*UA-cam has demonetized this,* so please consider buying some merch: cynical-historian-shop.fourthwall.com Or donating to my Patreon: www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian Click "read more" for corrections and citations, but first, here are some related videos: political polarization series: ua-cam.com/play/PLjnwpaclU4wXxGRwtV4EGk_vuAH2VkODS.html supercut: ua-cam.com/video/i-E14o6Do9Y/v-deo.html Culture war: ua-cam.com/video/tppeGYoWDxg/v-deo.html Tech polarization: ua-cam.com/video/xHlBdebjpyQ/v-deo.html ToldInStone on sacrifice: ua-cam.com/video/AMs0vp-B1Yc/v-deo.htmlsi=E3nukXUSEfyt1r4C WILSOOOON playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLjnwpaclU4wXmCcEx0vfIim_jFMkgtLmS.html Jim Crow lecture: ua-cam.com/video/IRyBTXfazMs/v-deo.html Mr Beat on replacement: ua-cam.com/video/pyUQP-R48yg/v-deo.htmlsi=7ObBHQbicPfwCs_w Racial riots: ua-cam.com/video/tAbkCU5nBhM/v-deo.html Police militarization: ua-cam.com/video/HehnDHNoItk/v-deo.html playlist of live discussions on difficult topics: ua-cam.com/play/PLjnwpaclU4wVgFZOy6Eq6UaStCjkULWXZ.html&si=8x7qM4utDAeJMmkf TeamUA-cam malfeasance: ua-cam.com/video/-vRGguUJIx8/v-deo.html *[reserved for Errata]* *Bibliography* William J. Bernstein, _The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups_ (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2021). amzn.to/3NCaLqi Joel Best, _Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims_ (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1990). amzn.to/3WayL7H Colin Dickey, _Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy_ (New York: Viking, 2023). amzn.to/4b3p2a9 Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, _Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance,_ 2nd ed. (1994; New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). amzn.to/3OqjpbD Marjorie Heins, _Not in Front of the Children: “Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth_ (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007). amzn.to/3pGi2gc David Hajdu, _The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America_ (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2008). amzn.to/2Zukolt Karen Leick, _Parents, Media, and Panic through the Years: Kids Those Days_ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). amzn.to/3rYzIVJ Kyle Riismandel, _Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001_ (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), ebook. amzn.to/3pRUntu Mark Stein, _American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why_ (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). amzn.to/3YoCgII Karen Sternheimer, _Pop Culture Panics: How Moral Crusaders Construct Meanings of Deviance and Delinquency_ (New York: Routledge, 2015). amzn.to/3KucTQ7
The notion that GamerGate and Red Pill were concocted by the political left is simply unfounded. These movements, often promoted online, served as conduits for extremist ideologies, including misogyny and white supremacy. I've personally witnessed the harmful effects of such content, as it swayed individuals like an ex-friend from high school. He fell victim to Red Pill propaganda, believing that his stature made him unworthy in the eyes of women. Despite efforts to steer him away from this toxic mindset, he became increasingly entrenched, even expressing aspirations to become a mercenary. This underscores the very real influence these online communities wielded, with far-reaching consequences, including their contribution to the proliferation of neo-Nazi sympathies and the rise of figures like Trump.
The notion that GamerGate and Red Pill were concocted by the political left is simply unfounded. These movements, often promoted online, served as conduits for extremist ideologies, including misogyny and white supremacy. I've personally witnessed the harmful effects of such content, as it swayed individuals like an ex-friend from high school. He fell victim to Red Pill propaganda, believing that his stature made him unworthy in the eyes of women. Despite efforts to steer him away from this toxic mindset, he became increasingly entrenched, even expressing aspirations to become a mercenary. This underscores the very real influence these online communities wielded, with far-reaching consequences, including their contribution to the proliferation of neo-Nazi sympathies and the rise of figures like Trump.
@@rct3LP You had till JFK doubts were listed in with holocaust denier, and if your a Lone gunman nutter, that thinks the FBI and CIA do good work, you're farther gone than the Trumpers.
As a dungeons and dragons playing, heavy metal fan in the 80's, I learned at a very young age that most adults are gullible and stupid. I'm 50 now and that judgment hasn't changed.
Sadly, wisdom does not necessarily come with adulthood. If anything, the wisest thing is to realize how gullible we all are, or as Socrates said, "I am wise only in knowing that I know nothing."
The scare about RPGs was different in Scandinavia. Primarily two people tried to import the US fear but largely failed. One fear they had was "commercial culture". All these new shows from outside, with the Transformers and the Pokemon... They are trying to turn the kids into condumerist morons! Same with the US halloween, foreign commercial nonsense. Violence was heavily censored in general. There was some worry that RPGs could be violent entertainment. The video store took the brunt of that though.
Also, please be aware of social media bubbles. The algorithms are highly targeted to give you WHAT YOU WANT. And ask yourself how many life lessons you've learned from just having been right about everything the whole time. Nothing it more valuable than knowing what we don't know. We learn from being wrong and addressing that. Social media algorithms do exactly the opposite. And worse still they create an illusion of consensus that triggers group think and all of the vulnerabilities that causes in our psyches. Basically, put down the phone and touch grass. As a child of the information age, I am very scared of how the internet has consolidated and how information is controlled and censored by big corporations. We are at a very dangerous precipice which is eerily similar to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and we're just accepting this with open arms... I'm both excited and extremely concerned for humanities future
My attorney general Ken Paxton of Texas has stated if given the opportunity he would enforce anti sodomy laws. As someone who is bi I feel like my fear is justified.
Oh hey youtube shawdow deleting my comments talking about how I'm afraid of social media bubbles and monopolistic control of what information people view online cool...
Went out with a Catholic girl for awhile. I went to mass with her couple times. I enjoyed it, seemed more formal then the Methodist Church I went to as a kid😊. I couldn't take communion but I enjoyed it.
The Satanic Panic came to East Wenatchee, WA, in the 90's where several adult day care workers were jailed for years over claims that they committed Satanic ritual child SA in the basement of the building the day care was located in. The building did not have a basement, but authorities were so convinced that they demolished the building and dug up the dirt under the foundation. Nothing was found, of course, and the charges were eventually dropped, but not after ruining people's lives. It's amazing what children will say when asked leading questions by "therapists." Some of these children described the ritual consumption of babies and despite the fact no babies were missing, the authorities believed them.
Wild how the modern moral panic started with the same idea in the 2010's but with a pizza parlor's basement in DC that didn't have a basement and was just popular with members of Congress. And as for those therapists, it is funny how the right will rail against mental health professionals until they're useful to their cause. Which shouldn't be surprising.
Children have vivid imaginations and can tell fantastical tales with little prompting. Having adults engage with them in that sphere with leading questions was a recipe for disaster. I also know of a case where a teen accused her parents of abuse because she was angry with them. It cost her family everything. She would call her mom at the shelter and ask her to get her from foster care, but mom would have to explain that what was done was done. Everyone in their family learned that harsh lesson. I'm not saying abuse doesn't happen. From what I've seen, it's a hard reality for too many kids. It would be awesome if our society could get away from the social dynamics of power and violence.
@@erinmcdonald7781 The children in the 80s and 90s all denied being abused. The police, the therapists, and even the parents kept telling the children that they had indeed been abused by the suspects, and after 6-12 months of pressure, a few changed their story. Interestingly enough, the child who started all this, whose mother had gone to the police with claims that he was showing signs of being abused, never cracked and was left out of the trial. Turns out his mother suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
@@michaelirwin6137*checks profile* Bro why is the first thing I see a 110 video list about "new astrology" and how does that inform your (definitely not at all fascist...) belief that gayness is a social contagion?
@@michaelirwin6137oh my god... one of the playlists is "the good jew" Brother. Wtf? I hope you have good healthcare, access to a therapist, and a healthy support structure.
Chris Rufo fully admitted that his goal is to create what are essentially moral panics to hurt any kind movements, groups, or ideas that go against his far right beliefs.
I don't know if the Easter Day moral panic (about the incidental "Day of Trans Visibility" held on March 31st) is one of his jobs, but the campaign is now aiming to present a new manufactured outrage every day.
What's interesting about him is he just outright says it. Normally the profiteers have to feign sincerity or else they would (rightfully) be seen as profiteers. To me, that's actually way more interesting than all the bullshit he says because, as the video shows, we've seen this crap a billion times before. Someone should look into why he's able to say the quiet part out loud and get away with it. My gut says it's simply that most of the believers don't know that he's an admitted profiteer but that's because I'm an optimist. The back of my mind says that the people that have drunk the kool-aid simply don't care that he's an admitted liar.
Left school in 1980 in Britain and was a heavy rocker and biker. We were always seen as troublemakers as were skinheads, Mids, Punks and others. In reality we were just teenagers enjoying our youth before we settled into lives of going to work marrying having kids and getting into debt. Quadrophenia was a great film in its time and had great music from the Who. Now I’m 60 and still a heavy rocker at heart just with Arthritis and grey hair 😊 Rock on Cypher 👍
i asked my grandparents about the xenophobia their parents had suffered, as immigrating Poles and Germans, asking about what language was spoken at home. My grandparents said that only English was spoken to the kids and they never learned the native language of their parents for fear of the kids being discriminated. My grandpa said they would only speak Polish to each other and not the kids.
My mother was Mexican. I once asked her why she never taught me Spanish, the language half my family speaks, and she said she didn't want me to be seen as less American as other kids. I think she meant that she didn't want me to be discriminated, like the discrimination she faced growing up in the deep south.
@@RemnantCult Those people... They can't understand the difference between knowing language and speaking it? Like learning one language will wipe out another one?
33:56 I understand I guess. My grandpa would cuss us kids out in Norwegian when he got mad. He was born in Norway and came to America when he was 4-5. He told me he would go to school and then at night he taught his parents English.
@@RemnantCult Ouch... now it makes more sense why my boyfriend was so puzzled when I asked them to teach me Spanish. They asked why I would be interested in learning that language, and I couldn't understand why someone wouldn't. There are several core languages landed here, that this country is not filled with polyglots just confuses me.
