The "Satanic Panic" - did you ever experience this personally?

[DeaconKnowledge]

For those who've never heard the term, it's basically the idea that pop culture is inherently unholy and listening to/reading/watching/otherwise experiencing it is a one way ticket to Hell. Your favorite Rock album was forged by Satan worshippers. Pokemon is a gateway to the devil indoctrinating your children into his vile service. The head of Proctor and Gamble is a known Satanist. Lot of FUD spread around.

Did you, or have you ever experienced this paranoia? I recall when I was young anytime something got really popular someone would declare that thing Satanic. Kiss clothing was banned in my public school, for example.

 

[BDS]

There was the "weird Christian family" on my street whose kids weren't allowed to be around any Pokemon merchandise. If we pulled out our Pokemon cards and started trading or even discussing Pokemon he would have to run away and go home.

 

[Deleted member 2229]

I'm sure a sizeable portion of metalheads experience this pretty regularly.

 

[WedgeX]

Parents who gave into this got RL Stein books banned from my elementary school. Pretty sure I recall hearing about Pokémon as well.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

No. My family is completely non-religious so it never really came up.

 

[Deleted member 23893]

When Mario RPG came out, my 10 year old ass went up and told my mom that I really like RPGs. Which practically made her gasp. Apparently the only time she had ever heard of 'those types of games' was in relation to the panic.

 

[NookSports]

My dad made me burn my magic the gathering cards.

 

[Dodongo]

I went to a Christian school for a few years as a kid in the 90s, and yes I saw this often.

 

[TylersProphecy]

This idea was fairly strong in the midwest in my early years but gave out late 90s. For instance, listening to Metallica or watching the simpsons/beavis and butthead, while not purely satanic, would label you as an outcast or deviant.
Some dumb fuckers live in the midwest.

 

[Kevers]

I grew up in a catholic family and never experienced that. I had a friend in catholic school who would always tell the class about the horror movies he watched and he got endless shit from the nuns over it.

 

[Shy]

I live in the UK. And we didn't have that. (well, i don't remember us having it)

 

[Spenny]

Nope. My family was Catholic and didn't subscribe to any Evangelical bullshit

 

[timedesk]

Some of my friend's parents were convinced Harry Potter was an evil franchise, but that was mostly it. These were also the parents that encouraged everyone to read the Left Behind books when they were popular.

 

[RochHoch]

I'm lucky that my religious mother never veered into this nonsense. She was always super okay with Pokemon, Harry Potter, and the like.

 

[OhSatan]

The aftermat stigma only really but it did a lot of damage to metal in the eyes of people, 2019 and they still immediatly go to satanic worship when you say you like metal.

 

[scottbeowulf]

Luckily my parents let me listen to whatever I wanted. I did have a friend like that though. I remember one day after school he goes home and his mom had taken all his music and posters and thrown them in the trash. Apparently it was all evil and devil music. What's really nuts is now, 30 years later, after all the shit his parents did, he's now the same. He told us a few years ago that he found God, blah blah, can't see any old friends anymore.

 

[Spiritreaver]

My dad made me burn my magic the gathering cards.

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My mom locked up my Magic cards and forbid me from playing them, lol. She later threw them away I think.

I love me some Magic today though.

 

[WedgeX]

Ohhhh and a teacher at my Catholic middle school told us all that the movie Dogma was Satanic.

 

[Fat4all]

my mom told me to just act like our family was religious if asked, but we were not a religious family at all

i think ive been to church for a service like 2 times in my life

 

[Ogodei]

I remember a friend went through a weird phase where he gave his Houndor an Everstone because Houndoom was, per the Pokedex, the "Devil" Pokemon. Thankfully that passed pretty quickly.

 

[Deleted member 8468]

Early on in high school I was in a simple programming class and our teacher allowed us to work at our own pace. A bunch of us finished all the work for the semester in about a month or so, and we had to kill class time somehow. Eventually a few of us brought our Magic cards in and played off in the corner, never bothering other students or the teacher. A week or so later she calls us all to the front and was extremely upset. Started berating all of us for playing such a 'satanic' game, that god had punished her for allowing the behavior, and he made her physically ill all weekend because of this.

