Sound Of Freedumb: God's children are not for sale, but they're perfect little pawns for reich-wing agendas

This post has been updated several times since its original publication on July 17, 2023.
~CC

I've said it before on this blog in other contexts (most notably this one): the facts don't matter if the story is good. And for enthusiastic moviegoers all across America who have viewed or plan to view a recently released film called Sound Of Freedom, it's pretty clear that the facts really do not matter. As far as many of them are concerned, this significantly fictionalized work is akin to a documentary, and their marching orders at movie's end are clear. They're on the warpath now, fired up by the film's message and ready to take action by:

1. "Paying it forward" by giving the filmmakers as much additional money as they possibly can, supposedly to pay for free movie tickets for many others
2. Tweeting passionately and dramatically about The Tragedy And Outrage Of Child Trafficking
3. Taking the fam (or hopping on the bus with their church group) to see Sound Of Freedom a few more times so they can tweet passionately and dramatically about The Tragedy And Outrage Of Child Trafficking some more
4. Repeating, ad nauseam, the mantra of the film's hero: "God's children are not for sale!"
5. Attacking critics of the film as either being pedophiles, or supporting/covering for pedophiles, or being part of a massive conspiracy to sabotage/censor the film, or all of the above
   

That last item brings me to the point that if facts don't matter, neither, it seems, does nuance. Consider Twitter, for example, which currently appears to be dominated by sponsored promos for the movie; every ten or so tweets that I see on my feed are plugs from the distributor, Angel Studios. And on every one of these threads that I've viewed, and I've viewed many, the more fanatical fans -- let's just call them the Sound Of Freedolts -- are quick to attack anyone who even mildly criticizes or questions the veracity of Sound Of Freedom. The Freedolts, wittingly or unwittingly, are engaged in a fallacy commonly known as false dilemma, in this case, a contrived either/or situation in which one is either in favor of the movie or in favor of child exploitation.

If you don't like Sound of Freedom or don't particularly want to see it, or if you question its story line or its artistic merits, or you criticize either its star (Jim Caviezel) or the real-life waif-rescuer who inspired the tale (Tim Ballard), then clearly -- clearly! -- you are a pedophile, or at the very least you support pedophilia. Which means, it goes without saying but they'll say it anyway, that you are a communist socialist fascist Democrat libtard who wants The Truth to be quashed so that you and/or your elite buddies can keep on raping helpless little children and harvesting their blood for adrenochrome so you and/or your buddies can attain eternal youth.

Alternatively, or in addition, you are an atheist who hates Christians, and you resent or fear Sound Of Freedom because of its faith-based undertone (which is sometimes an overtone), and you can't stand the fact that both Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard are proudly and publicly all in for Jesus.

Those explanations seem to make up the general consensus among the right-leaning tweeters, many of whom have observed that Sound Of Freedom is getting tons of publicity and a flood of endorsements from "conservative" and "religious" groups but not so much from "the left." And they all know why: it's because lefties are pedos and sex criminals and/or Christian-persecuting atheists.

Talk about facts not mattering! Matt Gaetz, Gym Jordan, or Roy Moore, anyone? And here's more about who the real pervs are on the American political spectrum.

Let's not forget that the de facto leader of the republican party, and the front-runner in the repub race to the White House in 2024 -- a sexual abuser named Donald John Trump -- has repeatedly and publicly expressed his incestuous fantasies about his very own daughters, most notably Ivanka, of course, but also Tiffany, when the latter was a baby. (!) Let's also not forget that he happily partied with the late and unlamented sex predator and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein back in the day (though the two later had a falling-out, apparently over some real estate deals, and after Epstein was arrested Trump disavowed their past friendship).

And that's not even to mention the notorious churchy pervs (since we we've been discussing religion as well as politix).

But I digress.

If you don't like nuance, turn back now.
The point is this: even as criticizing the bellicosity of Israel does not automatically make one anti-Semitic (though some critics of Israel are undoubtedly anti-Semitic), it's also true that criticizing a (did I mention highly fictionalized?) cult film about child trafficking does not automatically make one a pedophile or a fan of pedophilia. Quite the contrary, especially now that the truth is coming out in the wake of the film's apparently impressive box office success. For such an important and genuine issue such as child trafficking, which few people will deny actually exists, it's reasonable to question the accuracy of the narrative in Sound Of Freedom. From Slate, July 13, 2023:

...Parts of the actual story have been questioned by reporting, including at Vice, which found a pattern of exaggerations and misleading claims by the real Ballard. Other outlets have pointed out that official documents tell a different story about the border arrest than the movie does. The plunge into the Colombian jungle to rescue Rocio is an invention. And some elements of Ballard’s life story are simply hard to fact-check. But the real-life Ballard really did stage a sting operation in Colombia that led to the arrests of several human traffickers.

What’s more, experts in anti-trafficking work have been critical of Operation Underground Railroad’s operations, arguing that these dramatic raids and rescues are not actually effective or are sometimes even damaging to the long-term goal of ending human-trafficking practices. [Operation Underground Railroad, aka OUR, is the organization founded by Ballard to conduct the rescue ops. ~ CLS] And the consideration of what happens to saved individuals after a raid has sometimes been an afterthought. Writing in Slate about her experience attending an OUR raid in the Dominican Republic in 2014, Meg Conley recalled feeling that everyone involved was passionate but inexperienced...

...Conley’s sting rescued 26 girls. Later, after reading a report in Foreign Policy, Conley learned that the local organization tapped for aftercare of the children found itself overwhelmed. The group released the girls in a matter of days. The local group lost track of a number of them.

In 2021, Operation Underground Railroad, or OUR, told Slate that the organization had matured since its early days and was now doing more to support victims after the raids.

In more recent developments, Tim Ballard "quietly" left OUR not long before the release of Sound Of Freedom. He claims that he was forced out, but in any case he's still enthusiastically spreading reich-wing talking points. From Vice, July13, 2023:

Ballard has made no mention of his departure from OUR as he began a one-man press tour focused on the film and the Jim Caviezel-played character based on him. In recent days, he’s been interviewed on Fox News, telling Jesse Watters that criticism of the film by mainstream media outlets was playing into the hands of pedophiles, and by the New York Post, where he said “enforcing the border” is “the only compassionate thing to do if you care about children.” (Ballard has long claimed that a porous southern border leads to sex trafficking of children, a view not shared by most experts in anti-trafficking work.)

