vox--2020-09-25--On climate change, oil and gas companies have a long way to go

This story is part of Covering Climate Now , a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story .
The oil and gas industry has found itself under a harsh spotlight as concern over climate change increases across the world .
Lately , oil and gas majors have responded to the scrutiny with a series of pledges , plans , and press releases on the subject of global warming .
The big five oil giants — Exxon and Chevron ( US ) , BP ( UK ) , Total ( France ) , and Shell ( the Netherlands ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ degrees of ambition , to reduce their emissions .
The industry has clearly gotten the memo that climate policy is happening .
And it wants to be at the table rather than on the menu .
But do these pledges pass muster ?
Are they in line with a 1.5° Celsius scenario , or even close ?
The general consensus seems to be no .
The International Energy Agency said , upon this year ’ s release of its “ Oil and Gas Industry in Energy Transitions ” report , “ there are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capital allocation needed to put the world on a more sustainable path.
” In other words , show me the money .
There are other ways of assessing these plans outside of their total dollar amounts .
Do they rely on carbon offsets or carbon capture plans of dubious value ?
Do they signal a change in lobbying , advertising , and political participation ?
Do they account for climate justice ?
In an attempt to bring some rigor to these assessments , the nonprofit Oil Change International ( OCI ) has released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of necessary-but-not-sufficient “ minimum criteria ” that oil company plans must meet “ to have the possibility of being 1.5°C-aligned.
” How do the plans measure up ?
Well , they all fail — none are aligned with 1.5° .
BP is doing the best , but none are particularly close to clearing the bar .
Before getting into the criteria OCI uses , and what they say about oil company pledges , let ’ s run through a little background .
The fossil fuel industry is struggling with low prices , oversupply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in some detail earlier this year , the fossil fuel industry is a mess .
It was facing difficult cross-pressures even before the Covid-19 lockdown hit it in the gut .
Fracking operations have been losing money for years .
Overproduction and overinvestment have created a supply glut that was suppressing oil prices even before the virus struck .
Renewables are skyrocketing and electric vehicles ( EVs ) are poised for enormous growth , both of which will cut into future oil demand .
Oil majors have been writing down assets , financial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and plastics are likely to substantially underperform the industry ’ s rosy projections .
All the while , customers , corporate partners , investors , shareholders , and activists are putting ever-increasing pressure on oil and gas companies to begin planning seriously for climate change .
This was all going on when the coronavirus hit and cratered demand , which still hasn ’ t recovered and may never fully recover .
Some analysts are speculating that 2019 will turn out to be the global peak in fossil fuel demand .
“ Could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BP CEO Bernard Looney .
“ Possibly .
I would not write that off.
” Meanwhile , the decline continues .
This is the context in which these commitments are being released — oil and gas companies are somewhat desperate , unusually weak , and badly need social capital .
To limit global temperatures to 1.5° , most oil and gas must stay in the ground Previous OCI research has compared known fossil fuel reserves to the carbon budget permitted by a 1.5° scenario .
The situation is stark .
Fossil fuel companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” which are fields that can be reasonably expected to produce in current economic conditions , and “ developed reserves , ” which are fields that are currently producing , through existing mines or wells .
If fossil fuel companies develop all their proved reserves , the 2° carbon budget would be blown many times over .
In fact , as the graph below shows , developed reserves alone would blow the 2° budget .
In fact , if every coal mine in the world vanished overnight , the developed reserves of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1.5° budget .
Developed reserves are what analysts call “ carbon lock-in ” — the carbon hasn ’ t been emitted yet , but investments in infrastructure , equipment , and labor make it extremely difficult , politically and economically , to prevent it from happening .
Every bit of new fossil fuel exploration and development , every new mine or well , is an increment of carbon lock-in .
And since there ’ s no carbon budget left over , the only way to truly get on a 1.5° path is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entirely .
That is the baseline : The growth of fossil fuels is incompatible with solving global warming .
Acknowledging that basic fact is the beginning of any serious plan for oil and gas companies .
With that in mind , let ’ s take a look at OCI ’ s assessment .
Oil companies are doing a fraction of what they need to do to get in line with 1.5° OCI lays out 10 minimal conditions that must be met for a plan to be aligned with 1.5° , which it applies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and gas companies in the world : BP , Chevron , Eni , Equinor , ExxonMobil , Repsol , Shell , and Total .
The conditions fall under the headings Ambition ( 1-5 ) , Integrity ( 5-8 ) , and Transition Planning ( 9-10 ) .
We ’ ll walk through them and cite companies ( if any ) that are meeting them .
• Stop exploration : no more finding new fields .
BP is the only company that has agreed to this , and only in new countries .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company has pledged this .
• Decline oil and gas production by 2030 .
BP has said it will reduce production 30 percent by 2030 ; Eni has said it will plateau in 2025 , but only oil will decline .
Other companies have said nothing .
• Set long-term phase-out plan aligned with 1.5°C .
BP , Eni , and Repsol have plans OCI deems insufficient ; the rest have none .
• Set absolute target covering all oil and gas extraction , including scope 3 emissions .
Where scope 1 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a company , scope 3 emissions encompass the entire supply chain through which the company ’ s products are produced and used — in this case , the carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels .
Eni and Repsol are good on this .
Equinor , Shell , and Total cover scope 3 emissions , but only through carbon intensity targets rather than absolute reductions .
BP is good on the surface , except it contains some pretty big loopholes .
Its pledge “ excludes more than 40 percent of its oil production and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from its stake in the Russian energy giant , Rosneft , ” Nicholas Kusnetz reports for Inside Climate News .
“ It also excludes all the oil and gas that BP ’ s refineries and service stations buy from other producers before selling it to customers.
” Plus , BP recently announced that it ’ s selling a large chunk of oil and gas assets , which will get them off BP ’ s books , but will not shut them down .
• Do not rely on carbon sequestration or offsets .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Be honest about fossil ( “ natural ” ) gas as high carbon .
None of them are , though .
Lots of them are still passing it off as a “ low-carbon ” shift .
• End lobbying and ads that obstruct climate solutions .
Here , BP , Eni , Equinor , Repsol , Shell , and Total have all made vaguely positive noises that OCI deems insufficient .
• Commit to explicit end date for oil and gas extraction .
None of them have .
• Commit plans and funding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sectors .
None of them have .
Here ’ s the visual — if you can ’ t read it , just note all the red , which means “ grossly insufficient.
” One thing worth noting : The only two companies with solid red all the way down are Exxon and Chevron , the US companies .
They , like the country they call home , are laggards on climate .
While almost all the companies are planning increases in oil production , Exxon and Chevron are planning the most : Exxon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in gas production : In general , the European oil and gas majors are farther ahead on climate change , likely because the political context in which they operate takes climate change more seriously .
