WATERTOWN — During the summer of 1992, while hanging out with her friends at a local mall, the same one she had been visiting with her family for years, Holly Austin Gibbs first made contact with one of the men who would turn her world upside down.

Weeks later, the 14-year-old would find herself miles away from her hometown of Tuckerton, N.J., and thrust into the dark world of child sex trafficking.

Johnson Newspapers 7.1

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(1) comment

rdsouth

Children are raised to be passive fools because it makes it easier for parents to manage them. But it also makes them vulnerable to many other forms of recruitment, ranging from sex trafficking to religious cults. Throughout human evolution it was normal for young people to leave home and identify with an exciting new tribe, but in the modern context these tendencies are maladaptive and need to be consciously compensated for. Everyone needs to be taught independent thought and self agency. And if you see that as problematic you might want to examine what cult you're in yourself. Also as a society we need to stop normalizing selfish hedonism. Sure, pleasure dictated consumption makes for a booming economy, but so does forethought dictated investment. And sure oppressive cultures (like philosophical fascism) also ask for identification with purpose beyond what is immediately satisfying, but that's not what makes them oppressive, it's just what makes them cohesive and doing the opposite just to be opposite is a gullible move. Not to excuse evil and blame the victim, but please stop raising fools. You victimize them when you raise them fools and then they get victimized again. People should think for themselves for a larger purpose.

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