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The modern word is "moral panic", and it's used just as effectively to destroy rivals as it was in times of old. The only difference is that we don't kill the l
by kstenerud 6y ago
The modern word is "moral panic", and it's used just as effectively to destroy rivals as it was in times of old. The only difference is that we don't kill the losers anymore, but rather imprison, harass, fire, and bankrupt them. Anytime there's a moral shift (good or bad), there's an opportunity to co-opt it in order to remove rivals, and it works very nicely because all you need to do is sow seeds of doubt about someone if they happen to be in a vulnerable group, and then let the mob do the rest:
- Witch trials
- Reign of Terror
- Utah
- Lynch Mobs
- Prohibition
- Kristallnacht
- Wartime relocations
- The red scare
- The Dungeons & Dragons scare
- The war on drugs
- The war on terror
- The pedophile scare
- #metoo
- BLM
It's unfortunate about the last two because a lot of good came of them, but one must not let a moral shift go to waste.
- runawaybottle 6y agoA more understated one was the lead up to the Iraq war where people were labeled “unpatriotic” for opposing the war (or scared of being labeled unpatriotic). For example, Dixie Chicks were blacklisted for being outspoken against the war. This would almost qualify as a “soft” witch hunt, but essentially the same strategy, a Scarlett letter of sorts. The list is exhaustive (as you enumerated), and quite the recurring pattern. Unfortunately, at scale, it’s a super effective strategy with consequences only being realized way after the fact, by which point there is another wave already forming in another direction.
- pjc50 6y agoYou were going so well until the last two, where you've ignored the very real problems that gave rise to them. There are very few examples of overreach compared to "underreach" there?
- runawaybottle 6y agoI don’t think he/she is wrong in saying they all employ the same strategy, where the last two being the only ones with a noble goal. It’s a powerful weapon, and can be dangerous if not used carefully.
- Kinrany 6y agoWhich of the first 12 did not have a noble goal?
- kstenerud 6y agoOnly prohibition, the war on drugs, #metoo, and BLM had noble goals. The rest were "the enemy is among us" fear based. I suspect that the fallout from virtue signaling and bad actors taking advantage of #metoo and BLM probably won't be too bad; certainly not on the same level as the rest.
- rurban 6y agoA war on drugs is never noble. It wasn't the Opium war (England wanting to keep cheap Opium supply from China), and it wasn't Nixon. Criminalization of drugs and declaring war on the cartels, whilst secretly supporting the cartels for their help in their fascist putsches. Civilized countries can fight the drug problem fine without declaring war, even if state actors are involved. (Eg Kosovo, ...)
- kstenerud 6y agoEliminating the scourge of drugs in America was Nancy Reagan's brainchild, and it was a very laudable goal. The fact that it was so ham-fistedly and wrongly implemented, and co-opted for repressive purposes doesn't diminish the nobility of the original goal that gave birth to such a monster.
- fuzzfactor 6y agoBack in the 1970's it was plain to see that a Nixon initiative such as a drug war was not congruous with a free country in the same way that an absolute prohibition on alcohol was not. The first Nixon election was actually the birth of the monster which enabled such a multi-generation debacle. Regardless of how toxic and harmful alcohol and drugs have been for millennia. Turns out Nixon was not only misinformed, he also had a crooked streak. History shows that the Reagan mishandling of a free country occurred afterward. I not only witnessed all of this first hand, it has been a painful experience. You should have seen what a free country was like beforehand.
- kstenerud 6y agoIf it seemed that I'm lumping the last two together with the complete negativity of the others, that's not my intent. These modern sudden positive moral shifts are new phenomena made possible by the internet (and so one would be hard pressed to come up with significant older examples besides the temperance movement), whereas the older (negative) shifts were all driven by fear. But it doesn't change the fact that opportunistic, unscrupulous people can and will take advantage of them in the same ways, and unlucky people will be trampled underfoot. The mob effect is very hard to counter because the rules of evidence range from low to non-existent. It's a question of momentum; all you need is a catalyst to set things in motion (for good or bad).
- maxerickson 6y agoYour lead paragraph omits anything about why they are included. Anytime there's a moral shift (good or bad), there's an opportunity to co-opt it in order to remove rivals, and it works very nicely because all you need to do is sow seeds of doubt about someone if they happen to be in a vulnerable group, and then let the mob do the rest That doesn't much address the dynamics of #metoo or Black Lives Matter.
- kstenerud 6y agoWhat I mean by "moral shift" is a rapid change (as in over the course of months rather than decades) in what society considers morally correct and acceptable. The dynamics of #metoo and BLM are different in that they are addressing longstanding attitudes and behaviors contributing to oppression or harassment of a minority group (I use the term "minority" very liberally considering that women make up 50% of the population). We've also seen other moral shifts such as with homosexuality, although there was no "punishing wrongdoers" phase following that movement. It's only when a punishing phase gets mixed in that you run the danger of mob justice, because there will likely at the time be either no laws covering the issue, or weakly enforced laws. Without clear leadership on what's right and wrong and the consequences, opportunists take it upon themselves to mete out punishment as they see fit. Sometimes it's for the better, but usually it gets out of hand pretty quickly.
- danieltillett 6y agoThe thing about the last two is we are in the middle of them rather than being history. Every moral panic that descended into darkness started out in the light.
- riffraff 6y agoUtah? I am not a US person, how is a whole state a moral panic?
- drdeadringer 6y ago> The Dungeons & Dragons scare Do you mean Dungeons & Dragons specifically or are you including the Satanic Panic in that phrasing?
- kstenerud 6y agoThe whole shebang in the 80s. I believe it was someone observing their kid playing D&D that set the initial hysterics in motion?