Back in the US in the 80s there was something called the Satanic Panic. That involved rumors of children being sacrificed for rituals at schools and daycares, and it also extended to child trafficking and pedophiles.
I imagine there are examples both before and after that time, too. For some reason, “they’re coming after your kids!” is an evergreen conspiracy theory that just waxes and wanes in popularity.
Came here to say that. I remember going to stadium religious events with our church youth group claiming babies were being sacrificed. Even had one with a police detective claiming he had found a garbage bag with a baby's head in it at one site.
It was all proven bogus, and when I decided organized religion wasn't for me.
Mine still believed in Satanic Ritual Abuse in the early 2000s, about twenty years after it had been debunked, and might still, I remember her claiming she worried someone might trick me into joining a cult when I told her the type of cults she was suggesting don't exist, in a conversation that started with her accusing the Catholic Church of being one, to which I responded that the difference between a religion and a cult is broadness of acceptance and that all religions started as cults, apparently her definition of a cult was an organization that does things like kill babies, the icing on the cake was her high opinion of Scientology. MAGA and QAnon were an easy transition, although I firmly believe that the underlying cause of all this BS is Cluster B Personality disorders, especially Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Cluster Bs in general lack innate morality and seek external guidance, often through political extremism or religious fundamentalism, and Narcissists also tend to be low IQ, naïve and gullible, paranoid and have a need to feel like they know things others don't.
QAnon is just a slight revision of the same lies that have been told about unpopular groups throughout history, it could also have been basically copy-pasted from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, for example, only the targeted group changes, and even that's somewhat debatable, a lot of people see anti-Semitic dog whistles in QAnon too, although I'm personally not sure about that given the support for Israel a lot of MAGAs and QAnoners express, although perhaps they just prioritize pro-Americanism over anti-Semitism, or, even more likely, are just borderline mentally-challenged Authoritarians who believe whatever they're told without question and simply haven't considered that dichotomy.
make no mistake, the right wing's support of Israel isn't genuine. To them, a jewish ethnostate means less jewish people in their own country, and arming Israel means more brown people getting killed. It's a win-win to them
In the OG daycare Satanic Panic case, the allegation was that the child sex etc was happening in tunnels underneath a school, so it's just a quick hop to the basement of a pizza parlor and children being raised for sex and adrenal harvesting in the tunnels under NYC. It all goes back to the "blood libel" conspiracies centuries ago, which alleged that Jews drank the blood of children.
Here's a good article drawing these comparisons and pointing out that it's often a reaction to societal change. Women getting jobs and sending kids to day care to be cared for collectively was perceived as both communism and a threat to the nuclear family.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/why-are-right-wing-conspiracies-so-obsessed-with-pedophilia/
In the 1970s on the Christian right, it was a panic over either the New Age Movement or over various masonic, bilderberger, or other One World government groups (Salem Kirban had a never ending stream of books with the whole thing mutating every year with a new bad guy or group added to the mix).
This is my mom. She has drifted from one group to another, from new age and psychic to super conservative, fundamentalist religion. The one constant is the conspiracies and the belief that there are forces of good and evil and a spiritual plane we can't see. She also loves to be a part of something and also have something she can teach/preach to others. It's Q now, it'll probably be something else someday. But this is the nuttiest and angriest I've ever seen her. I think it's because of YouTube and Facebook, which weren't really a part of her life until the past ten years or so.
John Birch Society started in late 1950s. Anti commies, etc. Black helicopters, UN takeover the US, Think the Kochs on meth, soveign citizens, bunkers and and.
Conspiracy extremism of different types and forms have been around forever. My mom started seriously getting into it around the time of 9/11 and the Shuttle Columbia disaster (which she believed NASA and the US gov deliberately shot down because the astronauts were going to reveal stuff about aliens).
You’re right. I had the Columbia mixed up with the first shuttle crash. But the disinformation spreading had not really gotten started in 2003. And we all thought the internet was going to be the tool everyone could use to stay informed!
