The Satanic Panic conspiracy began roughly around the early 1980s and would technically be a “thing” for the United States until the 2000s. Sadly, it came back a bit recently thanks to the pot-stirrers from QAnon. It technically began with around 12,000 cases of unproven Satanic Ritual Abuse cases. The panic really began through the Michelle Remembers book written by a Canadian psychiatrist named Lawrence Pazder. It was co-written by his future wife (then patient), Michelle Smith. They used the since-discredited concept of “recovered-memory therapy.” In these sessions, Smith made several crazy claims about massive satanic ritual abuse.
[Image via Marvel Comics]This concept of “the devil made me do it” attitude led to several instances of physical and sexual abuse cases. Claims were made that the occult or Satanic rituals were to blame for this, and not the person involved. In a bigger form, it was said a Global Satanic Cult that included many of the rich and elite members of society was involved in terrible concepts. Such as abducting children to be used for human sacrifices, prostitution, and much worse. In reality, this never existed and led to several people using this as a scapegoat for why friends or family did bad things. Yes, Sharon, Satan is responsible for your son taking drugs and abusing his wife… he’s totally innocent.