John Brisson -- First off, I enjoy your work, both for nutrition and for your take on those pulling the US foreign policy strings.
"McGowan was an atheist." Yes, but as I stated in a previous post, "welcome to America." In other words, you can be an atheist all day long, but if you and your ancestors are steeped in American culture, you are by default a Christian in many ways without knowing it. It still permeates and makes up much of your worldview whether you wish it to or not. I'm sure there are exceptions, and McGowan may be one such person. I don't know but based on interviews I have heard I assumed he was Christian. And the point in bringing up Christianity is not to belittle it but to simply say that many people within that faith, or without it but with that worldview, may be interpreting the facts and circumstantial evidence much differently than let's say I would. Other monotheistic faiths may have a similar issue. I don't know but suspect this may be true. But this is America and Christianity is the dominant worldview and theistic religion of this country (though civic religions like Progress and American Exceptionalism give it a run for its money).
And yes many cultures have sacrificed individuals in their worship. That is true. But often times this was done when a culture was struck with high levels of anxiety and at least subconsciously knew that they were "on their way down" towards some sort of collapse. Now, there are exceptions, of course, but those that used sacrifice in high numbers were usually those that were not going to last much longer. Once again, this ties into the economic and lifestyle insecurity of the times. And sometimes abuse can become cultural. I agree. But I see this far less in today's day and age. I don't wish to get into the weeds of older civilizations and cultures right now and admit to knowing less about this than you do.
IBut I have looked at many of the high profile cases you mention of modern day times. I HIGHLY disagree with the West Memphis case. To me, that case was straight up Satanic Panic. I have looked at all of the evidence, even the stuff that was supposedly kept from the public by the defense. To me, that is the watershed case. If you believe that case, you will believe any case. That has been my opinion for quite some time. I have researched it in many different headspaces (including once when I was all in on Franklin) and always come to the conclusion it utter bullshit and was mostly likely the father/stepfather that left town). FYI - A very close friend of mine tried to get Damien Echols on Higherside but I think Greg knows it would piss off half of his listenership.
I also disagree with Franklin as well. I think the books/investigations that were written linking it to a ritualized conspiracy of abuse are really awful when you break down the facts. I have troubles finding credulity in most of the witnesses involving the ritualized aspects. I was once a believer but not so much anymore. Did abuse take place at Boystown? It's Catholic, right? Was it covered up on numerous occasions? Yeah. I think there was perhaps enough of a scandal where it is possible that boys were taken from the place and raped. But the ritualized aspect, I don't see.
I'm also not sold on McMartin, despite the supposed "tunnel" that was found later allegedly substantiating some of the kids' claims. Pizzagate has no proof at all and it depends on some half-assed research about Podesta himself. Could he be a pedophile? Maybe. I don't know if those emails indicate as much. They might. He did cohort with some questionable people but so do all the major political and financial players in this country.
The best case is Finders. The residue of cult and MKUltra is all over this one, but of course the investigation was shut down for national security reasons. But this may have simply been some brainwashed MKUltra Cult (or just a crazy cult) that was weaponized for intelligence purposes, perhaps for exploring the psyche, etc. But that case does not mean the phenomenon was in every community in America. It simply means the US gov't was doing fucked up shady shit that we all know they do.
But here is the point. The satanic panic in the 80s and 90s was mostly about pre-schools and computer classes and church groups and places where kids congregated. It was about normal America. Satan is everywhere -- even your own block. Since that time, there has been a liberalization of culture in this country (gay rights and marriage, hate crime laws, hiring practice laws, sexual harassment laws, transgender laws and bathrooms etc.). A lot of people equate this (and abortion) to the moral degeneracy of the Left or sometimes "establishment" politics. So the big shift with satanic panic has gone from places where kids congregate to highly elaborate ratlines that service mostly the Democratic Party and their degeneracy. Sometimes people will say they don't believe in the Right/Left paradigm but then you see who they accuse and it is almost always high-level Democrats and Hollywood, the biggest symbol of the Left. (And they always say that all kinds of arrest warrants are just waiting for the president's word).
I have my own unprovable conspiracy theory. I think mostly it is an intentional psyops by right-wing operatives to win over malleable (angry, but disarmed) voters into the Republican fold. Q is part of this narrative.
Now, are there exceptions to all I have stated above? Yes. Do I understate things? Probably, Yes. But too often we connect dots that really are not there. We take one case, or a even a few with circumstantial evidence and make broad statements. We take strange cases that don't really add up and say "see, see, I told you that the elite are all a bunch of pedophiles. I told you that St. Joseph, Minnesota has a pedophile cult."
Remember, this whole conversation is because of an interview that Alex had of a lady who investigated the Wetterling case, and since then, now believes that there is ONE giant pedophile cult that performs ritual magic and believes that Satan/Lucifer worshipper have so much power that they can stop any investigation in this country. When people head down this massive pedophile cult rabbit hole, they ALL end up where Sarah Westall stands. And they all end up Hailing Q and his poison BBQ (or if not Q, at least some kind of quasi human race that rules humanity). It can be the only logical conclusion with this worldview. So, I will remain skeptical because of people like her. And in all honesty, people like her can become extremely dangerous if they rile up a community or provide unsubstantiated claims or evidence to the mix.
But mostly I am pissed at Alex because he let someone get away with claiming that the abuse was about blackmail, but then later said that the abuse is really just about Luciferian worship. Now, I suppose both can be true, but the root cause is Luciferianism according to her. I wish Alex would get a little more Skeptiko on this issue. P.S. I had never heard of Hoaxstead before and had to look it up.