During the summer of 2020 rumors about human trafficking spread on social media like wildfire. They implicated celebrities like Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres, as well as the online home-goods retailer Wayfair. These rumors are unfounded.
I refer here to the human tendency to lift ourselves up by comparing ourselves to others in a way that demeans others, sometimes even to the point of regarding them almost as “inhuman,” deserving no respect or consideratio