How sex trafficking panic leads to Qanon conspiracy theorists - Brooke Magnanti
Live event link: https://www.twitch.tv/sitp
We've teamed up with other Skeptics in the Pub groups around the country to organise regular talks online during the pandemic.
As the US Presidential election draws near, the world has become fascinated with the seemingly new phenomena of Qanon and other wide-ranging conspiracy theories taking over social media and mainstream politics. However, the genesis of these groups is years old and comes from a surprising place: the global anti-sex trafficking movement. Brooke Magnanti discusses what happens when well-meaning causes are sidelined by bad stats and bad faith actors seize the opportunity in the service of a more worrying trend.
Brooke Magnanti is a scientist and author. She is writer of the bestselling Belle de Jour series of books, which were adapted into the hit ITV show "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" starring Billie Piper. She is also the writer of crime thrillers The Turning Tide and You Don't Know Me. Brooke was born in west central Florida in 1975. She earned a Ph.D. in the Forensic Pathology department there, specialising in human decomposition and postmortem identification. She has worked in forensic science, epidemiology, chemoinformatics and cancer research. About Skeptics in the Pub - Online
We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking.
About Skeptics in the Pub - Online We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking.
New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both? We anticipate that Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you so we will have early doors at 6:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have.
A useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337
You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat.
You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A though.
More details on accessibility, inclusion and safety here: https://www.skepticsinthepub.org/online-safety
Safety & Comfort
We aim to be an inclusive organisation, welcoming attendees from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and genders. The directors reserve the right to remove any attendee whose continued presence represents a real or perceived threat to the smooth running of our events, or the security and comfort of other attendees. Anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.