#all the boogeyman figures in the party's lives would be destroyed

[ariminiria]

Baldur's Gate 3 with MacGyver (2016). That would be very interesting.

[jess-the-vampire]

Bedtime Stories

Tom snuggled in his covers, tossing and turning inside his dark bedroom. The child held his stuffed rabbit close to his chest and rolled around some more, which proved to be a mistake at the tiny horns poking out hurt a little and forced him back onto his back and to stare at the ceiling. Tom begged his parents to give him his own bedroom, his own bed. he could handle it, he told them, but here he was a few days in and he couldn't sleep. He already missed his crib and sleeping next to his parents, the last few nights he had nightmares. Imagine, a demon, having nightmares! The Lava fountain served as a nice nightlight, but it wasn't enough to make him feel better. He shouldn't be scared, he was the boogeyman, everything was supposed to be scared of him, not vice versa. But tales of Evil Stumps, and monsters that came in the night to eat little demon children always made him nervous, and so did all the people out there that his father told him were bad and wanted to hurt him. Tom was sure his father had something in the room to make sure nothing could attack Tom, but that didn't seem to make Tom feel safe regardless. His father said it was ok if he wasn't ready for his own room yet, but Tom insisted. He wanted his own place to keep his toys, he wanted a place for himself, he wanted a soft bed like his parents had, he wanted a place so he didn't feel like a baby anymore.

