It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing which you have to protect yourself from through rigid, unyielding thought control and that the whole world is a conspiracy to break that thought control and destroy your children.

I mean, we have people over here who believe in that stuff but they don't seem quite as widespread.

Quote from: Warthur;649782It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing which you have to protect yourself from through rigid, unyielding thought control and that the whole world is a conspiracy to break that thought control and destroy your children.

I mean, we have people over here who believe in that stuff but they don't seem quite as widespread.

Always worthwhile to point out where that is, if it isn't obvious from your avatar.

I wish I could say I lived somewhere that this kind of thinking is rare. Unfortunately I am surrounded by people who think the Devil is around every corner yet are perfectly ok sleeping around, drinking constantly, and ranting about the evils of minorities. I live in a rural area at the moment though, things are not near as bad near the capital and the college towns.

Quote from: zarathustra;649785Always worthwhile to point out where that is, if it isn't obvious from your avatar.

It's pretty obvious that he's in Brutal country, near the vortex. You know, over there.

On the topic, in about '85 a straight laced classmate approached me at the FLGS near the D&D boxed sets, and asked me "Do you really have to worship the devil to win this game?"  I gave him an earnest adolescent explanation.  The last time I saw this guy, a few years later, he was into 40k Rogue Trader, and looked like a glue-sniffing gutter punk.

Quote from: TAFMSV;649797It's pretty obvious that he's in Brutal country, near the vortex. You know, over there.

On the topic, in about '85 a straight laced classmate approached me at the FLGS near the D&D boxed sets, and asked me "Do you really have to worship the devil to win this game?"  I gave him an earnest adolescent explanation.  The last time I saw this guy, a few years later, he was into 40k Rogue Trader, and looked like a glue-sniffing gutter punk.

So... you think he maybe won...

Quote from: Warthur;649782It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing which you have to protect yourself from through rigid, unyielding thought control and that the whole world is a conspiracy to break that thought control and destroy your children.

I mean, we have people over here who believe in that stuff but they don't seem quite as widespread.

It's clear that people on here pretty much agree that any connection between roleplaying and "satanism" is rather far-fetched, but I'm curious, does anyone here think that anything *can* be "of the devil" and "dabbling with the occult" *is* dangerous?

Quote from: zarathustra;649798So... you think he maybe won...

Hehehehe.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;649827It's clear that people on here pretty much agree that any connection between roleplaying and "satanism" is rather far-fetched, but I'm curious, does anyone here think that anything *can* be "of the devil" and "dabbling with the occult" *is* dangerous?

Televangelist: These children are playing with dark and dangerous powers!
Deadlock: Of course they're playing with them, what else are they meant to do with them?
(throws beer can at TV)

Quote from: Warthur;649782It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing which you have to protect yourself from through rigid, unyielding thought control and that the whole world is a conspiracy to break that thought control and destroy your children.

I mean, we have people over here who believe in that stuff but they don't seem quite as widespread.

America is incredibly vast, diverse, and populated.  You hear about the extremes, not the norms.  This thread for example is asking people to relate their experiences with a specific extreme, which happened for a specific short time frame, around 27 years ago.  Don't forget there is boundless boring normality shaping the forest surrounding these few unusual trees.  Like, for example, this is also the same era in which D&D was flourishing in the U.S., and was seen being played in the movie E.T., one of the largest movies ever.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;649827It's clear that people on here pretty much agree that any connection between roleplaying and "satanism" is rather far-fetched, but I'm curious, does anyone here think that anything *can* be "of the devil" and "dabbling with the occult" *is* dangerous?

Stupidity is always dangerous to somebody. Usually the idiot.

Quote from: Warthur;649782It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing which you have to protect yourself from through rigid, unyielding thought control and that the whole world is a conspiracy to break that thought control and destroy your children.

I mean, we have people over here who believe in that stuff but they don't seem quite as widespread.

Try living here, its heartbreaking at times.

Quote from: Warthur;649782It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing which you have to protect yourself from through rigid, unyielding thought control and that the whole world is a conspiracy to break that thought control and destroy your children.

