Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists

From Friday, May 29th,

Meeting discussion

We had another excellent presentation by Deja today about moral panics.  Moral panics are when people think there’s something out there that’s corrupting our precious children.  Please, won’t someone think of the children?  Some examples of moral panics are comic books, music, videogames, satanic cults, and the pedobear.  In the music category, people panicked about KISS (they thought it stood for “Knights in Satan’s Service”), Elvis’ gyrating hips, and about Judas Priest (they thought they were trying to get their listeners to commit suicide).  Ironically, sometimes you’d have to have a dirty mind to see these things, like Tipper Gore saw sadomasochism in Twisted Sister’s “Under the Blade”.

And then there was Seduction of the Innocent, the book which started the comic books moral panic in 1954.  The book claimed that comic books were making delinquents out of innocent youth.  As a result of this book, there were senate hearings, out of which came the Comics Code Authority, a way of censoring “bad” material from comics.  The Comics Code Authority is still around, but it became used by fewer comics over time.  In 2001, Marvel dropped the Comics Code Authority, and it is now only used by Archie comics and DC superhero comics.

And then there was the same thing for videogames.  In 1994, in response to Mortal Kombat and Doom, the ESRB was formed.  Etc. etc.

Satanic ritual abuse was a moral panic set off by a book called Michelle Remembers.  Of course, the book turned out to be false.  But as a result of the hysteria, there were at least two stories that blew out of proportion and became stories of satanic ritual abuse.  One was the case of the McMartins in California.  It all started with a schizophrenic mother, and soon it became a story with hot air balloons, underground tunnels, and Chuck Norris.  Another case was in Fells Acre, Massachussetts.  What happened was that a boy wet himself while sleeping, and an adult changed his pants.  Soon, it became an abuse story involving clowns and lobsters.

These last two cases were examples of False Memory Syndrome.  A person in power can convince a kid that he/she remembers something that didn’t actually happen.  Deja related a story in which her mother spilled some milk in front of her sister.  Her mother proceeded to convince her sister that she had spilt the milk herself.

Other moral panics: Rainbow parties, where girls wear lipstick of all colors, and then give BJs to all the boys.  There was a book written about it, and Oprah had it on her show, but it was entirely made up.  Dungeons and Dragons were another moral panic, as you can see in the classic Dark Dungeons Jack Chick tract.

Other things mentioned at the meeting:  Did you know that you can see North Korea as a dark spot on Google Maps Nighttime?  Bill Donohue (of the Catholic League) had a press release complaining about Lucky Louie, but he apparently never even saw the show.  What idea fuels Gorgoroth’s music?

Last 5 posts by Tristan Miller

• Presentation: Separation of Church and State - March 6th, 2010
• BASS protests the Westboro Baptist Church - January 17th, 2010
• BASS and friends protest the Phelps family - January 14th, 2010
• Snacks List - January 12th, 2010
• BASS Meeting I - January 6th, 2010