QAnon Has at Least Once Critical Difference From the Satanic Panic
This is about self-identity, not religious belief
I think of QAnon as an umbrella, a lifestyle more than a strict set of beliefs. As with the over-broad term “Christianity,” multiple QAnon followers have multiple interpretations about the hows and whys of specific conspiracies. It was one of the things I first noticed researching my book Sherry Shriner’s online cult.
NPR recently ran a story presenting similarities between the current madness and the Satanic Panic from the previous century. The story suggests a lineage of mass-hysteria and makes something of a case for QAnon being the latest in that line, a mass-hysteria that will fade.
God, I hope they’re right, but I have some concerns.
Origin Stories
The story dates QAnon at around 2017, which is fair I guess, but Sherry Shriner and a ton of people like her have been singing this song since the turn of the century.
