Manipulating public opinion is a big business, especially in American politics. Look at how much the Trump family’s wealth has increased since he returned to the Presidency. Many are trying to copy from his playbook (hoping that his recent stumbles are transitory), and the chapter on moral panic is definitely one of the most popular.
Understanding how moral panic develops is important because we are fully in the grip of it right now, as the Republican party seeks to remain in power through the use of fear, hoping the voters can be persuaded to believe that our nation is in terrible trouble from “outsiders” and from anyone who looks different, or has a different lifestyle, or a different religion, than we do.
The concept of moral panic grew out of sociological analysis of government responses to the increase in marijuana smoking and use of other psychedelic drugs in the late 1960’s into the 1970’s. When a new and different group or behavior seems to represent a potential threat to society, government’s reaction often seems bigger than what the original event actually warranted, and public opinion is amplified by fear. Anyone who’s watched a comment thread mushroom on Facebook knows how rapidly hysteria can be provoked.
In the case of the psychedelic explosion of fifty-sixty years ago, a conservative society was shaken to the core by young people getting high. Abrupt and extreme attempts to control the frightening disruption resulted in lives ruined by repressive laws more than by the drugs themselves, which were quickly reclassified as highly dangerous and addictive without any scientific evidence.
In other words, one problem with moral panic, since it’s based on feelings rather than facts, is that laws can be passed and punishments enforced without any logic or evidence required (just ask the Salem witches). The modern version of this manufactured crisis can be seen in the Trump administration’s response to the issue of undocumented immigrants.
Eager to make a compelling generalization that bunched enough immigrants together to make an intimidating and threatening group, Trump campaigned on a promise to expel all the immigrants who were violent criminals. He was fond of accusing all the Latin American countries of “emptying their prisons and mental hospitals” so the inmates could invade the United States. Despite the blatant falseness of this claim, the idea amplified fear.
Even voters far from the southern border seemed to like the tough talk, so Trump began upping the ante to include immigrants of all types, even those with legal permission to be in the US. He had to paint them with a broad brush, too, so he began questioning their lifestyles and customs, even though most were living happily and peacefully in communities across the country. Do you want to live next door to strange people who will kill and eat your pets? Didn’t think so. Sadly, Congress and the legacy media failed to challenge the blatant manipulation.
Now, despite the fact that all categories of crime in our country are dominated by native- born criminals, surpassing any participation by immigrants, we nevertheless have a drastic, overreaching and reckless immigration policy, enacted by untrained goon squads of mercenaries and overseen by white nationalist administrators who don’t seem to mind what lives are left in tatters as they send innocent human beings “back” to countries they have never seen before. Anyone who supports this “policy” because they fear the increasing number of “foreign” people in our country is in the throes of a moral panic (“they’re going to take over!” or, more worrisome to Republicans, “they’re all going to vote Democrat!”). Of course, non-citizens can’t vote.
Or consider the fear campaign being used to attack the presence of transgender individuals in our communities, especially children who are seeking support within their families and schools to help them feel safe enough to express the gender that aligns with their sense of self.
Trump’s ignorance would be laughable if not so harmful to the families of these transgender children nationwide. He speaks as if gender transition will be forced on children if the government doesn’t crack down on the parents, teachers and medical professionals who want to plot this diabolical travesty. He implies that transgender girls are in fact potentially predatory boys who want to sneak into girls’ restrooms to commit assault, therefore they should be required to use the boys’ restroom instead.
Do you know how many recorded instances there are of transgender children assaulting, or even harassing, other children in their chosen restroom? That statistic should give you a sense of how widespread and urgent this dangerous situation is. Did you guess? It’s zero. And while we’re at it, how would you like to be a boy, dressed as a girl and feeling like a girl, who is forced to walk into the boys’ bathroom in order to use it? The only threat in that scenario is to the transgender girl.
Once again, however, ignorance and fear, undaunted by facts, transform a non-problem into a huge one that requires lawsuits and security guards and leads to nightmarish harassment of some of the least dangerous people in the world, who just want to be allowed to live their lives.
Our nation has plenty of challenges that will require all of our representatives to be thoughtful, reasonable, and calm. Fistfights on the Senate floor will not pull us out of the dark place we’re sliding into. Vote for fact-checkers and problem- solvers and become one yourself. We need to reclaim morality by dumping the panic.
Susan Hull is a retired psychologist, a horse trainer, and an Independent voter. She immediately fact-checks even the good news these days. Especially the good news.
.png)