@@Craigerry yea a lot of society has forgotten the stigma faced by German-speaking ethnic groups in the USA during WWII. My paternal great-grandparents came from a German descendant Mennonite community in Kansas where German was the primary spoken language. Once WWII started they immediately switched to English due to the stigma, and no longer discussed their German heritage and upbringing. Though, my great-grandfather ended up volunteering and became a Chaplain with the 82nd Airborne Glider Infantry Regiment, and his German became very useful as they fought the Nazi’s through Europe. The history of that side of our family, surnames ‘Wall’ and ‘Strauss’, was lost since it was not spoken of. Was worse for my Cherokee ancestors though. They’d lost their religion and much of their original language by the time they intermarried with my Scottish ancestors. Even with all their assimilation and capitulation, they still had their native lands in Georgia and South Carolina seized and then shipped off to Oklahoma. Post-911, the Muslim community, and even Sikh who Americans simply confuse them with, was widely stigmatized. Then during CoVid, people hated on Asian peoples…..when will America ever learn? We our a country of immigrants, and we are the stronger for it, but only if we can accept it. Having lived in various places in the US, I can say the northeast is far less judgemental, discriminating, or downright hateful like the Deep South and Texas can be.
I run for cover when a politician screeches "SAVE THE CHILDREN!" This moral panic works because only a soulless monster would fail to check their brains when this hot button is smashed in.
Censorship often comes in the form of limiting the freedom of adults because parents won’t watch their children. In modern times, this comes in the form of blaming a website because a kid is looking at something not meant for them online. Instead of blaming the parents, people blame the website, the movie, the book, the TV station, and so on. Now, an entire social media app might be banned because of it. It’s all about not taking responsibility.
I'm afraid of how censored big tech owned platforms are, I tried to leave a reply to Mr beat and it keeps disappearing, and I know what I said wasn't something Cipher would delete, and definitely not instaneously so...
That's not even the reason why they are banning tiktok. I mean think about it. Tiktok doesn't even allow nudity and there are kids on twitter where literal gore is shown. They aren't banning that lol. It's of my belief that they're banning tiktok because of the genocide in Gaza. Out of all platforms I've never seen more support than on tiktok, literally millions of likes and it was super helpful in causing mass boycotts. The supreme Court will say it's because of China. But yet we can still use other Chinese backed applications? I could be wrong but I wouldn't be surprised if I was right.
I mean, even a lot of bad parenting is related to being time poor, having not enough resources (and I don't just mean financial) and being very exhausted. There are kids who are definitely hard to parent, whether that's just as a result of neurology, trauma, or parents just genuinely not being able to deal with them. But plenty of bad parents have issues that are caused by the struggle to survive, sometimes in failing bodies, failing minds (and etc), plus not having the resources to be able to change behaviours (like not being in tune emotionally to one's self to reflect on their behaviour, as an example of non-financial resources I'm talking about). I say that as a "folk devil" who was a neglected child and has worked with kids in childcare and extracurricular activities (Brownies/Girl Scout leadership).
Very cool that you declined Magellan TV on principle. I also love that you told us the dollar amount you turned down. You’re so transparent it’s hard not to form an awesome parasocial friendship with you. You don’t know me, but I know you, Cypher. And you’re one of the greats up there with Mr Beat and the Brothers Green
@@CynicalHistorian haha of course, perhaps the self-awareness I was trying to imbue in my comment was a bit lacking. In any case, great documentary today. I earned my BA in Hist back in ‘22. This fall I’ll be beginning my masters program and I want to make video-documentaries like this one as soon as I can. I’ve actually been wanting to get started making history videos for several years now, like 6 years. Other than just starting the damn thing already, do you have any advice for getting started as a History Tuber? Or any direction you might point me in? I’ve admired your work for years now and I really want to get started taking this whole thing seriously. Thanks!
@@CynicalHistorianThe fact you'd remind an admitted admirer of this is exactly why you are the kind of historian that this generation needs (and would've been wicked helpful in past generations #WILSOOOOOON!) ❤ Thank you for your incredible work.
I find this kind of principled stance to be very impressive. It's very rare to find any kind of UA-camr who won't give in to sponsors or UA-cam's monetization policies. I'm so sick of other UA-camrs who censor their own videos and claim they can't say certain words or talk about certain topics when the reality is that they totally CAN say those words and talk about those topics, but they are just greedy. I aspire to also be principled in this way and not censor myself on my channel. I don't get enough views to be monetized yet, but someday, if I am, I will not give in.
@@HeyThatsInteresting97 didn't see your reply at first. My general advice for aspiring HistoryTubers is to simply get started. You'll figure it out along the way, so long as you've got the passion for it
I might check it out and I read two other books that talks about the comic scare how it affected the industry first one is marvel comics the untold story which goes into marvel’s history and does a chapter into the comic code authority and the other one being Larry tye’s superman book and it mentions how that scare affected the character.
@@theshenpartei The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an anti censorship charity, now owns the Comics Code Authority logo. They raise money selling shirts and things, so in a way the Comics Code Authority now fights censorship.
I know... I'm 64, I read comic magazine's... Remember "Mad" magazine... One of my favorite comics magazine was "Weird War Stories" there was a lot of prejudice in those stories... {Japs, Commies and Nazi} lucky for me and my two sisters, my parents rised us to not be prejudice against anyone... That includes all the people of the world!!!
Frank Zappa's testimony to Congress during the Parents Music Resource Center mess has been released as an album. It's well worth a listen. He completely dismantles all the bullshit Tipper Gore kept yelling about.
@@notNajimihi fellow enby im curious too. Good faith question promise. Just wondering im not super informed on his beliefs but I liked what I heard so im wondering if he believed something dumb.
woaaah he was a fucking conservative!? But registered as democrat!? His beliefs are all over rhe place. But I'll give him credit for at least thinking for himself he didn't tow a party line, sycophantly worship one person or fall in line.
I am not sure that the original Luddites count as a moral panic per say. That is how they are often portrayed, but the thing about the Luddites was that they weren't against the technology itself but about how the new factory owners were treating their workers and the pay that they were recieving. The destruction of the looms was a form of political sabotage to make a point that without the weavers they wouldn't have profits. from what I remember reading, they actually would have stated demands that they would mail to people. Its just that their actions of sabatoge got them tarred as being technophhobes.
I see how they could fit the definition of a moral panic but within their lifetimes the situation did get bad. A person who went from home production to factory work would have seen declining work conditions and a loss of housing plus other resources.
Given the industrial revolution might have given us better living standards in a way, however it also gives worse climate change, more deadly warfare, etc. also given the new "lords and baron" coming from the industrial revolutions, you can't blame luddites for being skeptic on the "progress" of technology.
@@starmaker75Also, better living standards are starting to be reversed as a result of capitalists always needing more money. It's basically a given in the industrialized world now that young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents and grandparents because the cost of living has grown, wages remain stagnant, and organized labor has been severely weakened.
absolutely agreed, the "luddites were just peasants who smashed machines because they hated technology" angle has been pretty broken down in academic circles as the framing industrialists and liberals (as in the party) used. a little sad to see it repeated here, but one can't research everything and it's still an interesting video.
Yes. That was the one example that gave me pause. The Luddites were correct. The problem isn't technology in itself. The problem is exploitation under capitalism. New technology is not used to make workers' lives better, but to increase profits and reduce the number of workers needed for production. It's interesting to see such a glaring mistake, or at least, what seems to be a glaring mistake. I'd like to hear more about how the Luddites were reactionary.
Ah yes, remember when the Progressives thought about children and the nation's capitalists lost their rights to exploit children? We all remember that.
I grew up in a family with a family mother over my mom that wanted us to be fearful towards everything, and be fearful thinking as well and has mentally scarred me for my life to a point that I can’t get one now, and I wish people like my grandmother wasn’t fearful at all and I blame her for my life because of what fearful thinking has done to her as a whole; the things that fearful thinking does is evil of it’s own
I'm only talking about my own experience here, but regarding the concept of an Alt-right Pipeline, I never encountered the idea that it was a deliberate conspiracy, only that it was an unintended consequences of algorithms picking content without adequate conscious human input. So would concern about how algorithms are effecting "the youth" (although again, in my experience, most of the people concerned about it were in their teens or twenties themselves) still be a moral panic, absent an accusation of conspiracy?
The problem with the idea of moral panic is that the things that are accused of causing it aren't really causing the societal ills they claim it does. But the alt right pipeline undeniable causes moral issues in youth, objectively.
It was definitely a thing; less of a conspiracy and more of a few bad actors using social media to push young (and old) people towards Alt-right beliefs. I would argue that it isn't a moral panic since some of the people who have fallen down this pipeline have gone on to do mass shootings. This isn't about the morals of children being degraded, but instead is a group of people actively trying to inspire people to commit violence.
For that matter, the "alt Right" itself doesn't exist. It was just the exact same bog standard white nationalism we've had in this country for almost a century already, just with some of the edges rounded off to trick the especially stupid and to give mainstream media the chance to discuss it during primetime without getting too much push back. Spencer himself said as much all the way back in 2011. Call it for what it is. All that "alt Right" nonsense does is give them the exact cover they wanted in the first place. It's just lipstick on a pig, everyone else should quit playing along and pretending it's a beauty queen.
Through this video I've been able to connect more dots and data to get the full picture, as is my intention, to see how this is all goes full circle. I already knew nothing is new under the sun. And Republicans just enjoy pure POWA. 💥
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H. L. Mencken
As a would-be fiction writer, your videos never fail to inspire. I know these are tragic true tales, but I can't help but weave these real complexities into my dnd games and then tell them it is all based on a real thing,
50:49 Respect the hell out of Cy’s response to Magellan. The *existence* of queer people isn’t a content matter - it’s recognizing people for who they are and how they experienced the world.
@@brandonwilliams6221 "Everyone's experience is not worth caring about." But I'm guessing you think *your* experience is worth caring about? Very important, right? ...Or are you just saying LGBTQ _people_ aren't worth caring about, without actually saying that directly? ...You are obviously the moral arbiter we must all bow to, the ruler of who actually matters. My experience, and the experience of other LGBTQ people, isn't worthy of attention, by your lordship's decree.
@@brandonwilliams6221 Sure. Except for queer people in my Family and circle of Friends I do care little, but in general I want as many people as happy as possible. Also for future Generations. How would I want my kids to experience the world, my grand kids. What if any of them is LGBTQ+? They should live a life as fulfilled as possible. While I can not possible care for every individual out there, I can care for those who are close to me, those who might be close to me in the future.
