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Consider This from NPR

Long Before QAnon Conspiracies, The U.S. Was Swept By 'Satanic Panic'

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Daily News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, News

4.26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2021

⏱️ ? minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past year, QAnon conspiracies have migrated from obscure corners of the internet into national headlines. The false belief that left-wing Satanists are controlling the government helped fuel the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.

These theories didn't come from nowhere. Back in the 1980s a similar "satanic panic" swept through the country and led to lawsuits that alleged preschool teachers were performing evil rituals with children. These claims were debunked but the accusations themselves had staying power.

NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on what factors contributed to the original "satanic panic" and what it can teach us about the conspiracy theories that attract followers today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

In the past year, we've all become more familiar with QAnon conspiracy theories.

0:05.0

Can you talk about what you think about that and what you have to say to people who are following this movement right now?

0:11.0

Well, I don't know much about the movement other than I understand. They liked me very much.

0:15.0

Would you appreciate?

0:18.0

In a press conference last summer, then President Trump was asked about QAnon followers.

0:23.0

Part of their mythology is the false belief that liberal Satanists are abusing children in secret rituals.

0:30.0

Q followers paint Trump as their hero.

0:33.0

Is this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals?

0:41.0

Well, I haven't heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?

0:48.0

As bizarre as these conspiracies sound, on January 6th, we saw how real the consequences can be.

0:57.0

In the mob of insurrectionists at the Capitol, some carried signs and wore t-shirts with a big letter Q.

1:04.0

We are at war!

1:07.0

It may look like these arcane and dangerous theories bubbled up from nowhere, but they actually echo stories that this country has heard before.

1:16.0

My next guest was used also in worshipping the devil, participated in human sacrifice rituals and cannibalism.

1:23.0

She has said that nationwide, the network of satanic criminals exist.

1:27.0

Child molesting is a crime that most parents worry about at one time or another.

1:31.0

That was Oprah Winfrey, heralda Rivera, and from NPR's Morning Edition, the Lake Carl Castle, all reporting in the 1980s on a wave of moral panic about satanic ritual abuse of children.

1:45.0

My primary area of research was in moral panics, particularly the daycare moral panic of the 1980s.

1:54.0

Mary D. Young is a retired sociology professor from Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

1:59.0

So as a person who has spent your life researching this, what was your first reaction to hearing about Q and On?

2:04.0

Here we go again.

2:06.0

Really?

...

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