The Dangerous Thing About Qanon and its Connections to Satanic Panic of the 1980s
1970 to 1980s Satanic Panic
I grew up in 1980s America, and I know exactly what this is from, it isn't just Jerry Falwell or whatever or however its spelled. It came from a book called Michelle Remembers (I believe). The Book illustrated a fake memory jogging of a woman, whether this is real or not, I am not going to talk about that in detail, but I am going to talk about my experience.
Back in 1990s, I was watching a series called Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack, it talked of two people who were killed because they played D&D, this was later proven to not be the actual cause of their death. They were playing a mental exercise was as their friends stated and most of what they were doing was just a game, and that was it. These two young people were the victim of a serial killer that was unrelated and was not even aware of the game. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time kind of mentality.
But there were were people who used that as an excuse, this was actually a lot to do with another case, but again the body of the college student was found, but he had killed himself due to depression brought on from family strife, NOT THE GAME.
As people had to grown tired of it, it was not just affecting how people saw the rest of the world, it also affected many who were not even aware of what witchcraft was. Even Robert Stack showed an air of skepticism.
The problem with the Satanic Panic was there was never really any evidence to illustrate if any of it was remotely true. 90% of the information was fabricated or was not even real. Many of the facts were warped and some of the people who were interviewed soon realized it was all a lie recanted years later as they were now adults! (Much of the cases involved CHILDREN)
This came to a bigger issue in the 1985 to nearly 2000s trials of the McMartin Family who ran a daycare center. These people were basically alienated back in the 1980s due to the accusations of child abuse, which was unfounded. Many parents who participated soon realized that the person who did the first accusation, which was the oldest McMartin's exwife who was mentally ill. Her accusation in general wrecked the lives and an entire family!
Whether this falls apart or not, let's start with the presence of the NEW Satanic Panic known as Qanon!
New Platform Same Fear Mongering Tactics
As many people have seen the issues with Qanon and their tactics quite literally jumped off the map right at me when my roommate who is now an ex-believer started venting. He had made mentions of things I had seen back during my childhood of seeing the Satanic Panic, something he was unaware of. I knew these tactics and quite frankly, these are not surprising using the same fear of the unknown.
The platform appeared on message boards like 4chan and moved through Discord or Reddists, half of the things were half baked and most of the just screams the similarities to the past.
With different groups covering this on YouTube: FundieFridays and iilluminaughtii who have just awesome sources I am going to link these two and give them a note of thanks right now.
The truth is, these things also leaked overseas to Australia and parts of Europe, but these have been followed just as closely.
Sadly the US on the other hand in the same fashion it would take a case like the McMartins to make this well...close down in some cases. This is where I think that the Capital Hill Attacks might actually make Qanon no longer a valid source of information. This is just my opinion so I am not going to say much on that matter.
The issues with the platforms is Qanon and their believes are actually chased out of the plaforms. 4chan and Reddit have tried to keep the groups well under controls, while of course 4chan's moderators have made it clear this is not what the message board is for. There are other problems that arise when the group tried to break into YouTube with conservative YouTubers, some of which were shut down right awhile.
Links:
Why is this Dangerous Mix
Imagine having to explain it to a believer who has no idea that what they are saying can quite literally wreck a person's life. In truth I had it happen and in a bizarre fact, this woman believes I am a child trafficker who goes to parks to take pictures of children. The issue? I'm a Nature photographer, and have no interest in this.
Have I had the cops called on me? Actually no, the woman's belief is based on the fact that I go out and take photographs and she has seen me hunched over a set of flowers trying to get a shot. If that woman could find proof, she'd only find photos of flowers or nature scenes on my camera. I don't even take pictures of dogs or cats unless they're mine.
As you can see, I'm not that kind of person she accuses me of, from the personal experience, this could have been a lot worse, people could have seen these as coded or something much dumber. I was basically more worried this would happen to another person in my area who may not have the amount of knowledge I have or understanding that this kind of stuff could be used against someone.
The truth is Qanon is another form of the Satanic Panic and it is much worse than that with a Pandemic that happened and the shut downs that we experienced. The issue can run much deeper, it is the fact that some religious people will take this as a sign that they have to put some kind of metal foot down. The issue also forms that there are people who willingly want to violate that rights of others based on not knowing or understanding the individual.
The situation with Qanon is that it can hurt ACTUAL CHILDREN! There is a fact that this group and their behavior could actually cause more issues and falsify a child who is abused. The fact is that even when it was covered in 60 Minutes Australia the term "Ritual Abuse" actually excludes those who were abused not ritually.
The term of Ritual Abuse is directly from the Satanic Panic, there were cases of abuse that were happening, but unfortunately that idea that cults might be doing it, overshadowed domestic child abuse cases that were or could be happening.
I am also going to mention I am Wiccan, there were times people would have thought Wiccans would actually doing that.
There were even Unsolved Mysteries episodes that debunked these theories and showed both sides of the argument. (I encourage my readers to go to YouTube and look up Unsolved Mysteries Season 1 with Robert Stack)
Can something like the McMartin Case happen again? YES! I believe that Qanon's followers and believers will cause another McMartin Case and it will happen sooner than later. They already caused a negative view by those who survived and saw the Satanic Panic and know what they're looking at.
I am going to mention that there are many videos and sources out there that can lead you to the same conclusion. And I am going to close in saying, that the Satanic Panic never ended, it just went online.
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