As a trans person, thank you so much for dropping Magellan tv. I've seen you sponsor them before, they're big, and you took the financial loss for us, thank you.
Ive been sponsored by Curiosity Stream, not them before. This would've been the first, but I want willing to take a different sponsorship while denouncing a similar sponsor
10:43 I don’t think most were arguing youtube was intentionally pushing people to the far right, rather it was enticing to young people meaning they watch more and UA-cam gets more ad revenue. It was the pursuit of profits that made them turn a blind eye to radicalization.
Here are some queer perspectives on the moral panics you described: 1) Templar Knights were also accused of sodomy, which was very easy to do for an all male-group and helped whip up support against the Templar Knights. 2) McCarthyism also sought out to root out homosexuals from the state department, which could be seen an overlap of the moral panic. McCarthy and some of his allies were closeted, which meant they could not focus too much on homosexuality without risking outing themselves. 3) While it does not have a direct connection to the satire "Think of the Children", Anita Bryant's "Save the Children" was the seed of modern day anti-gay moral panic. Her campaign was just as dramatic. I would argue that Anita Bryant contributed to SRA. 4) The case that sparked D&D moral panic was the death of James Dallas Egbert III. While it was not really disclosed during the hype, he actually struggled with his sexuality, which likely was a contributing factor to his depression and suicide. Hiding such information made it easy to blame media (in this case D&D) than deal with the homophobia that more likely contributed to his mental health issues.
The comics scare also had this, Frederic Wetham claimed Batman and Robin were gay and were in a gay relationship because they don't interact with women, they wore colorful campy costumes and spent a lot of time together. He also said wonder woman was a lesbian dominatrix. Likely her fighting with women, tying them up, talking about female power and sisterhood, coming from an all female land and hanging around a sorority of young trouble making women. One page of the book has an image of a comic where Wonder woman has a big breakfast for a littoe girl and says that this is what an Amazon eats. Likely going for a gays are pedos thing. As well as how Wondy is inducting her into Lesbian sisterhood. With her eating all that food, she'll become fat/muscle big and defy female beauty standards which dictate she always be on a diet and always try to lose 5 pounds.
Weird @10:38 I always viewed the alt right pipeline as a sort of naturally occurring pattern rather than some nefarious scheme or conspiracy theory. In fact in all the times I've seen it brought up it was through observing it as an emergent pattern brought about by social forces rather than some grand plot. I do remember that there was some scant records (nothing I would trust outright but it is a starting point for more research) stating that Steve Bannon had gone on record as piggybacking off of that naturally occurring phenomenon in order to build support for conservative ideals but that's different from engineering an entire intricate plan to manipulate people. I think the useful takeaway is less "think of the children and be afraid" and more "teach children media literacy in an online world and to be active curators of their online experience rather than passive consumers" Edit: i should also note that i do think the term is...kind of overblown? That sort of progression just happens as people live and experience the world. The only thing thats different is the ways in which algorithms and access to the Internet have influenced that progression. Also i should note that while i hold leftist and progressive ideals and view myself as a radical in many ways i stopped caring about online political spaces because it stopped being about advocating for change and making the world a better place instead became a circlejerk of people dramamongering, abusing others, and looping back around to being spiteful and full of hate and then tying that all up in a neat package of progressive/leftist rhetoric.
Oof, that last bit! Although I'm biased and think more progressives or leftists engage in some constructive online dialogue, I have seen some of what you're talking about, avoid it like the plague. Generally, it's the politics for the sake of politics discussions that can go there, versus those about substantive issues. One of the places I've noticed to be decent is the comments section for Beau of the Fifth Column. It's a chill community similar to the one here.
Bravo !!! Encore ! Encore ! This is the most common sense I've seen presented on UA-cam in 19 yrs. The most concise non commercial information presentation in my personal experience with this content/media outlet. It clearly shows fearmongering in it's truest context. Bravo for your perseverance and determination in creating this video content.
As a sociologist this video is one of the best examples of moral panic and gives the best explanations . It truly is spot on! Cipher makes the best videos!
Thank you for this really good essay. I’m especially impressed by your taxonomy of moral panics. As a historian / sociologist of science I might want to add, that all those moral panics also have an epistemic component. Those serve for the justification of harmful measures in a scientific, thus “neutral” disguise - oftentimes based on networks of activist driven counter-expertise. This is very evident in the current anti-trans moral panic and its moral economy around bogus concepts such as “rapid onset gender dysphoria”.
I am seeing small scale situations like this in debates about food and health. Moreover in discussion of environmental issues, where everything is framed as misleading or dangerous from someone's perspective.
The one thing that sometimes gets me through the day with transphobia, is how miserable these bigots are. I mean does Matt Walsh really seem like a guy who sits back and watches anything for fun? Benny Shapiro can't please his wife. That ONE WRITER barely even sleeps anymore. I'm just here writing and researching poorly defined pirates, writing short stories, talking with my girlfriend, and working. I'm a woman, nothing is changing that, the ship of changing sailed long ago. I'm gonna be happy being me, something those people can't even be.
I think what makes me not go into moral panic or be skeptical about it is asking this "what I'm doing this crusade?" And asking "is this good for my stress?". Again our personal lives are stressful enough and have own problems to deal with it. As selfish as may be, but it fine to sometimes only focus on own self, family and friends (your own social bubble).
I somehow feel like dropping a "Yas queen" would be too much cringe coming from a cishet man such as myself, but the spirit is there. Living a happy life is the best way to make bigots cry.
regarding the nefarious ulterior motives of demagogues that fuel moral panics, I'd like to paraphrase (b/c I can't find it atm) a speech by a minor villain (heavily coded as a Grand Wizard of the KKK) from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time: "Do you know how to seize power in a village? You release a rabid lion in the square. You let it work the villagers into a panic. Then you appear, and say "I am the only one who can save you, just do as I say and you will be safe" and you give an order; and when it's followed, you give an other. And after you kill the Lion, you give an other order: and it will be followed."
I expected Crucible references and was not let down. I saw the Cynical Historian with the devil! I saw King Richard with the devil! I saw the devil with the devil! That last one just means I need glasses.
Thank you for taking your stance against Magellan TV's sponsorship on part of their kneeling to bigotry, I say this as a transgal who loves your work and is happy to have found more honest historians and anthropologists who don't take the easy money of hate to make it big.
Great video and thank you for covering this. Not long ago I watched a documentary about the gay rights movement made in 2008 which discussed the “ex gay” trend in the 90s or so. They’ve just reused the same exact playbook against trans people today. Insanity.
None of it is new but the specific targets. The targets generally have to be small and "unusual" enough that they can't defend themselves (or if they did it wouldn't matter), and other people don't want to risk it. Just that is enough to keep the parking going for a few years at a minimum. Other than the target always moving, absolutely nothing ever changes. It's disgusting.
I always thought that the whole "they sacrifice children" as a smear came from the Romans who made that claim about Carthaginians, Celts, Christians etc, as opposed to exposing them on a hill side or municipal rubbish dump like civilised people... You know, civilised people like the Romans and Greeks.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts How objectively proven is it that any society regularly practiced child sacrifice? I'm skeptical still. As for abortion. Pah.
Back in 2012, I went to Colorado for graduation from an online degree program. I shared a hostel room with one of the researchers who studied violence and video games, which she shared while I played a hero character on DCUO. I doubt she ever changed her mind on the topic.
Discussing Child Sacrifice, that's alright. Depictions of violence and bigotry, meh. Mentions of Conspiracy Theories, that's fine. Child abuse and gaslighting patients, not much of a concern. Discrimination of immigrants, not a problem. Watching Superman comicbooks get burned, still watchable. But LGBT+ people, nope. We have strict lines mister! That is a very mature topic that requires a very strict content restriction. Think of the CHILDREN!!!
Unless you are sarcastic: it is a weak mind that thinks a perfectly natural hetero child would somehow "switch" after meeting a man dressed as a lady, doesn't understand biology, psychology or development in human beings, let alone "children."
Anyone who genuinely believes they’re teaching CRT to kids just doesn’t know what they’re talking about. It’s only even discussed in academic circles, and it’s not reverse racism, it’s a framework of thought that attempts to deconstruct institutional racism.
26:00 It's worth noting that Rich and Powerful private citizens often have plutocratic leanings. You'll note that monarchs overthrown in revolutions led by rich folk are often just replaced by those rich folk as the de facto monarchs of the nation. "You can't be king, you don't have royal blood!" -every royal ever "Fine, I'll just kill everyone with 'royal blood' so it won't matter anyway" -every autocrat that ever violently overthrew a king/czar/emperor etc.
Nobody was ever arguing that there was a conspiracy to turn kids conservative with different creators collaborating or whatever else. Nobody said this or believed this. Maybe some random person on twitter did who has two followers or whatever, but not actual commentators with people listening to them. Obviously every creator wants to influence people to think the way they think, that's why you're making political content. The argument was that the algorithm pushes you further and further down a rabbit hole of political content that is more and more radical from where you started. This is very much so how the youtube algorithm works. It simply exists to increase watch time and so will suggest similar videos next to the video you're watching. So you click on Ben Shapiro or Blaire White and then you go down a pipeline to all these other creators that were on the picture at 10:09. The lines are connecting them in terms of how often they collaborated with each other. It's how radicalization works, it's a fairly well studied phenomenon. It's just easier than ever to get radicalized because of youtube and social media algorithms that push you down those paths.
Except for Prageru.... But is it a conspiracy if one was always open about one's intentions? Joking aside, I concur with you concerning the Algorithm. I've wiped my profiles and my subs a few times, just to see what it will produce for me. It is always a desperate feed of 'this is similar to what you just watched last,' making it so those first few videos are most critical. All it takes is clicking on one of those earlier suggestions, even if you click away half way through, to lead down a pretty dark path....
I'm pretty sure the link between gameplay and aggression is very short-lived. Like when playing an aggressive game, you've got adrenaline pumping. But you won't be more aggressive on your regular life once you've calmed down. Not 100% on that, but that is what I think I recall from that study.
'The Culture of Fear' is a good W.Bush-era book about fear-mongering in the modern United States. (A few additional bogeymen have been offered since the time it was written, but the book remains relevant.)
