Right-Wing Panics

Politics & Elections
1

I’m interested in thinking of a list of right-wing panics in recent America - there might be one out there already that someone could point me towards (but given the overt political nature of the topic, I thought I’d put it here instead of Factual Questions)

A partial list might look something like:

  • Gay Panic of the 2000s
  • Trans Panic of 2020s
  • Immigration Panic of 1990s/2000s/2010s/current…
  • Ebola Panic of 2014
  • Critical Race Theory Panic of 2020s
  • Muslim Panic of 2000s/2010s
  • AIDS Panic of 1980s
  • War on Christmas Panic of 2000s/2010s

Obviously the timelines are not exact, but I’m looking for events that are primarily a feature of conservative politics & media, involve some exaggerated anxiety about a threat, and offer conservative political and social solutions as an answer to that exaggerated threat. And I’m mostly interested in the last thirty years or so… does anyone know of a list? Or could we compile a useful one here?

2

I’d say this thread -

Has it pretty well covered. :slight_smile:

3

Satanic panic? When was that anyway.

4

The Satanic Panic was in the 1980s. I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons in 1982, and at that time, there were a lot of people who were convinced that playing D&D taught you to cast actual satanic rituals.

Then, in 1989, my former college girlfriend, while undergoing psychiatric care, wound up being treated by a psychiatrist who ascribed to the “repressed memories” idea, and guided my former girlfriend to “recover” memories which, predictably for that era, were about her parents being involved in a Satanic cult when she was a kid. It was all BS, but it led to her being estranged from her family for years, and was, IMO, serious malpractice on the part of her psychiatrist.

5

Masks, Covid immunizations, litter boxes in schools, Confederate statues, her emails, 1619 Project, the non-existence of climate change, inappropriate books, inappropriate song lyrics, which bathrooms to use, fake ballots, Mr. Potatohead, gay Teletubbies, 80,000 armed iRS agents breaking down your door, War on Christmas, 2nd Amendment rights…

And save for the Teletubbies I think this had all been within the past 10 years.

6

Those two seem to be eternal, or at least regularly recurring.

7

Those last ones were certainly not just right-wing. You could ask Tipper and Al Gore.

8

“They’re coming for your guns” is one of their greatest hits. Like all greatest hits, you never stop playing them, so it doesn’t really belong to any one decade.

9

The current “groomer” panic.

10

The Red Scare(s)?

11

“Panic”, which promotes fear and anger, and which galvanizes people behind the leaders who promote it, has long been part of the right wing manifesto. Hitler used it superbly. So, it’s not surprising that it has fueled the right wing engine for a very long time.

12

I was about to add the Lavender Scare but that’s longer ago than you wanted.

13

I wouldn’t call Ebola and AIDS right-wing panics. I would also replace * Critical Race Theory Panic of 2020s" with “Woke Panic of 2020s” in general.

14

Conservative means the sky is always falling.

15

Conservatives are afraid of anything they do not understand, and what they do not understand is almost everything.

16

Fluoridated drinking water = commie plot, a 1950’s subset of the general red scare.

17

I’m going with the zombie thing.

A thinly veiled attempt to get everyone armed in a fighting mode. Prepping and scared.

Y’all just think it was a TV show.

18

Sharia law.

Between 2010 and 2017 inclusive there were 201 anti-sharia law bills proposed at the state level in the US with a peak of 52 in 2011. 14 of these were enacted.

19

AIDS itself wasn’t a right wing panic, but there was a lot of hysteria around it at the time, with people freaking out over getting AIDS from mosquito bites, or worrying that a waiter might have AIDS and transmit it through serving you food, and other nonsense. Arguably, though, that wasn’t specifically coming from the right - neither party at the time was particularly friendly to LGBT people.

20

That was more of a fad than it was a panic. I don’t know anyone who was seriously worried about a zombie outbreak, but I was a little disturbed by live ammunition and firearms being sold with zombie branding as these things aren’t toys. The CDC even got in on the fun by releasing a zombie themed disaster plan and ending it by telling readers who it was applicable to real life emergencies.