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This country is so uneasy & so ripe to engage in a cycle of moral panic(s) - be it about “antifa,” whatever QAn*n is on about, or an explosion of panic about transgender people existing.
Moral panics don’t solve real problems but they do help politicians.
Moral panics don’t solve real problems but they do help politicians.
Real problems exist and real people are vulnerable but they tend to be more complex (both the people and the problems!) and therefore “boring” and un-useful as ways to create fear and power by politicians and the media.
Try scrolling your TL while you hold in your mind the past narratives & patterns that:
- video games (or heavy metal lyrics, or gangsta rap) were turning kids into killers
- suburbia was endangered due to “wilding” groups of “superpredators”
- satanists were abusing children
- video games (or heavy metal lyrics, or gangsta rap) were turning kids into killers
- suburbia was endangered due to “wilding” groups of “superpredators”
- satanists were abusing children
Now see if u can find current topics that fit the pattern:
- massively oversimplify/distort something folks don’t know much about
- find 1-2 stories that sorta fit & turn an entire group into “folk devils”
- amplify via media & politicians
- legislate while ignoring real problems
- massively oversimplify/distort something folks don’t know much about
- find 1-2 stories that sorta fit & turn an entire group into “folk devils”
- amplify via media & politicians
- legislate while ignoring real problems
And of course the most infuriating step in the moral panic process:
- once it stops being useful, forget it ever happened, move on, and leave vulnerable people holding the bag
- once it stops being useful, forget it ever happened, move on, and leave vulnerable people holding the bag
