[Velchronus]

Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that spawned from the Podesta email leaks that cover a pedophile ring that involves several government officials.

There's a decent amount of circumstantial evidence for it, but I personally still think a bit of a stretch.

[tptacek]

Is it possible that this is all a misunderstanding based on some odd subculture's redefinition of the term "circumstantial evidence"?

[DanBC]

The "evil paedophile elites are kidnapping children to abuse them" (alternatively, CPS kidnap children to sell for adoption) conspiracy theory has existed for a long time.

Six years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh-dNAby174

Four years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LyzuVUweU

Eight years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_C75RO6LL4

Once the conspiracy theory exists you're going to get a mix of people who really believe it finding subreddits to share "proof"; trolls who like the lulz; people who don't know and don't care but who hate that politician and will share anything negative about them; and baffled people on the outside who can't tell the difference and can't understand how anyone can think that politicians order children for abuse by email.

[patrickg_zill]

Who is Clement Freud? Who is Cyril Smith? What was the Dutroux affair? Who is Jimmy Savile? What was the Franklin cover up?

Every case has to be considered on its own merits, of course.

[DanBC]

What is Hampstead Satanic Abuse? http://bfms.org.uk/hampstead-satanic-cult-hoax/

Who is Holly Greig?

What was the Cleeveland Ritual Abuse Scandal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_child_abuse_scandal (See also Rochdale, Orkney, Broxtowe, etc.)

Those historic scandals don't stop misreporting today, see the coconut shell reported by police and media as being a skull fragment -- even after it had been tested.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_child_abuse_investigati...

The sad fact is that child abuse is fantastically common, and by devoting so much time to bogus bullshit we're failing to protect children who are being harmed right now, mostly by their relatives.

[tptacek]

I'm not sure anyone is arguing that child sex exploitation is something that doesn't happen at all.

[patrickg_zill]

From my observation and IMHO, pedophiles do make use of networks of people to find additional kids to abuse; sometimes it is via a social network with lax supervision (trust by regular people of a predator), and sometimes, an actual group of pedophiles participating.

Of course 2 or more people participating in certain acts, or even assisting a pedophile means "conspiracy".

In PizzaGate, I am keeping an open mind, and not scoffing; mainly due to some rather weird Instagram pictures and comments that used to be publicly available, that were linked to Comet Ping Pong and/or the owner. They were quite... unusual.

[tptacek]

Hasn't this Instagram stuff been debunked by the NYT? Whatever you might think of their political leanings, the NYT isn't covering up a pedophilia conspiracy in the service of the campaign manager of a candidate who just lost the election. Why would I trust people who actively cheerlead Putinist fakenews over the NYT's own fact checkers?