ELI5- What caused the satanic panic?
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Somewhat sensationalized answer:
So this lady goes to her therapist. He says he wants to have her do hypnosis and take drugs to “recover forgotten memories” that her conscious brain is repressing. She “recovers a bunch of memories” about getting taken and abused at satanic rituals with all of these rich and powerful people.
The therapist publishes a book about them. Some people are concerned, but surely that’s not real. Then some movies come out (The Exorcist, The Omen, etc.), bringing more attention to the idea. More people are aware and more people are concerned, and now people start to talk and whisper, but “everybody knows” it’s a joke.
Then in 1971, Charles Manson is put on trial. It comes out that he had this cult of people who called themselves the “Manson Family”, and aside from the murders, they were drugging up, abusing, and prostituting people…
Now suddenly the “crazy people” who were warning them all along suddenly didn’t seem so crazy.
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