The 'social construction of childhood' theory has been around for ages, but it's never really had any solid evidence behind it. It's really kinda contradicted by lots of historical literature where people talk about their feelings towards their children. Yes, there were different expectations of children in different eras, and the age at which they were considered grown could vary between cultures, but there's a fairly consistent tendency to see kids as inherently more vulnerable and requiring more protection than adults. It's probably what makes the 'Won't somebody think of the children?' censorship gambit so successful throughout time and across cultures. Also, it's not fair to characterise the Luddite movement as a moral panic. It was an economic conflict. Advances in technology enabled textile dealers to replace highly-skilled hand-weavers with low-skilled factory workers, driving down wages and worsening working conditions. Luddite machine-breaking was a response to real attack on labour rights that had been established over hundreds of years. The early phase of the Industrial Revolution in England saw increases in working hours and stagnating life expectancy as people were forced to move into cities where they had to work long hours in factories and were more vulnerable to communicable diseases. Average height decreased, due to increased nutritional stress in childhood. Luddites were upset for good reason.
And now workers are against automatization because they don't want to lose their jobs. It seems like capitalism created perfect conditions for neo-ludite movement or maybe possible new wave of left wing radicalization.
The problems are not Democrat and Republican, Left and Right, liberal and conservative. The problem lies in the extremes. The extremes do have a value in that they forecast a direction. ~Kubek
At the start when you facetiously said “social media warps kid’s minds” i was like, “but fax tho”. it was only when the rant spiraled into crazy that i knew it was time for the video fr
Y’all have GOT TO read more about “witches’ ointment” (there are various spellings, depending on the nature of possessive pronoun being used). There have been studies with good procedures & sourcing from various fields, my specialization is History so that’s where most of my information came from, and what it reveals about the minds of the men who - quite frankly - *obsessed* over this mysterious compound (along with, of course, the culture they created - will make you think a little bit about some modern antifeminist & anti-woman / incel moral panics over the liberation & fully-realized humanity of women. Hopefully. I’m hoping it makes you think of Ben Shapiro’s claims about vaginas, for example. Anyway, excellent video! My thanks to the creator(s).
Long live King Richard the first, our benevolent Feline Monarch, Defender of the comments, Lord of the Outtakes, Wielder of the Banhammer! Long may he oversee these great historic deepdives!
As a 23 year old Atheist this unfortunately all felt very real to me. Great video as always. You always manage to strike a good balance between exploring a subject’s nuance without being pedantic.
@@Pikachu2Ashhaving political corporations isn't going to work out the way you think. ultimately if you create that norm, that corporations HAVE to wade inyo every social issue..... then the people that work the hardest and have the most money will seize it and wade into their own social issues first... unless "queer folk" are the ones working 99 hours a week...ultimately political organizations will simply pander to them and you, play nice to your sensibilities in a cynical way and then take your money. if you want freedom, ask for businesses that provide everyone with goods and services as cheaply, neutrally and freely as possible....period this is obvious once you think it through....
@@thorpeaaron1110 it's absolutelt a stance to decide that the mere mention of gay people is a political issue you don't want to take a stance on. That's inherently dehumanizing and tacitly taking the side of people who want to erase that existence. In this case it's a homophobic stance.
Thank you for this vid… truly. I’ve followed you for years now. I discovered you because of your movie reviews, but fell in love with the rest of your vids. I absolutely love your level headed no-nonsense approach to these matters.
Cypher, this is excellent scholarship. ❤Thank you for illuminating (lmao, sorry for the pun) the causes - and the antiquity - of something that I consider one of the scourges of my life.
Alternate video title that came to mind once I finished: "Bullshit Fears and the Cowards and Con Artists who Propagate Them." UA-cam probably wouldn't like it though.
They've increased? I thought it was simply the same shrieking since 2008 that hasn't stopped for longer than it's taken to take breath and keep screaming to BE AFRAID.
Ratchet that back to 2001 at a minimum. 9/11 gave the patriot act and the media's never let up since. I don't think we're going to destratify culturally without major legislation against the media. We have private journalism actively stoking division and fomenting insurrection based on obvious lies. With friends like these who needs enemies? Im not sure how to fix private industry here, except by nationalizing it. Those who've proven unfit for the responsibility should be stripped of it and banned from that sector going forward (cough cough, law enforcement, DOC). And as much as I don't want journalism to be the 5th branch of government, by never holding politicians to actual account and just reiterating the official narrative, they've essentially already been sworn in and at the end of the day we're at the same place regardless what you call it. We need PBS on steroids, sworn to the truth and the keeping the public informed of it, good or bad, the same way DRs take an oath. State and city journalism departments, all independent of government pressure, funding guarenteed as a measure of upholding and protecting the 1st amendment. But empowered to seek, demand, spread and protect the truth as their first order, regardless of whatever outcome the truth brings. That's a separate issue altogether and not within any one person's control.
The pewdie pipeline wasn't real..... but the atlright pipeline was. It was never said that there was an active coordination to spread right wing propaganda. The theory was because the right was the dominant political sphere on UA-cam at that time, in conjunction with algorithms showing videos that continually reinforced right wing talking points, that it was easy for people to become radicalized by it.
I don’t disagree with any of your comment, but the “atlright” pipeline instead of alt-right makes me think that the city of Atlanta has a pipeline to convince people to move there
I’ll say one thing about trump’s ‘movement’ …. It made me realize just how true Mencken’s observation is; “Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of the truly ignorant “
Very very good! The thing about moral panics is that they are about norms. Norms are irrational, but they're powerful. The whole reason conservatives are rigid is because they want to keep the norms stable - if they aren't stable, the sky will fall down. It's because of a sense of violated norms, imaginary or not, that inspires mob violence. In this sense humans aren't terribly different from wasps with their violent reaction to 'imposters.' On a different note, don't be cynical. Human nature isn't evil - it's tragic.
another great great video- topped off with the 'king' of kitty moments...seriously, I love how imprinted you and King are, wonderful cat and informative channel. Just wondering tho- if I pay the ransom- does that mean I get King 😉😄? Thanks for the great work!!
This is a subject I'm already familiar with but your video was still informative and enlightening. I've been screaming against demagoguery, bigotry and racism for a long time. Thanks for this video and doing the same on a much larger scale. Unfortunately the people who should be watching this video are tuned to Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart etc. . Those of us who are sane appreciate it however.
*UA-cam has demonetized this,* so please consider buying some merch: cynical-historian-shop.fourthwall.com
Or donating to my Patreon: www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian
Click "read more" for corrections and citations, but first, here are some related videos:
political polarization series: ua-cam.com/play/PLjnwpaclU4wXxGRwtV4EGk_vuAH2VkODS.html
supercut: ua-cam.com/video/i-E14o6Do9Y/v-deo.html
Culture war: ua-cam.com/video/tppeGYoWDxg/v-deo.html
Tech polarization: ua-cam.com/video/xHlBdebjpyQ/v-deo.html
ToldInStone on sacrifice: ua-cam.com/video/AMs0vp-B1Yc/v-deo.htmlsi=E3nukXUSEfyt1r4C
WILSOOOON playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLjnwpaclU4wXmCcEx0vfIim_jFMkgtLmS.html
Jim Crow lecture: ua-cam.com/video/IRyBTXfazMs/v-deo.html
Mr Beat on replacement: ua-cam.com/video/pyUQP-R48yg/v-deo.htmlsi=7ObBHQbicPfwCs_w
Racial riots: ua-cam.com/video/tAbkCU5nBhM/v-deo.html
Police militarization: ua-cam.com/video/HehnDHNoItk/v-deo.html
playlist of live discussions on difficult topics: ua-cam.com/play/PLjnwpaclU4wVgFZOy6Eq6UaStCjkULWXZ.html&si=8x7qM4utDAeJMmkf
TeamUA-cam malfeasance: ua-cam.com/video/-vRGguUJIx8/v-deo.html
*[reserved for Errata]*
*Bibliography*
William J. Bernstein, _The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups_ (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2021). amzn.to/3NCaLqi
Joel Best, _Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims_ (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1990). amzn.to/3WayL7H
Colin Dickey, _Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy_ (New York: Viking, 2023). amzn.to/4b3p2a9
Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, _Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance,_ 2nd ed. (1994; New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). amzn.to/3OqjpbD
Marjorie Heins, _Not in Front of the Children: “Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth_ (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007). amzn.to/3pGi2gc
David Hajdu, _The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America_ (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2008). amzn.to/2Zukolt
Karen Leick, _Parents, Media, and Panic through the Years: Kids Those Days_ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). amzn.to/3rYzIVJ
Kyle Riismandel, _Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001_ (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), ebook. amzn.to/3pRUntu
Mark Stein, _American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why_ (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). amzn.to/3YoCgII
Karen Sternheimer, _Pop Culture Panics: How Moral Crusaders Construct Meanings of Deviance and Delinquency_ (New York: Routledge, 2015). amzn.to/3KucTQ7
@@mikhailthetenor3387did you have a stroke writing this? Because I had one reading it.
@@mikhailthetenor3387 seems you know because you deleted your comments
The notion that GamerGate and Red Pill were concocted by the political left is simply unfounded. These movements, often promoted online, served as conduits for extremist ideologies, including misogyny and white supremacy. I've personally witnessed the harmful effects of such content, as it swayed individuals like an ex-friend from high school. He fell victim to Red Pill propaganda, believing that his stature made him unworthy in the eyes of women. Despite efforts to steer him away from this toxic mindset, he became increasingly entrenched, even expressing aspirations to become a mercenary. This underscores the very real influence these online communities wielded, with far-reaching consequences, including their contribution to the proliferation of neo-Nazi sympathies and the rise of figures like Trump.
The notion that GamerGate and Red Pill were concocted by the political left is simply unfounded. These movements, often promoted online, served as conduits for extremist ideologies, including misogyny and white supremacy. I've personally witnessed the harmful effects of such content, as it swayed individuals like an ex-friend from high school. He fell victim to Red Pill propaganda, believing that his stature made him unworthy in the eyes of women. Despite efforts to steer him away from this toxic mindset, he became increasingly entrenched, even expressing aspirations to become a mercenary. This underscores the very real influence these online communities wielded, with far-reaching consequences, including their contribution to the proliferation of neo-Nazi sympathies and the rise of figures like Trump.
@@rct3LP You had till JFK doubts were listed in with holocaust denier, and if your a Lone gunman nutter, that thinks the FBI and CIA do good work, you're farther gone than the Trumpers.
