(Sprig_of_mint)
Genderwoo = the Satanic Panic?

One of my deepest areas of fascination is the 1980s Satanic Panic, which began by parents becoming convinced that their children's daycare was being secretly run by a cabal of Satanic pedophiles. This belief catapulted itself into mainstream American thought. Doctors, law enforcement, social workers, psychologists, and other authorities believed the lies that America was full of Satanic ritual abuse underground societies. They used slogans like "Believe the children" and "children don't lie" while using junk science and manipulative interviewing techniques to convince children and parents of Satanic abuse that literally never happened. There's a lot more to it, and I recommend those unfamiliar take a look. The general attitude from those my age who were only young children when this was going on is "what was everyone thinking? How could they have been so deluded?" Do you all think in a few decades everyone will the same way about transing kids? Here's what really gets me--for different reasons, but both the Satanic-panic-influenced Bible belters of my childhood and TRAs of today hate JK Rowling!

( shewolfoffrance )
One contrast I find interesting is that right now, it's the people who are raising the alarm about abuse who are accused of stoking a moral panic. I'm fairly sure that within 10-15 years massive lawsuits, journalistic exposés, and personal memoirs about detransition will force the issue into the sunlight.

And while the accusations of Satanic ritual abuse in the 80s were never substantiated, and never even plausible in the first place; the evidence of medical, sexual, and emotional abuse in gender activism is all right there. Many TRAs will even brag about it publicly. Off the top of my head I can think of Dr. Yeet the Teats, rapist Eli Erlick, and the promotion of suicide-baiting as a tactic to force family members to support transition.

( Bolero )
My favorite thing about the current era is that Michael "Jesse Singal is literally murdering trans people" Hobbes did a whole thing about Satanic Panic on his You're Wrong About podcast. I think it's actually where I first learned about Satanic Panic (before I listened to a couple of episodes where I'd had prior knowledge about the subject, and started mistrusting his reporting).

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