In other words, Ballard is only reinforcing the great partisan divide that is so evident in social media conversations about the film. (And to Tim, it's not just porous borders that enable the pedos; it's also gender-affirming care. Oh, the horror, the horror!)

A July 18 piece on Vice goes into more detail about Ballard's departure from OUR, focusing on the fact that Ballard left OUR in the wake of an internal investigation. It wasn't the first time both Ballard and OUR had been investigated (see this June 10, 2021 Vice article). But OUR officials are so far being extremely circumspect regarding details about the most recent investigation.

Ballard has apparently gone on to form a new anti-trafficking group, while collecting the expected reich-wing martyr creds because of what he claims the "godless leftist media" are doing to discredit him, enable pedos, and stop you from watching Sound Of Freedom. From the July 18 Vice article:

In recent media appearances, Ballard has identified himself as the co-founder of the Spear Fund, an apparently new anti-trafficking group. During his appearance on [political commentator and podcast host Tim] Pool’s show, he appealed for donations; Pool’s own website later announced they had raised $50,000.

In an Instagram video posted Monday evening, shortly after Motherboard reached out to his representative for comment, Ballard told his viewers to “expect more lies” about him, assailing what he called the “godless leftist media” for “running interference for human traffickers” and “throwing everything at me right now.” He decried specific, ridiculous conspiracy theories he said he’d seen online about himself—accusing him of supporting the microchipping of children to support a Masonic agenda, for instance—and warned his viewers to “expect more to come.” He also posted several screenshots of media stories about OUR, including a previous story of ours, adding, “There’s nothing they won’t do to stop you from watching Sound of Freedom.” 

Now, I don't blame Tim for trying to discredit stupid conspiracy tales about himself, but maybe they're kinda karmic, since he's been engaged in quite a bit of conspiracy-peddling himself.

Facts do matter.
A July 12, 2023 article in Rolling Stone goes into more detail about the reasons so many child trafficking experts and children's rights advocates are critical of Sound Of Freedom. Most of these reasons center around the film's distortions of the real and deep and complex issues around child trafficking.

Contrary to urban legends about kids getting abducted in Target parking lots by strangers, or anonymous figures snatching children from alleyways, the majority of child trafficking victims know and trust their traffickers, explains Teresa Huizar, CEO of the National Children’s Alliance (Huizar has not seen the film yet, but was able to provide context about the myths and realities of child trafficking). “Some are throwaway kids. They are kicked out of their homes and trade sex for food and a place to stay, and end up being trafficked by a pimp,” she says. “In a lot of these cases, the trafficker starts out calling themselves their boyfriend or girlfriend.” Indeed, a large body of research shows that many child trafficking victims are LGBTQ or gender nonconforming youth who have been kicked out of their homes and forced into the sex trade by someone close to them.

“We want to believe that people trafficking children are unknown, nefarious strangers,” she says. “[It] makes people uncomfortable to think some of these things happen in their own communities, in their own schools, with people they might run into at the grocery store.”

The lack of focus on tragic cases like these, in favor of more dramatic narratives about international rescue missions and shadowy strangers abducting kids, has resulted in a skewed perception of child trafficking. By ignoring the realities of what victims and traffickers look like, and the larger structural issues that prevent at-risk children from getting help — like, say, widely available, government-funded substance abuse treatment programs for families struggling with addiction, says Huizar — anti-trafficking movies like Sound of Freedom and the 2006 blockbuster Taken may have the unintended effect of not shedding light on a very serious and real problem, but obscuring it.

And while some might say this is a stretch, it's even possible that the rage the movie has inspired in some viewers could lead to acts of violence or attempted violence, as Pizzagate did a few years back. I saw a recent comment on a Facebook thread by a viewer who wrote that Sound Of Freedom is a very powerful movie, adding, "I came out angry and ready to hunt." The originator of the thread admitted to feeling the same. I say that if you're going to start hunting for pedos and other sexual predators, maybe start with the leaders of the youth ministry at your local evangelical church, or some of the republican "leaders" on national and local levels, or maybe even with some law enforcement types...but once again, I digress.

Conspiranoia runs deep. Into your life it will creep.
There is another level to the criticism of the film, and it has to do with the fact that it has provided ample fuel for Q-Anon nuts and reich-wing conspiranoids everywhere. Despite the fact that the film itself is not overtly political and makes no reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory, its star, Jim Caviezel, as well as the real-life Tim Ballard, are not only parroting right-wing talking points, as indicated above, but both men have legitimized QAnon and Q-adjacent lunacy. Also from the Rolling Stone article:

The misconceptions about child trafficking promoted by Sound of Freedom are in many ways compounded by the fact that the film has received widespread acclaim from the far right, particularly proponents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that a shadowy ring of elites is sexually abusing young children. Sound of Freedom does not refer to the conspiracy theory, nor is it overtly political (though Ballard has legitimized a QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theory centering around the furniture company Wayfair, and star Caviezel has espoused some of QAnon’s more extreme aspects, such as the belief that elites are harvesting adrenochrome from the blood of children). But it has been embraced in conspiracy theorist circles and promoted on Q boards, and it is a concern among some anti-trafficking experts that the movie will add oxygen to a discourse that detracts from a real, and very serious, problem, even if those moved by the film have the noblest of intentions.

There's even a raging conspiracy theory or two about the movie itself, one claim being that movie theaters, most notably the AMC theater chain, are deliberately and nefariously suppressing the film by discouraging patrons from seeing it. (As if a big business would actually sabotage a golden money op like Sound Of Freedom has turned out to be.) Both AMC and Angel Studios have tried their best to squelch those rumors, but you know how conspiranoids are when they latch on to a new reason, no matter how spurious, to be outraged. There's just no stopping them.

Regarding the means of alleged sabotage and suppression, several patrons have complained on social media about air conditioning or lighting or sound problems or other technical glitches during showings, and even a forced evacuation in at least one case. Then there are the cases of allegedly sold-out but nearly empty theaters, some of which do seem a bit suspicious, at least on first glance. A July 17, 2023 piece on Daily Dot addresses these claims, citing bizarre seating charts at some of the Sound Of Freedom screenings, which lend credence to claims that fake ticket sales are artificially boosting numbers.

