1) So I've been working on this story for the past few months.

I've long been fascinated by the Satanic Panic. The moral panic in the late '80s and '90s that convinced the world that a secret cabal of Satanists were kidnapping, raping, and murdering children in the name of Satan
I2) t wasn't just a fringe conspiracy theory, either. Law enforcement, social workers, psychiatrists, moral crusaders, they all bought into the Satanic Panic en masse.

How in the world could that have happened?
3) A few months ago I was approached by @TristinHopper at @TheCapitalVic to write a piece on it because -- and this fact has largely been forgotten -- one of the seminal books that kicked off the Satanic Panic was actually based in Victoria B.C.
4) It's impossible to just write a story about the Satanic Panic, however. The more you look into the mechanics of the thing, the more difficult it is to look away. A 2,000 word story rapidly morphed into a 9,000 word story.
5) And that's because, as far as I can tell, The Satanic Panic never really ended. It just evolved to reflect the pathologies of its particular moment.

At this moment, the modern iteration of the Satanic Panic is QAnon.
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