What caused the "Satanic Panic" in the 1980's?

[LostInAnomie]

A friend and I were talking about this today and we couldn't remember why it all started. We just remembered that for a while in the 80's everyone was worrying about Devil worshipers..

[Maddy McCall]

1. Billy Idol "Eyes without a face."

Totally satanic. The world was going to hell.

[Olney Blue]

4. LOL.

Hi Maddy!
:hi:

[Nitrogenica]

6. LOL's...Cher "If I Could Turn Back Time" scared the CRAP

out of me!

I remember thinking "I'M BLIND!!". A g-string from HELL!!

[we can do it]

17. I Love That Song

[Carni]

40. My husband thought he was saying "How's about a date" lol

He's never lived that one down!

[enki23]

2. christianity.

well, truthfully that's neither the ultimate nor the proximate cause. it's sorta intermediate between the two. but without it, there would have to have been a somewhat different sort of panic.

[FreedomAngel82]

58. Isn't that when Billy Graham became popular?

[fishwax]

91. billy graham was well-known long before that

he was on the cover of time in the 50s ...

[annabanana]

3. because a bunch of kids

began to self identify with 'goth' style.. black lipstick and new and exciting piercings and stuff and it freaked out middle america

[SPKrazy]

52. Because of the girl in Beetle juice

Wasn't it Winona Ryder

wearing black

must be Satanic

[FreedomAngel82]

59. I thought it was Christina Ricci?

[woo me with science]

63. actually that girl wednesday from the addams family. nt

[FreedomAngel82]

71. I knew she was in one of those

[SPKrazy]

70. No, it was Wynona

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800033734/cast

Lydia=Wynona Ryder

[sarcasmo]

97. Isn't that when the Judas Priest trial about their lyrics causing some kid

to commit suicide.

[likesmountains 52]

5. It might have been those day care allegations...I can't recall the

name of the place....but I think that was one of the first "cases."

[annabanana]

8. oh it pre-dated that..

in fact the day care thing was probably CAUSED by the satanic-hysteria that was kicking around.

[Warpy]

20. It did, the Satanic thing started first

probably because Reagan handed the GOP over to the religious nut cases to win his elections. They'd never had any power before, and they went even nuttier when they got it, a process that's still continuing now. They saw devils lurking everywhere, poor deluded fools.

That's the process going on with the PNAC crowd, too. They were considered the lunatic fringe of the GOP before Stupid lied and cheated his way into office.

[Democrats_win]

31. 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder

"But it wasn't until the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith, that hypnotically-enhanced accounts of torture and ritual murder began circulating. "The kind of religious folklore involving Satanism and spiritual warfare, that had long been believed and listened to in church basements, was eventually picked up as truth by the news media, police officers, psychological paraprofessionals and social workers"

http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc44406/smwane/SRA.htm

[woo me with science]

34. you're right....i traced it to sybil below, but

that was really the start of the repressed memories and multiple personality hysteria. michelle remembers is when it first got satanic.

[SPKrazy]

43. More than psychological paraprofessionals and social workers

I remember going to workshops on dealing with victims of "ritualized abuse"

Then the day care stuff

then the "false memory syndrome" and the demonizing of practitioners of hypnosis and memory retrieval.

(The truth is that it doesn't take hypnosis to retrieve these memories)

I'll have to admit that the ritualized abuse syndrome that was said to create deliberately a multiple personalty syndrome, was pretty wild.

But the therapists who treated it and were trained in clinical hypnosis had good credentials and believed that what they were seeing were the victims of ritualized abuse.

[woo me with science]

49. that has been part of the problem, though...

is that "believers" self-selected into the therapy profession. most therapists who perpetrate repressed memory bullshit on their clients have themselves been in therapy and recovered "memories" of abuse.

most of them don't have good credentials. another huge part of the problem is the mushrooming of professional schools of psychology that don't teach how development and memory actually work. studies have documented that the more educated clinicians are, the LESS likely they are to believe in repressed memories.

[SPKrazy]

50. Whatever, I'd like to see those studies

The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (which is largely made up of physicians, psychologists, dentists, social workers, counselors, all having at least a 60 hour Master's degree) believes in repressed memories.

And the notion that therapists can "plant" false memories is a meme of defense lawyers to impeach therapist witnesses. Some studies have concluded that it is possible, however, not all studies conclude anything of the sort.

