Online “witches”, typically of the Tumblr variety, have been a source of mockery by your humble author for some time now. We’ve had “Tumblr Witches” declare war on Donald Trump, Capitalist Patriarchy, opposition to “Transgender Women” in women’s bathrooms, Gentrification, Western Science, the Confederacy, Google, University courses, Supreme Court nominees, the Fedi-verse, and even Allah.
But what do all these “Tumblr Witches” have in common?
None of them are actual, literal witches, nor do they have actual, literal magical powers—from Satan or crystals or whatever.
But showing how much history rhymes, we’ve seen a resurgence of þe olde “Satanic Panic” of late. One such example is Lance Wallnau, a pastor who has gone full MAGA and blames Democrats of literally employing witchcraft, and the only way to fight that is through censorship.
“In a recent online conversation about Ms. Harris’s performance at the debate earlier this month, Mr. Wallnau said that she could “look presidential.”
“‘That’s the seduction of what I would say is witchcraft,’ he said. ‘That’s the manipulation of imagery that creates an impression contrary to the truth, but it seduces you into seeing it. So that spirit, that occult spirit, I believe is operating on her and through her, similar to with Obama.’”
For those old enough, this is the type of hyperbole and fearmongering we heard from the Satanic Panic, which started in the late ‘70s before finally burning out in the early ‘90s. Only this time the focus isn’t on D&D or Heavy Metal… but on Qanon-level grand conspiracies. The Religious Right as a broader social movement burned itself out with the waning of the Satanic Panic, but continued to be political force within the GOP, abet with a bit more grace once the more overt grifters like Jim & Tammy Faye self-destructed.
The inevitable overreach has been virtue signaled for a while now. Gone are the sane days when even Alex Jones mocked “witches, and warlocks, and pumpkin po(p)ssums”. Now we have Tucker Carlson talking with Roseanne Barr about drinking blood and eating human flesh!
Roseanne Barr tells Tucker Carlson that the elites are secret vampires that drink blood and eat babies.
She assures the audience that she’s not crazy and learned of this from people who were in various mental institutions with her… pic.twitter.com/qEvf2ifcLH
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 27, 2024
Your humble author remembers the aftermath of the decline of the Religious Right from a force against the moral decay of the 1970s to the “heel” of Jerry Springer shows, with all rise of same-sex marriage, normalization of fatherlessness, and other “vibrant” cultural transformations that occurred because what was once a great moral voice against such things was relegated to being the butt of jokes. While the more libertarian nature of the “South Park Republicans/Conservatives” were a welcome change and embrace of civil liberties, the lack of moral voices in society rather than in government, helped wokeness grow to the threat it has become. Instead, we have people attacking a non-Woke children’s cartoon that shows a father being involved positively and happily in his children’s lives… because it runs contra to some “Biblical” pater familias fantasy. The effect of another “Satanic Panic” which has metathesized politically into the Trump’s MAGA and his personal fan club, could be far, far worse.
A little mood music:
For a taste of the Satanic Panic:
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