But none of the majors are even beginning to make the enormous near-term shifts in investment that will be required to hit their long-term targets .
OCI ’ s criteria are quite strict and no oil and gas major is anywhere close to meeting them .
There is an entire section of the report on the various loopholes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minimize accountability , from ignoring scope 3 emissions ( side-eye at Exxon ) to making unreasonably big bets on unproven carbon capture technologies to measuring carbon intensity rather than absolute emissions .
And of course , the fossil fuel companies , despite their rhetoric , continue to put their lobbying power behind campaigns and trade groups that oppose climate action .
“ In 2018 , for example , BP played a central role in blocking the adoption of a carbon tax in Washington State , spending $ 13 million to help defeat the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BP , Chevron and [ the American Petroleum Institute , an industry trade group ] all supported the Trump administration ’ s weakening of regulations limiting methane emissions from oil and gas operations .
The institute has also pressed lawmakers and governors to eliminate incentives for electric vehicles , policies that are among the few in the United States that encourage a shift away from oil.
” During the pandemic , the industry has lobbied furiously for special breaks and favors to boost production and prices .
And it has largely received them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morning Consult analysis found that the US “ has committed more to fossil fuel companies through federal and state policies than any other Group of 20 member has directed to all energy types — fossil and renewable combined — since the start of the pandemic , both through relief packages and other , ostensibly unrelated , policy changes.
” By and large , fossil fuel companies are fighting for their narrow interests within the system they find themselves , which is pretty much what you ’ d expect them to do .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to budge .
Here ’ s Kusnetz again : That ’ s a good start , but there ’ s a long way to go and a lot of companies that aren ’ t yet on board .
OCI ’ s criteria , if met , would effectively amount to the rapid managed phase-out of enormous assets by the industry that controls the assets , a transition not every company , or even most of them , would survive .
That is not something that typically happens .
A moment ’ s consideration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ final section of the report : “ Oil and gas companies will not manage their own decline.
” In that sense , the report is something of a thought experiment , meant to reveal what ought to be obvious , as OCI says : “ Governments must step in to manage the decline in fossil fuel production and secure a just transition.
” Ultimately this is a matter for public policy .
The system in which oil and gas companies operate must be changed , to channel investment away from fossil fuels into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen , if at all , through organization , democratic pressure , and changes in legislation and regulation — not through voluntary pledges .
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This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
The oil and gas industry has found itself under a harsh spotlight as concern over climate change increases across the world. Lately, oil and gas majors have responded to the scrutiny with a series of pledges, plans, and press releases on the subject of global warming. The big five oil giants — Exxon and Chevron (US), BP (UK), Total (France), and Shell (the Netherlands) — have all pledged, with varying degrees of ambition, to reduce their emissions.
The industry has clearly gotten the memo that climate policy is happening. And it wants to be at the table rather than on the menu.
But do these pledges pass muster? Are they in line with a 1.5° Celsius scenario, or even close? The general consensus seems to be no. The International Energy Agency said, upon this year’s release of its “Oil and Gas Industry in Energy Transitions” report, “there are few signs of the large-scale change in capital allocation needed to put the world on a more sustainable path.” In other words, show me the money.
There are other ways of assessing these plans outside of their total dollar amounts. Do they rely on carbon offsets or carbon capture plans of dubious value? Do they signal a change in lobbying, advertising, and political participation? Do they account for climate justice?
In an attempt to bring some rigor to these assessments, the nonprofit Oil Change International (OCI) has released a report that lays out a set of necessary-but-not-sufficient “minimum criteria” that oil company plans must meet “to have the possibility of being 1.5°C-aligned.”
How do the plans measure up? Well, they all fail — none are aligned with 1.5°. BP is doing the best, but none are particularly close to clearing the bar.
Before getting into the criteria OCI uses and what they say about oil company pledges, let’s run through a little background.
The fossil fuel industry is struggling with low prices, oversupply, and political pressure
As I wrote in some detail earlier this year, the fossil fuel industry is a mess. It was facing difficult cross-pressures even before the Covid-19 lockdown hit it in the gut.
Fracking operations have been losing money for years. Overproduction and overinvestment have created a supply glut that was suppressing oil prices even before the virus struck. Renewables are skyrocketing and electric vehicles (EVs) are poised for enormous growth, both of which will cut into future oil demand.
Oil majors have been writing down assets, financial institutions are turning away from oil investments, and plastics are likely to substantially underperform the industry’s rosy projections. All the while, customers, corporate partners, investors, shareholders, and activists are putting ever-increasing pressure on oil and gas companies to begin planning seriously for climate change.
This was all going on when the coronavirus hit and cratered demand, which still hasn’t recovered and may never fully recover. Some analysts are speculating that 2019 will turn out to be the global peak in fossil fuel demand. “Could it be peak oil?” speculated BP CEO Bernard Looney. “Possibly. I would not write that off.”
Meanwhile, the decline continues. This is the context in which these commitments are being released: Oil and gas companies are somewhat desperate, unusually weak, and badly need social capital.
To limit global temperatures to 1.5°, most oil and gas must stay in the ground
Previous OCI research has compared known fossil fuel reserves to the carbon budget permitted by a 1.5° scenario. The situation is stark.
Fossil fuel companies have what are called “proved reserves,” which are fields that can be reasonably expected to produce in current economic conditions, and “developed reserves,” which are fields that are currently producing, through existing mines or wells.
If fossil fuel companies develop all their proved reserves, the 2° carbon budget would be blown many times over. In fact, as the graph below shows, developed reserves alone would blow the 2° budget. In fact, if every coal mine in the world vanished overnight, the developed reserves of oil and gas would still push past the 1.5° budget.
Developed reserves are what analysts call “carbon lock-in” — the carbon hasn’t been emitted yet, but investments in infrastructure, equipment, and labor make it extremely difficult, politically and economically, to prevent it from happening.
Every bit of new fossil fuel exploration and development, every new mine or well, is an increment of carbon lock-in. And since there’s no carbon budget left over, the only way to truly get on a 1.5° path is to cease exploring or developing new reserves entirely.
That is the baseline: The growth of fossil fuels is incompatible with solving global warming. Acknowledging that basic fact is the beginning of any serious plan for oil and gas companies.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at OCI’s assessment.
Oil companies are doing a fraction of what they need to do to get in line with 1.5°
OCI lays out 10 minimal conditions that must be met for a plan to be aligned with 1.5°, which it applies to eight of the biggest integrated oil and gas companies in the world: BP, Chevron, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell, and Total.
The conditions fall under the headings Ambition (1-5), Integrity (6-8), and Transition Planning (9-10). We’ll walk through them and cite companies (if any) that are meeting them.