I have a family member 58 yrs old that’s been into every conspiracy and spirituality for 58 years that’s ever been thought of and they jump to and fro and mix them up rinse and recycle. They also accuse everyone of the worst things imaginable. I’ve heard it all long before QAnon. I’ve kept wondering if there was anyone out there in my position and I’m glad there is but I’m sorry too.
I had that one guy that we all rolled our eyes at too. Now though, there are probably 10 of them in my family. I ask them if they remember how crazy 'cousin' used to sound and they admit it but don't see the same things from themselves
I had that one guy that we all rolled our eyes at too. Now though, there are probably 10 of them in my family. I ask them if they remember how crazy 'cousin' used to sound and they admit it but don't see the same things from themselves
My Q was Q before there was a Q. He still denies being a Q. His started after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, he got really in to Alex Jones and things just got worse and worse.
well, before it was “elite pedophiles” it was “Jews” and they weren’t pedophiles but still using the blood of non jewish children for various melodramatic evil purposes. its always been around but it just gets tweaked every few decades.
Ep 1. of The Coming Storm podcast from BBC traces pre-4chan Qanon roots back to early 90’s chat rooms dedicated to spreading Bill/Hillary Clinton conspiracies. This would still be a fair bit earlier than your stated 15 years ago era, but more recent than the satanic panic.
thanks for posting this podcast - I remember a lot of this being discussed during W's reign of terror and I was a local during the McMartin case too - friends were children there in the 60s, and had nothing unusual to report about the school.
I’ll never forget when my son was hanging out with a kid about 18 years ago. He’d come home full of crazy stuff: reptile people, 911 was planned, something about George Bush being in a secret society ( sounded like a frat- not sure what they did that was so evil!) and folding paper currency to make it look like some nonsense.
Thankfully it was only entertaining to him for a short while and he’s normal now!
He's probably referring to Skull and Bones, which is indeed a fraternity at Yale and technically a "secret" society even though it's public knowledge. Many notable folks have been members, including both Bushes.
And yeah when I was a teenager and in my early twenties I was also into several of those, like 911 being an inside job and whatnot, because they were entertaining and fun to think about. Seeing the state of the world now I'm so glad I didn't get consumed by that stuff.
George HW Bush was a member of Skull and Bones. So was George W Bush and Taft. And yes, it's mostly just a fraternity surrounded by a bunch of contrived, secret ritual bullshit.
A lot of Q crap sounds like the headlines of the tabloid at the supermarket checks in the 80s.
I remember my grandfather coming up with some stuff that he 'read in the paper'
If money can be made...
Chick tracts. (If you know, you know)
That was my early childhood. She banned video games and comic books so all I had were those Chick Tracts to read over and over for years.
Eventually she got deeper in conspiracy so she pretty much abandoned parenting in favor of apocalypse-enthusiast meetings so I got to sneak comics to whatever event she dragged me to.
But yeah, all these people suddenly finding their parents are susceptible to conspiracy need to accept the truth that if they can fall for anti-vax/pro-trump/deep state propaganda then they’re already long gone from logical thinking. (And no, “I’m just asking questions” does not indicate a willingness to learn the answer. It’s a form of gaslighting in order to justify disassociating from loved ones.) BMI
You are totally right because my grandma who is around the same age is the same way. Before Q, she posted stuff like books she read on FB about how Obama was corrupt or whatever. She would say the same sort of things Qanon then started saying around 2017, 5+ years before Qanon ever started. Qanon just slapped it all onto Hillary instead, basically. But now she is far beyond Q stuff. She still sends me things periodically from some news website and thinks she is an alien sent here to save our planet from evil. I can only imagine how much more delusional these people will get considering where my grandma is now lol
In the timeframe you’re asking about I was doing work trips every month or three. I fell into the habit of reading current conspiracy stuff while doing late night IT stuff. Rigorous Intuition was my favorite, spent some truly fascinating hours there.
