The satanic panic was very real and very weird

The Satanic Panic: why 1980's America bought into this bizarre conspiracy theory.

Another @pbsstoried short from your friends at Monstrum!

Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.

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[sylfae]

In 1988 I was a kid that played D&D, there was a particular woman at our church that accused me of being a witch. The parishioners of the church rallied behind her and I was blamed for her husband’s schizophrenic breakdown. Most of my teenage years I was a pariah in our small town and was bullied and accosted on many occasions.

[barbarianvee]

Can't wait for the whole video! It definitely hasn't fully ended. I literally still see people freaking out about "people reading books where the characters are witches" because they genuinely think there are evil witches out to get them.

[goldie]

The thing about irrational panics is they're very easy to manipulate for power grabs. Some people benefit from stoking nonsensical fears, and they'll do it any chance they get.

[brycealthoff]

It’s definitely stuck in the minds of a lot of people who were around at that time. I started playing D&D in 2015 and when my grandma heard about it she expressed concerns to my mom that I was getting into Satanism.

[noncatholiccatholicrat]

I remember when i was a kid my mom wouldn’t let me play “Wizards 101” because she thought it was “demonic”… really annoying

[Honeysuckel]

It was like a modern version of the Salem witch trial.

[littledreamerrem]

And now we're on round 2 of The Panic (TM). What joy.

[Jadee]

Stuff like this happened in Finland too but i think this was in the 90s
My uncle was hosting a LARP event in the woods, but the city said that they cant do it since its literally the same as devil worship.

[Bacopa]

I love the retro 70s-80s style PBS logo. I can even hear it.

[josephyoung]

This hit New Zealand in the early '90s, exactly at the time I was getting into D&D at middle school. Things got, as you suggest, very weird indeed. I look forward to your video; I hope it's longer than this one.

[katmartindale]

Oh yeah, my teen years. Good times. Never did see any Satanic actives. We did try playing records backward but that didn't summon anything. Neither did the hours of playing D&D. We did consume an insane amounts of junk food, pizza and soda though.

[stramlin]

My favorite X-Files episodes were the Satanic Panic-related ones. Mulder just half-heatedly runs through all of the tropes, and the local police have that “how did you know?!?” reaction.

[CamiloSantana]

I got into major trouble because I had drawings of dungeons and dragons monsters in my school folder 🙄 I mean other than me and my friends eating babies, we didn't get into anything satanic

[R.Merkhet]

I remember the D&D scare was started by the Tom Hanks movie "Mazes and Monsters" . Gary Gygax and the rest of the TSR crew loved the stir it caused.

[Neenerella]

People do be seeing the devil around every corner. As a metal head, the Gojira performance at the Olympics was awesome. But the goobers who know nothing about them, mixed with ignorance of Greek mythology and French history had to get their undies in a bunch. Thankfully, the internet did their job and laughed loudly at them.

[MzShonuff]

It was such a wild time (and not in a good way)

[KilterTalks]

The title flashes on screen for a frame and, for a moment, I thought you had added a subliminal message. It got me laughing pretty hard :D

[robcreel]

I remember people freaking out about the Procter and Gamble logo on their products.

[wmarclocher]

Not to mention "700 Club" and other televangelist T.V. and radio shows.

[ChrisMartin-mzbt]

Looking forward to the full video! The lessons learned then could be useful today