Peace

[woo me with science]

56. oh please

I'm supposed to take training in hypnosis as evidence of professional competence?? Surely you are joking. If there is one undisputed finding in the literature, it is that memories retrieved under hypnosis are the LEAST likely to be accurate. Hypnotists retrieving memories are the biggest charlatans of them all. Even the major psychological and psychiatric organizations have cautioned against the use of hypnosis in therapy for abuse.

Most repressed memory therapists are people with bachelor's degrees or are master's level social workers, counselors, or graduates of professional psychology schools. Not to mention the ones with no respectable training whatsoever ("hypnotherapists," life counselors, body workers, massage therapists, you name it).

Rates of belief in repressed memories drop sharply among doctoral level clinical psychologists and psychiatrists-in other words, groups that are far more likely to study actual research on development, memory, and the brain.

[SPKrazy]

72. Check out the American Society of Clinical Hynosis

hardly "charlatans"

and workshops I went to as a Master's level social worker weren't put on by "bachelor's level" anythings, they were put on by psychologists.

http://www.asch.net/genpubinfo.htm

get some education about hypnosis please before you embarrass yourself further

[woo me with science]

76. lol

Therapists who engage in this type of nonsense are part of a little cultist movement that has no basis whatsoever in science. Arguing with them about how memory actually works is like arguing with born-again Christians about evolution.

I will make one point only: Taking a few seminars in hypnosis (gosh...60 whole hours?!) does not give you the credentials to argue about the validity of repressed memories. All it does is demonstrate the quality of "professional" who supports this malpractice.

Sorry, no embarrassment here. I think YOU should ask all the repressed memory "therapists" you know if they are disclosing their specialties to insurance companies and the regulating boards in their states. I would bet any amount of money that they are being, well, discreet. Go to a major university and ask them for a referral to recover more memories of satanic ritual abuse. See what kind of reaction you get.

[woo me with science]

78. also, to clarify.

"Hypnosis" as a tool for relaxation is probably harmless. Fine, hypnotize all you want for that.

However, if you are using hypnosis to help clients uncover buried "memories" of abuse, you are certainly a charlatan and should be put out of business. If you are doing this, your ignorance of the research on hypnosis and memory is inexcusable.

[SPKrazy]

81. Repressed memories hardly need hypnosis to come out

they come out in the course of traditional psychotherapy.

I don't use much hypnosis

when I did it was for relaxation and for helping folks with chronic pain.

But I don't think you know what you are talking about.

60 hours plus supervision is required to be certified by ASCH

and no it isn't a Charlatan organization

And you have to already be a mental health professional to join or attend their seminars

[woo me with science]

82. You are not listening to my argument at all...

I hear that you believe, but you are missing my point. Again: Do whatever you want with hypnosis. My point is very specific. If you are focused in therapy on recovering buried "memories" of abuse, you are a charlatan. I don't care how you do it.

It is beyond sad, that this malpractice continues, and that you can call yourself a professional. My deepest sympathies to you, for I suspect that you have your own "memories" and a ravaged family. That is how it usually works.

I am finished with this discussion, but I thank you for making public the extent of the education many practitioners in "repressed memories" have. The devastation people like you cause is criminal.

[SPKrazy]

83. Bullshit

If people spontaneously retrieve memories they have not remembered, they have retrieved "repressed" memories.

That is not malpractice.

And as for your attack, I suspect that you must have some deep issues with this whole idea of repression. (which does happen)

I have not caused anyone "devastation" to anyone.

Calling me a criminal, well, I wonder what your agitation is about people remembering things they had previously forgot. Afraid someone might remember something?

Geebus

[woo me with science]

109. Thank you for the perfect example

of how repressed memory therapists operate. The insinuation above about my "deep issues" is exactly what they do. Everybody is either a perpetrator or a victim, and it all comes from the therapist's template, just as you see above.

It is a sick, sick little world they create in their "therapy" rooms. And all the research shows that the clients they work with get worse and not better. That is why there have been million-dollar judgments against charlatans like this over the past ten years, for destroying lives and tearing apart families. It is also why most of these quacks now hide what they do from their own governing boards.

It is malpractice. Thank you for demonstrating it so clearly.

[SPKrazy]

115. Well well well

defensiveness, well, hmmmmm

don't know about therapy

you don't know jack about me or what I do, and yet you have a great defensive wall built around this whole idea of repressed memories.

I'm laughing my ass off:rofl:

chill dude

[SmokingJacket]

86. I know a very smart man, PhD, hypnotist...

who totally agrees with you!

