Wednesday, September 14, 2022

The Next Question Is

Are any of these people influential enough to get prosecutors and juries to go along with their delusions?*

And does that 21% overlap the people who think schools are putting out litter boxes for the student "furries"? (Yeah, that's a thing on Facebook.  Yeah, this Facebook:
9/11? Or is there a "Mad Men" revival due soon, and Zuckerberg is against it because he doesn't like Jon Hamm?)

Oh, by the way, no polling yet on how many people now think "wonton killing" is a thing:
Anyway, 2000 respondents to a poll is not a "real comeback" on the Satanic Panic front until somebody gets tried and convicted for Satanic rituals with children, preferably in pre-schools because kids that young make lousy witnesses. I'm more worried about how this affects public school teachers who already want to quit, and what it does to voucher proponents when the panic hits private schools, like it did the last time.

I will note it has cost David Leavett re-election as the county prosecutor in Utah County, Utah.  Which ain't quite the same thing as sending people to jail over baseless nonsense no better grounded than the pizza parlor basement where there was no basement.  And even there it wasn't the deciding factor:
Leavitt lost the election, most likely not just because of the allegations against him but because of his liberal style of prosecution in a deeply conservative county where opponents labeled him as “soft on crime.” But the allegations’ impact on Leavitt was clear. After decades of serving as a city and county attorney with grander plans for public office, Leavitt now doesn’t think he’ll run again. 

“The cost is too high,” he said recently in an interview from his home.
I think we're just still looking for stuff to be afraid of.  Leavett's story involves a man charged with rape who escaped to Scotland.  As Leavett pursued extradition, the accused posted 151 pages of material purporting to link Leavett to satanic and ritualistic abuse.  Then the Sheriff of Utah County, who backed Leveatt's political opponent, started an investigation of these allegations.

The panic in the '80's, without an internet or Twitter, but with the help of Geraldo and Oprah, spread so far prosecutors had to act.  No word on whether Leavett's opponent is going to take up the Sheriff's investigation and run with it if he wins the election.  I will say the PSA's and talk shows of the '80's reached a wider audience than twitter threads do today.  People gonna talk ugly, but there's not much you can do about that except wait for a new topic of conversation to come along.

At least not until the government thinks it has to step in and start tossing criminal charges around.

*And "large scale violence"?  I detect a note of sarcasm.
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