Satan Wants You! Michelle Remembers book 1980

[MGibster]

I used to work at a museum housed in a building that was more than 150 years old. Europeans can stop laughing, that's really old for the United States. Anyway, we used to allow ghost hunting clubs to hang out at the museum at night. I don't believe in ghosts, but the hunters were always respectful of the building and they provided us with a nice donation so I didn't mind hanging out with them.

At one event, they had a guest speaker who mentioned he was a retired police officer and followed that up with, "And in the 1980s, when we were having all of those occult related crimes..." which instantly got my attention. No, there wasn't a spate of occult related crimes in the 1980s. Or at the very least there's no good evidence there was a wave of occult crimes back then as police departments didn't typically report such things to anyone. I kept my mouth shut because I was an observer not a participant, but I wish he had gone into more detail about these supposed occult crimes. Because all the evidence I've seen is that these occult crimes were in the minds of some scared people.

We tend to laugh at the Satanic Panic today, but there are still a few people who take it seriously. We also tend to be dismissive because the name is rather silly and the idea of anyone worried about magic, witchcraft, or heavy metal seems quaint, But as Michelle Remembers demonstrates, the panic tapped into parental anxieties regarding the wellbeing of their children. You see those same anxiety reflected in the fears of those who use words like groomers these days.

 

[Ryujin]

I used to work at a museum housed in a building that was more than 150 years old. Europeans can stop laughing, that's really old for the United States. Anyway, we used to allow ghost hunting clubs to hang out at the museum at night. I don't believe in ghosts, but the hunters were always respectful of the building and they provided us with a nice donation so I didn't mind hanging out with them.

At one event, they had a guest speaker who mentioned he was a retired police officer and followed that up with, "And in the 1980s, when we were having all of those occult related crimes..." which instantly got my attention. No, there wasn't a spate of occult related crimes in the 1980s. Or at the very least there's no good evidence there was a wave of occult crimes back then as police departments didn't typically report such things to anyone. I kept my mouth shut because I was an observer not a participant, but I wish he had gone into more detail about these supposed occult crimes. Because all the evidence I've seen is that these occult crimes were in the minds of some scared people.

We tend to laugh at the Satanic Panic today, but there are still a few people who take it seriously. We also tend to be dismissive because the name is rather silly and the idea of anyone worried about magic, witchcraft, or heavy metal seems quaint, But as Michelle Remembers demonstrates, the panic tapped into parental anxieties regarding the wellbeing of their children. You see those same anxiety reflected in the fears of those who use words like groomers these days.

Everything in the '70s and '80s was a "Satanic ritual crime" in the same way that archaeologists look at a structure and immediately declare it to be of "religious significance."

 

[Lanefan]

Michelle Remembers is garbage, but didn't hurt Victoria's (at the time) already-growing reputation as a Pagan hotspot; by the late 1990s you couldn't swing a cat here without hitting a Pagan or two. Good times.

 

[The Soloist]

What happened to Michelle Smith in later life? I can't find anything on her.

 

[Nikosandros]

What happened to Michelle Smith in later life? I can't find anything on her.

Maybe she repented and turned form her good ways and she later moved to Baator or somewhere nearby.

 

[MNblockhead]

As I remember it, folks eventually just moved on to the next moral panic. I'll always appreciate gangster rap for taking attention away from heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons. Some of this may also be because the victims of the prior moral panics grow up and into positions of authority and influence. Unfortunately, our younger experiences don't make us immune to moral panics over the newer generations.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I watched Satan Wants You! over the weekend. It's a great documentary, revealing a lot of history I didn't know, ultimately framing Michelle as the villain, not the victim (though whether Larry Pazder was a co-villain or another victim, remains undecided).

What was also new to me, was the role of insurance companies pushing back on psychiatrists' billing for recovered memory therapy sessions in ending the Satanic Panic.

 

[The Soloist]

I watched Satan Wants You! over the weekend. It's a great documentary, revealing a lot of history I didn't know, ultimately framing Michelle as the villain, not the victim (though whether Larry Pazder was a co-villain or another victim, remains undecided).

What was also new to me, was the role of insurance companies pushing back on psychiatrists' billing for recovered memory therapy sessions in ending the Satanic Panic.

Interesting. Do they know what happened to her later in life?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

As I remember it, folks eventually just moved on to the next moral panic. I'll always appreciate gangster rap for taking attention away from heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons.

So true. As I always like to say, "NWA is D&D's best friend."

 

[MGibster]

What was also new to me, was the role of insurance companies pushing back on psychiatrists' billing for recovered memory therapy sessions in ending the Satanic Panic.

Given the poor coverage for mental health issues in the United States, I'm a little surprised the insurance companies would have played a significant role. Did it have anything to do with malpractice claims against those mental health professionals for the damage their pseudo-science did to the lives of their patience? I know people started suing their mental health professionals for their recovered memory work, but that didn't really happen until Satan Panic had ridden it's course.