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Monday Mini: Conservative Conspiracies and Children · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steph.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you protection of I Heart Radio. Uh
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: So for this one content warning right off the top.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: You probably got it from the description, but we are
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: going to be talking about pedophilia and why conservatives are
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so fixated on it. Nothing to in depth, but definitely
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: skip this one if that's something that might trigger you. Um.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We've mentioned this recently in a in a couple of episodes,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and I think it could be expounded into bigger things.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: And we've also talked about it in like in our
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Key one on episode we did also the episode we
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: did with Bridget around sex trafficking. So you can see
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: those for for more context to this conversation because it
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: is really interesting and this will probably be pretty brief. Okay,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: So this is something I've wanted to talk about for
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  Speaker 1: a while because we have heard conservatives bring up pedophilia
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  Speaker 1: and often wild conspiracies around it for quite some time now, um,
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  Speaker 1: including recently in the passing of they Don't Say Gay Bill,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and of course with Q and on and so when
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I was researching for our recent episode, we did on
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: sort of an updates of what's going on in the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: lgbt Q plus community and all these kind of anti
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: trans laws and anti LGBTQ plus laws. UM. I found
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: this article called why are right wing conspiracy is so
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: obsessed with pedophilia? By Ali breland over on mother Jones,
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  Speaker 1: and it does a great job of breaking down the
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  Speaker 1: history of this whole thing and why it wasn't is
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a thing. So definitely go check that out for more information.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: For this mini though, we just wanted to hit a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: few key points about it from this article. Uh So,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it opens with some context describing the McMartin preschool scandal
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of the nineteen eighties, in which hundreds and perhaps thousands
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: of Americans believed that the school had an underground cult
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: that sexually assaulted children, drink their blood, use them in
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  Speaker 1: Satanic rituals, and even sacrifice them based on the claims
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  Speaker 1: of one woman, despite the fact that there was zero
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  Speaker 1: proof of any of this. And yeah, this is a
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  Speaker 1: a pretty clear precursor to Pizza Gate, which, just as
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: a reminder, was the belief that elite liberals were running
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: an underground pedophile ring under a d C. Based pizza shop. Um.
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  Speaker 1: The fact that it originated during the presidential campaign is
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  Speaker 1: not a coincidence. Um, eventually this whole thing led to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: cute and on very similar conspiracy. The McMartin scandal also
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: means that while social media does play a huge role
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  Speaker 1: in the current uh similar conspiracy theories that we are saying,
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  Speaker 1: it's not the only reason they're happening. They were because
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that's been kind of theories. Social media is allowing for
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: this to grow, but it's actually not new, right uh.
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  Speaker 1: And Yeah, as we mentioned in past episodes, hurting children
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is a very easy way to demonize an enemy, and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you can actually see this again with this whole pro
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: life conversation, because yeah, saying killing babies it's all you
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  Speaker 1: need to hear to know, Oh, they're this person is
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the bad guy or bad person and they have used
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: it four years And harming and innocent is one of
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the worst things that you can do. And it's easily
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  Speaker 1: agreeable that babies in children, hurting them is bad and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: someone who can do that can be seen as bad. Um.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: So that's part of it. But there's something else going
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  Speaker 1: on here, and it has to do with the anti
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: feminist backlash. Includes a quote from Richard Beck, author of
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: We Believe the Children a Moral Panic in the nineteen eighties.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: In the eighties, who had a strong, vicious anti feminist
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  Speaker 1: backlash that helped conspiracies take hold. In the seventies, middle
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  Speaker 1: and upper class women has started to enter the full
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: time workforce instead of being homemakers. You had this Reagan
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  Speaker 1: driven conservative resurgence, and daycare was seen as at least suspicious,
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  Speaker 1: if not actively maligned, force of feminism. Uh. And this
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  Speaker 1: meant that things like daycares as something many women needed
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  Speaker 1: to enter the workforce, became key players in these conspiracy
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  Speaker 1: theories since these options for women threatened the traditional and
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  Speaker 1: heavy crowds conservative family model, the understanding that women were
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  Speaker 1: not on the same playing field as men and needed
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  Speaker 1: to stay at the home taking care of their families.