Stop exploration: no more finding new fields. BP is the only company that has agreed to this, and only in new countries. Stop approving new extraction projects. No company has pledged this. Decline oil and gas production by 2030. BP has said it will reduce production 30 percent by 2030; Eni has said it will plateau in 2025, but only oil will decline. Other companies have said nothing. Set long-term phase-out plan aligned with 1.5°C. BP, Eni, and Repsol have plans OCI deems insufficient; the rest have none. Set absolute target covering all oil and gas extraction, including scope 3 emissions. Where scope 1 and 2 emissions are direct energy use by a company, scope 3 emissions encompass the entire supply chain through which the company’s products are produced and used — in this case, the carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels. Eni and Repsol are good on this. Equinor, Shell, and Total cover scope 3 emissions, but only through carbon intensity targets rather than absolute reductions. BP is good on the surface, except it contains some pretty big loopholes. Its pledge “excludes more than 40 percent of its oil production and 15 percent of the gas that come from its stake in the Russian energy giant, Rosneft,” Nicholas Kusnetz reports for Inside Climate News. “It also excludes all the oil and gas that BP’s refineries and service stations buy from other producers before selling it to customers.” Plus, BP recently announced that it’s selling a large chunk of oil and gas assets, which will get them off BP’s books, but will not shut them down. Do not rely on carbon sequestration or offsets. They all do, though. Be honest about fossil (“natural”) gas as high carbon. None of them are, though. Lots of them are still passing it off as a “low-carbon” shift. End lobbying and ads that obstruct climate solutions. Here, BP, Eni, Equinor, Repsol, Shell, and Total have all made vaguely positive noises that OCI deems insufficient. Commit to explicit end date for oil and gas extraction. None of them have. Commit plans and funding to support workers’ transition into new sectors. None of them have.
Here’s the visual — if you can’t read it, just note all the red, which means “grossly insufficient.”
One thing worth noting: The only two companies with solid red all the way down are Exxon and Chevron, the US companies. They, like the country they call home, are laggards on climate.
While almost all the companies are planning increases in oil production, Exxon and Chevron are planning the most:
Exxon and BP are planning the biggest increases in gas production:
In general, the European oil and gas majors are farther ahead on climate change, likely because the political context in which they operate takes climate change more seriously. But none of the majors are even beginning to make the enormous near-term shifts in investment that will be required to hit their long-term targets.
The oil majors have a long journey ahead
OCI’s criteria are quite strict and no oil and gas major is anywhere close to meeting them. There is an entire section of the report on the various loopholes the majors are using to diminish or minimize accountability, from ignoring scope 3 emissions (side-eye at Exxon) to making unreasonably big bets on unproven carbon capture technologies to measuring carbon intensity rather than absolute emissions.
And of course, the fossil fuel companies, despite their rhetoric, continue to put their lobbying power behind campaigns and trade groups that oppose climate action.
“In 2018, for example, BP played a central role in blocking the adoption of a carbon tax in Washington State, spending $13 million to help defeat the effort,” Kusnetz writes. “BP, Chevron and [the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group] all supported the Trump administration’s weakening of regulations limiting methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The institute has also pressed lawmakers and governors to eliminate incentives for electric vehicles, policies that are among the few in the United States that encourage a shift away from oil.”
During the pandemic, the industry has lobbied furiously for special breaks and favors to boost production and prices. And it has largely received them, especially from Trump. A recent Morning Consult analysis found that the US “has committed more to fossil fuel companies through federal and state policies than any other Group of 20 member has directed to all energy types — fossil and renewable combined — since the start of the pandemic, both through relief packages and other, ostensibly unrelated, policy changes.”
By and large, fossil fuel companies are fighting for their narrow interests within the system they find themselves, which is pretty much what you’d expect them to do.
A few of the European majors are beginning to budge. Here’s Kusnetz again:
BP and Shell insist they are now aligning their lobbying with their net-zero goals. Shell, at least, has begun to back this up: The company opposed the Trump administration’s methane regulation roll-back and the loosening of fuel efficiency standards for cars. Shell and BP also have announced they will leave the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group, because of its opposition to carbon taxes and its failure to support the Paris Agreement. In February, BP said it would end its “corporate reputation” advertising, and that any future campaigns would “push for progressive climate policy; communicate our net zero ambition; invite ideas; or build collaboration.”
That’s a good start, but there’s a long way to go and a lot of companies that aren’t yet on board.
OCI’s criteria, if met, would effectively amount to the rapid managed phase-out of enormous assets by the industry that controls the assets, a transition not every company, or even most of them, would survive. That is not something that typically happens. A moment’s consideration leads to the conclusion that headlines the final section of the report: “Oil and gas companies will not manage their own decline.”
In that sense, the report is something of a thought experiment, meant to reveal what ought to be obvious, as OCI says: “Governments must step in to manage the decline in fossil fuel production and secure a just transition.”
Ultimately this is a matter for public policy. The system in which oil and gas companies operate must be changed, to channel investment away from fossil fuels into alternatives and affected communities. That will happen, if at all, through organization, democratic pressure, and changes in legislation and regulation — not through voluntary pledges.


vox--2020-09-25--10 delicious food movies

10 delicious food movies

With the arrival of autumn comes a turn toward new culinary adventures — fall produce , warm foods , the inescapability of pumpkin spice , roasty pans of vegetables and meat that remind us of the colder weather coming up .
Fall is for feasting , however you can .
Of course , cinema has set feasts on screen for a long , long time , using food to evoke desire , love , loneliness , bounty , joy , and a lot more .
One such movie coming out this week is Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ottolenghi who , in 2018 , was tasked by New York ’ s Metropolitan Museum of Art to create fantastical cakes for the opening reception of its special exhibition on Versailles .
Ottolenghi elected to tap chefs from around the world to help , and the results were , indeed , fantastical ; the film shows the great variety of creative pastry-making methods around the globe , and it reflects on the excess that an event like the Met ’ s reception entails .
It ’ s worth a watch if you like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it will be playing in select theaters and various on-demand services like iTunes and Amazon ( more details at the film ’ s website ) .
And there are many more movies to take in if you ’ re craving a little cinematic confectionery or a grand banquet .
Here are 10 great films you can stream about feasts , food , family , and what cooking and eating teach us about being human .
Based on a story by Isak Dinesen , Babette ’ s Feast is about a sect of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a remote Denmark coast in the 19th century .
They are led by the elderly daughters of the sect ’ s founder , they view pleasures as a distraction from God , and they eat only bland food .
But their lives are upended when Babette ( Stéphane Audran ) shows up at the women ’ s home , seeking refuge from violence in her native Paris .
They ’ re suspicious of her .
But she offers to work for free , and stays with them for 14 years , gaining their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lottery , and instead of using the money to finally go back home , she uses it to prepare a lavish feast in honor of the sect ’ s founder .
And that feast — both in the story and as an on-screen repast — becomes legendary .
