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Also, it's funny that the headline describes Dungeons and Dragons as setting off a moral panic; I thought it was Christianity.

simonh 11y ago
I don't understand why this is getting down voted. It's a perfectly sensible comment. If a moral panic is being propagated and promoted by an organised group with an agenda against something innocuous, who is responsible for the panic? I don't really mind the title, nobody's demanding that it be revised and it's clear what is meant, but I think it's reasonable to point out where the responsibility lies.
- elthran 11y ago
  > who is responsible for the panic? Definitely the overreacting organised group, but also a large amount of blame falls on the media helping them promote their overreactions to the masses
  - jerf 11y ago
    You really need the media to have a moral panic, because without them you can't get the feedback loop going. I deliberately draw analogy to the audio phenomenon here. No matter how much I scream and yell, even in front of a crowd of people, I can't create a feedback loop without a microphone. The reason why the moral panics in the last couple of years have not been from the religious right isn't so much because they've particularly changed, but because the media isn't willing to push those anymore, and the media on the right just isn't large enough right now to sustain their own. (Give it another three or four years at current pace, though.)
- zyx321 11y ago
  HN doesn't really seem to appreciate humor or sarcasm very much.
  - simonh 11y ago
    Which I appreciate mostly, it can be distracting and is often puerile, but if you're also making a valid point I think humour is fine.
  - duncan_bayne 11y ago
    My reply was intended to be perfectly serious. It really was not Dungeons and Dragons triggering anything, and the headline is just wrong.
    - mac01021 11y ago
      I think your point is valid and the way you phrased it amusing. I would never downvote it. That said, the position is not wholly different from "laws are the leading cause of crime" or "the ebola outbreak did not cause people to panic - it was their desire to live and be healthy".
      - artpepper 11y ago
        > "laws are the leading cause of crime" But that's an interesting analogy. Why are people who take certain drugs "criminals"? Because we passed laws against it. Some laws have a legitimate moral basis, others don't -- and I guess the same is true about moral panics.
      - pimlottc 11y ago
        How about "Sexy clothes incite rape"?
        mac01021 11y ago
        Interesting. I don't think it's quite the same thing. The first three statements all roughly take the form "if only you would stop regarding X as Y, then you would stop observing Y when X happens". "Just stop regarding the content of D&D as morally corrupting, and then you will not need to panic when you find your children playing it." "Just stop considering robbery to be illegal, and then crime rates will plummet." "Just stop wanting to be healthy and then you won't mind the ebola outbreaks when they occur." By contrast, "Stop dressing so sexy and then noone will rape you anymore" is not a suggestion that you can make a problem go away simply by ceasing to regard it as a problem. It may be an absurd attempt to transfer blame by stripping the rapists of their moral agency, but it proposes to solve a problem in the world by taking a physical action in the world.
furyofantares 11y ago
The resulting headline would be a little ambiguous, however.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
I think you mean fringe heterodox groups some of which are not technically Christian.
sophacles 11y ago
Nah - throw a burning match into a pile of dry newspapers. The fact that paper was piled up was the reason there was a big fire. The lack of rain and damp provided conditions that enabled/exacerbated it. But the match was still what set it off.
Macsenour 11y ago
D&D set off a moral panic in the Christian community... better wordage or just hand waving?
smitherfield 11y ago
Not really; it's more that it was a subculture of nerdy teenagers. (Combining three instincts: suspicion of subcultures, suspicion of nerds and suspicion of teenagers). You can come up with any number of examples of similar or more severe moral panics occurring in the Islamic world, East Asia or India.

simonh 11y ago

I don't understand why this is getting down voted. It's a perfectly sensible comment. If a moral panic is being propagated and promoted by an organised group with an agenda against something innocuous, who is responsible for the panic? I don't really mind the title, nobody's demanding that it be revised and it's clear what is meant, but I think it's reasonable to point out where the responsibility lies.

elthran 11y ago
> who is responsible for the panic? Definitely the overreacting organised group, but also a large amount of blame falls on the media helping them promote their overreactions to the masses
- jerf 11y ago
  You really need the media to have a moral panic, because without them you can't get the feedback loop going. I deliberately draw analogy to the audio phenomenon here. No matter how much I scream and yell, even in front of a crowd of people, I can't create a feedback loop without a microphone. The reason why the moral panics in the last couple of years have not been from the religious right isn't so much because they've particularly changed, but because the media isn't willing to push those anymore, and the media on the right just isn't large enough right now to sustain their own. (Give it another three or four years at current pace, though.)
zyx321 11y ago
HN doesn't really seem to appreciate humor or sarcasm very much.
- simonh 11y ago
  Which I appreciate mostly, it can be distracting and is often puerile, but if you're also making a valid point I think humour is fine.
- duncan_bayne 11y ago
  My reply was intended to be perfectly serious. It really was not Dungeons and Dragons triggering anything, and the headline is just wrong.
  - mac01021 11y ago
    I think your point is valid and the way you phrased it amusing. I would never downvote it. That said, the position is not wholly different from "laws are the leading cause of crime" or "the ebola outbreak did not cause people to panic - it was their desire to live and be healthy".
    - artpepper 11y ago
      > "laws are the leading cause of crime" But that's an interesting analogy. Why are people who take certain drugs "criminals"? Because we passed laws against it. Some laws have a legitimate moral basis, others don't -- and I guess the same is true about moral panics.
    - pimlottc 11y ago
      How about "Sexy clothes incite rape"?
      - mac01021 11y ago
        Interesting. I don't think it's quite the same thing. The first three statements all roughly take the form "if only you would stop regarding X as Y, then you would stop observing Y when X happens". "Just stop regarding the content of D&D as morally corrupting, and then you will not need to panic when you find your children playing it." "Just stop considering robbery to be illegal, and then crime rates will plummet." "Just stop wanting to be healthy and then you won't mind the ebola outbreaks when they occur." By contrast, "Stop dressing so sexy and then noone will rape you anymore" is not a suggestion that you can make a problem go away simply by ceasing to regard it as a problem. It may be an absurd attempt to transfer blame by stripping the rapists of their moral agency, but it proposes to solve a problem in the world by taking a physical action in the world.

furyofantares 11y ago

The resulting headline would be a little ambiguous, however.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

spacecowboy_lon 11y ago

I think you mean fringe heterodox groups some of which are not technically Christian.

sophacles 11y ago

Nah - throw a burning match into a pile of dry newspapers. The fact that paper was piled up was the reason there was a big fire. The lack of rain and damp provided conditions that enabled/exacerbated it. But the match was still what set it off.

Macsenour 11y ago

D&D set off a moral panic in the Christian community... better wordage or just hand waving?

smitherfield 11y ago

Not really; it's more that it was a subculture of nerdy teenagers. (Combining three instincts: suspicion of subcultures, suspicion of nerds and suspicion of teenagers). You can come up with any number of examples of similar or more severe moral panics occurring in the Islamic world, East Asia or India.