I remember one kid straight up laughing at her and was sent to the principals office (I don't think any actual punishment was given) and another kid had his deck taken from him. Didn't help that the teacher knew almost nothing of Visual Basic, or computers at all, or from the way it seemed much of a grasp on reality.

Such a goddamn shame they let idiots like that be teachers.

 

[Sean]

Yeah, some religious nut of a teacher tried to take away my MtG cards in middle school, blah blah blah Satan.

My very angry mother immediately made sure I could keep playing with those cards in school and the teacher never said a word about it again.

 

[Baji Boxer]

For those who've never heard the term, it's basically the idea that pop culture is inherently unholy and listening to/reading/watching/otherwise experiencing it is a one way ticket to Hell. Your favorite Rock album was forged by Satan worshippers. Pokemon is a gateway to the devil indoctrinating your children into his vile service. The head of Proctor and Gamble is a known Satanist. Lot of FUD spread around.

Did you, or have you ever experienced this paranoia? I recall when I was young anytime something got really popular someone would declare that thing Satanic. Kiss clothing was banned in my public school, for example.

Click to shrink...

I only experienced this with my friends' family. Basically, their parents banned them from rpgs and Ninja Turtles.

 

[Deleted member 18360]

Not really. I was in the Catholic school system and I'd imagine Catholics on the whole are probably a bit more chill than American Protestants/Evangelicals so it didn't really come up. Though my friend that I met in high school apparently burned his Harry Potter books when he was younger because he heard they were satanic, lol, so I guess it was just on the fringes of my experience growing up.

 

[Baji Boxer]

Yeah, some religious nut of a teacher tried to take away my MtG cards in middle school, blah blah blah Satan.

My very angry mother immediately made sure I could keep playing with those cards in school and the teacher never said a word about it again.

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I do recall some grumbling about MtG in highschool, but don't think anyone ever took any kind of action against it.

 

[petethepanda]

I thankfully never experienced it myself, but I had plenty of friends who did. One had her neighbor tell her she was going to hell for reading Harry Potter when she was something like 12 years old. Crazy shit.

 

[Deleted member 23893]

The crazy thing to consider, is that while it's not on 20/20 or the evening news every week. Really the satanic panic hasn't let up. Think about all the "God uses who he chooses!" shit out there about Trump. Much of the US is still drowning in "The Invisible War" against "The Enemy".

Source: Being a recovering evangelical with many family and friends still in the throes.

 

[Bradford]

I have frequent panic attacks and love Satan, so yes.

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

Very much so.

 

[sapien85]

Catholic school showed me Madonna and Michael Jackson music videos and told me they had subliminal satanic messages and that they were both high up in the church of Satan.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

My mom is pretty hardcore Catholic, My dad I would say was a bit casual about Catholicism, anything being labeled satanic never came up in any of my interests. I would hear other kids talk about how some shit was labeled Satanic but I never directly experienced it.

Its interesting to see other people with catholic parents chiming in. I see it can go both ways, I'm Mexican if that is any factor.

 

[Deleted member 1086]

my parents are the entire reason I ever listened to hard rock and heavy metal, so no

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

My friends' dad didn't let him watch Care Bears because No Heart was "Satanic".

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Catholic school showed me Madonna and Michael Jackson music videos and told me they had subliminal satanic messages and that they were both high up in the church of Satan.

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Madonna had a music video with burning crosses in the background. That sent the panic into overdrive.

Man, Madonna really knew how to game people.

 

[mangopositive]

When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, our pastor came to the house for a party. He bought all my brothers tapes (yeah... tapes), bands like Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, Ratt, etc. He then put them in a metal waste basket and burned them. Rock & roll was evil. My parents didn't bother to correct the thought. I didn't really listen to or care about music again until License to Ill came out. You weren't cool in middle school unless you knew all the lyrics to Paul Revere. My parents heard a song about Angel Dust and they took the tape away from me. I didn't listen to music again until a few years later when I got to high school. I saw One by Metallica on MTV (shut up, I'm old) and I was transfixed. These evil looking motherfuckers were playing one of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard. It was on. Grew my hair long, started playing guitar, and began taking recreational drugs (God damn it, Satan!). Shortly after, I became an Atheist, but that had more to do with actually reading the bible than liking the devil's music.

 

[RedHoodedOwl]

My family thought Silverhawks was satanic.