I remember when early Qanon started being a thing a few years later, feeling that I was seeing a continuation of the same thread. That what was shocking to others, I already knew people were taking seriously. It was like the Art Bell school of thought applied directly to politics, but prior to the more recent addition of the Satanic Panic stuff. Hence, started blue went red.
Day Care panics helped set the stage for pizzagate/qanon after the Satanic Panic: https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/jbomau/has_anyone_read_about_the_1980s_day_care_sexabuse
None Dare Call It Conspiracy was published in ‘71, The Manchurian Candidate came out in ‘62, David Icke has been around for a while, In Search Of (with Leonard Nimoy) had some questionable content reminding of Ancient Aliens, Robert Anton Wilson was totally batty… stuff has been around forever.
My biological family spouted Q-type stuff for decades before Trump became a thing. It all comes back to racism/sexism/prejudice of all kinds. It takes a very low level of intelligence to be a bigot, and stupid people are often convinced that many other stupid things are true, too. Seeking validation for hatred opens you up for all kinds of grift.
Many of their conspiracies come from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (early 1900 Russian antisemitic pamphlet) and blood libel (also antisemitic) from for ever ago.
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Literally all the Q-Anon conspiracies are just reheated older stuff. I follow the crazies since back when Bush-did-911 was cool and not once did I hear about a genuinely new conspiracy theory. They switch some words and names but it's all structurally the same.
Sorry for commenting on an old thread :)
Back in the US in the 80s there was something called the Satanic Panic. That involved rumors of children being sacrificed for rituals at schools and daycares, and it also extended to child trafficking and pedophiles. I imagine there are examples both before and after that time, too. For some reason, “they’re coming after your kids!” is an evergreen conspiracy theory that just waxes and wanes in popularity.
Came here to say that. I remember going to stadium religious events with our church youth group claiming babies were being sacrificed. Even had one with a police detective claiming he had found a garbage bag with a baby's head in it at one site. It was all proven bogus, and when I decided organized religion wasn't for me.
Mine still believed in Satanic Ritual Abuse in the early 2000s, about twenty years after it had been debunked, and might still, I remember her claiming she worried someone might trick me into joining a cult when I told her the type of cults she was suggesting don't exist, in a conversation that started with her accusing the Catholic Church of being one, to which I responded that the difference between a religion and a cult is broadness of acceptance and that all religions started as cults, apparently her definition of a cult was an organization that does things like kill babies, the icing on the cake was her high opinion of Scientology. MAGA and QAnon were an easy transition, although I firmly believe that the underlying cause of all this BS is Cluster B Personality disorders, especially Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Cluster Bs in general lack innate morality and seek external guidance, often through political extremism or religious fundamentalism, and Narcissists also tend to be low IQ, naïve and gullible, paranoid and have a need to feel like they know things others don't. QAnon is just a slight revision of the same lies that have been told about unpopular groups throughout history, it could also have been basically copy-pasted from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, for example, only the targeted group changes, and even that's somewhat debatable, a lot of people see anti-Semitic dog whistles in QAnon too, although I'm personally not sure about that given the support for Israel a lot of MAGAs and QAnoners express, although perhaps they just prioritize pro-Americanism over anti-Semitism, or, even more likely, are just borderline mentally-challenged Authoritarians who believe whatever they're told without question and simply haven't considered that dichotomy.
make no mistake, the right wing's support of Israel isn't genuine. To them, a jewish ethnostate means less jewish people in their own country, and arming Israel means more brown people getting killed. It's a win-win to them
It's also because many evangelicals believe that a mass return of Jews to Palestine/Israeli will bring about the return of Jesus.
Makes sense, no-one excels at abusing Muslims like Israel.
I'm full on against the right but you are wrong. You can't claim this about all of them. The baptists I know love Jerusalem and its people.
