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THREADConspiracy theorists of Twitter forced me to spend 2hrs of my life I will never get back investigating their latest invented narrative they found on Reddit and dragged through the swamp to Twitter: That @Wayfair is trafficking children through WFX Utility cabinets.
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Spoiler alert: Everything Reddit posted is false.
It is actually not hard to go to an actual website and input the details of what you believe to be true to check it out for yourself. #Wayfair sells the WFX Utility line. It is vast and is made for homes and corporations.
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It is actually not hard to go to an actual website and input the details of what you believe to be true to check it out for yourself. #Wayfair sells the WFX Utility line. It is vast and is made for homes and corporations.
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Individual collections have female and male names--a common practice in all furniture design. Prices range from $100 to $1,500 for different pieces. There is nothing at WFX via Wayfair or Latitude Run, which is an affiliate of Birch Lane, that matches the Reddit cabinets.
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What's more, a quick discussion with both Wayfair and Birch Lane clarifies that neither sells anything in the price range listed on the Reddit story. Nothing. As Wayfair noted, "We specialize in affordable items." Birch Lane, which can be pricier, literally laughed.
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"Who would pay that for a utility cabinet?"
It is difficult to understand the function of these invented narratives. The majority of the folks doing the posting seem to be typical anonymous Twitter accounts with low to moderate followings and skew young. But this is dangerous.
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It is difficult to understand the function of these invented narratives. The majority of the folks doing the posting seem to be typical anonymous Twitter accounts with low to moderate followings and skew young. But this is dangerous.
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A man who believed the #Pizzagate conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton went into the DC business where she was allegedly running a child trafficking ring in the basement while running for POTUS, and shot up the place to "free the kids." Except it was never true.
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Child trafficking is real. I've reported stories on it here and in the UK and my first non-fiction book was about child trafficking and juvenile prostitution. It is precisely because it is real that it is dangerous to spread these false narratives: real people can be harmed.
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The main purveyor of #Pizzagate in 2016 was Mike #Flynn, who right up until just days before the election was claiming Hillary Clinton was going to be arrested for child trafficking via #Pizzagate. Polls showed 27% of Democrats believed it was true. How many votes were lost?
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If actual reporters are not covering a story, that is inevitably because there is no story. This is a stressful time. The temptation may be to seek entertainment in a range of ways. But falling down rabbit holes is never a good thing. Someone always gets hurt.
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If you are actually interested in addressing the perils of child trafficking, there are numerous reputable agencies dealing with it. @Polaris_Project is one. @together4girls is another. Reddit is not.
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