As a dungeons and dragons playing, heavy metal fan in the 80's, I learned at a very young age that most adults are gullible and stupid. I'm 50 now and that judgment hasn't changed.
Sadly, wisdom does not necessarily come with adulthood. If anything, the wisest thing is to realize how gullible we all are, or as Socrates said, "I am wise only in knowing that I know nothing."
100%
At that point, one should ask if maturity, as most people conceive it, is truly the virtue we think it is.
The scare about RPGs was different in Scandinavia. Primarily two people tried to import the US fear but largely failed.
One fear they had was "commercial culture". All these new shows from outside, with the Transformers and the Pokemon... They are trying to turn the kids into condumerist morons! Same with the US halloween, foreign commercial nonsense.
Violence was heavily censored in general. There was some worry that RPGs could be violent entertainment. The video store took the brunt of that though.
@@SusCalvin and the Black Metal scene during that time.
It's sad how afraid so many people are. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to live your life in constant fear.
There so easy to fall for so many people, they need to know how to spot them so won't be so afraid.
Try living as a trans woman. Then you'll know constant fear
Also, please be aware of social media bubbles. The algorithms are highly targeted to give you WHAT YOU WANT.
And ask yourself how many life lessons you've learned from just having been right about everything the whole time. Nothing it more valuable than knowing what we don't know. We learn from being wrong and addressing that. Social media algorithms do exactly the opposite.
And worse still they create an illusion of consensus that triggers group think and all of the vulnerabilities that causes in our psyches.
Basically, put down the phone and touch grass.
As a child of the information age, I am very scared of how the internet has consolidated and how information is controlled and censored by big corporations. We are at a very dangerous precipice which is eerily similar to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and we're just accepting this with open arms... I'm both excited and extremely concerned for humanities future
My attorney general Ken Paxton of Texas has stated if given the opportunity he would enforce anti sodomy laws. As someone who is bi I feel like my fear is justified.
Oh hey youtube shawdow deleting my comments talking about how I'm afraid of social media bubbles and monopolistic control of what information people view online cool...
I've actually had people tell me that Catholics aren't Christians and I never knew where that came from until now.
It's really getting insane now.
Went out with a Catholic girl for awhile. I went to mass with her couple times. I enjoyed it, seemed more formal then the Methodist Church I went to as a kid😊. I couldn't take communion but I enjoyed it.
@@theboyisnotright6312 I used to go with my wife sometimes
That's exceedingly unhinged
Like, *how* do you even convince someone of that?
@@notachair4757 the same people that believe Jews run the USA, and that all the missing kids are kidnapped by Jews that eat them or something.
The Satanic Panic came to East Wenatchee, WA, in the 90's where several adult day care workers were jailed for years over claims that they committed Satanic ritual child SA in the basement of the building the day care was located in. The building did not have a basement, but authorities were so convinced that they demolished the building and dug up the dirt under the foundation. Nothing was found, of course, and the charges were eventually dropped, but not after ruining people's lives.
It's amazing what children will say when asked leading questions by "therapists." Some of these children described the ritual consumption of babies and despite the fact no babies were missing, the authorities believed them.
Wild how the modern moral panic started with the same idea in the 2010's but with a pizza parlor's basement in DC that didn't have a basement and was just popular with members of Congress. And as for those therapists, it is funny how the right will rail against mental health professionals until they're useful to their cause. Which shouldn't be surprising.
Children have vivid imaginations and can tell fantastical tales with little prompting. Having adults engage with them in that sphere with leading questions was a recipe for disaster.
I also know of a case where a teen accused her parents of abuse because she was angry with them. It cost her family everything. She would call her mom at the shelter and ask her to get her from foster care, but mom would have to explain that what was done was done. Everyone in their family learned that harsh lesson.
I'm not saying abuse doesn't happen. From what I've seen, it's a hard reality for too many kids. It would be awesome if our society could get away from the social dynamics of power and violence.
@@erinmcdonald7781 The children in the 80s and 90s all denied being abused. The police, the therapists, and even the parents kept telling the children that they had indeed been abused by the suspects, and after 6-12 months of pressure, a few changed their story. Interestingly enough, the child who started all this, whose mother had gone to the police with claims that he was showing signs of being abused, never cracked and was left out of the trial. Turns out his mother suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
I believe this case was a major backbone for Elizabeth Loftus's work on the flexibility of memory in our minds.
I fear very little but religious folk are off their rockers never understood how they got away with that crazy stinkin thinkin.
Watching from Uganda where the parliament just passed an anti-homosexuality bill into law because they are "protecting the children" lol
On behalf of the US, I'd like to apologize for how we have exported a lot of our crazy evangelist bullshit to Uganda.
@michaelirwin6137 The United States exported biology? You're aware same sex attraction and intercourse is not unique to humans right? Gtfo
@@michaelirwin6137*checks profile*
Bro why is the first thing I see a 110 video list about "new astrology" and how does that inform your (definitely not at all fascist...) belief that gayness is a social contagion?
@@michaelirwin6137oh my god... one of the playlists is "the good jew"
Brother. Wtf? I hope you have good healthcare, access to a therapist, and a healthy support structure.
@@michaelirwin6137 go out and take a walk or something
Chris Rufo fully admitted that his goal is to create what are essentially moral panics to hurt any kind movements, groups, or ideas that go against his far right beliefs.
I knew Chris and worked with him on this GARBAGE and can 100% confirm this
I don't know if the Easter Day moral panic (about the incidental "Day of Trans Visibility" held on March 31st) is one of his jobs, but the campaign is now aiming to present a new manufactured outrage every day.
What's interesting about him is he just outright says it. Normally the profiteers have to feign sincerity or else they would (rightfully) be seen as profiteers. To me, that's actually way more interesting than all the bullshit he says because, as the video shows, we've seen this crap a billion times before.
Someone should look into why he's able to say the quiet part out loud and get away with it. My gut says it's simply that most of the believers don't know that he's an admitted profiteer but that's because I'm an optimist. The back of my mind says that the people that have drunk the kool-aid simply don't care that he's an admitted liar.
@@nuke___8876 people just don’t care to see it. And all those involved behind the scenes are totally fine grifting false views to the masses
Do you have any citation to back it up? 🤔
Left school in 1980 in Britain and was a heavy rocker and biker.
We were always seen as troublemakers as were skinheads, Mids, Punks and others.
In reality we were just teenagers enjoying our youth before we settled into lives of going to work marrying having kids and getting into debt.
Quadrophenia was a great film in its time and had great music from the Who.
Now I’m 60 and still a heavy rocker at heart just with Arthritis and grey hair 😊
Rock on Cypher 👍
This was one of the first recognized examples of a moral panic.
@@michaelhorn6029 When was it recognized?
Are you a mod or a rocker? Neither , I’m a mocker.
@@peterthegreat996 John Lennon
out of our brain on the train
i asked my grandparents about the xenophobia their parents had suffered, as immigrating Poles and Germans, asking about what language was spoken at home. My grandparents said that only English was spoken to the kids and they never learned the native language of their parents for fear of the kids being discriminated. My grandpa said they would only speak Polish to each other and not the kids.
My mother was Mexican. I once asked her why she never taught me Spanish, the language half my family speaks, and she said she didn't want me to be seen as less American as other kids. I think she meant that she didn't want me to be discriminated, like the discrimination she faced growing up in the deep south.
@@RemnantCult Those people... They can't understand the difference between knowing language and speaking it? Like learning one language will wipe out another one?
33:56 I understand I guess. My grandpa would cuss us kids out in Norwegian when he got mad. He was born in Norway and came to America when he was 4-5. He told me he would go to school and then at night he taught his parents English.
@@RemnantCult
Ouch... now it makes more sense why my boyfriend was so puzzled when I asked them to teach me Spanish. They asked why I would be interested in learning that language, and I couldn't understand why someone wouldn't. There are several core languages landed here, that this country is not filled with polyglots just confuses me.
@@Craigerry yea a lot of society has forgotten the stigma faced by German-speaking ethnic groups in the USA during WWII. My paternal great-grandparents came from a German descendant Mennonite community in Kansas where German was the primary spoken language. Once WWII started they immediately switched to English due to the stigma, and no longer discussed their German heritage and upbringing. Though, my great-grandfather ended up volunteering and became a Chaplain with the 82nd Airborne Glider Infantry Regiment, and his German became very useful as they fought the Nazi’s through Europe. The history of that side of our family, surnames ‘Wall’ and ‘Strauss’, was lost since it was not spoken of.
Was worse for my Cherokee ancestors though. They’d lost their religion and much of their original language by the time they intermarried with my Scottish ancestors. Even with all their assimilation and capitulation, they still had their native lands in Georgia and South Carolina seized and then shipped off to Oklahoma.
Post-911, the Muslim community, and even Sikh who Americans simply confuse them with, was widely stigmatized. Then during CoVid, people hated on Asian peoples…..when will America ever learn? We our a country of immigrants, and we are the stronger for it, but only if we can accept it.
Having lived in various places in the US, I can say the northeast is far less judgemental, discriminating, or downright hateful like the Deep South and Texas can be.
I run for cover when a politician screeches "SAVE THE CHILDREN!" This moral panic works because only a soulless monster would fail to check their brains when this hot button is smashed in.
And the "Save Kids" paint on the button rubbed off from wear.
Greek here, Greek immigrants in the US were called "dirty rats", and there was a riot in Nebraska.
What was it called?
Greektown riot.
Huh that's what Philly people call non Philly people I wonder if there is a link
@@punkypagan i think there's a word to describe it, it probably starts with an x
Censorship often comes in the form of limiting the freedom of adults because parents won’t watch their children. In modern times, this comes in the form of blaming a website because a kid is looking at something not meant for them online. Instead of blaming the parents, people blame the website, the movie, the book, the TV station, and so on. Now, an entire social media app might be banned because of it. It’s all about not taking responsibility.
I'm afraid of how censored big tech owned platforms are, I tried to leave a reply to Mr beat and it keeps disappearing, and I know what I said wasn't something Cipher would delete, and definitely not instaneously so...
It’s almost a zip the real moral panic. We should be worrying about is bad parenting.