I mean, we have people over here who believe in that stuff but they don't seem quite as widespread.

It doesn't surprise me at all, really.  Then again, I've been surrounded by it as long as I can remember.

It's kind of a weird combination of factors:  distrust of people smarter than you and not like you, the desire for a "simple" explanation of things ("Here's a book, go read it, everything you need to know about life is in there"), and the need to blame someone if something goes wrong.

My parents, for example, long for the 50's back when "things were so nice", to which I've been known to reply "Tell that one to African Americans."  They are both college educated, but tend to believe all of the "this is true--honest!" bullshit e-mails that they come across.  My mom in particular believes to this day that Apollo 13 got back home safe "because everybody was praying for them."  Never mind all that training and all of the engineers/astronauts working their asses off, it was because everybody prayed.  ("And why can't people do that today?" she often finishes.)

It's like listening to a Pro-lifer talk about eliminating abortions, and then in the next breath talk about "how we need to kill every last one of those towel heads".

That a game like D&D were to come along, encourage kids' critical thinking skills, and have pictures of dragons and demons on the covers (trying to tell people "It's an Efreet!" on the DMG cover simply didn't cut it -- they thought an efreet was another name for a demon)....  Well, it was a combustive mix.

Quote from: zarathustra;649785Always worthwhile to point out where that is, if it isn't obvious from your avatar.

The UK.

For me it wasn't the "satanic panic", it was a bunch of pop psychologists from the early 80s who claimed that D&D caused teens to have low self-esteem, have a hard time making friends, and act rebellious. Because my mom was addicted to those trashy pop psych self-help books (and fad diets, but thats a whole 'nother complaint), she became convinced that rpgs were going to cause me serious emotional and mental damage. This was a decision she reached after I'd been playing warhammer with my friends for two years, based solely upon what this author said rather than any actual behavioural changes on my part. But then again, if you look at those list of "symptoms" you'll notice they are pretty much the same as Dr. Wertham's symptoms of a kid who read comic books in the 50s (minus Dr. W's "Where's Waldo"-like ability to read fruedian perversions in ink blotches).

So, for the remainder of my years at home I couldn't keep my rpg books at home, but had to hide them in my school locker. Of course, I ran away from home at 13, so this situation didnt last very long.

I was definitely affected by it, but I think the "Satanism" aspect was secondary. My Mom bought into the idea of it leading to suicide. My Dad, macho man that he was, just thought it was keeping me from going out to get drunk and laid like a "real man" and that I needed to "get my head out of the clouds". They desperately tried to force me into "healthier" hobbies like trading baseball cards. Never mind the fact that I had no interest in such things whatsoever. (And when I say "force", I mean it. They'd actually order me to go to my friend's house and trade baseball cards with him. And he didn't give a damn about baseball cards either.) The fact that RPGs were "Satanic" was just icing on the cake for them.

They ended up throwing my entire collection away when I was 13-14 -- I don't remember exactly. Years later, after they divorced, my Mom became much, much more open-minded and helped me buy back what she'd help throw away. She now reads my reviews, and even bought the RPG in which I'm an NPC (Boomtown Planet).

My Dad is... well, still my Dad. Except that losing his influence over me when I moved out hit him like a thunderclap, and he's been desperate for my approval ever since. Hell, he "Likes" my Facebook announcements of #rpgnet Q&As, even though I know he either has no f'ing idea what I'm talking about or else is "Liking" something he's always despised just to suck up.

Quote from: Warthur;649782It always mildly terrifies me how many Americans think that magic and demons are a real actual thing

Only mildy?

Fortunately, the atheism is on the rise, agnosticism is on the rise and Christian fundamentalism is slowly, but surely, dying away with the old people. In the next 20 years, most of the Religious Right and the Moral Majority will be dead and buried. Even now, they are slipping quickly toward irrelevance in nursing homes.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;649827does anyone here think that anything *can* be "of the devil" and "dabbling with the occult" *is* dangerous?

Believing any mythology is dangerous.

Quote from: Mistwell;649830Like, for example, this is also the same era in which D&D was flourishing in the U.S., and was seen being played in the movie E.T., one of the largest movies ever.

True dat.