A massive new recap courtesy of The Washington Post details what happens when you randomly find yourself in the middle of QAnon’s reticle, and wouldn’t you know? It is absolutely terrifying. Last summer, MAGA cultists and online armchair detectives fed each other and determined that Wayfair (yes, the furniture company) was part of the global sex trafficking cabal and that several children , whose photos circulated, had been kidnapped. Well, there was no shortage of these real kids at all.

“Even when an 18-year-old girl took to Facebook Live to demand that people stop saying she was sold in a closet, commentators refused to listen,” says the WaPo of such a situation. Unfortunately, even this was not enough to convince the concerned citizens, who claimed that she was forced to make the video. “You are angry because I tell you that I am not missing? ”the girl told more than half a million people while watching her live video.

Somehow it’s even worse than that …

Get busy tone – Another unintended side effect of QAnon obsessives on hunting down nonexistent sex trafficking sects is that they seemingly hamper the investigation of very real facts, existing cases of sex trafficking. In one case, a victims’ rights advocate trying to contact the national human trafficking helpline on behalf of a woman was unable to reach anyone because the organization was inundated with calls asking them to ‘Investigate Wayfair’s child trafficking via expensive crockery cabinets. No amount of explanation could convince these people otherwise either.

“The majority of people who were drawn into this disinformation really believed it was a human trafficking ring and nobody cared,” a hotline director told the newspaper.

While often ridiculously mind-boggling, this is just another reminder that conspiracy theorists don’t just affect believers and their loved ones, they can often hurt people both figuratively and literally miles from their homes. unbalanced accusations.