Hypnosis has a lot of valid uses, mainly because a hypnotized person is very suggestible. But memories "retrieved" under hynosis are incredibly unreliable because it's a state under which it is very easy to make things up.

I was once hypnotized and told to go back and remember the time before I was born... and you wouldn't believe the stuff I came up with!! Was I really remembering my previous lives? Of course not. But those "memories" are as clear to me as some of my early life memories. It was a powerful exercise in the power of the unconscious, lemme tell you.

[SPKrazy]

87. Okay, but how do you know you weren't remembering past lives?

I would be skeptical of past life regression and personally don't believe it, but then I don't know for fact that it isn't possible

I'm not saying I believe in past lives, and I think that any kind of hypnosis that uses suggestion to lead the person to retrieving memories is wrong.

Forgotten memories will find their way out without hypnosis easily enough. I've even heard of people claiming to remember "past lives" without the use of hypnosis.

I personally wouldn't use hypnosis to help someone find repressed memories, because I'm not comptetent in that regard. I've only used hypnosis to help some people who don't respond to other relaxation therapies, and to deal with chronic pain.

But it is interesting that you used hypnosis to retrieve past life memories. Did the hypnotist lead you in your "remembering"? Or was it spontaneous?

[SmokingJacket]

88. Because I don't have any past lives.

I'm not going to go into why I don't believe in reincarnation! But I don't.

The hypnotist is a brother in law of mine. He was working with the idea that memories can be metaphors, that the stuff we come up with under hypnosis might not be literally true, but might be useful in examining a person's psychological state. The easy way to do this, for him, was to get "memories" that wouldn't be easily mixed up with a person's actual memories -- to go before birth.

(If he'd said, Okay, remember the time you ate alllllll the cookies in the box, and your mother was so angry at you... damn, I'd remember that! I'd completely create a convincing memory of what that was like, I'd see the cupboard, remember the crumbs on the counter (I'm very imaginative and suggestible) -- because I'd have enough actual memories to my childhood kitchen to make it real. I wouldn't be sure at all if it was real or not.)

The experiment he was doing was specifically to retrieve fake memories (a person who believe in reincarnation might have another theory!) and try to interpret them, sort of like Rorsach blotches. It was might interesting! I just went backward through time, "remembering" stuff from various eras. I suspect it was all cobbled together from books I'd read and movies I'd seen.

Elizabeth Loftus does a lot of work in the area of memory. She did an amazing experiment in which she colluded with a person's family members to create false memories. She said to a young man, remember when you lost your mother at the mall that time? What were you wearing? And he would actually SEE the shirt he was wearing when he got lost at the mall -- which never happened.

I don't believe all recovered memories are false -- far from it. I just think our imaginations, especially in a suggestible state like hypnosis, make the memories really really unreliable.

[pitohui]

89. for a further exercise hypnotize to remember future lives

i actually did this, and one of them came back w. vivid, chilling horrible memories of being assaulted near an alley surrounded by futuristic skyscrapers

this is all science fiction folks

you can't take "recovered" memories seriously, hell, budd hopkins and friends have entire careers based on recovering people's memories of being kidnapped and sexually penetrated by the space brothers

at least my excuse for being an irresponsible boob and hypnotizing my friends like this was that i was 12 yrs old

satanic ritual abuse was created by the book, michelle remembers, and then the therapists cashed in on it, we had a therapist in southeast louisiana whose every customer retrieved memories of ritual abuse and incest, often satanic, that therapist is now out of practice but she was mind-raping people for a $$$ for yrs w. this shite, far as i'm concerned, she belongs in jail, she destroyed entire families

[woo me with science]

114. excellent post

Thank you for speaking up. Things are much better than they were, but people still need to be warned about this garbage, because it is still out there to some extent. It is sad that people cannot take for granted that when they walk into a therapist's office, that person will have even a minimum of competence.

There is a lot to be done yet in terms of regulatory boards for therapy. In the meantime, people need to be warned.

[Finder]

102. Alan Alda did a show on this subject...

it was good. Explained the whole process of planting false memories. Even he fell for it and had an aversion to hard boiled eggs.

[Finder]

103. Totally correct, and...

also the religion factor.

[woo me with science]

113. Yes, thank you. You are exactly right.

There are theophostic counselors and other religious therapists still pushing this garbage, too.

