Sudden Impact!

[Chairman Ralph]

In my rock course, I have a lecture on metal and the Satanic panic. One of winciest stories occurred at the tail end. An cop who an evangelical was accused by his daughters of molesting them. He had no memory of doing so, but believed his daughters, so he concluded that Satan had possessed him and then wiped away the memory. He confessed to the crime and spent many years in jail before his daughters admitted they'd lied. Just flat-out crazy and tragic.

I'll bet that would be interesting to hear! I remember that stuff like it was yesterday -- there was a lot of it in the air at the time, like Serena Dank offering to "de-punk" and "de-metalize" your offspring, if that's what your heart desired. I also remember a case out on Long island, I think it was, in which the odd kid out among a group of local stoners ended up being stabbed to death, and the media went to town with a Satanic panic angle.

Allegedly, the culprit (who was also the dominant figure in the group) had leanings that way, or so they claimed -- Rolling Stone did a feature on it, which mentioned the killer writing a song called "Child Of The Devil." (Of course, it's never surfaced.) I don't know if this case went into the blender of Mick's brain, in terms of inspiring the song, but I do remember it getting a lot of play nationally, too, as another example of the whole Satanic panic craze, and all the weirdness that it fueled in its wake.

[Dr. Medulla]

In my rock course, I have a lecture on metal and the Satanic panic. One of winciest stories occurred at the tail end. An cop who an evangelical was accused by his daughters of molesting them. He had no memory of doing so, but believed his daughters, so he concluded that Satan had possessed him and then wiped away the memory. He confessed to the crime and spent many years in jail before his daughters admitted they'd lied. Just flat-out crazy and tragic.

I'll bet that would be interesting to hear! I remember that stuff like it was yesterday -- there was a lot of it in the air at the time, like Serena Dank offering to "de-punk" and "de-metalize" your offspring, if that's what your heart desired. I also remember a case out on Long island, I think it was, in which the odd kid out among a group of local stoners ended up being stabbed to death, and the media went to town with a Satanic panic angle.

Allegedly, the culprit (who was also the dominant figure in the group) had leanings that way, or so they claimed -- Rolling Stone did a feature on it, which mentioned the killer writing a song called "Child Of The Devil." (Of course, it's never surfaced.) I don't know if this case went into the blender of Mick's brain, in terms of inspiring the song, but I do remember it getting a lot of play nationally, too, as another example of the whole Satanic panic craze, and all the weirdness that it fueled in its wake.

Like pretty much everything related to the Satanic panic, long on allegations and rumours, very short on evidence. People spreading the bullshit claimed Satanic cults killed 10,000 people a year, going all the way back to the 1950s. Somehow, like, 350,000 people murdered yet none of it ever reported to police or insurance companies or anyone else.

I remember when I was 12 or 13, my school's principal urged us to avoid D & D and ouija boards because there could be "tragic consequences." He never used the word Satanism, but everyone knew what he meant. One of those stepping stones where kids learn that a lot of adults are fucking morons.

[Chairman Ralph]

Like pretty much everything related to the Satanic panic, long on allegations and rumours, very short on evidence. People spreading the bullshit claimed Satanic cults killed 10,000 people a year, going all the way back to the 1950s. Somehow, like, 350,000 people murdered yet none of it ever reported to police or insurance companies or anyone else.

I remember when I was 12 or 13, my school's principal urged us to avoid D & D and ouija boards because there could be "tragic consequences." He never used the word Satanism, but everyone knew what he meant. One of those stepping stones where kids learn that a lot of adults are fucking morons.

Yes, while we're on that M-word -- our local paper got into the act, too, as you can see from this archival clipping of mine (Herald-Palladium: 4/4/89). A lot of dubious assertions placed front and center, as you'll see here in this "wide-screen" view of what was posited as some sort of major piece on the subject, though it wasn't based on any so-called incidents happening locally. Weirdly, the date in question was a Tuesday (when you think they'd run something like this on Friday, or Sunday, to maximize sales -- just as well, eh?).

But I remember getting plenty of cheap yuks out of it at the time, as did those in my social circle back then. If I recall correctly -- as I was just telling my wife -- I think our paper also printed something similar on D&D, which was often conflated with Old Scratch and his merry minions. Don't happen to have that particular one handy, but it would have focused on the group, BADD (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons), which made a lot of similar claims -- given a powerful and prominent airing on prime-time TV, via the film Mazes & Monsters -- because, well, these things are so nefarious, what's that make the kids who show interest in these things? Not suitable candidates for the Scouts, the Jaycees, Up With People, or anything of that ilk. The mind boggles.