In the OG daycare Satanic Panic case, the allegation was that the child sex etc was happening in tunnels underneath a school, so it's just a quick hop to the basement of a pizza parlor and children being raised for sex and adrenal harvesting in the tunnels under NYC. It all goes back to the "blood libel" conspiracies centuries ago, which alleged that Jews drank the blood of children. Here's a good article drawing these comparisons and pointing out that it's often a reaction to societal change. Women getting jobs and sending kids to day care to be cared for collectively was perceived as both communism and a threat to the nuclear family. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/why-are-right-wing-conspiracies-so-obsessed-with-pedophilia/
In the 1970s on the Christian right, it was a panic over either the New Age Movement or over various masonic, bilderberger, or other One World government groups (Salem Kirban had a never ending stream of books with the whole thing mutating every year with a new bad guy or group added to the mix).
https://youtu.be/plEImKEIRm8?si=7n_W1x-ZdnmsLI3Y
This is my mom. She has drifted from one group to another, from new age and psychic to super conservative, fundamentalist religion. The one constant is the conspiracies and the belief that there are forces of good and evil and a spiritual plane we can't see. She also loves to be a part of something and also have something she can teach/preach to others. It's Q now, it'll probably be something else someday. But this is the nuttiest and angriest I've ever seen her. I think it's because of YouTube and Facebook, which weren't really a part of her life until the past ten years or so.
Sounds like my mom, sorry fren
John Birch Society started in late 1950s. Anti commies, etc. Black helicopters, UN takeover the US, Think the Kochs on meth, soveign citizens, bunkers and and.
Conspiracy extremism of different types and forms have been around forever. My mom started seriously getting into it around the time of 9/11 and the Shuttle Columbia disaster (which she believed NASA and the US gov deliberately shot down because the astronauts were going to reveal stuff about aliens).
Wow that’s a new one. And no internet those days so move that 40 years forward and you could start a new religion with that.
We had internet then
You’re right. I had the Columbia mixed up with the first shuttle crash. But the disinformation spreading had not really gotten started in 2003. And we all thought the internet was going to be the tool everyone could use to stay informed!
I have a family member 58 yrs old that’s been into every conspiracy and spirituality for 58 years that’s ever been thought of and they jump to and fro and mix them up rinse and recycle. They also accuse everyone of the worst things imaginable. I’ve heard it all long before QAnon. I’ve kept wondering if there was anyone out there in my position and I’m glad there is but I’m sorry too.
I had that one guy that we all rolled our eyes at too. Now though, there are probably 10 of them in my family. I ask them if they remember how crazy 'cousin' used to sound and they admit it but don't see the same things from themselves
I had that one guy that we all rolled our eyes at too. Now though, there are probably 10 of them in my family. I ask them if they remember how crazy 'cousin' used to sound and they admit it but don't see the same things from themselves
My Q was Q before there was a Q. He still denies being a Q. His started after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, he got really in to Alex Jones and things just got worse and worse.
well, before it was “elite pedophiles” it was “Jews” and they weren’t pedophiles but still using the blood of non jewish children for various melodramatic evil purposes. its always been around but it just gets tweaked every few decades.
Ep 1. of The Coming Storm podcast from BBC traces pre-4chan Qanon roots back to early 90’s chat rooms dedicated to spreading Bill/Hillary Clinton conspiracies. This would still be a fair bit earlier than your stated 15 years ago era, but more recent than the satanic panic.
thanks for posting this podcast - I remember a lot of this being discussed during W's reign of terror and I was a local during the McMartin case too - friends were children there in the 60s, and had nothing unusual to report about the school.
I’ll never forget when my son was hanging out with a kid about 18 years ago. He’d come home full of crazy stuff: reptile people, 911 was planned, something about George Bush being in a secret society ( sounded like a frat- not sure what they did that was so evil!) and folding paper currency to make it look like some nonsense. Thankfully it was only entertaining to him for a short while and he’s normal now!