How to watch it : Babette ’ s Feast is streaming for subscribers on HBO Max .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon .
If you want a comedy with heart and a pitch-perfect ending ... @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tucci and Tony Shalhoub ( need I say more ? )
play brothers , Italian immigrants to the US , who open a restaurant that is suffering for business because their customers ’ tastes lean more toward Italian-American food .
Vexed and facing a shutdown , they reach out to a friend who arranges for a famous jazz singer to attend a fancy dinner at the restaurant and thereby drum up business .
They prepare a sumptuous meal and invite their friends but , of course , nothing goes as planned .
Tucci @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Scott , and it ’ s wonderful : A bittersweet movie about a feast that is , itself , a feast .
How to watch it : Big Night is available to stream for Amazon Prime subscribers and for free ( with ads ) on Pluto .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , YouTube , Vudu , and Google Play .
For a satisfying portrait of one of the greatest food critics of all time ... See City of Gold ( 2016 ) City of Gold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles food critic Jonathan Gold , is among the best food documentaries ever made , largely because it isn ’ t just about food ; it ’ s about loving a place through being a critic .
Directed by Laura Gabbert ( who also directed Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles ) , the film follows Gold as he drives his green pickup truck through LA , eating at a handful of hole-in-the-wall strip mall restaurants that most people just blithely sail past , talking about his career and his approach to his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ portrait not just of a writer but of a city , and it ’ s a kind of master class in how good critics think , work , and live .
How to watch it : City of Gold is available to stream on Amazon Prime for subscribers with the IFC add-on subscription .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase from iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
For an experimental doc-fiction hybrid with a philosophical edge ... Watch Feast of the Epiphany ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most experimental and daring of the films on this list , and one that will haunt you after it ’ s over .
The first half is a scripted , fictional drama set in a New York apartment at an Epiphany dinner ( celebrated by some Christians on January 6 , traditionally the day the Magi arrived at the stable where the infant Jesus lay in a manger ) .
The second half is a documentary centering on Roxbury Farms in upstate New York , where a team of farmers raise food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Michael Koresky , Jeff Reichert , and Farihah Zaman , it ’ s a diptych in which the two halves echo and mirror one another implicitly , and make us think about the role that food plays in our lives — both as social beings and creatures of the earth .
How to watch it : Feast of the Epiphany is available to digitally rent on Vimeo .
For a modest drama about capitalism , male friendship , and baking ... Watch First Cow ( 2020 ) Kelly Reichardt ’ s First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ settlement somewhere in Oregon , near the Columbia River , populated by people who are living in tiny houses and trying to scratch out a living in the New World , as well as the First Nations people who ’ ve been there for generations .
Into that settlement , a cow arrives , setting off a chain of events that are both momentous and small .
But the film is about much more than just that .
First Cow is also a gentle ( and gently devastating ) tale about male friendship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aspirations and dreams with , and , most deliciously , about cooking .
( Don ’ t be surprised if you have a craving for blueberry clafoutis when it ’ s done . )
And it ’ s also about the kinds of constructed hierarchies — based on factors like race , class , money , and firepower — that seem to be imposed on the world wherever new civilizations pop up .
How to watch it : First Cow is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side of family drama along with a portrait of an artist whose medium is raw fish ... Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi ( 2011 ) An entire documentary about sushi ?
Well , not exactly .
Jiro Dreams of Sushi ( made by the same team behind Netflix ’ s Chef ’ s Table series ) is a gentle , meditative , and entrancing portrait of Jiro Ono , considered possibly the greatest sushi chef in the world .
He ’ s been making sushi for a long time in his small , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subway station in Tokyo .
It ’ s a story of true dedication to art , as well as the pressure his sons feel to follow in their father ’ s footsteps .
Order some tuna rolls beforehand and make an evening of it .
How to watch it : Jiro Dreams of Sushi is available to stream ( with ads ) on Tubi .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
A time-spanning tale of learning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Try Julie & Julia ( 2009 ) Meryl Streep as Julia Child may go down as one of the best casting choices of the century , but the entirety of Julie & Julia — written and directed by Nora Ephron — is just as delightful .
Amy Adams plays Julie Powell ( on whose memoir the movie is based ) , who in 2002 has a stressful job answering phone calls about plans to rebuild the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terror attacks .
She begins cooking ( and blogging ) through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Art of French Cooking , much to the amusement of her supportive husband ( Chris Messina ) .
The film cuts between 2002 and the 1950s , when Child and her husband Paul ( Stanley Tucci ) are in France , and Child is just learning to cook .
The result is a movie about marriage , love , and the healing power of food , and its feeling runs deeper than its chipper exterior initially suggests .
How to watch it : Julie & Julia is streaming for free ( with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Hulu with the Showtime add-on subscription .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
If you ’ re looking for an unpretentious , outside-the-box romance , try ...
The Lunchbox ( 2013 ) The Lunchbox is a gentle romance between two people who communicate through food .
Ila ( Nimrat Kaur ) is trying to rekindle her husband ’ s love for her by sending him sumptuous lunches at work .
When the courier screws up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ becomes the accidental recipient of one of these meals and starts to wonder about the cook behind it .
When they both realize the mistake , they start sending small notes to one another , and a friendship that fills both their lonely hearts begins to blossom .
Not only is The Lunchbox a sweet film , but it ’ s a delicious one ; be sure to have your favorite biryani or saag paneer on hand , or your stomach will be growling .
How to watch it : The Lunchbox is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
For a kinky , brilliant reminder of food ’ s place in our domestic lives ... Watch Phantom Thread ( 2017 ) Phantom Thread masquerades as a film about fashion , but everybody who ’ s seen it knows it ’ s really about food .
That ’ s clear from the start : The central romance ’ s meet-cute occurs in a hotel restaurant , in which Daniel Day-Lewis ( playing finicky couture designer Reynolds Woodcock ) orders a legendary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poached egg , bacon , scones , butter , cream , jam , a pot of lapsang souchong tea .
And some sausages.
” And once you ’ ve seen the movie , you ’ ll never look at a mushroom omelet the same way again .
How to watch it : Phantom Thread is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
For a family-friendly reminder that cooking is an art ... Watch Ratatouille ( 2007 ) Ratatouille is the tale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be a chef but is , well , a rat .
Yet through a series of unlikely events , he becomes a chef in the kitchen of an upscale Paris restaurant .
As much a reminder of the power of criticism as the power of art , Ratatouille boasts some memorable meals , and an indelible scene in which Remy — trying to coax his fellow rats into actually tasting their food — experiences a true fantasia of flavor , rendered in visual form .
It ’ s a delight to return @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watch it : Ratatouille is available for subscribers to stream on Disney+ .
It ’ s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
5 more movies to please your palate and whet your appetite ... • Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ( 2009 ) , available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , or Vudu .