@@randomchannel-px6hoUA-cam spam and language filters are ridiculously overzealous, it sucks
That's not even the reason why they are banning tiktok. I mean think about it. Tiktok doesn't even allow nudity and there are kids on twitter where literal gore is shown. They aren't banning that lol. It's of my belief that they're banning tiktok because of the genocide in Gaza. Out of all platforms I've never seen more support than on tiktok, literally millions of likes and it was super helpful in causing mass boycotts. The supreme Court will say it's because of China. But yet we can still use other Chinese backed applications? I could be wrong but I wouldn't be surprised if I was right.
I mean, even a lot of bad parenting is related to being time poor, having not enough resources (and I don't just mean financial) and being very exhausted.
There are kids who are definitely hard to parent, whether that's just as a result of neurology, trauma, or parents just genuinely not being able to deal with them. But plenty of bad parents have issues that are caused by the struggle to survive, sometimes in failing bodies, failing minds (and etc), plus not having the resources to be able to change behaviours (like not being in tune emotionally to one's self to reflect on their behaviour, as an example of non-financial resources I'm talking about).
I say that as a "folk devil" who was a neglected child and has worked with kids in childcare and extracurricular activities (Brownies/Girl Scout leadership).
Very cool that you declined Magellan TV on principle. I also love that you told us the dollar amount you turned down. You’re so transparent it’s hard not to form an awesome parasocial friendship with you. You don’t know me, but I know you, Cypher. And you’re one of the greats up there with Mr Beat and the Brothers Green
Thank you, but always be wary of parasocial relationships
@@CynicalHistorian haha of course, perhaps the self-awareness I was trying to imbue in my comment was a bit lacking.
In any case, great documentary today. I earned my BA in Hist back in ‘22. This fall I’ll be beginning my masters program and I want to make video-documentaries like this one as soon as I can.
I’ve actually been wanting to get started making history videos for several years now, like 6 years. Other than just starting the damn thing already, do you have any advice for getting started as a History Tuber? Or any direction you might point me in? I’ve admired your work for years now and I really want to get started taking this whole thing seriously.
Thanks!
@@CynicalHistorianThe fact you'd remind an admitted admirer of this is exactly why you are the kind of historian that this generation needs (and would've been wicked helpful in past generations #WILSOOOOOON!) ❤
Thank you for your incredible work.
I find this kind of principled stance to be very impressive. It's very rare to find any kind of UA-camr who won't give in to sponsors or UA-cam's monetization policies. I'm so sick of other UA-camrs who censor their own videos and claim they can't say certain words or talk about certain topics when the reality is that they totally CAN say those words and talk about those topics, but they are just greedy. I aspire to also be principled in this way and not censor myself on my channel. I don't get enough views to be monetized yet, but someday, if I am, I will not give in.
@@HeyThatsInteresting97 didn't see your reply at first. My general advice for aspiring HistoryTubers is to simply get started. You'll figure it out along the way, so long as you've got the passion for it
I highly recommend The Ten Cent Plague. The 50's and 60's comics' scare doesn't get enough attention.
I might check it out and I read two other books that talks about the comic scare how it affected the industry first one is marvel comics the untold story which goes into marvel’s history and does a chapter into the comic code authority and the other one being Larry tye’s superman book and it mentions how that scare affected the character.
Also as for the fate of the comics code authority lasted until 2011.
@@theshenpartei The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an anti censorship charity, now owns the Comics Code Authority logo. They raise money selling shirts and things, so in a way the Comics Code Authority now fights censorship.
and reefer madness, the apex of fear mongering.
I know... I'm 64, I read comic magazine's... Remember "Mad" magazine... One of my favorite comics magazine was "Weird War Stories" there was a lot of prejudice in those stories... {Japs, Commies and Nazi} lucky for me and my two sisters, my parents rised us to not be prejudice against anyone... That includes all the people of the world!!!
Frank Zappa's testimony to Congress during the Parents Music Resource Center mess has been released as an album. It's well worth a listen. He completely dismantles all the bullshit Tipper Gore kept yelling about.
I don’t fully agree with Zappa’s views on politics and society, but the dude for sure had his eyes wide open.
@@notNajimiwhich visions? Genuine question, I know barely anything about Zappa aside from his stuff with The Mothers of Invention
@@notNajimihi fellow enby im curious too. Good faith question promise. Just wondering im not super informed on his beliefs but I liked what I heard so im wondering if he believed something dumb.
@@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303he was pro capitalism and kind of a conservative.
woaaah he was a fucking conservative!? But registered as democrat!? His beliefs are all over rhe place. But I'll give him credit for at least thinking for himself he didn't tow a party line, sycophantly worship one person or fall in line.
I am not sure that the original Luddites count as a moral panic per say. That is how they are often portrayed, but the thing about the Luddites was that they weren't against the technology itself but about how the new factory owners were treating their workers and the pay that they were recieving. The destruction of the looms was a form of political sabotage to make a point that without the weavers they wouldn't have profits. from what I remember reading, they actually would have stated demands that they would mail to people.
Its just that their actions of sabatoge got them tarred as being technophhobes.
I see how they could fit the definition of a moral panic but within their lifetimes the situation did get bad. A person who went from home production to factory work would have seen declining work conditions and a loss of housing plus other resources.
Given the industrial revolution might have given us better living standards in a way, however it also gives worse climate change, more deadly warfare, etc. also given the new "lords and baron" coming from the industrial revolutions, you can't blame luddites for being skeptic on the "progress" of technology.
@@starmaker75Also, better living standards are starting to be reversed as a result of capitalists always needing more money. It's basically a given in the industrialized world now that young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents and grandparents because the cost of living has grown, wages remain stagnant, and organized labor has been severely weakened.
absolutely agreed, the "luddites were just peasants who smashed machines because they hated technology" angle has been pretty broken down in academic circles as the framing industrialists and liberals (as in the party) used. a little sad to see it repeated here, but one can't research everything and it's still an interesting video.
Yes. That was the one example that gave me pause. The Luddites were correct. The problem isn't technology in itself. The problem is exploitation under capitalism. New technology is not used to make workers' lives better, but to increase profits and reduce the number of workers needed for production. It's interesting to see such a glaring mistake, or at least, what seems to be a glaring mistake. I'd like to hear more about how the Luddites were reactionary.
Every time a politician thinks of the children, the nation loses their rights
Ah yes, remember when the Progressives thought about children and the nation's capitalists lost their rights to exploit children? We all remember that.
I grew up in a family with a family mother over my mom that wanted us to be fearful towards everything, and be fearful thinking as well and has mentally scarred me for my life to a point that I can’t get one now, and I wish people like my grandmother wasn’t fearful at all and I blame her for my life because of what fearful thinking has done to her as a whole; the things that fearful thinking does is evil of it’s own
I'm only talking about my own experience here, but regarding the concept of an Alt-right Pipeline, I never encountered the idea that it was a deliberate conspiracy, only that it was an unintended consequences of algorithms picking content without adequate conscious human input. So would concern about how algorithms are effecting "the youth" (although again, in my experience, most of the people concerned about it were in their teens or twenties themselves) still be a moral panic, absent an accusation of conspiracy?
This was my understanding of it too
The problem with the idea of moral panic is that the things that are accused of causing it aren't really causing the societal ills they claim it does. But the alt right pipeline undeniable causes moral issues in youth, objectively.
@@mr.dirtydan3338 I would include the old people in this pipeline too
It was definitely a thing; less of a conspiracy and more of a few bad actors using social media to push young (and old) people towards Alt-right beliefs. I would argue that it isn't a moral panic since some of the people who have fallen down this pipeline have gone on to do mass shootings. This isn't about the morals of children being degraded, but instead is a group of people actively trying to inspire people to commit violence.
For that matter, the "alt Right" itself doesn't exist. It was just the exact same bog standard white nationalism we've had in this country for almost a century already, just with some of the edges rounded off to trick the especially stupid and to give mainstream media the chance to discuss it during primetime without getting too much push back. Spencer himself said as much all the way back in 2011.
Call it for what it is. All that "alt Right" nonsense does is give them the exact cover they wanted in the first place. It's just lipstick on a pig, everyone else should quit playing along and pretending it's a beauty queen.
Its really disgusting to hide behind children as a shield for bigotry.
"Haitians eating cats and dogs" is peak moral panic lmao
Lol just the most current one 🙄
Through this video I've been able to connect more dots and data to get the full picture, as is my intention, to see how this is all goes full circle. I already knew nothing is new under the sun. And Republicans just enjoy pure POWA. 💥
"Kids these days are terrible! Social media [...] warps their minds."
You could say the same thing about some adults.
The people that say this watch their favorite TV channels religiously along with the totally not biased news.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
H. L. Mencken
As a would-be fiction writer, your videos never fail to inspire. I know these are tragic true tales, but I can't help but weave these real complexities into my dnd games and then tell them it is all based on a real thing,
I think with history of moral panics shows that time is a dumb circle sometimes.
50:49 Respect the hell out of Cy’s response to Magellan. The *existence* of queer people isn’t a content matter - it’s recognizing people for who they are and how they experienced the world.
@@brandonwilliams6221
"Everyone's experience is not worth caring about."
But I'm guessing you think *your* experience is worth caring about? Very important, right?
...Or are you just saying LGBTQ _people_ aren't worth caring about, without actually saying that directly?
...You are obviously the moral arbiter we must all bow to, the ruler of who actually matters.
My experience, and the experience of other LGBTQ people, isn't worthy of attention, by your lordship's decree.
@@brandonwilliams6221Why care? It's called empathy.
@@brandonwilliams6221 Sure. Except for queer people in my Family and circle of Friends I do care little, but in general I want as many people as happy as possible. Also for future Generations. How would I want my kids to experience the world, my grand kids. What if any of them is LGBTQ+? They should live a life as fulfilled as possible.
While I can not possible care for every individual out there, I can care for those who are close to me, those who might be close to me in the future.
I highly disagree that the attacks on textile industries by "Luddites" was a 'moral panic'. It was a worker's revolt.
If you disagree check the sources and provide your own counter sources.
As a trans person, thank you so much for dropping Magellan tv. I've seen you sponsor them before, they're big, and you took the financial loss for us, thank you.
Ive been sponsored by Curiosity Stream, not them before. This would've been the first, but I want willing to take a different sponsorship while denouncing a similar sponsor
10:43 I don’t think most were arguing youtube was intentionally pushing people to the far right, rather it was enticing to young people meaning they watch more and UA-cam gets more ad revenue. It was the pursuit of profits that made them turn a blind eye to radicalization.
citation needed..
