Thread by @ElonBachman

1\ People compare COVID-19 hysteria to the Salem Witch Trials, to various political movements, and to other mass delusions of the fairly distant past

But the best model for understanding lockdowns is 1980s USA, when the world hallucinated a sprawling, satanic child rape pandemic

2\ As with COVID-19, there *was* a small kernel of truth beneath the hysteria

Horrible things did happen to a few kids, just as in a world of 7.7 billion, a handful of healthy youngsters have died from COVID-19

3\ As with COVID-19, the child rape hallucinations were endorsed by credentialed public officials of all stripes: educators, prosecutors, social workers, investigators, doctors

As with COVID-19, *most* experts didn't believe the hype, but only the most hysterical got media play

4\ As with COVID-19, brand new quackery was dressed up as "The Science", despite all existing science pointing in the opposite direction

Just as we have Long Covid, Kawasaki Like Disease, and Heart Damage, the 80s had Recovered Memories and Anal Wink

5\ As with COVID-19, there was a huge gender skew in the hysteria, with women more involved in spreading fear

6\ As with COVID-19, politicians understood that hysteria could further their aims. Prosecutors (including Janet Reno) realized that prosecuting imagined sex crimes was a route to higher office

nationalreview.com/2018/09/frank-…

7\ As with COVID-19 and the sensitive topic of death, decent people tactfully preferred not to question "recovered memories" and the sensitive topic of rape

The result was an illusion of unanimity; only the crazies went on TV, while the rational remained quiet

8\8 And as will one day happen with COVID-19, people eventually awoke to the fact that they had helped perpetuate a grotesque hysteria

And in their shame, they preferred not to memorialize that fact

Which is why we barely remember that we all lost our minds in the 80s