Read Roger Ebert ’ s review .
• Eat Drink Man Woman ( 1994 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) on Pluto , or digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , or Vudu .
Listen to the episode of the Blank Check podcast on the movie .
• Goodfellas ( 1990 ) , available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , Google Play , and Vudu .
Here ’ s how to cook the pasta sauce from the movie .
• Tampopo ( 1987 ) , available for subscribers to stream on HBO Max , or to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes , YouTube @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Read why it ’ s one writer ’ s favorite film .
• The Trip series — including The Trip ( 2010 ) , The Trip to Italy ( 2014 ) , The Trip to Spain ( 2017 ) , and The Trip to Greece ( 2020 ) — are streaming for subscribers on Hulu .
They ’ re also available to digitally rent or purchase on various platforms ; The Trip , for instance , is on iTunes , Amazon , YouTube , and Google Play .
Here ’ s an introduction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s release .
Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our resource-intensive work .
If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

In the US, it’s the week of Thanksgiving, and a very unusual one. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic hampering travel and families rethinking their celebrations in pursuit of safety, the holiday defined by a feast looks different for a lot of people.
But it’s still a feast, even if it’s on Zoom. And after any feast, the best thing to do is curl up on the couch with a slice of pumpkin pie, a cup of something warm, and a delicious, joyful food movie.
Cinema has set feasts on screen for a long, long time, using food to evoke desire, love, loneliness, bounty, happiness, and a lot more. And there are many to take in, whether you’re craving a little cinematic confectionery or a grand banquet. Here are 10 great films you can stream about feasts, food, family, and what cooking and eating teach us about being human.
For a tale of feasts overcoming ascetic grimness ...
Try Babette’s Feast (1987)
Based on a story by Isak Dinesen, Babette’s Feast is about a sect of austere, severe religious people living on a remote Denmark coast in the 19th century. They are led by the elderly daughters of the sect’s founder, they view pleasures as a distraction from God, and they eat only bland food. But their lives are upended when Babette (Stéphane Audran) shows up at the women’s home, seeking refuge from violence in her native Paris. They’re suspicious of her. But she offers to work for free, and stays with them for 14 years, gaining their trust. One day, she wins the lottery, and instead of using the money to finally go back home, she uses it to prepare a lavish feast in honor of the sect’s founder. And that feast — both in the story and as an on-screen repast — becomes legendary.
How to watch it: Babette’s Feast is streaming for subscribers on HBO Max. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon.
If you want a comedy with heart and a pitch-perfect ending ...
Watch Big Night (1996)
Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub (need I say more?) play brothers, Italian immigrants to the US, who open a restaurant that is suffering for business because their customers’ tastes lean more toward Italian-American food. Vexed and facing a shutdown, they reach out to a friend who arranges for a famous jazz singer to attend a fancy dinner at the restaurant and thereby drum up business. They prepare a sumptuous meal and invite their friends but, of course, nothing goes as planned. Tucci co-wrote and co-directed Big Night with Campbell Scott, and it’s wonderful: A bittersweet movie about a feast that is, itself, a feast.
How to watch it: Big Night is available to stream for Amazon Prime subscribers and for free (with ads) on Pluto. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, YouTube, Vudu, and Google Play.
For a satisfying portrait of one of the greatest food critics of all time ...
See City of Gold (2016)
City of Gold, about the late and beloved Los Angeles food critic Jonathan Gold, is among the best food documentaries ever made, largely because it isn’t just about food; it’s about loving a place through being a critic. Directed by Laura Gabbert (who also directed Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles), the film follows Gold as he drives his green pickup truck through LA, eating at a handful of hole-in-the-wall strip mall restaurants that most people just blithely sail past, talking about his career and his approach to his work. It’s an illuminating portrait not just of a writer but of a city, and it’s a kind of master class in how good critics think, work, and live.
How to watch it: City of Gold is available to stream on Amazon Prime for subscribers with the IFC add-on subscription. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase from iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
For an experimental doc-fiction hybrid with a philosophical edge ...
Watch Feast of the Epiphany (2018)
Feast of the Epiphany is the most experimental and daring of the films on this list, and one that will haunt you after it’s over. The first half is a scripted, fictional drama set in a New York apartment at an Epiphany dinner (celebrated by some Christians on January 6, traditionally the day the Magi arrived at the stable where the infant Jesus lay in a manger). The second half is a documentary centering on Roxbury Farms in upstate New York, where a team of farmers raise food and live off the land. Directed by Michael Koresky, Jeff Reichert, and Farihah Zaman, it’s a diptych in which the two halves echo and mirror one another implicitly, and make us think about the role that food plays in our lives — both as social beings and creatures of the earth.
How to watch it: Feast of the Epiphany is available to digitally rent on Vimeo through November 29.
For a modest drama about capitalism, male friendship, and baking ...
Watch First Cow (2020)
Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow is set in a 19th-century frontier settlement somewhere in Oregon, near the Columbia River, populated by people who are living in tiny houses and trying to scratch out a living in the New World, as well as the First Nations people who’ve been there for generations. Into that settlement, a cow arrives, setting off a chain of events that are both momentous and small. But the film is about much more than just that. First Cow is also a gentle (and gently devastating) tale about male friendship, about finding someone to share your aspirations and dreams with, and, most deliciously, about cooking. (Don’t be surprised if you have a craving for blueberry clafoutis when it’s done.) And it’s also about the kinds of constructed hierarchies — based on factors like race, class, money, and firepower — that seem to be imposed on the world wherever new civilizations pop up.
How to watch it: First Cow is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, or Google Play. With a Showtime add-on, it’s available to stream on Hulu.
For a side of family drama along with a portrait of an artist whose medium is raw fish ...
Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
An entire documentary about sushi? Well, not exactly. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (made by the same team behind Netflix’s Chef’s Table series) is a gentle, meditative, and entrancing portrait of Jiro Ono, considered possibly the greatest sushi chef in the world. He’s been making sushi for a long time in his small, exquisite restaurant, which is inside a subway station in Tokyo. It’s a story of true dedication to art, as well as the pressure his sons feel to follow in their father’s footsteps. Order some tuna rolls beforehand and make an evening of it.
How to watch it: Jiro Dreams of Sushi is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
A time-spanning tale of learning to cook and trying to love ...
Try Julie & Julia (2009)
Meryl Streep as Julia Child may go down as one of the best casting choices of the century, but the entirety of Julie & Julia — written and directed by Nora Ephron — is just as delightful. Amy Adams plays Julie Powell (on whose memoir the movie is based), who in 2002 has a stressful job answering phone calls about plans to rebuild the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terror attacks. She begins cooking (and blogging) through Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, much to the amusement of her supportive husband (Chris Messina). The film cuts between 2002 and the 1950s, when Child and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) are in France, and Child is just learning to cook. The result is a movie about marriage, love, and the healing power of food, and its feeling runs deeper than its chipper exterior initially suggests.