@@Pikachu2Ash Behind the Bastards did a episode on it. UA-cam realsed a press statement and affidavits from former employees.
No the left pushes people to the far right by redefining what makes you far right
10 minutes at the end of watching you play with your cat is exactly what I needed this morning, thanks man
Here are some queer perspectives on the moral panics you described: 1) Templar Knights were also accused of sodomy, which was very easy to do for an all male-group and helped whip up support against the Templar Knights. 2) McCarthyism also sought out to root out homosexuals from the state department, which could be seen an overlap of the moral panic. McCarthy and some of his allies were closeted, which meant they could not focus too much on homosexuality without risking outing themselves. 3) While it does not have a direct connection to the satire "Think of the Children", Anita Bryant's "Save the Children" was the seed of modern day anti-gay moral panic. Her campaign was just as dramatic. I would argue that Anita Bryant contributed to SRA. 4) The case that sparked D&D moral panic was the death of James Dallas Egbert III. While it was not really disclosed during the hype, he actually struggled with his sexuality, which likely was a contributing factor to his depression and suicide. Hiding such information made it easy to blame media (in this case D&D) than deal with the homophobia that more likely contributed to his mental health issues.
The comics scare also had this, Frederic Wetham claimed Batman and Robin were gay and were in a gay relationship because they don't interact with women, they wore colorful campy costumes and spent a lot of time together.
He also said wonder woman was a lesbian dominatrix. Likely her fighting with women, tying them up, talking about female power and sisterhood, coming from an all female land and hanging around a sorority of young trouble making women. One page of the book has an image of a comic where Wonder woman has a big breakfast for a littoe girl and says that this is what an Amazon eats.
Likely going for a gays are pedos thing. As well as how Wondy is inducting her into Lesbian sisterhood. With her eating all that food, she'll become fat/muscle big and defy female beauty standards which dictate she always be on a diet and always try to lose 5 pounds.
Weird @10:38 I always viewed the alt right pipeline as a sort of naturally occurring pattern rather than some nefarious scheme or conspiracy theory. In fact in all the times I've seen it brought up it was through observing it as an emergent pattern brought about by social forces rather than some grand plot.
I do remember that there was some scant records (nothing I would trust outright but it is a starting point for more research) stating that Steve Bannon had gone on record as piggybacking off of that naturally occurring phenomenon in order to build support for conservative ideals but that's different from engineering an entire intricate plan to manipulate people.
I think the useful takeaway is less "think of the children and be afraid" and more "teach children media literacy in an online world and to be active curators of their online experience rather than passive consumers"
Edit: i should also note that i do think the term is...kind of overblown? That sort of progression just happens as people live and experience the world. The only thing thats different is the ways in which algorithms and access to the Internet have influenced that progression.
Also i should note that while i hold leftist and progressive ideals and view myself as a radical in many ways i stopped caring about online political spaces because it stopped being about advocating for change and making the world a better place instead became a circlejerk of people dramamongering, abusing others, and looping back around to being spiteful and full of hate and then tying that all up in a neat package of progressive/leftist rhetoric.
this, I agree with you 100 % on this
Oof, that last bit! Although I'm biased and think more progressives or leftists engage in some constructive online dialogue, I have seen some of what you're talking about, avoid it like the plague. Generally, it's the politics for the sake of politics discussions that can go there, versus those about substantive issues. One of the places I've noticed to be decent is the comments section for Beau of the Fifth Column. It's a chill community similar to the one here.
I was most offended by how little work the companies do that isn't directly related to selling customer data and advertisers attention.
Bravo !!! Encore ! Encore !
This is the most common sense I've seen presented on UA-cam in 19 yrs. The most concise non commercial information presentation in my personal experience with this content/media outlet. It clearly shows fearmongering in it's truest context. Bravo for your perseverance and determination in creating this video content.
blaming video games for violence is like the lowest brow possible to justify something
As a sociologist this video is one of the best examples of moral panic and gives the best explanations . It truly is spot on! Cipher makes the best videos!
As a trans woman i thank you for refusing that sponsorship
Thank you for this really good essay. I’m especially impressed by your taxonomy of moral panics. As a historian / sociologist of science I might want to add, that all those moral panics also have an epistemic component. Those serve for the justification of harmful measures in a scientific, thus “neutral” disguise - oftentimes based on networks of activist driven counter-expertise. This is very evident in the current anti-trans moral panic and its moral economy around bogus concepts such as “rapid onset gender dysphoria”.
I am seeing small scale situations like this in debates about food and health. Moreover in discussion of environmental issues, where everything is framed as misleading or dangerous from someone's perspective.
The one thing that sometimes gets me through the day with transphobia, is how miserable these bigots are. I mean does Matt Walsh really seem like a guy who sits back and watches anything for fun? Benny Shapiro can't please his wife. That ONE WRITER barely even sleeps anymore.
I'm just here writing and researching poorly defined pirates, writing short stories, talking with my girlfriend, and working.
I'm a woman, nothing is changing that, the ship of changing sailed long ago. I'm gonna be happy being me, something those people can't even be.
I think what makes me not go into moral panic or be skeptical about it is asking this "what I'm doing this crusade?" And asking "is this good for my stress?". Again our personal lives are stressful enough and have own problems to deal with it. As selfish as may be, but it fine to sometimes only focus on own self, family and friends (your own social bubble).
I somehow feel like dropping a "Yas queen" would be too much cringe coming from a cishet man such as myself, but the spirit is there. Living a happy life is the best way to make bigots cry.
regarding the nefarious ulterior motives of demagogues that fuel moral panics, I'd like to paraphrase (b/c I can't find it atm) a speech by a minor villain (heavily coded as a Grand Wizard of the KKK) from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time:
"Do you know how to seize power in a village? You release a rabid lion in the square. You let it work the villagers into a panic. Then you appear, and say "I am the only one who can save you, just do as I say and you will be safe" and you give an order; and when it's followed, you give an other. And after you kill the Lion, you give an other order: and it will be followed."
I expected Crucible references and was not let down.
I saw the Cynical Historian with the devil!
I saw King Richard with the devil!
I saw the devil with the devil!
That last one just means I need glasses.
I cant believe i havent found this channel sooner, love your vids man keep up the good work
Thank you for taking your stance against Magellan TV's sponsorship on part of their kneeling to bigotry, I say this as a transgal who loves your work and is happy to have found more honest historians and anthropologists who don't take the easy money of hate to make it big.
Great video and thank you for covering this. Not long ago I watched a documentary about the gay rights movement made in 2008 which discussed the “ex gay” trend in the 90s or so. They’ve just reused the same exact playbook against trans people today. Insanity.
Sounds interesting, which doc is that?
None of it is new but the specific targets. The targets generally have to be small and "unusual" enough that they can't defend themselves (or if they did it wouldn't matter), and other people don't want to risk it. Just that is enough to keep the parking going for a few years at a minimum.
Other than the target always moving, absolutely nothing ever changes. It's disgusting.
@@shankieinthefridge sorry just saw this! The documentary is called Outrage from 2009. Looks like it’s not currently streaming anywhere.
I always thought that the whole "they sacrifice children" as a smear came from the Romans who made that claim about Carthaginians, Celts, Christians etc, as opposed to exposing them on a hill side or municipal rubbish dump like civilised people... You know, civilised people like the Romans and Greeks.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts How objectively proven is it that any society regularly practiced child sacrifice? I'm skeptical still. As for abortion. Pah.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5tsAbortion isn't infanticide nor an atrocity, and it has happened throughout history.
@@jonathonrobinson6081It's even mentioned in Torah.
Back in 2012, I went to Colorado for graduation from an online degree program. I shared a hostel room with one of the researchers who studied violence and video games, which she shared while I played a hero character on DCUO. I doubt she ever changed her mind on the topic.
Why would they? They don't care about the topic they cover.
If they did, they would play these games with their kid and be more open-minded
There's a great book about that era of burning comic books called The Ten-Cent Plague
yep, I directly cite it in the video
Excellent video that addresses so much of the garbage we are wading through today.
History is wash rinse repeat, sadly.
Since COVID, I've called this phenomenon new age mass hysteria.
THIS TOPIC NEEDS TO BE TALKED ABOUT MORE
Discussing Child Sacrifice, that's alright. Depictions of violence and bigotry, meh. Mentions of Conspiracy Theories, that's fine. Child abuse and gaslighting patients, not much of a concern. Discrimination of immigrants, not a problem. Watching Superman comicbooks get burned, still watchable. But LGBT+ people, nope. We have strict lines mister! That is a very mature topic that requires a very strict content restriction. Think of the CHILDREN!!!
Unless you are sarcastic: it is a weak mind that thinks a perfectly natural hetero child would somehow "switch" after meeting a man dressed as a lady, doesn't understand biology, psychology or development in human beings, let alone "children."
Anyone who genuinely believes they’re teaching CRT to kids just doesn’t know what they’re talking about. It’s only even discussed in academic circles, and it’s not reverse racism, it’s a framework of thought that attempts to deconstruct institutional racism.
Alas, that would require critical thinking skills.
@@markwilliams2620
CRT is basically anti-white racism.
26:00 It's worth noting that Rich and Powerful private citizens often have plutocratic leanings. You'll note that monarchs overthrown in revolutions led by rich folk are often just replaced by those rich folk as the de facto monarchs of the nation.
"You can't be king, you don't have royal blood!" -every royal ever
"Fine, I'll just kill everyone with 'royal blood' so it won't matter anyway" -every autocrat that ever violently overthrew a king/czar/emperor etc.
I burst out laughing at the "... It sounded better in the original German". It would've been funnier if it wasn't true. A good analysis - well done 👍
No Bullshit: The Satanic Panic had the best soundtrack.
Especially the part where there was Sympathy for the Devil.
That IS a good band name...
Nobody was ever arguing that there was a conspiracy to turn kids conservative with different creators collaborating or whatever else. Nobody said this or believed this. Maybe some random person on twitter did who has two followers or whatever, but not actual commentators with people listening to them.