Both opponents and fans of the film have embraced this theory, though for different reasons. Some fans think that "shadow buyers" are behind it all, with the objective of keeping real people from seeing the movie, vaguely like pranksters did in the past with mass fake RSVPs to some of Trump's rallies and personal appearances. Some opponents think it's a plot to artificially boost ticket sales, and/or that it's a nefarious money-laundering scheme. And some folks, not surprisingly, have embraced the go-to argument among the film's fans that pedos are behind it.

Some conspiracists even linked the complaints about technical difficulties to the CEO of AMC having ties to former President Bill Clinton, who had ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Now, that's a stretch. Here's a more likely explanation, though, according to the Daily Dot article.

As for the seats selling out? That might be explained at least in part by Angel Studio’s “pay it forward” ticket program, which allows individuals to purchase tickets so others can see the film. Variety reported that “about $2.6 million of opening day sales were earned through this method.”

According to Angel Studios, more than 7 million tickets have been paid forward. In its FAQ section, the studio said that if not all the tickets are claimed and there are “any funds remaining after the theatrical run, they will be used to pay for streaming Sound of Freedom in the Angel Studios app,” and remaining funds could “also be used to help the filmmaker create additional content.”

As well, it is entirely possible that, seeing as how this pay-it-forward scheme is a fairly new thing initiated by Angel Studios, there could be some bugs in the system that haven't been worked out yet. (If you're interested, here's much more info about the pay-it-forward system, and other innovative ways the film has been funded.)

But reason just doesn't seem to work very well when folks get themselves on a juicy conspiranoid roll.

Fortunately there are those -- and I deeply appreciate them -- who are having fun with the movie-theaters-are-suppressing-the-film hysterics. One that has gained some notoriety was a July 12, 2023 tweet by a comedian who claimed to be an AMC employee.

I work at AMC and just got fired for refusing to add this liquid to a customer’s soda. We were instructed specifically to serve this to Sound of Freedom audiences. I am a microbiology student and took it to the lab to examine and found what looks like nanobots inside.

Accompanying the tweet were two pictures: one of a hand holding a vial filled with gold liquid, and the other a photo of what was presumably a nanobot viewed under a microscope. Fellow tweeters were quick to point out that both photos were several years old and had been grabbed from different sources. That apparently didn't stop some folks from taking the tweet seriously.

And on one of Angel Studio's many, many sponsored tweets, there was the usual round of complaints about the awful things that AMC and the mainstream media (or MSM, as those in the know call it) and the entire left-wing cabal are doing to sabotage Sound Of Freedom. Then this contribution popped up:

I went to see it and literally the MSM was blocking the doors we snuck around them and they were in the theater farting on all the chairs and carrying personal space heaters. I couldn’t believe it but I sucked it up and stayed for america Jesus and trump.

Adding to the entertainment value of the hysteria is the fact that there is a rival conspiracy narrative, this one being spread by investors who saved AMC from almost certain death. They claim that the accusations of suppressive actions by AMC are fake news, intended to sabotage AMC and make its stock value plummet. Pass the popcorn!

I think these conspiracy narratives are so popular for several reasons, one being that they draw people together and help them feel as if they're part of Something Really Big, and a related reason being that, as is the case with other politically-fueled topics, they encourage a persecution complex in believers and spreaders of the tales -- allowing them the indulgence of "smoking that sweet crack pipe of moral indignation" (as aptly described in a different though related context, many years ago, on a Kung Fu Monkey blog post about persecution complexes among the "Religionistas").

Not only can people who buy into the persecution narrative be indignant about the real problem of child trafficking, but also about the perceived censorship or suppression or attempted sabotage of their newest favorite film, and by extension the persecution of its fans. None of us is immune to persecution fantasies, of course, though they do seem to be especially prevalent these days amongst the "conservatives" in our midst, not the least among those of a fundie Christian bent.

And if all of that isn't enough, one of the film's sponsors, Fabian Marta -- who boasts that he was instrumental in rescuing Sound Of Freedom from the evil woke suppressor Disney -- is apparently a promoter of sexual exploitation himself, via the sugar daddy/sugar baby circuit.
UPDATE, August 4, 2023: Marta was charged with felony child kidnapping on July 21 and was arrested on July 23. His Facebook posts boasting about being a funder of Sound Of Freedom, and about having his name appear in the movie's credits, have apparently since been removed.

And speaking of the Mouse House, one of the articles of faith among the conspiranoids is that Disney is part of the great cabal of pedo enablers, and that has to be why they tried to shelve the film indefinitely. But here's some more info about the Disney part of the saga.

Make up your own mind (of course).
If you want to go see for yourself what all of the fuss is about, nobody's stopping you. I'm sure not. But if you do see Sound Of Freedom, do take it with a few grains of salt. And if you want to do something about human trafficking, or at least learn about what's really going on, there are numerous non-political orgs you can contact (The Polaris Project, for instance).

If you see the movie, let me know what you think of it. As for me, I have no plans to see it, either in a theater or on streaming when it's available or on home media, and it's not because I'm "afraid" of the film or because I'm a pedo or a pal of pedos or a wicked oppressor of that most persecuted of groups in America, conspicuous Christians. It's primarily because (1) I almost never go to movie theaters (there actually aren't any theaters in my neck of the backwoods anyway, and I much prefer the comfort of home viewing); (2) we have very limited and expensive bandwidth out here in rural BFE Texas and we cannot afford to squander it on streaming of any type of entertainment; and (3) with very rare exceptions, I don't want to spend good money for a new-release DVD or Blu-Ray. Maybe if I see it someday at the local pawn shop for a buck (the going rate for DVD movies there), I'll buy it. And I'll gladly watch it, virtual salt shaker in hand.

For now, If I want to see a fictionalized thriller about sex trafficking, I'll watch Taken again. No, it doesn't serve up the pathos-on-a-platter of heartrendingly adorable little child victims, but it does offer attractive female teenage vics, for those who are into that sort of thing, which I'm not. But I liked the movie anyway because I like Liam Neeson in his tough-guy roles (as well as his tender roles such as in Love Actually). And although Taken reportedly had the unintended effect of mis-educating the public (according to the human trafficking awareness and advocacy organization I mentioned above, Polaris), at least the filmmakers didn't even pretend that they were trying to "raise awareness" about a real problem; they were simply aiming to create an entertaining action thriller. And Liam, as far as I can tell, isn't going around promoting Q-crap and reich-wing talking points. So there's that.

