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podcast friday
Jun. 10th, 2022 05:46 pm I almost didn't do an entry this week because I'm way behind on my usual rotation of podcasts, but I was reminded of the excellent limited series, Things Fell Apart by Jon Ronson. This is a BBC podcast about the culture wars. Ronson isn't as funny as he normally is, but he's still a hell of a journalist, and does an awesome job researching and finding first-hand sources to interview about the roots of moral panics and divisive politics. One of the episodes is even heartwarming (it's about Tammy Faye Messner, whomst we stan), but it's not this one.
"Believe the Children" is about the Satanic Panic in the 1980s. If you're too young to remember it and only know it through Stranger Things, well, you're lucky to have missed it but also that presumably means you'll never be able to afford a house. It profiles the completely innocent victims whose lives were destroyed by a completely made-up conspiracy that infected America*. It's a good thing we've learned our lesson and nothing like that could ever happen again.
One of the things that struck me is just how similar these conspiracies are, from medieval blood libel campaigns against Jews to today's QAnon and anti-vaxx conspiracies. For one, you scratch the surface and there's always antisemitism lurking there. But for another, it's always adults losing their heads over a perceived threat to fictional children, even as they decidedly do not give a shit about any actual children. See also: Politicians being extremely worried about trans kids taking hormone blockers but not about kids being massacred in schools, either by gunmen on covid. And even when the conspiracy is demonstrably untrue and makes no sense, idiots with too much power will always fall for it.
Anyway, it's a really good episode. Check it out. If you're still hankering for more Satanic Panic discourse, check out my discussion post for Stranger Things Vol. 4 on![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
terror_sffa !
* And other places. D&D was banned in schools here.
"Believe the Children" is about the Satanic Panic in the 1980s. If you're too young to remember it and only know it through Stranger Things, well, you're lucky to have missed it but also that presumably means you'll never be able to afford a house. It profiles the completely innocent victims whose lives were destroyed by a completely made-up conspiracy that infected America*. It's a good thing we've learned our lesson and nothing like that could ever happen again.
One of the things that struck me is just how similar these conspiracies are, from medieval blood libel campaigns against Jews to today's QAnon and anti-vaxx conspiracies. For one, you scratch the surface and there's always antisemitism lurking there. But for another, it's always adults losing their heads over a perceived threat to fictional children, even as they decidedly do not give a shit about any actual children. See also: Politicians being extremely worried about trans kids taking hormone blockers but not about kids being massacred in schools, either by gunmen on covid. And even when the conspiracy is demonstrably untrue and makes no sense, idiots with too much power will always fall for it.
Anyway, it's a really good episode. Check it out. If you're still hankering for more Satanic Panic discourse, check out my discussion post for Stranger Things Vol. 4 on
terror_sffa !* And other places. D&D was banned in schools here.