[Finder]

101. Not a meme...false memories of alien abductions, abuse...

have been exposed for what they are. All studies conclude it is nonsense.

[woo me with science]

112. Thank you.

We are in a much better place now than we were ten years ago, but this still needs to be said, and said, and said and said publicly. People still need to be very, very careful when seeking therapy.

[mitchum]

104. That is the correct answer!

Of course, an emboldened group of republican religious nuts and self-styled "Occult Experts" pursuing lucrative consulting fees added to the hysteria, but that ridiculous book was instrumental in getting the ball rolling.

[SPKrazy]

107. Maybe It Was Post "Exorcist" panic?

Just saw the "Exorcism of Emily Rose"

Read some stuff about the author of the book that the movie is loosly based on, a book about Annaliese Michel, a young German woman who was said to be possessed.

The author's premise is that a lot of the obsession that occurred in Germany about this case was probably due to it happening in 1976, and the trial in 1978, with the Exorcist coming out in around 76.

Maybe it was the backlash of conservativism in the 80's following the 60's and 70's.

[Dr.Phool]

9. McMartin pre-school

And a mentally ill mother!

[Democrats_win]

27. The two are related, but not this way instead: the culture of fear.

I think that the book "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: by Barry Glassner

discussed both of these events as examples of the culture of fear. In the end, if I recall, the allegations against the McMartins case were proven false.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465014909/104-9205717-6804702?v=glance&n=283155

[likesmountains 52]

48. right! I guess that's the first time I noticed mainstream hysteria...

[Maru Kitteh]

7. FUNDIES

gots to bring out the satan every few decades and burn some witches. They NEED it.

[woo me with science]

38. yeah, fundies played a role, but so did feminists.

it's embarrassing, but feminist psychologists were big in pushing the repressed memory bullshit. their motives were good--the argument was that rape and child abuse have been too long neglected and so you have to BELIEVE the memories. it's ironic that the whole repressed memory debacle ended up destroying women's lives through bad therapy AND casting doubt on women who had actually been abused.

[DanCa]

10. My dad made me bury my dungeons and dragons game.

And he thru holy water on it.:D

[Odin2005]

11. Dungeons & Dragons?

[bbinacan]

18. Dungeons and Dragons? You've

never heard of it? You must be young. It was a great game.

[Odin2005]

28. I know what D&D is :-)

I was answering the OP. :)

[bbinacan]

55. I got it

thanks.:toast:

[zonmoy]

111. it still is a great game

at lease advanced d&d 3.5 is.

[Atmashine]

99. I'm attacking the darkness!

[Hissyspit]

12. Satan was intentionally putting backward messages into Rock music

records.

It's true! He was!

[Carni]

42. That was the 70's--Stairway to heaven backwards*I sing for satan*

What a load of crap that was lol

[Servotron]

92. Not really a load of crap on that one.....

What the backmasked part of the song actually says (if anything), or whether it got there by coincidence or design, is open to interpretation. But the one word that is clear in the "backmasking", at least twice, is "Satan" :evilgrin:

And Page did buy Aleister Crowley's house. That's kinda evil right there. Not to mention the Swan Song logo which appeared on later albums, which depicts Lucifer falling from Heaven.

Circumstancial evidence. But not entirely a clear cut case.

Here's the backmasked section, along with one interpretation of the "lyrics"
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/stairway.php

[Carni]

93. I know --I am embarrassed to say I actually played that backwards

And heard it myself (back in the day on my horrors!) turntable!

I was a huge Zeppelin fan.

Weren't there also lyrics to something, or an interview where Page or Plant said "I'm still looking for my angel with a broken wing"?

That was said somewhere although I cannot recall where (and then of course there was all that business about "The Hermit" segment in the song remains the same lol)

On Edit: Forgot what I was going to finish with (old age setting in) I think Page was just trying to jerk everyone's chain/piss off the Christian right and sell more records...after all it worked for the Stones :)

[we can do it]

13. Dammit Janet - Rocky Horror

OMG!!!!

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. The same types who come up with "Threats against Christmas"?

I love the music such behaviour spawns, such as Skinny Puppy...

[bklyncowgirl]

15. Son of Sam, there was a book called the "Ultimate Evil."

It claimed that David Berkowitz belonged to some sort of devil worshipping cult and that these people were going around worshipping Satan sacrificing virgins, pets and small children.

If I remember correctly Geraldo Rivera was really into that stuff--investigating it that is.