Suffer the little children...
Finally, a few folks on Twitter have pointed out the glaring hypocrisy of reich-wingers' sudden deep concern, inspired solely by Sound Of Freedom, about innocent little children -- brown children, at that!-- who are being so ruthlessly trafficked, a concern that seems incongruent with the general indifference of republicans/reich-wingers to the plight of children in general, particularly brown ones. Consider, for example:

• The gutting of child labor laws, mostly though not exclusively in red states (potentially allowing for more extensive exploitation of undocumented migrant children as well as those who are US citizens).
• Republicans' strategy of continuing to fight tooth and nail against common-sense gun safety measures, instead offering little more than "thoughts and prayers" after innocent little kids are mowed down at school by a maniac with an AR
• Republican opposition to safety-net programs that help children and their families
• Republican opposition to free-lunch programs for children
• Republican efforts to defund public schools
• Republican support of the horrifying treatment of migrant children and their families at the Texas border

That last item, regarding the inhumane treatment of migrants at the Texas border, seems particularly relevant here. A Texas state trooper who is also a medic reported these atrocities, claiming that border officials were told to push migrants back into the Rio Grande, and to refuse to give them water despite Texas' sweltering triple-digit summer heat. From Texas Tribune (this was first reported by the Houston Chronicle, but those articles are behind a paywall):

[According to the trooper]“We called the shift officer in command, and we were given orders to push the people back into the water to go to Mexico. We decided that this was not the correct thing to do. With the very real potential of exhausted people drowning. We made contact with command again and expressed our concerns and we were given the order to tell them to go to Mexico.”

The trooper wrote in the email that five days later, a 4-year-old girl who attempted to cross the razor wire “was pressed back by Texas Guard soldiers due to the orders given to them.” The temperature “was well over 100 degrees” and the girl passed out, the email said, adding that she had received medical treatment.

That same day, a man rescued his child who got stuck on a barrel in the water covered with razor wire, according to the trooper’s email. During the rescue, the man got a “significant” cut on his left leg, the trooper wrote. A 15-year-old boy also broke his leg trying to walk around the wire in the river and his father had to carry him across to the U.S. side, the trooper wrote.

Later that night, troopers found a 19-year-old woman stuck in the razor wire having a miscarriage, the trooper’s email said.

And so on, and so forth. All of this has taken place under the auspices of Texas Guv'ner Greg Assbutt's notorious Operation Lone Star, which recently added to its arsenal of immigrant repellents an appalling barrier of orange-as-Trump buoys on the Rio Grande, a barrier that critics have referred to as "Snag and Drown." You may remember Guv'ner Assbutt as the one who has colluded with Free State Of Floriduh Guv'ner Ron DeSatan in an ongoing human trafficking scheme to bus or fly hundreds of hapless migrants, including little kids and babies, to various blue states.

It's one thing to get up in arms, literally or figuratively, after viewing a largely make-believe movie about child trafficking. It's quite another to actively support policies and actions that help children, while actively opposing the actions and policies that harm kids of all races, ethnicities, and ages. Republicans are all about fighting fiercely to protect human zygotes, blastocysts, embryos, and fetuses, even the nonviable ones and even if protecting them kills or permanently damages their human incubators, but when it comes to babies and children outside of the womb... meh.

If there's one larger lesson from the tempest swirling around Sound Of Freedom, it's that clearly it is much more difficult to do something helpful for kids than it is to use little children as pawns to support partisan talking points and agendas.

Related:

Separating fact from fiction in Sound Of Freedom

• Sound of Freedom: Based on A True Story (Except for the Parts That Aren't), June 27, 2023: A few days before the film's official release, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) published this blog post listing major ways in which Sound Of Freedom departs from reality. (To get a clearer picture, if you're so inclined, please do follow the next link.)
• "Sound Of Freedom" Review by Joaquin Posada de la Montaña, July 13, 2023: An unbiased review from a Colombian and political scientist who closely follows Colombia's politics. He generously cited the OUR blog post I linked to above, but added:

Let me start by saying this movie is an entertaining thriller and was a worthy watch, for a movie about a white guy in the southern hemisphere, “saving the day” showing brown people “how it is done”. Was it accurate? Well, some of it was. The entire second half was completely fabricated and depended on the ignorance of the average North American. I’ll get into it here.

Separating fact from fiction in the larger tale of Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad
Anti-Trafficking Group With Long History of False Claims Gets Its Hollywood Moment (Vice, July 6, 2023): Not to belabor the point, but Ballard has worked diligently for years to burnish his image as a hero/savior. (This piece doesn't acknowledge that Ballard had recently left OUR, but in later articles Vice did address that fact.) The truth about both Ballard and OUR are not quite congruent with the carefully crafted mythology, which is putting it mildly. By the way, I learned by reading this article that insufferable Scamworld huckster Tony Robbins is not only one of the executive producers of Sound Of Freedom, but he's a big fan and buddy of Ballard. Turds of a feather...

There are cults, and then there are cults...

The Trumpcult connection

• Jim Caviezel Calls Donald Trump 'The New Moses' And We Can't Let This Pass Over (originally published on HuffPost and picked up on Yahoo.com July 20, 2023): Although as noted above Sound Of Freedom is not overtly political, it has become a political and culture-war flashpoint nevertheless. One big reason, also mentioned above, is that both the film's star, Jim Caviezel, and its inspiration, Tim Ballard, have been all over the right-wing media-sphere spouting right-wing talking points. Not to mention Caviezel's apparent hero worship of Donald Trump. He seems to truly believe that Trump is going to save the children and set all of the sex slaves everywhere free. Jim, you seriously need to choose your heroes a lot more more carefully, FFS.
  
  
• How Donald Trump Reacted to Seeing 'Sound of Freedom' (Newsweek, July 20, 2023): As you surely must know by now, Trump hosted a special private screening of Sound Of Freedom at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf motel on July 19. The main purpose of the screening, according to what his campaign told ABC News, was for Trump to court evangelical Christians, but the special guests were Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard.
  