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  Speaker 1: That meant that these daycare schools, what have you had
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  Speaker 1: to be demonized women You won't stay at home while
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  Speaker 1: you're putting your child in danger. And just a note
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  Speaker 1: on that, Like, I really think we could do a
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  Speaker 1: whole episode on this, because there are this is a
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  Speaker 1: key and kind of messy thing to talk about in
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  Speaker 1: a lot of ways, But I just wanted to hit
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  Speaker 1: these key points for sure, because I found them interesting
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  Speaker 1: and that this idea is actually quite old, like going
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  Speaker 1: back to b CE times and things like which hunts
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  Speaker 1: of the seventeen centuries, but in a more modern ideology,
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  Speaker 1: we even had politicians claiming that daycares were a Communist
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  Speaker 1: plot to destroy the traditional American family. President Nixon a
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  Speaker 1: veto to bill that would have established a national daycare
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  Speaker 1: system with this very same language. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: a divorce rates were rising and people were looking for
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  Speaker 1: a scapegoat. On top of that, there was the sexual
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  Speaker 1: revolution and it's backlash, review aid and it's backlash, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: an anti cult movement all coming together to make this
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  Speaker 1: perfect storm. Um. Social anxiety in a way to blame
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  Speaker 1: others to validate your own personal fears have been cited
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  Speaker 1: as reasons here too, um. And there have been multiple
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  Speaker 1: instances of gay folks being wronk rely convicted of child molestation. Right.
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  Speaker 1: I think wasn't this the time and era when the
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  Speaker 1: whole um subliminal or loss of memory of abuse was
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  Speaker 1: happening and this quote unquote therapists were hypnotizing giving suggestions
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  Speaker 1: of who they were being abused by. This is the
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  Speaker 1: same time, right, and linked to that exactly, Uh, And
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: they talked about that in the article too. Um, And
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: that's one of the ways it gets messy, and I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: think that deserves bigger than a Monday Mini. But yes,
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  Speaker 1: it is definitely part of it. Also at the same time,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and this was jogged my memory was jogged by the
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  Speaker 1: recent new season of Stranger Things, of the satanic panic
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: around D and d um. So it was it was
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: a whole thing, uh, and it for us, I mean
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: for me. I won't say for us, but for me,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: like if somebody plays D and D I kind of
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  Speaker 1: laugh about it now, but it was like serious, right,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's that big conversation that we've had and
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  Speaker 1: continue to have that brings on this whole level of
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  Speaker 1: fear and why we again we've talked about it before
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  Speaker 1: about how misleading it is to have these big sensationalized
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  Speaker 1: headlines of like this is abuse and this is what happens,
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  Speaker 1: and obviously this is the only circumstances. It involves the
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  Speaker 1: devil and children, which, by the way, just a side note,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: what did you think of Stranger Things this season? I
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: haven't watched all of it's gonna give me. Don't give
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: me a spoiler immediately, I mean, I I liked it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: It's it is odd, isn't it, seeing that the age
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: difference and how much safe grown. And I didn't go
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: back and watch the third one, like I pretty much
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: remember how it ended, So that was kind of like
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: what definitely some interesting things to talk about with trauma
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps repressed memories. Actually, I do love the whole
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: dn D thing. It does one of the things that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: makes me most uncomfortable. It is like bullying situations, right,
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  Speaker 1: so that that's I'm really uncomfortable by that. I do
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: love Um, Sadie Sink and I love Running Up That
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Hill is like one of my top ten favorite songs.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: So I love that it's in like the top on
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the charts, right everybody's talking about I know. I'm like, yes,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: welcome back to the eighties everyone. It is very interesting.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Was eighties, not surprisingly, was a big time for the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Stranger Danger conversation as well as dare just saying no,
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of conspiracy timing in that of course
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: didn't help where we are today with Russia and Russia
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  Speaker 1: there's so many or uss are all those things, y'all,
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  Speaker 1: all of those things. Um. But anyway, going back to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: what we were really talking about, which is a little
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: bit of the conspiracy theory of all these things. Here's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: another quote from Brayland. Quote. If women's entry into the
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  Speaker 1: workplace in the latter half of the twentieth century triggered
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: deep anxieties about the decay of traditional gender roles in
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  Speaker 1: the family unit. In the twenty first century, it was
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: same sex marriage, growing acceptance of transgender rights, and the
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  Speaker 1: seeming cultural hegemony of sexual justice agenda. Now think of
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: popular arguments for the bathroom bills against transgender folks that
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: men will enter bathrooms and molesque girls yes, which is
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  Speaker 1: the biggest bs we know of. Yep. And I think
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  Speaker 1: there's also a deep fear around um sexual identities and
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  Speaker 1: agency of women, girls, non binary folks that's happening as well.
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  Speaker 1: Just it's not surprising that we're talking about all of
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  Speaker 1: this during a time we're also talking about women's rights.
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  Speaker 1: Does go hand in hand, and you know what, for
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  Speaker 1: better or for worse, it kind comes to a complete crash,
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  Speaker 1: and at least we're seeing it for what it is
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  Speaker 1: as Yes, this is all intersectional. They are all linked,
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  Speaker 1: and it should be noted that we can't have one
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  Speaker 1: without the other, and with one falling, the rest will fall.
