People seem to kinda forget that this is not by far the right's first dance with moral panic and conspiracy-minded delusion.

It's not that the madness itself is new, it's just that it's (a) really focused this time and (b) targeted mostly at mainstream American institutions this time.

It used to be the Red Scare. It used to be Satanic Panic. It used to be backwards messages in rock music. It used to be drugs and/or razor blades in halloween candy.

It used to be about the Care Bears "forming a new pantheon to replace God." (This is a real example from my childhood, Trinity Broadcast Network circa 1984.)

And it used to be, ironically, about Russia, Russia, Russia. John Birch types trying to convince us that the typical Soviet citizen was effectively a brainwashed robot who wanted first and foremost to destroy the US -- and not, say, a disaffected citizen just trying to get by in a society that had stopped making sense.

And then it was about Evil Muslims coming to get us, in a wave of violence that just never came.

There's no more or less logic behind it now than there was then. It's just been weaponized and turned on the media, science, and anyone who has the nerve to be skeptical about capitalism.