  After viewing the film, Trump called it a "great movie" and an "incredible inspiration," and he praised Caviezel and Ballard to the moon and back. In a statement before the screening, he also criticized media outlets such as Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Guardian, whom he claimed have "trashed the film and mocked the millions of movie-goers who purchased tickets to screenings." Which is not at all what has been going on, but... see above, regarding persecution complexes.
  
  For his part, Caviezel has wet himself gushing all over Trump on Twitter by flogging the Moses motif, writing in a tweet on July 20: "President Trump is going to save Children the likes of which you have never seen! You might even say he is the new Moses telling Pharaoh (World Cabal) to let the children Go Free!  Mr. President …. You are The "New" Moses!… but I’m still Jesus ;) +++" [The latter, of course, is a reference to Caviezel's starring role as Jesus H. Christ in the 2004 Mel Gibson movie, The Passion Of The Christ.] Then, not having gushed and sucked up enough, Caviezel added this on July 21: "Mr President @SOFMovie2023 jumped in Box Office Numbers after we visited you at Bedminster the other night….We are gonna have an incredible weekend because of you Sir! Moses told me it’s ok to un-retire his jersey… says you can wear it for the rest of your life! Love JC+++" If you want to respond to Caviezel on Twitter, tough luck, unless you are actually mentioned in one of his tweets, or he follows you.
  
  By the way, both Caviezel and Ballard seem to be engaging in a straw-man argument when they insist that Sound Of Freedom is not trying to appeal to QAnon supporters. Few credible sources have accused the film of doing that, and indeed, those behind the film are trying their best to disavow any connection to QAnon or other conspiracies and controversies. Nevertheless the movie does appeal to QAnon supporters, who have openly slapped their own (partisan) twist on it, and Caviezel himself did speak at a QAnon convention in 2021, and in more recent appearances he has pushed the "big storm coming" trope that is part of the rallying cry of QAnon.

The Mormoncult connection
A cult within a cult: Operation Underground Railroad, the Mormon Church, and me (Christi Thomas Boyce, May 26, 2021): This is well worth reading, even though it's an older piece and predates the current controversies around Sound Of Freedom by a couple of years. And even though Tim Ballard is no longer associated with the rescue org he formed, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), the author provides some good background info along with highly informed opinions. Her piece is actually a response to a 2021 article, cited above in the main post and shared in many current social media conversations, about the personal experiences of a woman named Meg Conley, who personally went on one of the rescue ops with Tim Ballard back in 2014.

Why right-wing conspiranoids are so obsessed with pedophilia
Why Are Right-Wing Conspiracies so Obsessed With Pedophilia? Mother Jones, July/August 2019: This is an older article, which I've cited previously on this blog. But it's worth sharing again, seeing as how Sound Of Freedom has once again inspired rabid accusations from the right of pedophilia (committed by lefties and liberals, of course).

The appeal of conspiracy narratives in today's political and social environment
How the pandemic and politics gave us a golden age of conspiracy theories (CNN, October 3, 2020):
This article predates the current brouhaha over Sound Of Freedom, of course, but it's relevant nevertheless. It explores how even the most extreme conspiranoid fantasies, once largely confined to the fringe, have become much more mainstream, and it also discusses QAnon. The part about the connective power of conspiracy fantasies is especially pertinent.

The internet, as usual, acts as a potent alchemical vessel for these ideas. Not only does it allow believers to connect with each other, but sophisticated algorithms and the self-limiting power of social media lets people seal themselves off from dissenting views.

These online factions also serve an important psychological purpose.

"People who believe conspiracies are generally more socially alienated and feel disconnected from society in general," says [psychologist John] Grohol. "These are people who are already primed and may feel lonely and disaffected, and the internet gives them a place to come together and share their false beliefs."

That can create a powerful sense of community, of "us against the word," embodied in slogans like QAnon's "Where We Go One We Go All."

"People desire that social connectedness, and if they were to reverse their conspiracy thinking, they would have to give up that social connectedness," Grohol says.

Trump v DeSantis: both are evil & dangerous, but so far Trump seems to be prevailing

 

In my previous two posts I went to great lengths to (over)state what should be, but unfortunately is not, obvious to everyone: Florida governor Ron DeSantis, aka Der Führer of Floriduh, is a danger to democracy, as demonstrated over and over again by the rhetoric, policies, and actions of DeSantis and his fellow fascists in the legislature of the "Free State of Florida."

It would be a mistake at this point to dismiss the dangers posed by DeSantis and his allies, especially as he seems to be lurching headlong towards a run for the US presidency in 2024. But it would also be an egregious error to dismiss the current rethuglican front-runner: #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump. On the first of the two blog posts linked to in the paragraph above, I wrote that in many ways DeSantis is worse than Trump. I stand by that opinion, but it in no way negates or neutralizes the profound awfulness of Trump, and the threats that he poses.

The rivalry between Trump and DeSantis has been a steady theme in the news cycle for months, and in many ways it's very amusing. It's particularly amusing because most of the attacks are coming from Trump -- everything from his continuing efforts to find new childish nicknames with which to taunt "Meatball Ron," to a pro-Trump super PAC pot calling a DeSantis kettle black by accusing DeSantis of ethics violations.

So far, Meatball Ron has been very measured and circumspect in his responses to Trump's attacks, when he has responded at all. There's been a lot of speculation as to why, the most obvious probability being that he doesn't want to risk alienating that all-important MAGA cult. On the other hand, some rethuglicans have said that DeSantis' lack of response is simply because there is no reason for him to engage now, and that besides, there's no evidence that the attacks from Trump are hurting him so far. Then again, DeSantis hasn't officially announced his candidacy, and once he does, it's entirely possible that Trump will destroy him on the national stage, as he has done to all of his previous rethuglican rivals.

In any case, it appears that more than one prominent rethuglican is in a bubble of denial regarding Trump's chances in 2024. Axios (March 14, 2023) offers some blatant examples of rethuglican leaders' statements that more than likely will not age well. They're seriously underestimating the power of the Trumpcult and of Trump's ability to keep the cult members in thrall.