How to watch it: Julie & Julia is streaming for free (with ads) on Amazon and for subscribers on Hulu with the Showtime add-on subscription. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
If you’re looking for an unpretentious, outside-the-box romance, try ...
The Lunchbox (2013)
The Lunchbox is a gentle romance between two people who communicate through food. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is trying to rekindle her husband’s love for her by sending him sumptuous lunches at work. When the courier screws up, Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) becomes the accidental recipient of one of these meals and starts to wonder about the cook behind it. When they both realize the mistake, they start sending small notes to one another, and a friendship that fills both their lonely hearts begins to blossom. Not only is The Lunchbox a sweet film, but it’s a delicious one; be sure to have your favorite biryani or saag paneer on hand, or your stomach will be growling.
How to watch it: The Lunchbox is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
For a kinky, brilliant reminder of food’s place in our domestic lives ...
Watch Phantom Thread (2017)
Phantom Thread masquerades as a film about fashion, but everybody who’s seen it knows it’s really about food. That’s clear from the start: The central romance’s meet-cute occurs in a hotel restaurant, in which Daniel Day-Lewis (playing finicky couture designer Reynolds Woodcock) orders a legendary meal of “Welsh rabbit with a poached egg, bacon, scones, butter, cream, jam, a pot of lapsang souchong tea. And some sausages.” And once you’ve seen the movie, you’ll never look at a mushroom omelet the same way again.
How to watch it: Phantom Thread is available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
Related Phantom Thread tells a sumptuous story of fashion and kink that keeps viewers at a distance
For a family-friendly reminder that cooking is an art ...
Watch Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille is the tale of Remy the Rat, who wants to be a chef but is, well, a rat. Yet through a series of unlikely events, he becomes a chef in the kitchen of an upscale Paris restaurant. As much a reminder of the power of criticism as the power of art, Ratatouille boasts some memorable meals, and an indelible scene in which Remy — trying to coax his fellow rats into actually tasting their food — experiences a true fantasia of flavor, rendered in visual form. It’s a delight to return to again and again.
How to watch it: Ratatouille is available for subscribers to stream on Disney+. It’s also available to digitally rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu.
5 more movies to please your palate and whet your appetite ...


vox--2020-09-25--What we can learn about QAnon from the Satanic Panic

For many supporters of the # SaveTheChildren movement , face masks are part of the problem .
Rather than saving lives by slowing the spread of Covid-19 , proponents argue , letting your child wear a mask makes it harder for them to cry for help , which they will need to do , because there are evil people , right now , coming to kidnap them .
“ Save the Children , ” like so many other moral panics , sounds like such a plainly obvious force of good , that to question it feels like you are marching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Children.
” What do you say , for instance , to someone who believes that there are 800,000 children being trafficked every year , and that the government does nothing to stop it ?
Yet it ’ s still important to question their claims , because “ Save the Children ” is part of a new , more palatable branch of the alt-right conspiracy theory of QAnon , and its misleading name is part of why its traction with women and mothers has skyrocketed .
“ Save the Children ” is less of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a call to action to investigate what many believe is a national emergency .
Mom influencers , who until recently were known mostly for sharing cute photos of their kids at pumpkin patches , have been crucial to its spread , sharing aesthetically pleasing infographics of human trafficking statistics and scary stories of attempted kidnappings .
While the bedrock of QAnon — the theory that an anonymous Trump insider is sending coded warning signs about a forthcoming “ awakening ” that will culminate in the mass imprisonment of Democratic public figures — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ average Facebook user , Save the Children “ has succeeded in mainstreaming the QAnon movement by representing its most sanitized aspects , pushing its more unsavory facets to the back burner , ” explains EJ Dickson in Rolling Stone .
The problem is that these hundreds of thousands of supposedly missing children are a product of unreliable statistics and misleading anecdotes on social media .
These memes and posts are popping up all over Facebook , pointing to what QAnon supporters believe is an elite child sex trafficking ring comprised of Democratic politicians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elegant way to fact-check the concerns of Save the Children without sounding dismissive of human suffering is part of why it is so difficult to talk about , and why people who attempt to do so are often targeted as enablers or complicit in pedophilia .
There is some sort of clarity to be found , however , within the moral panics of the past .
Over the course of quarantine , I ’ ve become a fan of the popular podcast You ’ re Wrong About , in which journalists Sarah Marshall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ events and figures , including the frenzies over Stranger Danger and the Satanic Panic ( wherein dozens of daycare workers were falsely accused of using children in Satanic rituals ) in the 1980s and ’ 90s , as well as episodes on why so many statistics about human trafficking and sex offenders are inherently misleading .
In other words , they ’ re professional debunkers .
I called Sarah , who ’ s currently working on a book about the Satanic Panic , to chat about what Save the Children gets wrong and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has captivated so many seemingly well-intentioned people — particularly as a pandemic unfolds before our eyes .
We talked about why people feel the need to protect against an invented threat while a botched government response to the coronavirus has left hundreds of thousands dead , and about how a metaphor about rat milk can help us understand why it ’ s so difficult to have these conversations .
As you ’ re working on this book about the Satanic Panic , are you seeing any notable similarities or differences between that moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and right now ?
Oh , yeah , it ’ s totally the same .
It ’ s driven by genuinely concerned and terrified parents who are feeling insecurity for the welfare of their children for extremely good reasons .
This is a terrible time to be a parent in America .
If you ’ re asked to send your child to school , then you ’ re potentially signing the death sentence of your child or of the people in your child ’ s family and community that they ’ re going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The amount of abuse that the American government has perpetrated on its citizens is just amazing , especially in the past few years .
Trump is so interesting as a president because he has the behaviors of an abusive father figure in so many ways .
Even if you believe in him and feel like he ’ s carrying out policies that you want , he ’ s still lying to you .
People must be feeling the effects of that , to some extent , even if they ’ re among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this QAnon panic is so interesting to me because it really began as an elaborate fanfiction to explain how Trump was doing a good job and then it evolved into this .
I ’ ve seen so many memes on Instagram about how “ the real problem ” is the pedophiles , not the pandemic .
One idea that you tend to come back to on the podcast is that moral panics often claim that we as a society are not paying enough attention to “ the children.
” Do you see that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extreme theories into public consciousness ?
I do .
One of the really dynamic ways we can see that functioning , which I ’ ve seen on Twitter and stuff , is the automatic argument ender that you have by being like , “ Well , 800,000 children disappear every year .
So how can you dismiss that ?
Don ’ t you care ?
” It ’ s very interesting , because it ’ s like me saying to you , “ One out of every 10 American schools is serving its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
How dare you say there ’ s not a milk problem in this country ?
