It becomes less mind-boggling when you realize moral panics are never about protecting the vulnerable. They’re always primarily a pretext for authoritarian homogenization of society and distracting the masses to help leaders escape accountability by scapegoating the marginalized.

Protecting the vulnerable requires holding leaders accountable. People in power don’t want that so they blame the outgroup for the problems they themselves cause. Since most people would prefer to scapegoat the outgroup, moral panics are often incredibly successful.

When the evidence that the outgroup was wrongly accused piles up to the point it’s overwhelming, people in power simply find a new scapegoat and everyone else just follows along to the next moral panic.

The only people with a huge incentive to go against the grain, piss off the people in power, and challenge the narrative are the outgroup. Who are by definition disbelieved by default and also who are seen as having an incentive to misrepresent reality.

This is why real allies are so essential. It can’t be just queers, sex workers, etc. saying “This is a moral panic your leaders are playing you.” Take the Salem Witch Trials. Leaders were corrupt and fucking up and people were pissed.

Suddenly two girls accuse a female Indian slave of witchcraft. Leaders thought: Hm. We could blame the results of our malfeasance on witchcraft, get the attention off us, and get rid of or control marginalized women! And boom the trials started.

Guess when they stopped? When nice, upstanding, non-marginalized people started getting accused. Don’t fucking wait that long. Call it what it is before it comes after you.

Since this is doing numbers:

3 questions for whether it’s a moral panic:
1. Are the supposed perpetrators actually in positions of real power or are they generally marginalized?
2. Does the evidence actually support the story I’m hearing?
3. What’s the track record for the proposed solutions?

Wrote an expanded version: cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/moral-panics-101

Also, to be extremely, abundantly clear, the following are current moral panics:
1. Porn is destroying men/marriage
2. Porn/sex work leads to sex trafficking
3. Trans/queer people are trying to recruit/groom kids

In each case the real threat to women and children are the people who hold power in their own homes, classrooms, churches, and governments. Sex workers and queers are the convenient scapegoats.