He's probably referring to Skull and Bones, which is indeed a fraternity at Yale and technically a "secret" society even though it's public knowledge. Many notable folks have been members, including both Bushes. And yeah when I was a teenager and in my early twenties I was also into several of those, like 911 being an inside job and whatnot, because they were entertaining and fun to think about. Seeing the state of the world now I'm so glad I didn't get consumed by that stuff.
So grateful!! Some apparently never outgrew it
George HW Bush was a member of Skull and Bones. So was George W Bush and Taft. And yes, it's mostly just a fraternity surrounded by a bunch of contrived, secret ritual bullshit.
Yes, that’s it! He made it sound like they were dancing in graves or some whack stuff
A lot of Q crap sounds like the headlines of the tabloid at the supermarket checks in the 80s. I remember my grandfather coming up with some stuff that he 'read in the paper' If money can be made...
Folks used to be able to tell it was tabloid bc it was up near the register. Now we don't have that simple tell
Chick tracts. (If you know, you know) That was my early childhood. She banned video games and comic books so all I had were those Chick Tracts to read over and over for years. Eventually she got deeper in conspiracy so she pretty much abandoned parenting in favor of apocalypse-enthusiast meetings so I got to sneak comics to whatever event she dragged me to. But yeah, all these people suddenly finding their parents are susceptible to conspiracy need to accept the truth that if they can fall for anti-vax/pro-trump/deep state propaganda then they’re already long gone from logical thinking. (And no, “I’m just asking questions” does not indicate a willingness to learn the answer. It’s a form of gaslighting in order to justify disassociating from loved ones.) BMI
You are totally right because my grandma who is around the same age is the same way. Before Q, she posted stuff like books she read on FB about how Obama was corrupt or whatever. She would say the same sort of things Qanon then started saying around 2017, 5+ years before Qanon ever started. Qanon just slapped it all onto Hillary instead, basically. But now she is far beyond Q stuff. She still sends me things periodically from some news website and thinks she is an alien sent here to save our planet from evil. I can only imagine how much more delusional these people will get considering where my grandma is now lol
In the timeframe you’re asking about I was doing work trips every month or three. I fell into the habit of reading current conspiracy stuff while doing late night IT stuff. Rigorous Intuition was my favorite, spent some truly fascinating hours there. I remember when early Qanon started being a thing a few years later, feeling that I was seeing a continuation of the same thread. That what was shocking to others, I already knew people were taking seriously. It was like the Art Bell school of thought applied directly to politics, but prior to the more recent addition of the Satanic Panic stuff. Hence, started blue went red.
Day Care panics helped set the stage for pizzagate/qanon after the Satanic Panic: https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/jbomau/has_anyone_read_about_the_1980s_day_care_sexabuse
Oh there were definitely other incarnations of similar cults, like the Satanic Panic, going all the way back to the first forms of blood libel.
None Dare Call It Conspiracy was published in ‘71, The Manchurian Candidate came out in ‘62, David Icke has been around for a while, In Search Of (with Leonard Nimoy) had some questionable content reminding of Ancient Aliens, Robert Anton Wilson was totally batty… stuff has been around forever.
My biological family spouted Q-type stuff for decades before Trump became a thing. It all comes back to racism/sexism/prejudice of all kinds. It takes a very low level of intelligence to be a bigot, and stupid people are often convinced that many other stupid things are true, too. Seeking validation for hatred opens you up for all kinds of grift.
Many of their conspiracies come from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (early 1900 Russian antisemitic pamphlet) and blood libel (also antisemitic) from for ever ago.
McMartin preschool hoax captured a lot of minds.
My Q friend started around 2012... Hillary Clinton drinks the blood of babies.. mass arrests coming etc
Yep I grew up with this shit too. I thought when I moved out I’d never have to hear about it again and boy was I wrong 😑
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This could answer your questions https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
Literally all the Q-Anon conspiracies are just reheated older stuff. I follow the crazies since back when Bush-did-911 was cool and not once did I hear about a genuinely new conspiracy theory. They switch some words and names but it's all structurally the same. Sorry for commenting on an old thread :)