Moral panic

From RationalWiki

A moral panic is a public panic over an issue deemed to be a threat to or shocking to the sensibilities of "proper" society, often fanned by sensationalist reporting in the media and by political demagogues and activist groups. Moral panics can result in what is a real phenomenon being blown way out of proportion, or in what is not a real phenomenon in the first place being widely believed to be real.

[edit] Examples

Examples of things over which there were actual moral panics, or arguably could be called moral panics:

• Communism, and "subversive activity" in general during the Cold War
• Satanic ritual abuse
• Satanism in general
• Backward masking in your rock & roll records
• Ecoterrorism
• The militia movement
• Gangs
• Outlaw motorcycle clubs
• Juvenile delinquency
• Skinheads
• "Hate groups"
• Gay marriage, among the religious right
• Allegations that liberals want to ban the Bible or recruit kids into homosexuality
• The War on Christmas
• Child sexual abuse - including the belief that every man over 20 is, ipso facto, a child sexual abuser, or that every person on the Internet is a child predator.
• Marijuana, most notably during the era of social guidance films like Reefer Madness
• Drugs in general

Except, of course, (which always means "in my opinion") the drugs created by our own massive drug cartels, the American pharmaceutical industry, that is, under the guise of "better living through chemistry" pillaging our pocket books and producing profits for themselves and their buddies.

• Teenage underage drinking
• Drinking and driving
• Dangerous vaccines
• The New World Order
• There are currently moral panics over both abortion, and over the "pro-life movement" and a perceived threat to Roe v. Wade from conservative judges
• Europe and Japan losing population because of their low birth rates (blamed of course on socialism, feminism and abortion)
• Terrorism, to the extent that the public discourse over it takes the form of a Big Scary Threat, "you're either with us or with the terrorists" rhetoric, and security theater responses substituting for genuine action.

Drinking and driving, and child sexual abuse, are two examples of things which are real but the hysteria over them grew way out of proportion to the actual threat they posed. "Satanic ritual abuse" and the "War on Christmas" are examples of things that probably never existed at all. For others, for example with gangs, hate groups, and outlaw motorcycle clubs, and a perceived epidemic of Satanism during the 1980s, the response to the moral panic often takes the form of a law enforcement response (fanned by activist groups drumming up moral panic over those groups' existence) treating them as criminal activity, which can then become a self-fulfilling prophecy or result in violations of their civil liberties in the name of combatting something deemed a threat.

[edit] Things which are not moral panics

In general, currently pressing public issues which have led to needed public debate and action. For example:

• Global warming
• Health dangers from trans fatty acids and cigarette smoking
• Overpopulation
• Embryonic stem cell research

Issues like abortion, terrorism, drinking and driving, and child sexual abuse need not have become moral panics had the level of public discourse over them not descended into hysterics.