Media prioritize ‘Qanon’ over human trafficking.

Angel Studios’ recent film “Sound of Freedom,” which adapts the true story of a government agent-turned-vigilante who works within legal means to fight an international child sex trafficking ring, is receiving great commercial success and critical acclaim.

Briefly outperforming the latest pile of Disney slop, “Sound of Freedom” is a well-produced and well-acted film that effectively blends action and suspense while pushing one of the modern world’s most significant — yet under-discussed — issues to the forefront of public discourse. This issue, of course, being the multibillion-dollar, global human trafficking industry.

The point of the movie, as expressed by its star Jim Caviezel in a heartfelt mid-credits call to action, is to wake people up to the horrors of the all-too-real and overlooked exploitation of children in the contemporary sex trade.

This seems like a pretty harmless task, no? If anything, one would think that a widely popular cultural phenomenon attempting to encourage people to stand against the ongoing exploitation of children is a net positive.

However, perhaps unsurprisingly, left-wing media took the opportunity to lambaste “Sound of Freedom” as “a Superhero Movie for Dads With Brainworms” and a “Trafficking Fantasy Fit for Qanon.”

Rolling Stone, placing a comically outsized focus on the “near-total absence of procedural logic” and the film’s embellishment of real-life events (it is a movie, after all), onanistically kvetched about Caviezel’s and Tim Ballard’s (the man whose story “Sound of Freedom” adapted) conservative affiliations, impassioned anti-human trafficking activism, and the possibility that they may believe in the “Qanon” conspiracy theory.

Rolling Stone, incredibly concerned about the film “enforc[ing] stereotypes about trafficking,” downplayed the reality of the international human trafficking trade by suggesting “thousands of adults will absorb Sound of Freedom” as a “vigilante fever dream” and that “want[ing] to spread the word” about the reality of this international trade is “profoundly depressing.”

Jezebel cynically amplified skepticism about the film’s intentions by suggesting that Caviezel’s anti-human trafficking activism is being used to “peddle Qanon theories.”

And The Washington Post similarly cast aside the film’s message because of past statements made by Caviezel regarding “adrenochrome” and Ballard’s work insufficiently passing the leftist ideological smell test. Evidently, raising awareness about and working to stop child sex trafficking is irrelevant if you don’t properly adhere to the contemporary, politically correct orthodoxy.

In reality, human trafficking is a relevant issue; even the United Nations agrees. But left-wing media would rather drool over the specter of an irrelevant conspiracy theory than acknowledge that conservative Americans are working to effect positive change.

Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @smlenett.

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