[Carni]

94. I just remembered Amityville horror (the book) 1978ish

That book freaked eveyone out at the time needless to say it would be years later until we all learned it was bogus.

[mitchum]

105. Maury Terry's book is highly entertaining, but it is indeed horseshit

He weaves together numerous murders over a period of time into a things that go bump in the night dark conspiracy. Entertaining, but horseshit

[laststeamtrain]

16. Good question! I wonder about it too. Here's a few ideas...

1) RMT:http://www.religioustolerance.org/rmt.htm
Under-employed psychologists were sold on Recovered Memory Syndrome. I understand seminars and courses were heavily marketed to psychologists starting in the '80s.
2)Tabloid TV:Who can forget Geraldo?
3)For some reason the '80s became the era of the professional 'victim'. You just weren't anybody unless you were the victim of something. I remember ads for an awful lot of rehab places. Where'd they all go?
4)Can't ignore the rise of the religious right. I first heard the anti-Halloween hullabaloo sometime in the '80s...

Anyway...good question!

[woo me with science]

46. you nailed it.

dark ages psychology. you would be surprised how many therapists still perpetrate this nonsense on their patients. the good news is that the media has wised up a lot. most therapists who deal with repressed memories, multiple personality and satanic ritual abuse don't admit it except among other "believers." they certainly don't admit what they are doing to insurance companies. it's become a little sick cult in psychology but it is still alive.

[MrSlayer]

19. Ozzy Osbourne and Heavy Metal in general.

People not understanding music and idiots like Tipper Gore talking about shit she was clueless about. Dee Snider made her look like a fool in the hearings.

[jedr]

26. Pop music , to be sure;

I think that "Goats Head Soup" might have been my first taste of a Satanic theme in music.

[DanCa]

21. Meatloaf bat out of hell record maybe?

[stevedeshazer]

22. Alive and well in the 1980's, but no idea what the 'Satanic Panic" is.

Help me out here.

[SpiralHawk]

23. Ahriman and Lucifer

As usual


they crept out of the krypt beneath the skull & BONER mausoleum and had their way with the weak willed

As usual


Nota Bene: that's when Pluto began its transit of Scorpio.


2 + 2 = 666

Let he she or it that hath a clue be fill-ed-ETH uP with unDERstandING

[Democrats_win]

24. Coincidence? 1980's also saw the rise of the moral majority

The 1980 scare: "set of claims are circulated by a small culture of mutually-reinforcing experts."

http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc44406/smwane/SRA.htm

"the first critical examination of the various claims of Devil-worship circulated in the mid 1980s."

[acmavm]

25. Seriously who knows. Heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and

people like Alice Cooper had these farmers here in Nebraska scared to death in the 70s. (Ozzie Osborne was with Black Sabbath til 1979, so you know that was quite the act.) Anyway, people always think that there's a big Satanic movement.

I think we're going through one right now. I agree with the last Pope, John Paul II. bush** seriously deserves watching. I don't think he's smart enough to be the anti-Christ but I do believe he's fronting for the guy.

[girl gone mad]

29. I'm not sure how it started.

Maybe an overreaction to late 70s death rock/heavy metal music? :shrug:

I do remember a police officer coming to my church to talk about a rash of satanic-cult related vandalism in our area. He told the congregation "If your child is in a Satanic cult, at least you can take comfort in knowing he isn't an atheist."

[DanCa]

32. And that they let him walk around armed :D

JK

[salin]

74. mid/late seventies... I remember

being told that a house on the way to "the lake" that had some kind of neon light in the window that looked like a pitch-fork was the home of satan worshippers (or maybe even the word "cult" was used.) It was spoken about in whispers by the young teen crowd with which I ran around.

I have no idea how it started - but it was simmering in the midwest as early as the mid/late seventies 1977 or 1978)

[DanCa]

30. Well I kinda miss the days when Freepers would listen to music backwards

They were more of a annoying cough back than instead of the cancer that they evolved into.

[woo me with science]

33. release of "sybil" in 1977

started quack psychologists digging for repressed memories of abuse in their patients. there was an explosion in fad therapies to uncover repressed or dissociated "memories" of abuse.

it's still happening, although most therapists who do this are quieter about it now, because they don't want to be ridiculed by their colleagues.

[RebelOne]

35. What satanic panic? I don't remember any such thing.

[DanCa]

36. When did the Manson Family murders occur?

I am blanking on the date.

