David Frankfurter on Demonic Conspiracies and Satanic Abuse

The QAnon conspiracy said that an underground Satanic pedophile ring of liberal Democrats was preying on our children. But such fears didn't start with them. In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in daycare centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religions David Frankfurter at Boston University listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. He began to investigate the social and psychological patterns that give rise to these myths. Thus was born Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse, a riveting analysis of the mythology of evil conspiracy that is the focus of this podcast.