[Chairman Ralph]

And here's the rest of the story, for those who want to read it -- I stand corrected on the date, which is 4/8/89 (a bit fuzzy to read from the photo -- apologies in advance for the quality, but it's easier to grab my digital point and shoot, than make my wife get her phone out, which would probably be better). That would mean it fell on a Saturday, which would point to a maximal time to move units, as they say in "da biz" (this being the pre-Internet era, when people bought -- and/or waited on -- the Sunday paper).

The sidebar ("Indicators Of Possible Satanism Involvement") is the attention getter for me here. You can almost see Mom and Dad, holding the paper in hand, while their son bangs his head -- bedroom door fully closed -- telling themselves aloud: "Interest in Ozzy? Check. He's got all his albums! Skipping school? Double-check, he's been doing a lot of that lately! Using Satanic hand symbols? Triple-check! Interest in D&D? Quadruple check!"

"Oh, my God! We'd better call Back In Control right away! Let's hope we're not too late..." And so on, and so on, and so forth. Wash, rinse, repeat, as they say. But anyway, this clipping gives you a fair idea of how things could play out in "the provinces," as I like to call the area I grew up in. It's a bit different these days -- I couldn't imagine them running anything like this now.

But I kept the clipping, as you can see, for two reasons: first, to remind myself of the relevant vibe, as it stood at the time, and second, because I'd written a fantasy with Satanic panic as one of the core themes -- and I figured that it would give me a rich source of material to interweave into the whole business.

Ultimately, though, I ended up shelving the project, because I decided that, though some parts of it were promising, the overall result wasn't sufficiently up to scratch (so to speak), to prompt a more extensive look at it. But it still sits on my shelf, presumably waiting for its creator to blow the dust off it, and give it another go, should the urge ever arise. If so -- I won't need a D&D board to do it!

[Dr. Medulla]

Thanks for sharing this! I can add that sidebar piece on indicators of Satanic behaviour to my Powerpoint for that lecture.

[oliver]

It's never really stopped either. The whole Democrats-eating-babies-in-DC-pizza-restaurant was the latest iteration.

[Dr. Medulla]

It's never really stopped either. The whole Democrats-eating-babies-in-DC-pizza-restaurant was the latest iteration.

That’s how I’ve closed the lecture. QAnon and stuff about queer groomer is just repackaged Satanism, just as Satanism was a repackaging of anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish and anti-Communist conspiracies. It’s the same playbook, the same tortured logic and absent evidence playing on/appropriating existing social anxieties. It’s like an annual plant. It may die come fall, but it’ll be back in the spring.

[Chairman Ralph]

Thanks for sharing this! I can add that sidebar piece on indicators of Satanic behaviour to my Powerpoint for that lecture.

Glad I could be of use! I figured that material would come in handy, at some point, even if I didn't use it for my own project, like I'd originally planned.

It's never really stopped either. The whole Democrats-eating-babies-in-DC-pizza-restaurant was the latest iteration.

That’s how I’ve closed the lecture. QAnon and stuff about queer groomer is just repackaged Satanism, just as Satanism was a repackaging of anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish and anti-Communist conspiracies. It’s the same playbook, the same tortured logic and absent evidence playing on/appropriating existing social anxieties. It’s like an annual plant. It may die come fall, but it’ll be back in the spring.

For sure -- that's the first thought that sprang to mind, when that stuff started to surface. The groomer stuff is especially strange, when you consider how much sex abuse goes on in evangelical circles -- which are an eel bucket of stuff, more often than not. Though, on an equal surreal note, when I did my book tour for We Are The Clash, our first appearance was at Politics & Prose, a great indie bookstore -- one of the biggest and best stocked of its kind that I've ever come across.

Guess what happens to be just down the block? You guessed it, Comet Pizza, the great incubator for all that Pizzagate stuff. It was unsettling, to think of what had happened, because it's such an unassuming-looking, low key place -- not the kind of setting you'd think of, when you think of the violent acts (the arson, the shooting) that were perpetrated there.

[coffeepotman]

Watch out ! I've heard Mensforth hill backward once and I discovered a leftist propaganda diatribe !

That is the only way to listen to it!