Part Two: The Satanic Panic: America's First QAnon | BEHIND THE BASTARDS 

Another just, batshit aspect to the West Memphis case is that the local pastor testifies that one of the boys went up to him and said that he’d sold his soul to satan and there’s no saving it, and this is offered as proof of his guilt. Like, that sounds like something I would’ve said to my pastor when I was a teenager! That’s a hilarious way of messing with an uptight authority figure, not an admission to committing child murder.

Frightened mothers have caused more harm to their children than almost any of the things they fear.

One of the frustrations here is that a lot of this relies on these narratives that 'children can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality' all the while children are continuing to demonstrate that they actually have much clearer definitions (game, book, tv-> Fantasy. Stuff happening now or remembered stuff-> Reality). Meanwhile, adult reliance on notions like subtext and subconscious narratives (most of which are really poorly theorised and just serve as a short hand for 'secret' or 'hidden' rather than engaging with the actual complex discourse around how brains, language and society works) lead us to be really bad at distinguishing because we expect games, books and flights of fancy to tell us the truth in hidden a complicated forms. Like a lot of these examples don't even need to rely on recovered or implanted memory theories, they're just adults taking games as literal reality while they're being used by children to play with social relationships. Basically, I think we do kids a disservice when we assume they're incompetent or inaccurate reporters of their own feelings and we do adults a disservice when we assume they're all rational actors who are fully capable of interpreting things. Both groups are complicated and mix competence and need in specific ways and (because adults have the structural power) these trade offs always come out hurting kids at the expense of adult fears, needs or wants.

"But you know what's NOT nasty, Jake???" Jake, after a long, crispy pause, croaks: "...advert"

80s teen veteran of the satanic panic. Fortunately I only had to deal with it on the D&D and rock music front, and our dad, while concerned, was reasonable and actually listened to us when we explained it was bogus.

Learning play therapy evolved from all this and how it was used to psychologically manipulate children is crazy. I went as a toddler (for valid reasons) and thankfully it wasn't for something dumb or my mothers complete delusion.

The line about "I used to play D&D with a YEC" hit close to home, given i was still a YEC when i started playing and DMing D&D. Im not *now,* 20 years later.

And for some kids, DnD teaches you how to be a lawyer :D

My mom made me watch Mazes & Monsters when i started playing Magic: the Gathering. Can confirm, it was insane.

Never did any reading about this, the similarities to QAnon really are depressing. No doubt some of the same people involved as well.

🎶 “ Give me one example . . . so I can take a sample… No need to play it backwards If you wanna hear the devil “ 🎶

In 1989, I was in 8th grade, and one of a few punk rock kids in the small town where I grew up. That spring there was a Friday the 13th, and a disturbingly large number of people, police officers and teachers among them, firmly believed that the punk kids and skateboarders were worshipping Satan, and had nefarious plans for that day involving rituals that none of us would have conjured in our darkest possible imaginings, and which would get my account suspended if I described them in detail. I spent that Friday detained by my junior high principal, being asked to explain Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys.

It's insane that Judy Johnson was the one molesting her child and she blamed someone else for it.

The only reason the state of Arkansas went for that Alford plea was, they knew they'd get the absolute shit sued out of the if they were exonerated.

I didn't realize it got this bad. This insane.

48:04 Didn't RedLetterMedia talk about this Bladed Weapon Defense video on one of their Best of the Worst's?!

I’m wondering how much the Ramirez murders helped exacerbate the paranoia. Perhaps there’s a part three that will touch on that?

it's fucked up how many times I had to pause this to not take lethal psychic damage, holy shit

Also I wish he mentioned the ricky casso case when talking about the intertwining of heavy metal and the satanic panic

When I was in kindergarten in 1989, my best friend & I made up a silly pretend story about witches we used to tell each other on the bus. No idea how it got back to teachers, but they freaked & called our parents & it was a Big Deal. My whole life, I never understood why the adults at my school gave two shits about our pretend game, which we explained to them very clearly was JUST PRETEND. Then I read Satan's Silence last year & said, quote, "Oh. Ohhhhhhh...okay. I get it now." Even though it was winding down by 89, they had no way of knowing when/if the tide would ever turn after spending the last decade in education witnessing this. How horrifying to think some of the people falsely accused were still in jail when I was in college. Can't agree with Robert enough, this book was SUPERB, though a tough read.

This happened within 40 fucking years. so surreal yet so real.

I cannot stop laughing about the Necronomicon I've actually read real books on demon summoning and I have people more panic over the Necronomicon then some actual books like the Keys of Solomon

What a first few words for those who have never listened to this podcast and who are introduced through those first couple words. Omg!!!

Honestly at this point we’ll probably never know who killed the West Memphis children, but I’d honestly be shocked if it wasn’t that one kid’s stepfather. The guy was seriously unhinged. He was violent, always suspiciously performative in front of cameras, and there were a lot of concerning anecdotes about how he used to treat his murdered stepson.

That thing with the dolls sounds eerily similar to how actual child predators coerce their victims ngl

Surviving Edged Weapons!

I was wondering just recently whether they had ever made an episode on Pat Pulling and here we are. I kind of of supposed they had, Robert being a roleplayer and all.

What's writing my commeents? Don't let the haters stop you from freestyling your introduction! It's part of the brand to me and I'm sure many other people too😄 when I hear you grunt, I know it's gonna be a fun one and you're psyched🤭 loving the show😄

59:00 well there have been actual cases. Notable one in Kidwelly, Wales. Trial took place in 2011.

So pathetic these people seem today- I mean they were pathetic then, but in retrospect it’s even worse. Understandably torn up over son’s suicide, the woman condemning D&D not only exploits her own son’s death for her own opportunities, but also refused to take any responsibility herself. How many of these distressed people don’t get the help they need but instead had public freak-outs over Satan? Hard not to feel a little bad for them. But not after hearing about what these idiot parents put their kids through, and then proceeded to ruin that guy’s life over their ridiculous hysterics.

1:00:40 Where can I find the Oprah episode? Who's the CoS member being interviewed? Is it Nikolas and Zeena? It kinda sounds like Nikolas but I can't find the interview anywhere

Facilitated conversation was really messed up too

“An elephant played.” I chuckle at that and I’m a little ashamed at that.

3:35 I can't believe they didn't just ask a level 5 Cleric to cast Remove Curse. It's such a basic spell. Edit: Oh my God, I know what she meant, (she's still an idiot, but I knew what she meant) but 8:22 should just be the way right-wingers talk about math. "My math isn't wrong, I just have conservative numbers!" Alternative facts, the best words, and conservative numbers. I love it. It's really infuriating that there were definitely murderers getting away with their crimes because these clowns were busy interrogating teenagers about heavy metal, D&D, and the Necronomicon and generally punishing non-conformists for the crime of existing.

Bro Mazes and Monsters is fireeeee 😂

It was a witch hunt.

The “nagas hole?” Jfc. Projection of the highest order.

All i learned was that people in the 80s were incredibly stupid (not that they're any better now)

THIS PODCAST SUCKS! Tim Kask does this way better. The kid who ran away, James was gay and sent to college before the age 18, he ran away trying to break into his own house. The police forced Gygax and Kask to go through the kids D&D stuff and look for clues. The FBI released a map of the dungeon and tunnels beneath the preschool. THIS PODCAST SUCKS THEY HAVE OLD WRONG INFO.