Moms For Liberty Event at Museum of American Revolution is a Betrayal of Historians and Democracy

by Jen Manion

"The Museum of the American Revolution has a responsibility to defend the history and practice of American democracy, not harbor those who seek to destroy it."

The Other Mothers Fighting the School Wars

Although Moms For Liberty was the early entrant into the current battles over curriculum, race and LGBTQ policies in schools, other groups have mobilized their identities as mothers to fight the right's efforts. Historians Adam Laats and Stacie Taranto note that school politics have often hinged on who could leverage motherhood as a political force. 

On "Cancel Culture"

by Thomas Zimmer

The alleged "cancellation" of Scott Adams shows that many pundits decrying "cancel culture" from the center are actually more interested in holding the power to declare ideas out of bounds than in letting the marketplace of ideas sort them out. 

Is Moms For Liberty Out to Protect Kids or Scare Parents?

Williamson County in suburban Nashville shows how the astroturf Mom's group erupted on the scene to challenge a popular and well-regarded social studies curriculum for elementary schools on the grounds that its civil rights lessons were "divisive." 

The Tortured Confession of a "Werewolf" Horrified 1500s Europe

In centuries where Europe was plagued by war, famine and plague, the supernatural became luridly appealing. Unlike more common trials for witchcraft, werewolf prosecutions remain more of a historical mystery. 

Book Bans Today Recall 1950s Panic over Comic Books

by Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

Child psychologist Fredric Wortham had fough Jim Crow by theorizing the damage caused to Black children by segregation. He had a less likely role in supporting the idea that lurid plots in comic books would create a generation of emotionally damaged adults. 

"Rainbow Fentanyl" Just the Latest Halloween Moral Panic

by Joel Best

From razor blades to opioids, the author has researched every Halloween panic since the 1950s and found no evidence of any child being harmed by any of them. Today, politicians are feeding equally ludicrous narratives to keep people scared. 

VA Governor Youngkin Faces Second Lawsuit over Tattle-On-A-Teacher Line

A suit filed by American Oversight seeks information from the governor's office about how it has used information from a tip line set up to allow Virginians to report teachers who raised "divisive" concepts in their classes. 

Satanic Panic Has Featured in American Politics Since the Revolution

by Zara Anishanslin

Revolutionary patriots used the symbol of the Devil to convey the ideas of corruption and tyranny, and to elevate political disagreements to the plane of good and evil. 

Letting States Legislate Morality Will End Badly (Again)

by Nancy C. Unger

The shameful history of Mann Act prosecutions shows what happens when panics over sexual morality are hastily written into criminal laws. 

Conservatives Attacking Pornography Carry on History of Politicized Moral Panics

by Kelsy Burke

Calls by J.D. Vance and other conservative politicians for bans on pornography echo the tactics and the failures of America's first anti-obscenity crusader, Anthony Comstock. 

Using "The Children" as an Excuse for Anti-LGBTQ Laws is Nothing New for Florida

by Julio Capó Jr. and Shevrin Jones

The 1950s Johns Committee was formed by the state legislature to root out communist subversion in Florida. Not finding any red influence in the NAACP, they turned to scapegoating LGBTQ Floridians. 

Hawley's Attacks on KBJ Part of Long History of Politicizing Child Abuse Panics

Historian Paul Renfro explains the rising fears of child abduction in the 1980s and the way those fears have been used politically. 

Caught on Tape: North Texas School Superintendent Orders Removal of Transgender, LGBTQ Themed Books

"[Superintendent Jeremy Glenn] noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, 'You better hide it'."

Lessons From the Struggle Against the Old McCarthyism

by Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin

For a Texas professor, the Lieutenant Governor's push to abolish tenure and punish faculty for teaching certain ideas calls to mind the experiences of his grandparents in the heyday of McCarthy and HUAC. 

QAnon and the Satanic Panics of Yesteryear

by Daniel N. Gullotta

"The perception of a Christian nation in religious freefall fits almost seamlessly with QAnon’s conviction that the United States is under spiritual assault."

Qanon Misdirects Our Attention Away From The Real Threats To Children

by Paul M. Renfro

"Moral panics like QAnon work to distract from less outrageous, far more insidious sources of harm. Even worse, they contribute to punitive policies that separate and hurt families, perpetuate mass incarceration and keep people in a state of fear."

EC Comics, Vilified in the 1950s, Thrive 60 Years Later

EC’s glory (and gory) years were 1950-1955.