After the box office success of the film Sound of Liberty, by Mexican director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, voices have emerged from the extreme right and American Christian fundamentalism that have taken advantage of the plot to generate conspiracy theories and promote conspiracy networks such as QAnon, that speak of an international child trafficking network linked to progressive politicians in the United States.
This situation has begun to be replicated in Brazil, where conservative groups linked to Bolsonaroism have revived conspiracies on social networks about pedophile networks around Lula, president of Brazil and leader of the Workers' Party.
The film about Tim Ballard, a former US internal security agent who seeks to dismantle a child trafficking network in Colombia, premiered last week in Sao Paulo, where Flavio Bolsonaro, congressman and son of the former president, Damares, was present. Alves, evangelical fundamentalist senator and minister during the Bolsonaro government and Pastor Marco Feliciano, current deputy and neo-Presbyterian pastor, as well as a recognized homophobe.
Although the director has distanced himself from QAnon and far-right politicians, the film was classified in conspiracy networks as close to QAnon, which has meant the use of this film as a criticism of progressive parties. This situation has led researcher Laura Robinson to be critical of the film and the conspiracy theories that have been promoted from it.
Why do you think the Christian right, in countries like the United States and Brazil, wants to turn Sound of Freedom into a platform to mobilize its base?
There are many reasons. One is that many people who work or finance the Underground Railroad organization (supposedly fighting child trafficking created by Tim Ballard, the film's protagonist), are affiliated with the American right. The film helps them promote themselves as heroes. Tim Ballard was an advisor to the Trump administration and publicly defended the construction of the border wall. Glenn Beck, a right-wing conservative commentator, was an early major donor to Ballard's organization and recommended investing in his for-profit affiliate. Tim Ballard recently announced his intention to run for the US Senate, and has praised Trump for believing that he is effective in fighting human trafficking.
People like Ballard present themselves as brave heroes facing this bottomless evil and anyone who opposes their agenda becomes an accomplice to the evil. If you raise questions about their narrative, they say you are a supporter of child trafficking! For them, the women who have criticized Ballard (accused of misogynistic abuse) are not concerned people seeking justice, but rather they are helping traffickers.
All of this also helps to push the ideology of Christian nationalism. Tim Ballard defends a Mormon version of Christian nationalism called "The Covenant," which is a revision of American history in which Mormonism is placed at the center of everything. Not all of Ballard's allies are Mormons (although many are!), but Mormon nationalism and Christian nationalism have many overlaps.
The film does not tell the story of child trafficking as a conspiracy by a progressive elite as in the QAnon version, but QAnon followers and far-right ideologues say it confirms their theories. How does this happen?
Indeed Sound of Freedom itself does not represent QAnon conspiracies. For QAnon believers, children are kidnapped so that pedophiles – all Democrats and movie stars – can abuse and even eat them. The movie doesn't say that. However, lead actor Jim Cavaziel frequently promotes QAnon conspiracies. Ballard and Jim Cavaziel have also participated in conferences of people very close to QAnon, such as the Health and Freedom 2021 conference, where Cavaziel spoke about sex trafficking in the context of QAnon. They also showed a trailer for Sound of Freedom at that event.
Did QAnon help finance the film?
In February 2021, Cavaziel screened the film in Las Vegas, at a Stop the Steel rally attempting to return Trump to power after the election - this event was organized by Juan O'Savin, a fanatical QAnon follower. Additionally, because the film's release was, in part, funded by crowdfunding, these QAnon events were seen as places to drum up donors and supporters for the film.
Do you think Christian conservatives, with little regard for feminist claims, distort what is primarily a problem of trafficking young women as prostitutes into an issue of "God's innocent children"?
Of course. The stories told in the film are unlike most documented cases of human trafficking survivors. Much of sex trafficking involves other complicated issues such as drug addiction, sex to finance addiction, forced marriage. But Americans often gravitate toward stories of kidnapping of very young children who are kidnapped and trafficked abroad. Our duty, from this perspective, is to return them to their home. This is comforting because it creates an idea of the "perfect victim" while blaming and shaming the real victims of sexual violence. It also helps support what many Americans want to believe about the border and immigration: that keeping Latin Americans out of the United States is a good thing, and the trafficking problem is solved by sending them home. It is much easier to excite Americans when it comes to a kidnapped, say 8-year-old Honduran girl, and send her back home than to a 17-year-old runaway struggling with addiction and being sexually exploited to get a place to live. stay. Although this last story is much more common.
At the very least, the film is concerned with the Latin American victims of human trafficking, and not the "white kid kidnapped from the Ikea in your town" who stars in QAnon conspiracy theories.
TRUE. It focuses on victims from the global south. That's good. Unfortunately, many of the conversations in the United States about trafficking do not focus on vulnerable children, but on the children of people concerned about trafficking, because they think their children are in danger and do not worry about the children who are. endangered.
In Brazil, Bolsonaro's far-right tries to equate pedophilia with left-wing progressive ideas. Incredibly, this seems to work with evangelicals. Why do you think this conspiracy theory generates so much attraction among these groups?
Associating queer people with sexual predation is an old phenomenon and stereotype. They see Drag Queen and think of pedophilia. In reality, child abuse is much more common in church contexts, camps, families, schools, or Boy Scout groups.
