I grew up in the Satanic Panic — and it’s happening again
I grew up in the Satanic Panic — and it’s happening again
I too have been afraid of things that couldn't hurt me. It is never too late to interrogate your fears
It's absolutely happening again (if it ever stopped). Did you notice how "Critical Race Theory" was all conservatives ever talked about, for weeks/months on end, and then they all suddenly stopped, and then they couldn't stop talking about Trans/Drag things? It's all contrived panic. It's well coordinated to drive engagement and a sense of impending doom. They require an Us vs Them mentality to survive.
The easiest way to make an ignorant person feel special is to identify an "other" for the ignorant person to look down on/blame for their problems.
- Manufacture a scapegoat
- Charismatic speaker blames the scapegoat
- Get power/money
Oldest trick in the oldest of books.
Yep.
When I was growing up, it had to spread at the speed of chain emails through AOL dial-up. Now is a 24-hour news cycle spouting constant hate and fear. :sigh:
If
conservativesregressives could learn from the past, they wouldn't be regressive.Oh they learned, at least some of them. But they learned the wrong lessons. Their takeaway was figuring out exactly which buttons to push to get the masses foaming at the mouth and all riled up.
Well said
I did as well, but this time, I'm leaning into it. I joined and became a literal card-carrying member of The Satanic Temple, and you should too. They don't really have anything to do with Satan at all, but instead, work for equal rights and to fight Christo-fascists.
Joined TST myself. If the religious right are going to weaponize religion, then I'm making my stand with the TST.
TST does some amazing work. Been meaning to donate to become a card carrying member.
I grew up in it, too, and now I’m a basic LaVeyan Satanist. gg authoritarian regressives!
Yep, same, except I'm TST/parody Satan nowadays (donating now to get my card)
It wasn't rock music, video games, D&D, Harry Potter, green M&Ms, college indoctrination, take your pick that drove me away. It was them. Like Musk and Spez, they killed their own brand with their toxicity. All they had to do was not be hateful, bigoted hypocrites and I'd probably still be caterwauling hymns every Sunday right along with them. Once I stepped back and looked at them objectively, I couldn't believe I'd spent so much of my life not only trying to be like them, but trying to be liked by them.
Agreed on all points, friend.
Their task failed successfully...for you!