” And you ’ re like , “ Well , I ’ m saying that I doubt the rat milk studies .
I ’ m saying this is fake rat milk data that ’ s been making its way around social media , because it ’ s so shocking when you see it .
But it turns out to be an unreliably reported version of an unreliable data point and an unreliable study whose conductor has disavowed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was horrible if a ton of American children were being fed rat milk , but it turns out that it happens very , very , very rarely .
Maybe at one school every year .
This metaphor is falling apart , but when one sort of unwell cafeteria lady is like , “ Time for rat milk , ” it ’ s not a systemic problem .
You ’ re just in this impossible bind , because even if the statistics have any truth to them , they ’ re misleadingly stated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person who ’ s citing them is so attached to the figure of the children .
They ’ ve already bonded with this idea of 800,000 children who are trafficked each year , or whatever it is — all these incredibly high numbers that have generally no basis in reality , or a very slight basis in reality .
If it feels true to you , as though it has happened in the way you see in movies , and then someone tells you , “ Actually , it ’ s more like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are kidnapped under classic Stranger Danger circumstances , ” that is horrifying to the person who has come to believe in that statistic .
That would be like someone saying to me , “ You know , actually , only 115 people in America have died of coronavirus , ” because the fact that coronavirus is dangerous and that people should be taking precautions against it has become a central fact of my life .
I would find that upsetting , perhaps in a similar way to the way people find it upsetting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re citing .
Your episode on human trafficking was so informative , but at the same time frustrating in the sense that there ’ s no one easy and elegant way to debunk these statistics .
But can you give an overall picture of why human trafficking statistics are almost always wrong ?
Every so often , there ’ s a study that guesstimates or offers a statistic on child abuse that has some basis in fact , but it ’ s based on , for example , a survey that goes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ based on that , they ’ ll say the percentage of these girls that experienced something that we define as sexual abuse was 40 percent , so 40 percent of girls have been sexually abused in their life .
That ’ s not a good study .
It ’ s data of some kind , but it ’ s not the most useful kind of data .
There have been cases similar to this , where you have a small sample size and some kind of upsetting percentage comes out of it and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
People don ’ t know the circumstances of the study , they just know the percentage .
It indicates a real problem in the world , but then it gets inflated into this idea of a crisis .
We have these numbers that , if we looked at them , would indicate the complexity of the real problems that generate them .
But we instead , I think , choose to selectively interpret them to support the idea of this very dangerous world where children just need to be rescued from monsters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ improved in a way that involves listening to them .
You don ’ t have to listen to someone when you ’ re “ rescuing ” them .
The Satanic Panic ended up causing real material harm to so many adults who were accused of doing horrible things they never did .
With human trafficking , the laws we put in place often end up hurting immigrants and sex workers .
Who do you think QAnon and Save the Children will end up really harming ( besides the people who have literally already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think it will be children , because I think that increased paranoia about children often manifests in ways that don ’ t involve listening to the child or trying to understand what your children ’ s needs are .
Right now , I think a lot of kids would like to avoid contracting or spreading coronavirus .
But if their parents subscribed to a horror story where wearing a mask means they ’ re going to be abducted , then they ’ re not going to be able to do that .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children in America who have spread a virus to elderly family members , or to people with compromised health to whom it proved deadly , or to people who were completely healthy and died anyway .
This is what happens with this virus .
We know the Satanic Panic was , in many cases , harmful to the children that it was attempting to help .
They have to figure out what to do with memories that they underwent therapy to “ retrieve , ” in a way that made these memories feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they knew with a greater degree of clarity had happened to them .
If you retell a story over and over , it turns into a real-feeling event , especially if you ’ re a young child being led by an adult who ’ s highly invested in you producing a specific story for them .
I think that the children , once again , are going to be the primary victim here .
What do you do in your own life when you ’ re in a social situation and someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true , but you know they ’ re going in a potentially harmful direction ?
The “ Wayfair is selling children in $ 10,000 cupboards ” thing comes to mind .
I ’ m a pretty non-confrontational person , and I think one of the things that draws me to journalism is that the best interview skill you can have is just to not interrupt someone and to just go , “ Hmm , ” and they ’ ll just keep talking , potentially forever , and get deeper and deeper into what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talking to someone who espouses a belief in something that is confusing to me , I often feel like I want to know more .
I ’ ll say things like , “ Does this part make sense to you ?
How does this work ?
” to gently kick the tires of the logic .
There is probably a self-protective strategy to put your journalist hat on and be like , “ Say more about that !
” But I am curious .
I can never guess at the reasons that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

For many supporters of the #SaveTheChildren movement, face masks are part of the problem. Rather than saving lives by slowing the spread of Covid-19, proponents argue, letting your child wear a mask makes it harder for them to cry for help, which they will need to do, because there are evil people, right now, coming to kidnap them.
“Save the Children,” like so many other moral panics, sounds like such a plainly obvious force of good, that to question it feels like you are marching under the banner of “Fuck the Children.” What do you say, for instance, to someone who believes that there are 800,000 children being trafficked every year, and that the government does nothing to stop it?
Yet it’s still important to question their claims, because “Save the Children” is part of a new, more palatable branch of the alt-right conspiracy theory of QAnon, and its misleading name is part of why its traction with women and mothers has skyrocketed. “Save the Children” is less of an organization than a hashtag-able rallying cry, a call to action to investigate what many believe is a national emergency. Mom influencers, who until recently were known mostly for sharing cute photos of their kids at pumpkin patches, have been crucial to its spread, sharing aesthetically pleasing infographics of human trafficking statistics and scary stories of attempted kidnappings.
While the bedrock of QAnon — the theory that an anonymous Trump insider is sending coded warning signs about a forthcoming “awakening” that will culminate in the mass imprisonment of Democratic public figures — might sound a bit kooky to an average Facebook user, Save the Children “has succeeded in mainstreaming the QAnon movement by representing its most sanitized aspects, pushing its more unsavory facets to the back burner,” explains EJ Dickson in Rolling Stone.
The problem is that these hundreds of thousands of supposedly missing children are a product of unreliable statistics and misleading anecdotes on social media. These memes and posts are popping up all over Facebook, pointing to what QAnon supporters believe is an elite child sex trafficking ring comprised of Democratic politicians and celebrities. That there is no elegant way to fact-check the concerns of Save the Children without sounding dismissive of human suffering is part of why it is so difficult to talk about, and why people who attempt to do so are often targeted as enablers or complicit in pedophilia.
There is some sort of clarity to be found, however, within the moral panics of the past. Over the course of quarantine, I’ve become a fan of the popular podcast You’re Wrong About, in which journalists Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes delve into misremembered historical events and figures, including the frenzies over Stranger Danger and the Satanic Panic (wherein dozens of daycare workers were falsely accused of using children in Satanic rituals) in the 1980s and ’90s, as well as episodes on why so many statistics about human trafficking and sex offenders are inherently misleading. In other words, they’re professional debunkers.