[Carni]

47. In like 1969 (I think)

It was WAY before the 80's--Manson thought the beatles were sending him messages on the white album (whenever that was I think it ws 69 or 70)

[WernhamHogg]

37. I don't know what caused it

I don't know what caused it, but I went to a Catholic school. I vividly remember when our entire school spent the whole day in the auditorium listening to a guy ranting about the "evils" of rock music. He made us listen to several songs backwards as "proof" that the songs were "satanic". AN ENTIRE SCHOOL DAY!!! Even at that young age, I knew it was crap.

[Carni]

39. Probably the shift towards *new age* religion

Metaphysical stuff was all the rage and I am sure the fundies had a stick up their butts over it.

[Wise Child]

68. You're right,

My Fundie Mom thought that The New Age "Movement" was going to be "The One-World Religion"™ as prophecied in Revelation. Because New Age mysticism is like a spiritual smorgasboard, thus an ideal platform for the Anti-Christ to bring the World together.

[Wise Doubter]

41. Great Music !

:evilgrin:

[acmejack]

44. Crazy people running around "sacrificing" goats in ritual killings?

Perhaps that should say as in supposed crazy people running around leaving evidence of ritualistic sacrifices of goats, as there was no question as to either the authenticity of the goat or state of it's well being. These gruesome discoveries were periodically made at secluded locations throughout the vicinity during that time, generally accompanied by the de rigueur pentagram defacing the landscape.

[DanCa]

45. Those were people I thought they were the alien greys.?

:confused: I really gotta keep my mass hysteria records better organized.

[acmejack]

53. These people (using the term loosely) were running around loose

back in those days. I don't know for sure what happened to them, but I'd be willing to bet they all grew up to be republicans!

[proud patriot]

51. D&D , Iron Maiden , AC/DC , and Ozzy of course

:headbang:

[GreenPartyVoter]

54. And don't forget King Diamond, Dio, and KISS

[proud patriot]

57. Oh I remember merciful fate

the king diomand's band ..My husband loved that band ...
I really didn't like it ...Was more of a Metallica
megadeth fan never really liked Slayer either ...

Loved "Death Angel" the song Ultra Violence rocked .

I had crispies harass us at Ozzy , AC/DC and
Iron Maiden concerts ...."repent repent"
and all that crap .

[GreenPartyVoter]

65. I had a foot in each world.. saw both Bon Jovi and Stryper in concert.

Truth be told, I made a lousy fundy. Just too much doubt in me I guess.

[proud patriot]

66. stryper wore black and gold stryped spandex

I feel old now :P

[GreenPartyVoter]

67. Yeah.. good ol' glam rock. *g*

[katsy]

60. It started in 1968 actually....

when * joined skull & bones at yale.

Then in 1980 erupted into a mass migration of these skull & bones satanists into the public arena and government.

:shrug:

I'm under the impression they want to overthrow Roe v Wade because that's where they got their supply of sacrificial lambs - - - pre-Roe.

Could be... no?

[woo me with science]

62. lol yeah

All the bonesmen do that. When they are finished with their regular work for the day, they go into small towns across the US and ritually abuse children to turn them into programmed sex and pornography slaves with multiple personalities. It's a government program, probably well funded through the defense department.

At least that's what I've heard.

[katsy]

64. ROFL!!!!!!

:rofl:

[alfredo]

61. Fear and bigotry means full collection plates at right wing churches.

[Rocknrule]

69. Satanic Panic?

All I remember was that the Tom Hanks/Dan Ackroyd movie Dragnet was made in the 80s and the main bad guys were devil worshippers called P.A.G.A.N.s (People Against Goodness And Normalcy)

[DavidDvorkin]

73. Stupidity

It's responsible for a lot of dumb things.

[AgadorSparticus]

75. I believe it was because some college kids were kidnapped in

Mexico and brutally murdered during Spring Break. It turned out to be part of some satanic worship thing. I remember there being a BIG hubbabaloo about it. Scared everyone to death.

[cynatnite]

77. My RW mom swears KISS still worships the devil...

I got a 45 record of theirs for my birthday and she broke it that night after the party was over.

[Carni]

95. LOL Actually I think Gene Simmons is a bush supporter these days

One of them is very right winged--it's either Simmons or paul Stanley

And BTW Alice Cooper has been *born again*

Ozzy appeared at a bush deal in 2001 but I don't think the poor man knew Where TF he was!

