxwell-video-i-wish-her-well" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">I wish her well</a>"), the QAnon conspiracy theory has been little more than a dangerous distraction. Popular "QAnon researchers" like Jordan Sather uses his rhetorical bombast, in a page stolen from Alex Jones, to sell supplements and, I kid you not, pendants that provide "powerful protection from EMFs" (electromagnetic fields). </p><p>What's a good conspiracy theory if you can't monetize it?</p><p>One group that isn't monetizing anything from QAnon—a group being actively harmed by it—is traumatized children, the very people these clicktivists somehow believe they're helping. Sharing a conspiracy theory on social media is easy. Working to actually help victims of sexual abuse and child trafficking, not so much. In fact, if you want to "do the research," it takes years of hard work, which is why I talked to Regan Williams earlier this week. </p>
Real ways you can help stop child trafficking
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21fc2dc85391501eec28c4bf46d7db15"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AXL0q9jNZGU?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Williams is the founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.seenandheard.org/" target="_blank">Seen and Heard</a>, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that helps foster youth develop character through the performing arts. She's been involved with foster youth for years; I <a href="https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/child-sex-trafficking" target="_self">wrote about her work</a> in child trafficking just over a year ago. Tragically, since that time, the situation for these children has only gotten worse, in large part because of QAnon.</p><p>Williams says child trafficking is an easy cause to rally people together. Fear is also a powerful unifying force, one that QAnon believers are already primed for via the news they consume. Almost every parent cares about their children, making them the ideal target to solidify groups. </p><p>The real problem, she says, is that the youth she works with are falling for these conspiracy theories. Trauma is a particularly powerful tool for indoctrination. If you're a teenager that's been abducted or abused, your trust level is already extremely low. Then you read about a global cabal of powerful men (and a few women) secretly abusing children, and the narrative seems ready-made for your personal history.</p><p>When Williams tried to "lovingly and kindly correct" the youth she was working with after learning about the Wayfair conspiracy, the girls' response was, "well, who owns the media?" </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"She goes from this small little thing to a QAnon talking point. I've been thinking about why she would believe such a preposterous idea—and there are others; it's not just one student, and they're in in deep. I think that when something horrific happens to you as a child, it's a lot easier to distance yourself from the immediate reality that it was an uncle or a parent or a sibling that hurt you. By detaching from that immediate person, they project it onto Bill Gates or Chrissy Teigen. Then it's not so personal, it's global." </p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU1OTA1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTQ5NjU0MX0.YURinVpKeknLypoY2aIQc45HjSDN-I8hv6kifut1V8o/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C87%2C0%2C36&height=700" id="5d16d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1708c66e792b4b3bf4bf37502a4e195a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="man wearing" />
A man wear a shirt with the words Q Anon as he attends a rally for President Donald Trump at the Make America Great Again Rally being held in the Florida State Fair Grounds Expo Hall on July 31, 2018 in Tampa, Florida.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
<p>As Williams mentions, there are over 30,000 kids in foster care in the Los Angeles area alone. It's easy to fall through the cracks. The systems in place aren't perfect; they're certainly underfunded. When you're in a system trying to support you yet isn't capable of doing so, viewing the world as imperfect, and even harmful, becomes the lens through which you see reality. Again, this makes for a perfect indoctrination tool.</p><p>One popular QAnon talking point is that 800,000 children are missing. As Williams says, child trafficking experts "don't buy this for a minute." The number makes for a good meme but a poor representation of the problem. </p><p>To source better data, Williams turns to the <a href="https://www.missingkids.org/" target="_blank">National Center for Missing and Exploited Children</a> (NCMEC) and the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ncic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">National Crime Information Center</a> (NCIC). An important factor when reading data: if a teacher <em>and</em> a caregiver report a missing child to NCIC, that counts as two children, not one, which accounts for some of the fluctuations in numbers. In total, between 25,000 and 29,000 kids go missing every year. Importantly, 94 percent of those children are recovered within four to six weeks. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"They're not documenting the recovery rate. It's not like these numbers are perpetually hanging out there. So this 800,000 number is just ludicrous." </p><p>Williams compares what's going on to Black Lives Matter. Blacking out your Instagram profile picture is performative. It signals that you actually care, which is great, but if you're not supporting Black-owned businesses, for example, there are no teeth to your activism. </p><p>Of course, blacking out your profile doesn't cause the real-world harm the QAnon virus does. Sharing misinformation is ultimately harmful to the children in need of help. Williams offers the resources below—ranging from donations to nonprofits to educational trainings to becoming a foster parent—for people that actually want to do something to help victims of sexual and physical abuse. They might not make a great Twitter meme, but in the actual world, this support makes all the difference. </p><p><strong>To report abuse/neglect, call the child abuse hotline: 800.540.4000 (LA county) / 800.422.4453 (National)</strong></p><ul><li>Support anti-trafficking organizations by donating to <a rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" href="http://savinginnocence.org/" target="_blank">Saving Innocence</a>, which runs the continuum of care from rescue to recovery, <a href="http://gozoe.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Zoe</a>, a reputable faith-based organization, and <a rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" href="https://withtwowings.org/" target="_blank">Two Wings</a>, which helps to rehabilitate female survivors</li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" href="http://www.nolabrantleyspeaks.org/" target="_blank">Nola Brantley</a> offers in-person and online trainings to help combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children</li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" href="http://instagram.com/imrebeccabender" target="_blank">Rebecca Bender</a> is a trafficking survivor that runs "Myth Busters," which combats conspiracy theory disinformation</li><li>The <a href="https://www.instagram.com/missingkids/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">National Center</a> of Missing and Exploited Children</li><li>Operation <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ourrescue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Underground Railroad </a></li><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/defendinnocence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Defend Innocence</a> offers tips for parents and caregivers to keep kids safe</li></ul><p><span></span>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://derekberes.substack.com/" target="_blank">Substack</a>. His next book is</em> "<em>Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."</em></p>
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