Trump has absolutely no intention of giving up his position as cult leader, as recently indicated in his infamous "I am your retribution" rant at this year's CPAC. He has firmly stated that even if the great "political witch hunt" results in his being indicted, he will continue to run for prez. Nothing's gonna stop him!

Unfortunately he has a point: with his campaign centering on his "victimhood" and his vows of vengeance, Trump's poll numbers seem to climb with each new development in the ongoing saga of investigations of him and legal actions against him. And the monetary contributions just keep coming in; he has yet to meet a potential personal/legal crisis that he hasn't been able to monetize. Who says crime (and civil offenses) don't pay? For Trump, they've paid off handsomely so far.

And while I don't believe for a moment that I have been overstating the potential danger of a DeSantis presidency, given all of the damage done in Florida so far by DeSantis and the Tallahassee Taliban, there's also a good argument in favor of the opinion that Ron DeSantis is overrated as a rival to Trump. Again, the crucial factors are the strength of the MAGA cult and the determination of their leader. Ana Marie Cox, writing for the New Republic (March 13, 2023), summed it up quite succinctly.

Sure, the thinking goes, Trump’s presidency set the stage for a Republican nomination contest that looks to hinge on banning drag brunches and books, but Trump has been stuck in the wings squeezing out Truth Social posts for the past three years, while DeSantis’s stunts took Fox News’s center stage. Look at Ron go! He’s Trump “without the baggage.” He’s Trump “with a less crass delivery.” He’s “someone who gets them [Republicans] out of having to defend Trump.” He’s “Trump with brains” or, more modestly, “Trump with a brain.”

It’s a great argument if you think that today’s Republican voter—which is to say, a Trump voter—thinks that there’s anything wrong with Trump just how he is. You think they want a day off from defending Trump? Defending Trump is the entire GOP brand. Republicans sort both one another and their news (“news”) sources through a prism of Trumpiness. And as for DeSantis being the “smart Trump,” well, I’m not sure there’s anyone in the GOP base who actually asked for such a thing.

And then there's the aforementioned point that Trump has a history of annihilating his political rivals with the sheer force of his bullying "personality." A March 15, 2023 piece from the Daily Kos community (by a frequent contributor who goes by the name Dartagnan), bears the charmingly rhyming headline, "The Ron DeSantis wind-up doll is about to walk into a right-wing wall." It all has to do not only with DeSantis' own lack of charisma, but, more importantly, with -- you guessed it -- the nature of the Trumpcult base and their expectations.

As observed this week by The New York Times’ Reid J. Epstein and Maggie Haberman, the Republican political landscape is littered with the bodies of formerly viable candidates who have fallen victim to the Wrath of Trump. No longer do we hear the plaintive speeches of Jeb Bush promising a softer, genteel facade for conservatism’s lethal aims; no longer are we troubled by the wonky, opportunistic aspirations of Marco Rubio, the original “Tea Party” senator; nor are we beset by the strange and improbable presidential fantasies of Texas’ Ted Cruz. All of these putative “contenders” to the GOP throne in 2016 have slunk off into their little sinecures, each one resigned to the fact that their dreams of power will remain forever dashed as long as their orange-hued nemesis continues to walk the earth.

This has nothing to do with their personal platforms or pet policies. They all offered Americans only slightly varied shades of the same tasteless right-wing pablum. But they quickly found that their policies didn’t matter to a Republican base far more eager for entertainment and the stimulating prospect of bread and circuses than actual governance. And in terms of entertainment, Donald Trump’s performances were untouchable. Trump dispatched these so-called establishment Republicans with almost no effort, singeing their hides and forcing them into that shadow realm where failed Republican presidential hopefuls pine away the rest of their days, dreaming of what might have been...

 ...The essential, insoluble problem for DeSantis is that Trump can continue to deliver body blows to DeSantis ad infinitum, but DeSantis cannot respond in kind without alienating the Trump supporters he needs to win. He is never going to outbid Trump on policy issues because Trump will always claim that they were his idea to begin with. 

So even though both Trump and DeSantis are dangerous, in many ways they are not evenly matched. And in a way that's a pity. If only the Trump-DeSantis rivalry could somehow result in the two of them completely eliminating each other from public life, the country would be much better off. Of course I am not in any way suggesting any type of physical violence. Even so, that old limerick about the two cats of Kilkenny keeps coming to mind...

There were once two cats of Kilkenny,
Each thought that was one cat too many;
So they fought and they fit,
They scratched and they bit,
Till, excepting their nails
And the tips of their tails,
Instead of two cats, there weren’t any.

A girl can dream, anyway.

In Ron DeSantis' Flori-duh, freedom's just another word for fascism

 

This post has been updated with additional content as well as editing of original content for the purpose of flow.
~ CC

As Florida governor Ron DeSantis jackboots his way around the nation to promote his new manifesto (titled, apparently without irony, The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival), it is becoming increasingly clear that DeSantis is confusing freedom with another "f" word, fascism. (Particularly, it seems, where the news media are concerned.)

In my previous post I discussed at great length some of the many reasons that DeSantis is bad for Florida and would, if elected president, be truly awful for the US of A. But the fascist stench from the Sunshine State is not just coming from the governor's mansion.

A not insignificant portion of it is emanating from Mar-a-Lardo, of course, as The Great Fatsby continues to hold court at his favorite gaudy golf motel. Whether he's presiding over dinners or lavish bashes (dee-jaying old show tunes and Celine Dion songs in between posing with a seemingly endless string of siliconed, Botoxed, and egregiously overly-eyelashed courtiers); or holding court with the members of various state rethuglican parties in hopes of increasing his chances in 2024; or participating in the recording of a cringe-worthy "song" to benefit the "political prisoners" who attempted on January 6, 2021 to violently overthrow the U.S. government; or in various ways simply continuing his long tradition of grifting, Donald Trump just won't go away. And he appears to be giving DeSantis a run for his money in the 2024 presidential campaign.

But even that's not the extent of it. For the foul odor of fascism is all over Florida, being disseminated in large part by the state's rethuglican party, via some truly appalling bills that, if not directly supported by DeSantis (a point that isn't completely clear as of this writing) are at the very least in alliance with his dystopian vision for Florida and America.