 

[TacomaSCDisaster]

Man, I went to a Last Podcast on the Left live show earlier this year and got a signed poster. My parents later saw said poster which had "Hail Satan" scribbled on it and they thought I was a Satan worshipper.

Earlier today I was at a gas station and the guy at the counter saw I was wearing an Against Me hoodie, which emphasized the "T" in the logo which looked like a cross. He started grilling me about if they were some anti-Christian anarchist band.

These fundie lunatics are still out and about.

 

[Matsukaze]

Grew up in a Catholic household.

Listened to lots of rock and metal, watched lots of horror movies, was big into world mythology and (dark) fantasy.

Never heard a word of complaint from my family or anyone else.

 

[rottenpie]

Yeah, the teachers and nuns at my elementary school were against Pokémon, they even gave us a list with the " correct translation" of names of all 151 Pokémon lol. It was ridiculous, for example they said that Pikachu was translated as "The Devil's Pet" or Mewtwo as "The Demon who will rule all" etc etc. Even my parents thought that was insane.

They also hated Dragon Ball, Digimon, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Ranma 1/2... well 95% of 90's animes haha oh and Harry Potter too. These nuns were crazy!

 

[Z-Beat]

Yeah, my aunt wouldn't let me watch Pokemon at her house on the grounds that the intro contained satanic subliminal messages (House of 1000 Corpses was fine to watch though...go figure...), and I had a friend who was banned from all things Harry Potter due to witchcraft.

 

[Neece]

When I was in 5th grade, my mom went to the principle to complain when she found out my teacher had been reading Harry Potter to the class. She thought it was witchcraft satanic stuff. The teacher basically apologized to her, but said it wouldn't be fair to the other students to stop suddenly in the middle of the book.

So they made a compromise and had me leave the room to read another book during class time while they finished Harry Potter.

It was so embarrassing.

 

[sapien85]

Madonna had a music video with burning crosses in the background. That sent the panic into overdrive.

Man, Madonna really knew how to game people.

Click to shrink...

Yeah we were shown that video.

 

[Theswweet]

One of my dad's best friends, who's basically an uncle to me, is an ordained priest that plays D&D and Diablo. Needless to say, I've never had this issue myself.

 

[Fat4all]

i played magic the gathering in highschool during lunch with friends

teachers didnt care but other students threw stuff at us while we played

 

[HylianSeven]

I can only think of one time, when my parents (at least for a brief period of time) didn't want my sisters to watch Teletubbies. That crumbled real fast though because they were watching it not long after I remember them saying something like "They're the devil.". So I guess they deemed it okay.

 

[Akira86]

the evil satanic conspiracy just went to ground, that's all.

 

[ilikesanta]

As a kid I did have a fear of 80's Punk Gangs. According to every 80's movie, they were a real problem in every city.

 

[mattiewheels]

I had a teacher in Christian preschool that freaked out on me that my He-Man lunchbox was satanic, because it had a witch on it (Evil Lyn, I guess?) This was my introduction to hating fundamentalists.

 

[Necromanti]

There was a pretty sudden religious panic surrounding Pokémon, growing up, though it was also mixed in with a healthy dose of anti-semitism. There were people at my school who legitimately believed that the word "Pokémon" meant "I am a Jew" or something along those lines, and that the card game was filled with anti-Islamic sentiment and imagery. People also believed that the money made from Pokémon cards was funding Israeli rockets targeting Palestinians. (This was apparently back in 2001.)

It sucked because a lot of people were super into Pokémon and the TCG, and it kind of hit a lull for a while after that. There used to be an actual TCG League for kids to play against each other, and you filled up a little stamp card with each battle. With enough stamps, you get a "gym badge" in the form of a pin. After the hysteria, that all got canceled and never came back.

I thought that was in the past, but then I see news articles from 3 years ago with headlines like, "Saudi Arabia renews fatwa for Pokémon Go" (though apparently it might not be true).

 

[iclash]

I remember the Dungeons & Dragons scare along with rock music. You'd think growing up mormon I would've been sheltered from it, but I've been playing D&D since I was 9, my first rock albums were bought for me by my dad were Black Sabbath (the first album), Led Zeppelin 1, and Led Zeppelin II. Keep in mind my dad was the bishop (local congregation leader) at the time. So I guess I had cool parents?