I called Sarah, who’s currently working on a book about the Satanic Panic, to chat about what Save the Children gets wrong and why a fight against mostly imaginary predators has captivated so many seemingly well-intentioned people — particularly as a pandemic unfolds before our eyes. We talked about why people feel the need to protect against an invented threat while a botched government response to the coronavirus has left hundreds of thousands dead, and about how a metaphor about rat milk can help us understand why it’s so difficult to have these conversations.
As you’re working on this book about the Satanic Panic, are you seeing any notable similarities or differences between that moment in the ’80s and ’90s and right now?
Oh, yeah, it’s totally the same. It’s driven by genuinely concerned and terrified parents who are feeling insecurity for the welfare of their children for extremely good reasons. This is a terrible time to be a parent in America. If you’re asked to send your child to school, then you’re potentially signing the death sentence of your child or of the people in your child’s family and community that they’re going to transmit potentially a deadly disease to. The amount of abuse that the American government has perpetrated on its citizens is just amazing, especially in the past few years.
Trump is so interesting as a president because he has the behaviors of an abusive father figure in so many ways. Even if you believe in him and feel like he’s carrying out policies that you want, he’s still lying to you. People must be feeling the effects of that, to some extent, even if they’re among his supporters. So I feel like this QAnon panic is so interesting to me because it really began as an elaborate fanfiction to explain how Trump was doing a good job and then it evolved into this.
I’ve seen so many memes on Instagram about how “the real problem” is the pedophiles, not the pandemic. One idea that you tend to come back to on the podcast is that moral panics often claim that we as a society are not paying enough attention to “the children.” Do you see that as a Trojan horse to get other extreme theories into public consciousness?
I do. One of the really dynamic ways we can see that functioning, which I’ve seen on Twitter and stuff, is the automatic argument ender that you have by being like, “Well, 800,000 children disappear every year. So how can you dismiss that? Don’t you care?” It’s very interesting, because it’s like me saying to you, “One out of every 10 American schools is serving its children rat milk instead of cow milk. How dare you say there’s not a milk problem in this country?” And you’re like, “Well, I’m saying that I doubt the rat milk studies. I’m saying this is fake rat milk data that’s been making its way around social media, because it’s so shocking when you see it. But it turns out to be an unreliably reported version of an unreliable data point and an unreliable study whose conductor has disavowed it since publication.” I would think it was horrible if a ton of American children were being fed rat milk, but it turns out that it happens very, very, very rarely. Maybe at one school every year. This metaphor is falling apart, but when one sort of unwell cafeteria lady is like, “Time for rat milk,” it’s not a systemic problem.
You’re just in this impossible bind, because even if the statistics have any truth to them, they’re misleadingly stated and no longer relevant, but the person who’s citing them is so attached to the figure of the children. They’ve already bonded with this idea of 800,000 children who are trafficked each year, or whatever it is — all these incredibly high numbers that have generally no basis in reality, or a very slight basis in reality. If it feels true to you, as though it has happened in the way you see in movies, and then someone tells you, “Actually, it’s more like roughly 115 children a year in America are kidnapped under classic Stranger Danger circumstances,” that is horrifying to the person who has come to believe in that statistic.
That would be like someone saying to me, “You know, actually, only 115 people in America have died of coronavirus,” because the fact that coronavirus is dangerous and that people should be taking precautions against it has become a central fact of my life. I would find that upsetting, perhaps in a similar way to the way people find it upsetting when you question the statistics that they’re citing.
Your episode on human trafficking was so informative, but at the same time frustrating in the sense that there’s no one easy and elegant way to debunk these statistics. But can you give an overall picture of why human trafficking statistics are almost always wrong?
Every so often, there’s a study that guesstimates or offers a statistic on child abuse that has some basis in fact, but it’s based on, for example, a survey that goes to like, 100 girls. Then based on that, they’ll say the percentage of these girls that experienced something that we define as sexual abuse was 40 percent, so 40 percent of girls have been sexually abused in their life. That’s not a good study. It’s data of some kind, but it’s not the most useful kind of data.
There have been cases similar to this, where you have a small sample size and some kind of upsetting percentage comes out of it and then that makes headlines and circulates around. People don’t know the circumstances of the study, they just know the percentage. It indicates a real problem in the world, but then it gets inflated into this idea of a crisis. We have these numbers that, if we looked at them, would indicate the complexity of the real problems that generate them. But we instead, I think, choose to selectively interpret them to support the idea of this very dangerous world where children just need to be rescued from monsters, rather than have their daily lives improved in a way that involves listening to them. You don’t have to listen to someone when you’re “rescuing” them.
The Satanic Panic ended up causing real material harm to so many adults who were accused of doing horrible things they never did. With human trafficking, the laws we put in place often end up hurting immigrants and sex workers. Who do you think QAnon and Save the Children will end up really harming (besides the people who have literally already been killed by proponents)?
I think it will be children, because I think that increased paranoia about children often manifests in ways that don’t involve listening to the child or trying to understand what your children’s needs are. Right now, I think a lot of kids would like to avoid contracting or spreading coronavirus. But if their parents subscribed to a horror story where wearing a mask means they’re going to be abducted, then they’re not going to be able to do that. I’m sure there have been many children in America who have spread a virus to elderly family members, or to people with compromised health to whom it proved deadly, or to people who were completely healthy and died anyway. This is what happens with this virus.
We know the Satanic Panic was, in many cases, harmful to the children that it was attempting to help. They have to figure out what to do with memories that they underwent therapy to “retrieve,” in a way that made these memories feel as real as any of the things that they knew with a greater degree of clarity had happened to them. If you retell a story over and over, it turns into a real-feeling event, especially if you’re a young child being led by an adult who’s highly invested in you producing a specific story for them. I think that the children, once again, are going to be the primary victim here.
What do you do in your own life when you’re in a social situation and someone says something that they believe to be true, but you know they’re going in a potentially harmful direction? The “Wayfair is selling children in $10,000 cupboards” thing comes to mind.
I’m a pretty non-confrontational person, and I think one of the things that draws me to journalism is that the best interview skill you can have is just to not interrupt someone and to just go, “Hmm,” and they’ll just keep talking, potentially forever, and get deeper and deeper into what they believe. When I’m talking to someone who espouses a belief in something that is confusing to me, I often feel like I want to know more. I’ll say things like, “Does this part make sense to you? How does this work?” to gently kick the tires of the logic. There is probably a self-protective strategy to put your journalist hat on and be like, “Say more about that!” But I am curious. I can never guess at the reasons that people have for believing what they do.