To begin with, there is the proposed bill that would effectively abolish the Democratic Party in Florida. It's a long shot but, if passed, it would compel more than four million voters to register with a different party or be unaffiliated. From the Forbes link in the first sentence of this paragraph:

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R) filed the “Ultimate Cancel Act” (SB 1248), a bill aimed at the Democratic Party that directs the state’s Division of Elections to “immediately cancel” the filings and status of any political party that has “has previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.”

The Democratic Party did have a pro-slavery platform in the 19th century around the time of the Civil War, though it then went on to support civil rights and most Black voters in the U.S. now identify as Democrats...

...While DeSantis has described the state’s Democratic Party as a “dead, rotten carcass,” he has not yet endorsed Ingoglia’s bill, and the lawmaker told WFSU the governor “did not know anything” about the bill’s drafting and he “[doesn’t] know if [DeSantis] knows that the bill has actually been filed.”

But I'm willing to bet that DeSantis is very well aware of the legislation, and is perhaps not so secretly smirking about it. In case you're wondering about the "reasoning" behind this fascist measure, there's a clue in its working title, "The Ultimate Cancel Act." It's pure revenge, on behalf of whiny right-wing snowflakes everywhere, for the greatly exaggerated phenomenon of "cancel culture." From Forbes again:

“For years now, leftist activists have been trying to ‘cancel’ people and companies for things they have said or done in the past,” Ingoglia said Tuesday. “Using this standard, it would be hypocritical not to cancel the Democratic Party itself for the same reason.”

What it boils down to is that according to Ingoglia and the proto-fascist mob, when they engage in public protests against an individual, a product, or a company, they are simply exercising their God-given and Constitutionally-granted freedom of speech, and if they choose to stage a boycott, it's for a righteous cause. When "the left" attempts to so the same, on the other hand, it's an example of "cancel culture," and it constitutes a crime against truth, justice, and The American Way. In any case Ingoglia, and the proposed bill he so proudly flaunts, deliberately gloss over a core fact of American history that everyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the subject knows, and that is explained in just about every report I've read about this matter, including on the Truthout site.

Early in its history, the Democratic Party fought to preserve the institution of slavery and to uphold other vehicles of white supremacy, including Jim Crow laws in the South after the Civil War. Partway through the 20th century, however, the platforms and voting blocs of the two major political parties underwent a dramatic shift; in the years since, Republicans have actively campaigned to disenfranchise Black voters and to suppress any acknowledgment of the ongoing effects of slavery and racism in the U.S.

Indeed, Republicans in Florida, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), recently passed laws to restrict educators from teaching factual accounts of Black history in the U.S. — a move that many scholars and activists say is proto-fascist.

Should Ingoglia's indecent proposal not be sufficient to satisfy a fascist's appetite, there is also a proposed bill, SB 1316 filed by Senator Jason Brodeur of Sanford, Florida that would force paid bloggers who write about the Florida governor or other top elected officials to register with the state. Yes, you read that correctly: register with the state.

Specifically, bloggers would be required to register either with the Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics within five days after posting a story mentioning the governor, another member of the Florida Cabinet, or a state legislator. They would also be required to file monthly reports every time another state elected official is mentioned, or face a $25.00 per day fine (up to $2,500.00) for failing to report their activities and compensation. Included in the legislation is language conflating paid bloggers with lobbyists, who are already required to register.

The bill excludes bloggers who write for the website of a newspaper or other similar publication, but contains no exemption for online-only outlets or TV stations and networks. And indie bloggers would apparently be completely at the mercy of this legislation.

So I guess it's a good thing that I'm in Texas, and that, apart from the exceedingly rare but very much appreciated donation, I am not compensated for anything I write on this blog. (Contrary to the long-time claims of certain Scamworld hucksters and fascists in their own right, such as Not-Doctor Leonard Coldwell, the Little Hitler of Scamworld, who for years falsely insisted that I was being paid millions by Big Pharma to defame him and other "natural healers," and who, incidentally, currently lives in Florida himself (Ocala) and has abandoned Donald Trump in favor of Ron DeSantis as the Savior of the American Way. Coldwell, as you may recall if you've been following this blog for a while, unsuccessfully sued me, my fellow blogger Jason "Salty Droid" Jones, and a few other parties back in 2015. The legal drama ended when his own incompetent lawyers, who apparently realized, belatedly, that they should never have taken the case, threw him under a bus.)

As with the proposal to do away with the Democratic Party in Florida, it's not clear at this point if DeSantis supports the anti-blogger legislation, but it certainly seems DeSantis-friendly. [Note: see update below.] For sure, it's democracy-unfriendly. From the Orlando Sentinel, March 3, 2023:

Bobby Block, executive director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, said the measure goes beyond anything he’s seen in the United States.

“From my own experience, the only places where journalists would ever have to register with the government have been apartheid South Africa, the countries behind the Iron Curtain, the USSR, Zaire, Burkina Faso, and socialist Ethiopia,” Block said. “... I don’t think Florida being in that company of those countries is a good thing.”

The Orlando Sentinel article also notes that this bill is the second one from Brodeur this week that targets the media.

The bill is the second from Brodeur this week that would put extra restrictions on the media.

His other one, SB 1220, proposes sweeping changes to Florida’s libel and defamation law, making it easier to sue journalists by automatically presuming information from anonymous sources to be false and preventing journalists from shielding the identity of sources.

That's right in sync with DeSantis' agenda for the news media.

UPDATE: A few days after this post was initially published, Business Insider reported that DeSantis had weighed in on the blogger bill. At a press conference held on Tuesday, March 6, he claimed that the bill is "not anything that I have ever supported," and that he doesn't "control every single bill that has been filed..."

Finally, there are the Florida rethuglicans' legislative assaults on the transgender community, particularly transgender youth, their families, and medical professionals who provide care for them. Two bills, HB 1421 (filed by House Health & Human Services Chairman Randy Fine, R-Brevard County and Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto), and SB 254 (filed by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville), would make it illegal for doctors to provide treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender minors. These bills are, at best, a solution in search of a problem; after all, in February, both the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine had moved forward with rules that would prevent doctors from providing these treatments to minors. The proposed legislation, however, would take things further by placing such prohibitions in state law, with dire punishments for violations.

