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Collected Item: “Election Infection and #SavetheChildren”

Give your story a title.

Election Infection and #SavetheChildren

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

screenshot

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

This screenshot shows two signs that purportedly hang in an unknown brick-and-mortar establishment that read "Face Masks are BANNED from this Studio. If you are sick please do not enter. #SavetheChidren [sic]" and "The Real Pandemic is Pedophillia [sic]. We do not believe in the Election Infection #SaveTheChidren [sic]" The signs suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic is a political stunt meant to rig the 2020 Presidential Election and, instead, shift the narrative to the problem of pedophilia and child sex trafficking. Though President Trump is not mentioned, observers might get the impression that this establishment, if it indeed exists, supports him for several reasons. Most importantly, there is the suggestion that a global pandemic is nothing more than a choreographed conspiracy to ensure Donald Trump loses the 2020 Election. But the hashtag #savethechildren (misspelled in the signs) has been used to shift the narrative away from the Covid-19 pandemic and toward another problem the country faces, human trafficking. The dismantling of human trafficking networks has been one of Trump's less controversial achievements, one that many believe has been ignored by the news media. It is unclear if these signs exist of if they have been altered for dissemination on social media. Many Facebook and Twitter users have shared the image.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#masks, #pedophilia, #Election2020, #SavetheChildren, #Trump, #conspiracy, #skeptics, #media, #bias, #denialism

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Original image- Unknown, Screenshot taken by me, Marissa Rhodes

Give this story a date.

2020-08-11
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