posted March 07, 2015 08:56 PM            

Just one more reason why I didn't have much respect for many adults back then and to this day I don't blame myself for that lack of respect.

And I got off light. After sharing some of my experiences I was told to read a couple of books which I did (The Satanic Panic and also one written by a detective who wrote about the witch hunt even within the police department he worked at) and holy crap, I got off light! People are insane, they don't need mold in the bread to believe in fantastical tales of magic and black sabbaths!

One of the reasons I tend to dismiss anything Al Gore says is because he was part of it. Well technically it was his wife (who wrote a book for concerned parents) but Al Gore aided his wife's crusade in Congress and took part in confronting music bands of the time (lead singer of Twisted Sister really smacked Gore upside the head, metaphorically speaking, you can see that here if you want). I don't care if Al Gore was just exploiting it or if he really believed it, it cost him credibility in my book (and it's not the only reason, just the pertinent one here).

That aside, it was a lot worse for kids than let on. This includes taking small children to examine (with instruments) their gonads and anus, sometimes with tests that have since been debunked but were used in attempts to convict (and such tests were not only documented, the child was sometimes photographed for the record with the photos shown to jury members, ironically subjecting them to sexual abuse similar to what the system was trying to convict others of!).

Oh, I got curious reading the history of that and found YT vids on glam metal and laughed and laughed and laughed. I have to admit had I been alive then I think it would've been my dream job to strike it rich by trolling fundies! And what was said about Dungeons and Dragons was so mind boggling stupid that I don't see how it could be sane (one example is that it was said that the spells in the game were real, which meant they really believe the kids they tormented could shoot forth lightning bolts and fireballs and essentially be like the young wizards and witches of Hogwarts!).

posted March 07, 2015 09:02 PM            

ETA: Swine Flu song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbt_PuVAVTU

And I remember the Harry Potter scares...that was insane like the satanic panics. ETA: Btw, a prime example of Poe's Law, many aren't sure if this is a sincere rewrite of Harry Potter or someone mocking those panicking over Harry Potter, but I found it hilarious:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/10644439/1/Hogwarts-School-of-Prayer-and-Miracles

posted March 07, 2015 10:23 PM            

The news clips are so insane, matches some of the crazier stuff O'Reilly comes up with (like the lesbian gangs taking over America). I've seen similar media hysteria over emos as well. And similar to how I got to dismiss a lot of drug propaganda that I shouldn't have because of the absurd lies it was laced with I've often rejected some things that were true said about a group of people simply because the media has so little credibility with me, especially when they're warning their audience about them or otherwise trying to glue them to the screen with fear.

Why does it keep working? I've learned to be wary, so why do so many others never learn?

Btw, an astrology related question I asked in regards to such panics (if more for just musing over) not too long ago:
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/230452.html

posted March 08, 2015 05:27 PM            

Or the Environmentalists want to take us back to prehistoric technology. Solar is a Plot.

posted March 08, 2015 09:50 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Catalina:
And most of the storylines have at least two scaremongering sides, as in the vaccine flap and the Epidemic of measles.

---

There is that but I wasn't sure how to explore that offhand. I came real close to pointing out how some on both sides of that debate are way over the top. (That and I thought it best not to touch on those that are currently still going strong.)

posted March 11, 2015 06:38 PM            

"Witch hunts" still happen today - eg truthtellers & whistleblowers are "suicided", reputations/careers destroyed, false imprisonment etc etc

posted March 11, 2015 11:27 PM            

How do we stop this tactic from working? Is govt by the lowest common denominator the best we can do? I Tend to think focusing on any one Face of Fear, even fear of the govt and elites, is being taken for a ride. Does that make sense?

posted March 12, 2015 12:18 PM            

I also remember a film that was old by the time i saw it on the late night movies. "The Killer that Stalked New York" would have fit right in with the Ebola and Measles/Flu scares of the last couple of years. It featured a woman coming down with a fever, drinking out of public. water fountains (they used to be everywhere!), infecting a numberless crowd of innocent bystanders with a deadly disease. ..

posted March 12, 2015 01:27 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Randall:
Global Warming, with "The sky is falling" mentality.