From the WUSF Public Media/WUSF 89.7 web site:

...The House version would require that doctors lose their licenses if they commit violations, while the Senate bill could lead to criminal charges for a person who "willfully or actively participates in a violation."

The House bill also would make changes including preventing health insurers and HMOs from providing coverage for treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery and would largely block people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates. Both bills would bar state agencies and local governments from spending money on such treatments...

...the LGBTQ-advocacy group Equality Florida issued a news release about the House bill that said it would "strip families of their medical freedom, put government in control of insurance coverage decisions, and codify a ban on transgender people being legally recognized as themselves."

Representative Randy Fine, whose committee held a panel discussion in February that Equality Florida described as a "sham panel," actually compared gender-affirming care to the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi butcher who conducted horrendous medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. Even worse, Fine used his own Jewish creds to justify this outrageous comparison. (He got a lot of blowback for this.)

The two bills cited above are just the latest in a series of actions by Florida lawmakers and Governor DeSantis' administration that target transgender people, and the LGBTQ+ community at large. Again, that's right in keeping with the state's general march towards fascism.

I could go on and on about Florida rethuglican lawmakers' assaults on freedom and civil rights. But I think you get the drift. In case you want a slightly more comprehensive recap of horrible bill proposals in Florida, though, here's a handy list, written by Thomas Kennedy and shared by Jordan Zakarin on the Progress Report site.

From a larger world perspective, the Florida rethuglicans appear to be in good company, and by "good," of course, I mean atrocious. An opinion piece on the Mother Jones site (March 4, 2023) suggests that Senator Jason Brodeur's blogger registration bill, and several other pieces of legislation by Florida rethuglicans, were inspired by Hungary's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has become a darling of the American far right. The question of whether Orbán was the inspiration or the legislators dreamed up these dystopian measures on their own is on a par with the question of whether Donald Trump is lying or delusional: in both cases, either possibility is equally awful.

* * * * *

Given the Sunshine State's current political climate, it's no wonder that Florida has become a magnet for far-right groups and individuals, including the notorious former dictator president of Brazil (and election denier/riot inspirer, and, of course, Trump buddy), Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro did tell the Wall Street Journal last month that he plans to return to Brazil some time this month to "lead the opposition" and, presumably face whatever charges are pending against him. Meanwhile, he has become yet another darling of the American Reich in general (even being featured, along with Trump, at the 2023 CPAC clown show), but he seems to have a particular affinity with Florida, and vice versa -- and I suspect it's not merely because of the relatively high population of Brazilian expats in the state. I think a big factor is that increasingly, Florida seems to be a haven for despots and wannabe despots.

In case anyone is tempted to say that I, being in deep red Texas, have no room to rag on Florida, rest assured that I've ragged on Texas plenty as well. I am painfully aware that I live in a state that is aggressively trying to turn itself into a Christo-fascist dystopia.

I wrote about this in September 2021, as 666 (an apt number) new laws, mostly the creations of Texas rethuglicans, took effect. Included among these laws were additional restrictions on abortion (ahead of the overturning of Roe the following year), efforts to further disenfranchise voters who tend to vote Democratic, and laws to make guns even more accessible than they already are.

Much more recently, Texas state Representative Bryan Slaton has put forth a creepy proposal to cut property taxes for married straight people who are committed to breeding. Couples with four children would get a 40 percent tax break, and those with ten or more kids would pay no property taxes at all. In a statement about the proposal, Slaton said, “With this bill, Texas will start saying to couples, ‘Get married, stay married, and be fruitful and multiply." Married couples without offspring could also get a deal -- a 10 percent tax break -- but the married couple must be a man and a woman, and they cannot have been divorced. From the Daily Kos article linked to above:

There’s a high degree of Christofascism going on here, since it’s all about straight marriage, premised on the assumption that you are already homeowners and thus high up enough on the social ladder to be worthy of this state-sponsored beneficence. It’s heavy on the culture war, something that Stalin and Putin didn’t have the luxury of demanding. But that’s certainly where the scheme originates.

In 1944, following a decade of his purges, as well as massive losses in WWII, Stalin decided Russians needed to start replenishing the population. In came the “Order of Maternal Glory,” encouragement of Russian women to become “Hero mothers.” It didn’t really matter to Stalin if they were married or not—he just needed the production.

Along with some snazzy medals (first-class to mothers who bore nine children—they didn’t all have to still be alive; second-class to mothers of eight; third-class to mothers of seven) the Hero Mothers also got perks, including childcare assistance, boosts to their pensions, and priority access to foods and other goods that were in constant short supply. The award existed until 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved. Most of the former republics ended it.

Putin revived the plan in 2022, with some modifications: Moms can get a monetary reward of the rubles equivalent of approximately $16,000 -- but for 10 children, once the 10th child turns one year old -- and all of the other children have to have survived.

And now we have a similar type of proposal in Texas. Here's more about it from Jef Rouner at the Houston Press, focusing on the probable motivations of the legislator who proposed the bill.

Slaton’s bill likely has more to do with his extreme religious views. Slaton, who is a former minister, is one of the state’s most fervent conservative culture warriors when it comes to painting regressive polices as Christian dogma. It’s Slaton who has proposed banning minors from all drag events, something that could potentially outlaw trans people from being around children at all, depending on how the law is written or interpreted. Slaton has spent much of his time in the state legislature tacking on various anti-LGBT amendments to bills as part of his ideological crusade.

Granted, it's just a proposal so far, but the very fact that it's been brought up is an indicator of where Texas rethuglicans stand in the race to take America back -- back decades, that is, if not centuries.

So yes, the Texas political climate is horrible too. But that doesn't let Florida off the hook.

PS ~ The good news, if there is any, is that DeSantis and gang's far-right/fascist policies and bills are not popular with the majority of Floridians. Here's a rundown from Jordan Zakarin at Progress Report, including a well-deserved scolding of Florida Democrats. On the other hand... Zakarin, along with Jen Cousins, also report that DeSantis' mean-spirited school board is doubling down on their mission to impose their fascist dogma on the schools, making life even more miserable for students, parents, and teachers. As reported on March 13, 2023 on Progress Report, the Florida Board of Education, which is packed with DeSantis cronies, plans (among other actions) to expand the already draconian "Don't Say Gay" legislation up through the 12th grade.