tricked

[IMDB]

tricked is a documentary about the sex slave industry in the us.  the main story it is pushing is that there is a prevalent practice of tricking naive people into putting themselves under a pimp's thumb, at which point they get turned out.  i am not sure whether i am more upset that this kind of shit happens in the world or that i cannot watch a documentary about it without questioning the truth of everything being presented as fact.  that skepticism, which usually serves me quite well, causes exactly the kind of doubt which allows sex slavery to flourish in the first place.  this documentary even went out of its way to provoke that skepticism by including instances of prostitutes claiming that everything was consensual and everybody was happy.  so is it sometimes this way, sometimes that way?  probably.  now, how do we fix it?

there is a really interesting question lurking around the corners here.  what is interesting about it is that it is the same question you have to ask about cults, religions, schools, families, marketing, and any other mechanism which is used to indoctrinate people with regard to what they do and do not like.  the question is whether it is moral to influence a person when it comes to their happiness.  for example, is it ok for parents to tell their kids that they have good lives?  why would that be ok, if when a cult does the same thing, it is called brainwashing?  and what happens when a person believes you at first, but later changes their mind?  were you a bad person all along?  what if you believed your own story?  i guess i think about the moral ambiguity of cults a lot, and how little they differ from many perfectly acceptable social constructs.

by the way, pro-tip: never tell anybody the circumstances under which you would commit a felony.  it is an instant upgrade to "premeditated."

tricked gets two problems, both of which you are a part of.