What are some good documentaries?

[guest]

I don't pretend to be an expert on this topic, but it always seemed that there was a concerted effort to discredit the scandal.

Yes, undoubtedly. The kids who came forward got railroaded and charged with perjury after some of the other victims were threatened by the feds and changed their story. Nick Bryant was able to corroborate their accusations due to his investigation into the Franklin scandal as well as another investigation he did into a Washington D.C. male prostitution ring run by a man named Henry Vinson (as detailed in his book Confessions of a DC Madame). There were also accusations of satanic ritual abuse by other victims, which gets this thrown into the convenient "satanic panic" category used by know-it-alls as a way to dismiss things that sound outrageous without actually looking into them. His book The Franklin Scandal is very even-handed and does not come across as sensational because while he mentions some of these details, he focuses on what he can prove. I highly recommend the book, although if someone wants a shorter rundown, he was on this comedy podcast talking about it.

[MEDIA=youtube]4Nrb3t9U0EU[/MEDIA]

 

[Lil' Conner Peterson]

@SpudsBuckley
I'll be the first to admit that in the past I rolled my eyes at anything related to Satanic Ritual Abuse. In large part, due to the fact that I believe the public was essentially "inoculated" during The Great Satanic Panic (from the mid 70s-1994). Much of the reporting of Satanic Abuse, was largely put out by fundies working a grift (heavy metal and rpgs were blamed).

That being said, there is a lot of eyes wide shut sort of things going down from our elite. However, due to the Religious Right pushing these exaggerated stories back during the Satanic Panic, the public dismisses these stories like the Franklin Scandal as a mere "Conspiracy Theory".

 

[guest]

@SpudsBuckley
I'll be the first to admit that in the past I rolled my eyes at anything related to Satanic Ritual Abuse. In large part, due to the fact that I believe the public was essentially "inoculated" during The Great Satanic Panic (from the mid 70s-1994). Much of the reporting of Satanic Abuse, was largely put out by fundies working a grift (heavy metal and rpgs were blamed).

That being said, there is a lot of eyes wide shut sort of things going down from our elite. However, due to the Religious Right pushing these exaggerated stories back during the Satanic Panic, the public dismisses these stories like the Franklin Scandal as a mere "Conspiracy Theory".

I see where you're coming from, although I respectfully disagree about fundamentalists being the main force pushing the Satanic Panic narrative. The main force was the media (who invented the term that people seem to think is so clever) and clowns like Geraldo Rivera and Oprah making a circus out of the topic and muddying the waters. The fundamentalists were dupes getting caught up in surface level distractions like heavy metal music and Dungeons and Dragons. They didn't realize the implications of higher up government and military officials being involved with these operations. Some of the best coverage I've seen of the topic has come from people like Bryant, Dave McGowan (who is an old school leftist), Ross Cheit (a Brown professor who I believe is jewish) and Philip Fairbanks, none of whom are fundamentalist Christians. For further information on the topic, I recommend "Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder" by Dave McGowan, "The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children" by Ross E. Cheit, and "Pedogate Primer" by Fairbanks. Also William Ramsey's podcast/YouTube channel. He covers a lot of related topics, including dismantling the media coverup involved in those West Memphis 3 documentaries.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://archive.org/details/ProgrammedToKillDavidMcGowan2004[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]https://libgen.rocks/ads.php?md5=B7102EDAF702683FB12632ACBF18A503[/URL]
[MEDIA=spotify]episode/1LM36Uq4DwpSlSb6cjus1E[/MEDIA]

 

[Lil' Conner Peterson]

I see where you're coming from, although I respectfully disagree about fundamentalists being the main force pushing the Satanic Panic narrative. The main force was the media (who invented the term that people seem to think is so clever) and clowns like Geraldo Rivera and Oprah making a circus out of the topic and muddying the waters. The fundamentalists were dupes getting caught up in surface level distractions like heavy metal music and Dungeons and Dragons. They didn't realize the implications of higher up government and military officials being involved with these operations. Some of the best coverage I've seen of the topic has come from people like Bryant, Dave McGowan (who is an old school leftist), Ross Cheit (a Brown professor who I believe is jewish) and Philip Fairbanks, none of whom are fundamentalist Christians. For further information on the topic, I recommend "Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder" by Dave McGowan, "The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children" by Ross E. Cheit, and "Pedogate Primer" by Fairbanks. Also William Ramsey's podcast/YouTube channel. He covers a lot of related topics, including dismantling the media coverup involved in those West Memphis 3 documentaries.

Programmed To Kill : David McGowan : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Programmed To Kill, David Mc Gowan ( 2004)

archive.org

Library Genesis

libgen.rocks

Couple of things. First, there is no doubt that there were forces bigger than fundie Christianity in America pushing these stories. However, this seems to be where the stories were really pushed--I'm thinking by design. Second, I have been meaning to look into McGowan's Programmed to Kill. Jay Dyer has discussed McGowan's work on Laurel Canyon, and this book has been mentioned in a number of podcasts I've listened to over the years.

The Geraldo Rivera special on Satanism was really over the top--even for Geraldo. He later recanted many of the findings of that show. There was a clip of Michal Aquino featured on Oprah, again this seemed to be a form of inoculation for a long-term strategy. The man who made the accusations seemed highly questionable at best.

 

[Phish]