In current year, 2024, politics is just a wee bit divisive. On the left, or at least what passes for it here in the USA, if you don't embrace LGBTQIA+ identities, respect pronouns without question, and advocate for at-will abortion, you basically want A Handmaid's Tale to become reality. On the right, if you don't want to ban any library book some Karen insists is obscene, you're basically a groomer pedophile, and if you question border walls, it can only be because you want Mexican cartels to bring a tsunami of crime into America while the welfare state bleeds us all dry.
Why are we battling inflation? It can only be corporate greed or those damn Mexicans and maybe those sneaky Chinese.
Should the US intervene in foreign conflicts? Both say yes, enthusiastically. The left ignores its suspicion of corporate interests when it comes to the military/industrial complex, and the right ignores its proclamations of fiscal responsibility and respect for life.
Do we need to regulate more and more aspects of everyone's lives, liberty, property, and voluntary exchanges? They disagree about the details, but agree we're still just three new laws from Utopia. And if you disagree, you should be locked in a cage.
They also agree that dissent from a given policy is equal to support for evil. The sense of moral outrage over injustice or potential violations of others is just as good as evidence and reason, your counterarguments and reason be damned! Being angry means there's a real problem, because if there isn't a real problem, they wouldn't be angry! Go to hell, groomer/fascist/racist/criminal!
This is a cycle that repeats, not a new phenomenon. I think we're seeing a new version of the cycle from the 1980s and early 1990s known as the Satanic Panic. I wasn't very old, but I do remember there were underlying concerns about kidnappings and satanism. The Jacob Wetterling kidnapping and murder was only a county away from where I spent my early childhood, and I definitely remember that being a local concern.
Later on into the 90s, I also became aware of the AIDS epidemic and the fears about how it was transmitted. We look back now and it seems obvious the fears were overblown, but I would learn long afterward that a certain Anthony Fauci who would never again matter in public discourse was deeply involved in that debacle all along with all sorts of rumors, innuendoes, and accusations trailing in his wake. In any case, there was much uproar and hullabaloo every time any flamboyant celebrity was outed, or a TV character came out of the closet. One side said this was evil, another said it was progress. While heated, there didn't seem to be the same vitriol we have now. It's also odd to see how people who were at the cutting edge of progressivism then would be seen as hopelessly outmoded if not downright repressive and closed-minded.
I don't think that played a big role in my parents' decisions but I definitely remember there were strict rules about what TV programs, movies, and music we were allowed to consume. Most of it was common-sense stuff a lot of parents consider. No violence beyond Looney Tunes cartoon antics, overt sensuality, or the like. The gay agenda was to be sidestepped, but be nice to the cousin who came out of the closet.
Dungeons and Dragons was highly suspect. Long story with tangents to follow.
I didn't hear it when it first broadcast, but when we later got into listening to the generally-solid Christian radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, there were some pretty obvious missteps, too. Focus on the Family is a very hit-and-miss organization, with some aspects I can still respect, and a huge Christian nationalism bent which raises a lot of red flags. According to the old family copy of The Complete Guide to Adventures in Odyssey, at least complete up to its publication in 1997, Episodes #122 & 123 first broadcast in August of 1990 were a dramatization of the evils of role-playing games. Check out Castles and Cauldrons on the Internet Archive. James Dobson himself warns how evil these games are.
They are fantasy games that require the players to become characters who use swords and bows and arrows and other weapons to battle their enemies. Now on the one hand, these game seem harmless enough. There's certainly nothing wrong with using your imagination, and if that's all these games involved, maybe I wouldn't be so concerned. But that fact is that in order to play these games properly, you usually have to use magic and mysticism, things that are clearly not Christian. And what's worse, some kids who used to be caught up in these games now say that their involvement let them into be in contact with demons, and even Satan worship.
Hogwash. Utter and complete nonsense. It's cringe, as the kids might say these days. The episode goes on to depict some bizarre amalgamation of Live-Action Role-Playing, tabletop role-playing, and literal demonic rituals as if merely playing a game opens an otherworldly portal to malign influence on the spiritual lives of the entire town. 34 years later, I doubt many would take such claims seriously, but the same outrage and fearmongering festers in new areas of life today.
The Democrats say we need to vote for them because they bring joy. We didn't have cable in our blue-collar lower-middle-class household, so that linked tune is not a core memory for me, but a lot of Millennials out there are getting a dose of nostalgia and/or PTSD. You're welcome either way. The Republicans keep talking about how they want to Make America Great Again, but don't seem to offer a really coherent idea of what greatness is, how it was lost, or how it can be achieved. But Trump can make it happen this time for sure! Either way, if you are outraged by all the things, you owe them a vote and need to fear the other side.
In a few decades, I hope y'all are ready to see how stupid this charade is, and how absurd these claims are. Let me know when you're done playing stupid games, because I'm sick of getting stuck with the consequences.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
― C.S. Lewis
