@midearthwritings I was lowkey hoping you would ask that haha. Ask and ye shall receive! I'll warn you though, it's quite long lol
Starting in the late 1980s and creeping into the 1990s and later, the Satanic Panic was one of the mostly deeply troubled, and deeply hilarious, moral crises of the modern era. Consisting of over 12,000 unfounded cases of “Satanic ritual abuse” in such a short time period, I think it’s fair to say that the Satanic Panic has shaped the way we as a society view Satan and all things supposedly associated with him. Let’s start at the beginning.
Most experts on this moral phenomenon agree that the bulk of the panic began with one book: Michelle Remembers. Co-written by psychiatrist Lawrence Pazdor and his patient Michelle Smith, the book was a supposed account of their psychiatric sessions. It posited that Pazdor helped Michelle recover repressed memories of her terrifying initiation into a secret satanic cult in Victoria, Canada. It made sweeping, lurid claims about how Satanic Cults were infiltrating North American society - anyone could be a Satanist. Your neighbour. Your daycare worker. Even your average church-goer. The problem is, it was all completely unfounded. All investigations into the book failed. Though, since it presented itself as fact, the book spread like wildfire and soon the Satanic Panic was in full swing.
One of the most popular targets of this moral epidemic, and arguably one of the strangest, was Dungeons & Dragons. Wikipedia literally has an entire page dedicated to controversies around this game. The game was released in 1974, but by the 1980s salacious rumors about the game had spread. Popular stories about children being corrupted into cults, suicide and devil worship after playing D&D took form. A popular story told of a boy named James Egbert II, who attempted suicide in the utility tunnels beneath Michigan State University in 1979. He was missing for over a month. A private detective hired to find the young man heard that James was an avid player of Dungeons & Dragons, and that students would go down to the tunnels to play. Knowing very little of the game, he concluded that James had been lured away by the game and had gotten lost. But once again, this poor boy’s suicide attempt had nothing to do with the fantasy game, instead stemming from untreated depression and stress. However, these facts did nothing to quell the story, and soon the supposed dangers of Dungeons and Dragons took hold in the public consciousness.
But D&D was not the only victim of scrutiny. This pamphlet, published by a Fundamentalist Group, shows what were widely considered “Doorways to Demonic Possession” by Christians all over North America:
Now, there might be some things you’d expect on this list. The Church of Satan, Astrology, Ouija Board, Tarot Cards and Voodoo are reasonably expected here. But things like Lord of the Rings, Alt Comics, Harry Potter, Video Games and Twilight are a little less sound. But arguably the most surprising thing is that this pamphlet was handed out during Comic-On in 2012.
See, that’s the fascinating thing about the Satanic Panic. In many ways, it never went away. Those unfortunate enough to browse Twitter may remember this tweet by pervocracy stating my exact point:
The Satanic Panic’s roots have spread so deep into popular, and largely Christian, culture that the remnants of it still survive today. Even as more people worldwide turn to Paganism, Witchcraft and other things that would have once been considered the equivalent of eating a baby, these ideologies still rear their ugly head.
Case in point, Lil Nas X’s Montero music video. Lil Nas X is widely considered an icon for the LGBT+ community, in no small part with how completely unapologetic he is about his sexuality. Now, considering this video was literally the man pole dancing into hell and twerking for Satan, it was naturally going to make the Homophobes quite unhappy. But the sheer firestorm of complaints arising from this video show how the fear of supposed “Satanic Ideology” is used as a scapegoat for prejudice and fear mongering in Christian communities. People saying he as a sex offender, an accusation that was all too familiar to that terrifying time in the early 1980s. Most of the allegations of Satanic Behavior back then circled back to the sexual abuse of children. And what did people begin accusing Lil Nas X and LGBT+ folks of? You guessed it, sexual perversity.
So, what is the moral of this tale? Who knows. I just wanted to infodump. But perhaps it’s that we, as a society, should focus more on facts than fear. Humans have always been a stupid species. Just look at how many Nazis and Antivaxxers there are. It’s no different than people burning witches over 320 years ago for the crime of being old women. Will the hysteria and stupidity of the human race ever end? Only time will tell.
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