---

If only.

posted March 12, 2015 11:12 PM            

There is plenty of this in the "alternative" press too..to the point where I often think both sides are really in cahoots, tho more likely they are mostly just playing for ratings and more tools than engines.

posted March 13, 2015 09:58 PM            

I heard from older people about how schools taught at least a little critical thinking but that Reagan cut that out of the schools somehow as too many were questioning American propaganda (and corporate advertising) as much as Communist propaganda. I'm not sure if Soviet Russia cut out the critical thinking or not (their propaganda against the Capitalist West was just as absurd as what America put out about everyday life in Soviet Russia...even many of the things America got right about was also true of the USA, and the USA could be even more totalitarian or ruthless at times), but one guy raised in that time said when forced to take some required college class on Marxism he and the other students were extremely cynical with black humor in comparing it to the actual workings of the Soviet government and a few played a game of chicken by making tongue in cheek comments in class in a way of hoping to be thought of by the instructor as giving serious answers whereas classmates knew they were being a smart ass.

But even before Reagan something went wrong. A friend of mine shared how a math teacher thought the Nazis were Communists. He (a high school student) corrected the teacher and explained that the Nazis and Communists were enemies ending with "You, being a teacher, should know that." He was taken outside for a scolding and also to the office but "it was about the only time they didn't get around to calling my parents." I list that given how all forms of tyranny get thought of as "Communism" even when it's not.

posted March 13, 2015 09:59 PM            

But not capitalism. When I spoke to some Russian Americans about my having been placed in an abusive psychiatric hospital and mentioned more than I usually do of what happened there they said it reminded them of a girl in Moscow of the 1950s placed in such a facility by the state for similar reasons....only in America it's about capitalism so doesn't engender the same horror or hatred had it been done in the name of the state ('course political dissidents in the USA did get committed in the 50s as well and even Soviet Russians were horrified at how Americans used lobotomies back then among other abuses and atrocities).

posted March 13, 2015 09:59 PM            

If they didn't see it on TV on their own many of their friends would and thus impart it indirectly. Schools also promoted it, churches often incorporated it (especially those thinking the Antichrist is bound to show up next Tuesday) and the kids (and even adults) were raised to be in competition...America had to beat Russia to the moon to make a point and then the space program was pretty much dropped (I could share what others told me of teachers trying to shame students into working hard "like those in Russia" as otherwise Russia would destroy us all) and boys, ever playing war games, incorporated that into it so they learn to think of any Commie pinkos as the bad guys...and bad guys as Commie pinkos.

And thus the insanity of like when I saw a fringe paper showing Soviet tanks "prepared to cross the Mexican border into America after Y2K leaves us helpless" that many adults seriously believed was true (which was absurd as FOX News equating UHC with marching Nazis and FOX is the mainstream media, not a fringe paper). I was gobsmacked that otherwise rational adults were taking that serious as I didn't realize the power of the constant conditioning practically since birth.

When raised in such an atmosphere to see anyone who even hints at anything socialistic (or even bring up a legite grievance) as an evil monster (or dupe of one) that's even more scary than the John Birch Society then that's how the brain will react in a kneejerk way, because it's habit, and also easier to react than to THINK about what's going on. (Survival instincts will also promote going with the flow as well.) So I understand it on a mental level and can see that had I been raised in those times it would be more compelling to me. But I wasn't and so I was confused when I saw this scene in the year 2000:
http://youtu.be/sf8rDpu1vCk?t=1m14s

I knew it was supposed to be funny but wasn't sure how...I finally turned to the two significantly older people and asked, "Cold War humor?" Yup.

And a guy raised with that told me it was a sensation of physical shock when the boy in Terminator 2 said that Russians "are our friends now." It took him YEARS to get over Cold War mentality. And he's a deep thinker, btw.

posted March 14, 2015 01:48 PM            

My Comments are always abridged these days. Typos are such a pain with the small screen and auto correct issues..

A lot of the Commie Ruskie stuff is just nationalistic need for an enemy, which definitely plays on fear of the Other - unknown - and which now has evolved to fear of our own government in many minds. Especially progressive govts who urge moving with the times and leaving our comfOrt zones. Like any good hypnotist "trigger" words are used to elicit kneejerk responses.

Of course all govts are prone to corruption and thus suspect of this kind of manipulation and both "sides" do it. The fear of "socialist" energy policies is actually reasonable, in sone ways, but unfortunately a democracy or republic made up of people who really can't be bothered is even more Prone to devolve into corruption..also on both sides of that fence.

The price of freedom is vigilance..a phrase i grew up with and true. Those who think govt should regulate business need to make sure it doesnt go too far and those who believe in the free market need to watch out for how that continually evolves into consolidation by the wealthiest (who buy out the small fry and kill competition just as surely as full-on state control).