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  Speaker 1: As well. Yeah. Yeah, and we've I feel like we've
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  Speaker 1: mentioned several several times in a variety of episodes where
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  Speaker 1: we've touched on this, um. But there is a lot
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  Speaker 1: of sexualization of children going on from conservatives when they
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: make these kinds of arguments that I find very disturbing
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  Speaker 1: and upsetting personally. Right. Yeah, And part of why these
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  Speaker 1: theories have taken hold with so many people too, is
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  Speaker 1: because of the systemic abuse committed and covered up by
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  Speaker 1: like Catholic Church or someone like Jeffrey Epstein for instance.
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  Speaker 1: So those are That's one of the reasons why I
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: keep saying this is sut a nuanced conversation because of see,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: we don't want to we need to talk about that,
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  Speaker 1: and it's horrible, but it's being used two back up
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  Speaker 1: these conspiracy theories that have no proof. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: as a conspiracist to a tiny bit, I think it's
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  Speaker 1: also a distraction because of these conversations, UM that we're
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  Speaker 1: not actually going after the true offenders, We're going after
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  Speaker 1: the imaginary scary offenders because those who are going to
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  Speaker 1: be prosecuted or could be prosecuted want to divert it away.
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  Speaker 1: Because are we talking about the priests, the teachers, the
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  Speaker 1: hetero assists, men and women who have been a part
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  Speaker 1: of this conversation for the longest, those in power who
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  Speaker 1: have used this to abuse people. No, we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: marginalized communities who barely have rights to begin with, right,
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  Speaker 1: um And it's definitely we talked about this in the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: um sex trafficking episode we did with bridget Is. It's
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  Speaker 1: weaponizing people who actually do need help and then making
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  Speaker 1: the issue worse and making it misunderstood and all this
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  Speaker 1: disinformation misinformation around it that is hurting actual people who
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  Speaker 1: need help. Again, as someone who worked in this field,
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  Speaker 1: as someone who has seen this field, this is bad
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  Speaker 1: and we are not helping anyone. And so here's one
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  Speaker 1: last quote from the article. In this way, pedophile conspiracies
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  Speaker 1: act as a sort of propaganda of the counter revolution,
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  Speaker 1: a fun house reflection of the real threats to the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: social order. This is what connects Q and on and
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  Speaker 1: Pizza Gate to McMartin, to the witch hunts at the
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  Speaker 1: Middle Ages, to the dawn of major religions. The demons
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  Speaker 1: may take different forms, but the conspiracy is basically the same.
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  Speaker 1: Our house is under attack. So I just said that
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  Speaker 1: was really well awarded because we talked about like identity politics,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of conservatives are using where maybe either just
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  Speaker 1: like trying to like rile people up and make them angry,
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  Speaker 1: or make them afraid for their children, or make them
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  Speaker 1: afraid for their traditional household is under attack, um, their
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: values are under attack. And a lot of times, well
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say that that's not necessarily true,
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  Speaker 1: but a lot of times they use it as maybe
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  Speaker 1: maybe they're not even pursuing a law, or maybe they're
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  Speaker 1: not even doing it, they're just saying it. They're just
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  Speaker 1: saying it to make a point. When it comes down
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  Speaker 1: to it, what they're saying is our supremacy because under attack, UM,
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  Speaker 1: that means there are loss of power, which perhaps should
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: not have been so heavy weighted on those supremacists. But
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I find that also interesting because this quote could very
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: much be related to just as Aldo's for his reasoning
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: for his justification for overturning Roe versus Weight and the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: people he used as historical contexts who very much were
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a part of witch hunts. Literally, No, that's a great point.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's that's why when I was reading this, because
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: it's a it's not that old of an article, but
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: it says you know, a couple of years I think,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and I was reading it and I was like, oh
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: my gosh, so now we're seeing this thing with Roe
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: v waight, like we're seeing this again, like it's it's happening.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: And again, while we say intersectionality is important because there's
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: everything we're talking about as especially when it comes to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: current events in the US, it all ties in. And
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: that's why we have to be very wary of this
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: conversation and then trying to isolate as if it's an
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: individual thing. I'm sorry, Tour, this is gonna hurt you too. Yeah,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely, So, yeah, I do want to come back,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and I mean I don't want to, but I do
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: think we should kind of like break this apart more
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: and talk about it more because there is a lot
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: of it's a lot going on, a lot of nuance.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: But I just I read it immediately and I'm like, oh,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: we gotta talk about this because we've been kind of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: asking this question for a while. We had some theories
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of our own, and I just thought this article was
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: really very concise and it kind of a lot of
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: like light bulb moments for me. So I recommend looking
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: it up and yeah. In the meantime, if you would
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: like to contact us that you can our emails, Stuffie
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: your Mom, stuff and I Hurt me dot com. You
• 15:12
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• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Instagram and stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks. It's always
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina. Thank you, and thanks to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: you for listening. Stuffener told you Reflection, I Heart radio
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