Obviously every creator wants to influence people to think the way they think, that's why you're making political content. The argument was that the algorithm pushes you further and further down a rabbit hole of political content that is more and more radical from where you started. This is very much so how the youtube algorithm works. It simply exists to increase watch time and so will suggest similar videos next to the video you're watching. So you click on Ben Shapiro or Blaire White and then you go down a pipeline to all these other creators that were on the picture at 10:09. The lines are connecting them in terms of how often they collaborated with each other. It's how radicalization works, it's a fairly well studied phenomenon. It's just easier than ever to get radicalized because of youtube and social media algorithms that push you down those paths.
Except for Prageru....
But is it a conspiracy if one was always open about one's intentions?
Joking aside, I concur with you concerning the Algorithm. I've wiped my profiles and my subs a few times, just to see what it will produce for me. It is always a desperate feed of 'this is similar to what you just watched last,' making it so those first few videos are most critical. All it takes is clicking on one of those earlier suggestions, even if you click away half way through, to lead down a pretty dark path....
A fellow man of truth 🙏🏼 absolutely had no idea Magellan TV was like that 🤯
51:45 Never felt bad about fast forwarding through those Magellan ads, but now I feel justified. Damn, I had no idea they were sketchy like that.
I'm pretty sure the link between gameplay and aggression is very short-lived. Like when playing an aggressive game, you've got adrenaline pumping. But you won't be more aggressive on your regular life once you've calmed down. Not 100% on that, but that is what I think I recall from that study.
'The Culture of Fear' is a good W.Bush-era book about fear-mongering in the modern United States. (A few additional bogeymen have been offered since the time it was written, but the book remains relevant.)
The 'social construction of childhood' theory has been around for ages, but it's never really had any solid evidence behind it. It's really kinda contradicted by lots of historical literature where people talk about their feelings towards their children. Yes, there were different expectations of children in different eras, and the age at which they were considered grown could vary between cultures, but there's a fairly consistent tendency to see kids as inherently more vulnerable and requiring more protection than adults. It's probably what makes the 'Won't somebody think of the children?' censorship gambit so successful throughout time and across cultures.
Also, it's not fair to characterise the Luddite movement as a moral panic. It was an economic conflict. Advances in technology enabled textile dealers to replace highly-skilled hand-weavers with low-skilled factory workers, driving down wages and worsening working conditions. Luddite machine-breaking was a response to real attack on labour rights that had been established over hundreds of years. The early phase of the Industrial Revolution in England saw increases in working hours and stagnating life expectancy as people were forced to move into cities where they had to work long hours in factories and were more vulnerable to communicable diseases. Average height decreased, due to increased nutritional stress in childhood. Luddites were upset for good reason.
And now workers are against automatization because they don't want to lose their jobs.
It seems like capitalism created perfect conditions for neo-ludite movement or maybe possible new wave of left wing radicalization.
The problems are not Democrat and Republican, Left and Right, liberal and conservative. The problem lies in the extremes. The extremes do have a value in that they forecast a direction.
~Kubek
Youre videos are always well put together and informative. Thanks for all your work.
The end. of you just talking with your cat was great. Nice positivity after ending such a depressing video.
This one's gonna generate some discourse.
Discourse is being polite about it :)
At the start when you facetiously said “social media warps kid’s minds” i was like, “but fax tho”. it was only when the rant spiraled into crazy that i knew it was time for the video fr
Y’all have GOT TO read more about “witches’ ointment” (there are various spellings, depending on the nature of possessive pronoun being used).
There have been studies with good procedures & sourcing from various fields, my specialization is History so that’s where most of my information came from, and what it reveals about the minds of the men who - quite frankly - *obsessed* over this mysterious compound (along with, of course, the culture they created - will make you think a little bit about some modern antifeminist & anti-woman / incel moral panics over the liberation & fully-realized humanity of women. Hopefully.
I’m hoping it makes you think of Ben Shapiro’s claims about vaginas, for example.
Anyway, excellent video! My thanks to the creator(s).
Long live King Richard the first, our benevolent Feline Monarch, Defender of the comments, Lord of the Outtakes, Wielder of the Banhammer! Long may he oversee these great historic deepdives!
And may He make more appearances!👍🤞
Man, this gave the “facts over feelings” folks hurt feelings.
Something can be a pipeline without being a malicious conspiracy
Video games don't cause violent thoughts, but violent thoughts definitely dictate what types of video games you play
I’m glad you are selective with your sponsorships. You are one of my favorite UA-camrs, and I look forward to your next video!
As a 23 year old Atheist this unfortunately all felt very real to me. Great video as always. You always manage to strike a good balance between exploring a subject’s nuance without being pedantic.
Wow, pretty shocked about Magellan TVs homophobia.
@@thorpeaaron1110 So that makes it better lol. Not taking a stance and not caring is even worse?
@@thorpeaaron1110 Yeah, and that's worse. You do get how that's worse right.
@@thorpeaaron1110"I have no opinion on whether queer folk are treated like human beings" isn't really the winning response you seem to think it is.
@@Pikachu2Ashhaving political corporations isn't going to work out the way you think.
ultimately if you create that norm, that corporations HAVE to wade inyo every social issue.....
then the people that work the hardest and have the most money will seize it and wade into their own social issues first...
unless "queer folk" are the ones working 99 hours a week...ultimately political organizations will simply pander to them and you, play nice to your sensibilities in a cynical way and then take your money.
if you want freedom, ask for businesses that provide everyone with goods and services as cheaply, neutrally and freely as possible....period
this is obvious once you think it through....
@@thorpeaaron1110 it's absolutelt a stance to decide that the mere mention of gay people is a political issue you don't want to take a stance on. That's inherently dehumanizing and tacitly taking the side of people who want to erase that existence. In this case it's a homophobic stance.
The Immortal Words of Socrates: I drank what? :)
this video needs way more views
I saw Jello Biafra on a speaking tour, poking fun of the manufactured existential threat of ‘the youth’
seems like a well thought out and researched arguement
Been watching you for years and I must say that you stay excellent. Congrats on your success, you deserve it!
Thank you for this vid… truly. I’ve followed you for years now. I discovered you because of your movie reviews, but fell in love with the rest of your vids. I absolutely love your level headed no-nonsense approach to these matters.
"Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
I say, trouble right here in River City!"
Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool!
now why didn't I think of _The Music Man_ !? That would've been great to reference
I've been looking for material into the rationale behind conspiracies and the history so this video is a great help
Aww, little dude is a talkative kitty!
Cypher, this is excellent scholarship. ❤Thank you for illuminating (lmao, sorry for the pun) the causes - and the antiquity - of something that I consider one of the scourges of my life.
Alternate video title that came to mind once I finished:
"Bullshit Fears and the Cowards and Con Artists who Propagate Them."
UA-cam probably wouldn't like it though.
They've increased? I thought it was simply the same shrieking since 2008 that hasn't stopped for longer than it's taken to take breath and keep screaming to BE AFRAID.
Ratchet that back to 2001 at a minimum. 9/11 gave the patriot act and the media's never let up since.
I don't think we're going to destratify culturally without major legislation against the media. We have private journalism actively stoking division and fomenting insurrection based on obvious lies. With friends like these who needs enemies?
Im not sure how to fix private industry here, except by nationalizing it. Those who've proven unfit for the responsibility should be stripped of it and banned from that sector going forward (cough cough, law enforcement, DOC). And as much as I don't want journalism to be the 5th branch of government, by never holding politicians to actual account and just reiterating the official narrative, they've essentially already been sworn in and at the end of the day we're at the same place regardless what you call it.
We need PBS on steroids, sworn to the truth and the keeping the public informed of it, good or bad, the same way DRs take an oath. State and city journalism departments, all independent of government pressure, funding guarenteed as a measure of upholding and protecting the 1st amendment. But empowered to seek, demand, spread and protect the truth as their first order, regardless of whatever outcome the truth brings. That's a separate issue altogether and not within any one person's control.
“Think of the children!”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Kitty love is awesome. 🐈⬛
#supportcats #catsareawesome
I applaud your integrity. It is sadly rare in this culture we've made of "anything for a buck".
absolutely mental to watch it all endlessly wheel, over and over amd over and over and over
Well, is it not *illuminating?*
I’m really enjoying your channel so far👍🏾
"It sounded better in the original German"
Not gonna lie, that one got me a good laugh. Good stuff as usual~
The pewdie pipeline wasn't real..... but the atlright pipeline was. It was never said that there was an active coordination to spread right wing propaganda. The theory was because the right was the dominant political sphere on UA-cam at that time, in conjunction with algorithms showing videos that continually reinforced right wing talking points, that it was easy for people to become radicalized by it.
I don’t disagree with any of your comment, but the “atlright” pipeline instead of alt-right makes me think that the city of Atlanta has a pipeline to convince people to move there
@@SincerelyFromStephenThat too.
The problem with blackmail these days is that most people are completely devoid of shame.
Shamelessness is a cynical virtue
ty for doing the work you do. incredibly well articulated esp since moral panics have been used throughout history - SO importantt
I’ll say one thing about trump’s ‘movement’ …. It made me realize just how true Mencken’s observation is; “Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of the truly ignorant “
Very very good! The thing about moral panics is that they are about norms. Norms are irrational, but they're powerful. The whole reason conservatives are rigid is because they want to keep the norms stable - if they aren't stable, the sky will fall down. It's because of a sense of violated norms, imaginary or not, that inspires mob violence. In this sense humans aren't terribly different from wasps with their violent reaction to 'imposters.' On a different note, don't be cynical. Human nature isn't evil - it's tragic.
another great great video- topped off with the 'king' of kitty moments...seriously, I love how imprinted you and King are, wonderful cat and informative channel. Just wondering tho- if I pay the ransom- does that mean I get King 😉😄? Thanks for the great work!!
Well said and I appreciate the efforts and historic context. I wish this was taken more seriously by society in general. You are needed.
The first time I saw a PragerU video I thought it was satire. Unfortunately it wasn't.
same
If there's someone telling you to be terrified of it, I promise you there's somebody standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him making a buck out of it.
This actually helped calmed me down a bit about my grandparents insanity. Now I’ve realized they will just hop on whatever the next bandwagon is .
This is a subject I'm already familiar with but your video was still informative and enlightening. I've been screaming against demagoguery, bigotry and racism for a long time. Thanks for this video and doing the same on a much larger scale. Unfortunately the people who should be watching this video are tuned to Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart etc. . Those of us who are sane appreciate it however.