[Beelzebud]

79. Sadly... The PMRC, ran by Tipper Gore, had A LOT to do with it...

Parental Music Resource Center ran by Tipper Gore had a lot to do with the mid 80's Satanic Hype about rock music.

That's one of the reason I was leary of Al Gore at first.

Democrats need to butt out of entertainment. It's a free country, and in a free country you sometimes run into things that are offensive to you...

And after reading the comments here, it seems no one remembers the PMRC. The Busy-Bodies were allying with each other in those days. It really wasn't a left/right issue. It was an issue where a few people got together and decided that since they didn't like a certain style of music, no one should.

[Cetacea]

80. It was an attack on the 60's revolution

The 60's revolution was the closest we've come to an actual revolution since...the revolution.
After the assasinations of the Kennedys and King, the shooting of the Kent State students sent a real chilling affect to the people at the fore front: the colege students and professors.

I remember W saying in an interview that he resented the so-called "counter-culture" and wanting to dismantle any remnants of it. (if anyone has a link to that quote I'd love to see it)

The only people left who had real power to unite people were the rock and folk acts.
So they made them out to be "Satanic". Just another approach in the war on liberalism.

[Beelzebud]

84. I guess no one wants to remember PMRC and Tipper...

[LuCifer]

85. Two words: ANTON LaVEY

It's so amazing how NO ONE with the faith of GOD and/or JESUS and/or THE HOLY GHOST (pagans!) will pick up a copy of "THE SATANIC BIBLE" and read it WITH AN OPEN MIND. Also it's fac'inatin' to note that NEVER will you see THIS headline: "CHRISTIAN SERIAL KILL CAUGHT; WACKO HAD A COPY OF 'THE HOLY BIBLE' WHO KILLED x number OF PEOPLE" but OH SHIT, if someone has ANY book authored by ANYONE outside of the MAINSTREAM, it's fucking front and center for all to see. Sick dumbass RETARDED nation we are. And we get what we pay for, 8 years of cocksucker DUHbya. HAIL JESUS...

FUCK THAT! HAIL SATAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lu Cifer

[Fovea]

108. LaVey was good for a laugh

but the real wetboyz were the Temple o' Set Milspec intel folks and their AMER enablers.

I think of them with nostalgia every time I see Jeff Gannon.

[mattclearing]

90. I think it has to do with media manipulation.

If you recall, in the 80's there were quite a few issues like this.

Satan worshippers were paraded around on television, yes, but they have always been around to some extent. Al and Tipper Gore didn't help much, with the Parents Music Resource Council. But satan worship wasn't the only non-story getting outsized coverage.

There was also a great amount of attention given to child abduction. John Walsh, now of America's Most Wanted, became famous after his son Adam Walsh was abducted, spurring a nationally-publicized manhunt, ending with the discovery of Adam's body and the requisite tv movie.

Then Clinton took office, and child abduction and satan-worshippers seemed to disappear from the media landscape.

Shortly after Sept. 11th, this kind of reporting came back with a vengeance. Suddenly "amber alerts" appeared. We make fun of the "missing blonde" of the week, but I have to wonder if some larger plan is at work here, making everyday local stories into national human interest stories.

Look at those trapped miners...they were more important than several major issues. It's like with the S&L and Iran Contra affairs...the public's eye is being diverted from the scandals going on in their government.

And I really don't remember it being this way during the Clinton years, at least not until Monica.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

96. Movies like "Trick Or Treat" and "The Gate" and backward masking

I think there was a fundamentalist Christian fear that rock songs contained hidden subliminal messages in them that when played backwards contained Satanic incantations. "Trick Or Treat" by producer DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group in 1986 was about a Satanic rock idol who died and was able to come back to life because his fans played a certain passage of his record backwards. "The Gate" also had elements of this phenomenon of backwards masking. I think "Stairway To Heaven" was feared by religious groups to contain these kinds of messages.

This was part of the furor but doesn't explain all of it. But I think the emergence of so-called Satanic Rock frightened some of the religious nuts.

[Carni]

98. In truth the only thing truly evil thing in the 70's was disco ala SNF

The bee gees were merchants of Satan himself lol

[Atmashine]

100. The Gate is awesome

I got that on DVD cause I'm such a nerd.

[Beelzebud]

106. Those movies were only made AFTER the PMRC made a big deal

about it...

[LiberalAndProud]

110. I always thought it was Geraldo.

I could be wrong.