Moral Panics : A History of Insidious Fear-Mongering

What even is a moral panic? It's essentially fear-mongering and conspiracism about a supposed cultural threat that's ultimately overblown or outright false. Culture, as in the customs and habits of a particular group of population, resides in its adherents, so this is people trying to protect their culture. But as we'll see, there's always ulterior motives. Typically, it revolves around halting things children are doing or something that may affect children because they are the next generation - that which transmits culture into the future. The key factor is that these reactions are disproportionate to the threat, if not an outright lie. So while they may be used as a political tactic in the ever-ebbing culture war, moral panics as a whole have a much wider history to it than that. There's a pattern to them and they're well studied. As such, there's a long history to them. So I made this episode in the hope that you can learn and be better prepared to identify them in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------ *Bibliography* William J. Bernstein, The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2021). https://amzn.to/3NCaLqi Joel Best, Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1990). https://amzn.to/3WayL7H Colin Dickey, Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy (New York: Viking, 2023). https://amzn.to/4b3p2a9 Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, 2nd ed. (1994; New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). https://amzn.to/3OqjpbD Marjorie Heins, Not in Front of the Children: “Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007). https://amzn.to/3pGi2gc David Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2008). https://amzn.to/2Zukolt Karen Leick, Parents, Media, and Panic through the Years: Kids Those Days (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). https://amzn.to/3rYzIVJ Kyle Riismandel, Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), ebook. https://amzn.to/3pRUntu Mark Stein, American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). https://amzn.to/3YoCgII Karen Sternheimer, Pop Culture Panics: How Moral Crusaders Construct Meanings of Deviance and Delinquency (New York: Routledge, 2015). https://amzn.to/3KucTQ7 ------------------------------------------------------------ Connected videos: political polarization series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnwpaclU4wXxGRwtV4EGk_vuAH2VkODS supercut: https://youtu.be/i-E14o6Do9Y Culture war: https://youtu.be/tppeGYoWDxg Tech polarization: https://youtu.be/xHlBdebjpyQ ToldInStone on sacrifice: https://youtu.be/AMs0vp-B1Yc?si=E3nukXUSEfyt1r4C WILSOOOON playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnwpaclU4wXmCcEx0vfIim_jFMkgtLmS Jim Crow lecture: https://youtu.be/IRyBTXfazMs Mr Beat on replacement: https://youtu.be/pyUQP-R48yg?si=7ObBHQbicPfwCs_w Racial riots: https://youtu.be/tAbkCU5nBhM Police militarization: https://youtu.be/HehnDHNoItk playlist of live discussions on difficult topics: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnwpaclU4wVgFZOy6Eq6UaStCjkULWXZ&si=8x7qM4utDAeJMmkf TeamYouTube malfeasance: https://youtu.be/-vRGguUJIx8 ------------------------------------------------------------ SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=CynicalCypher88 Support the channel through PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian or by purchasing MERCH: https://cynical-historian-shop.fourthwall.com/ LET'S CONNECT Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/cynicalhistorian Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynicalcypher88 Discord: https://discord.gg/Ukthk4U Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cynical_History Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cynicalhistorian.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cynicalhistorian ------------------------------------------------------------ Wiki: A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral entrepreneurs and mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers. Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community. Hashtags: #history #MoralPanics Chapters 0:00 vignette 0:28 intro 2:45 patronage 3:12 What is a Moral Panic 11:53 Origins of Folk Devils 21:53 Secret Societies 27:49 Immigration 32:45 Mediums 41:08 Backlashes 58:45 conclusion 1:04:47 Outtakes