He pulled the covers over him mouth and winced, was it took late to back out? He hadn't slept well the last few nights and he took naps in the daytime as a result, could he just live the rest of his life surviving on naps? Tom  held his bunny tighter and decided  he had to make a choice. Either hold tight and make it through the night, or chicken out. Tom chickened out. Using his fire to leap himself off the bed so nothing under it could grab him, he practically darted up the steps and out of his room to enter his parent's nearby. They were both fast asleep as the tiny boy opened the large door and closed it behind him. Tom felt tears coming on and his ears sagged, but he still quietly used his fire powers to lift himself weakly onto the top of the bed and crawled over to his father. "Dad..Dad?",Tom shook his sleeping father until the man grumpily woke up and yawned, "What...Tom? Why are you still up? You're supposed to be in bed.". Tom cuddled his stuffed animal, he almost looked as if he were about to cry , "I can't sleep in there, It scares me...can I stay with you and Mommy?". Dave sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Ok, just for tonight Thomas.....". He opened his arms and let Tom crawl inside them and cling to him before lying himself back down, "We'll talk more about this tomorrow, ok?". Tom nodded, smiling, and snuggled himself to sleep. - It was only supposed to be for one night, but it became a routine, Tom always wandering into his parent's room to sleep next to them. Tom stopped even waking his father up since he already knew his father would be fine with it and he was expecting to see Tom next to him in the mornings anyway. It had been lasting for almost a month, Tom's new room, untouched. Dave didn't mind, Tom would grow into his room when he was ready, but part of him felt like he should help Tom feel safe sleeping in his own room. As much as he, and even Wrathmelior, liked having Tom next to them, they needed to help fix the problem instead of continuing to let it happen. Tom had his tantrums, and his powers could destroy anything in their wake if Tom got out of control, the boy was enough of a handle for his parents. Tom's been dreaming of his own room for ages and now he was too scared to even enter anymore, they couldn't just ignore that. Dave bit his lip, watching his son eat his food at the dinner table, it was almost bittersweet to him. He loved holding his son in his arms, it made him feel safe and reassured his own anxieties about Tom being out of his sight, but Tom couldn't be his little boy forever....he needed to grow without them sometime. "Tom? Is it ok if we ask you why your room is scaring you?", he said quickly, making the small boy look up from his creamed corn with a surprised expression. His ears dropped and he grumbled to himself,  "It's just...dark, and creepy...and I have nightmares...". "But Tom, you live in the underworld, dark and creepy stuff never used to freak you out before. Are you worried something is going to hurt you?", Tom didn't say much, playing with his fingers, "Thomas, we promise we won't ever let anyone hurt you as long as we live...". "But what if a monster pops in?!", Tom argued, "What if they pop in a-and you can't hear them and stuff!". Even the queen looked worried as Dave tried to reassure Tom, "Tom, it's ok to be scared, this is a whole new experience for you. You can sleep next to us as long as you need, but you can't stay there forever and if there's anything we can do to make sleeping in your own room easier....". Tom shrugged, "I don't want to go back in there...I-I can't sleep, I have nightmares......nightmares where you guys get hurt and I get hurt..a-an....". Dave reached over the table and held Tom's shoulder, "How long have you been having them?". The small boy shrugged, "I haven't slept good once since I got a room....". His parents exchanged looks and Dave thought for a moment, "Tom do you really want to have your own room?". Tom seemed to ponder over his question for a while, "I dunno.....", Dave got out of his chair to get down to Tom's height right next to him, "What If me and your mom could make your room less scary and help you stop having nightmares? Would you like that?". Tom didn't say anything for a little while before nodding and his father smiled, "We love having you sleep next us Tom, but we're concerned at seeing you be so scared of being hurt in your new bedroom, especially when it's something we know you really wanted. You should be able to have your own room and feel safe...". Tom mumbled, "But you always tell me how people and monsters are dangerous, that people will hurt me, what about the Stump?" Dave ruffled the boy's hair, "Ok, tonight we'll figure out a way to help you sleep, and then we'll find out something that will keep the bad people out. Is that ok?". Tom played with his fingers and nodded, Dave kissed his son's forehead, "We want to help Tom, you should be allowed to feel safe at your home and in your own room." Tom mumbled, "If you can't....can I still stay with you?". Dave though for a moment, and stood up, "Yeah, of course you can Tom.....We're gonna do anything we can, but if all fails you are perfectly allowed to stay with us until you're ready..". Tom smiled, "Ok....". - I took alot to convince Tom to at least sit on his bed again, but Dave managed, letting Tom hold his hand tightly so he felt more comfortable. Wrathmelior had just barely managed to squeeze herself in after she teleported and she was sure the likelihood of coming back in was reduced. Dave and her weren't exactly the best parents, so where to start was still across their mind. Wrathmelior never had been afraid of her room as a kid but Dave could faintly remember times he'd feared monster attacks in the past, although granted his parents didn't do much to help the paranoia. Tom seemed to feel a little more eased with their presence, the king himself scanned around to see if there was anything that might be making Tom nervous. The open closet or under the bed felt like solid options, "Tom, where are you worried the monsters will come from?". "Everywhere..", Tom replied, clinging onto the man for dear life. The older man bit his lip, he needed to figure this out, he could easily put a locked door on the closet yes, but that would only reduce one place Tom was nervous about. Under the bed would be trickier, but then again, the existence of scissors wasn't something he could prevent unless he enchanted the room to be inaccessible by magical objects. Man, this was going to take awhile. Dave helped pick up his small son, "C'mon, i'll tuck you in, and we'll keep guard for any monsters....ok?". He was intending to wait till Tom went to sleep under their watch, then head to bed himself, it was probably a lame plan but it was the only one he had in order to at least get Tom to spend one night here. He tucked Tom in, and Tom pulled the blankets up to his chin, "I don't know If i can sleep daddy....". "We won't make you sleep Thomas, but first and foremost we want you to feel comfortable enough to sleep, so for now just relax ok?", Mel attempted to reach out to her son herself, patting his head with a finger. Tom laid there for a few minutes, then spoke up, "Can you read me a story?". Dave looked up, "a story?", Tom nodded from his spot and snuggled further into the covers. "Some kids sleep better when their parents tell them stories...maybe....that might help?", Dave yawned and smiled, "Ok, we'll tell you a story....what kinda story do you want to hear?". "Well....not a scary story...", The boy said, "Just....something nice....?". The king twiddled his thumbs for a bit to think of what to say, "How about a story about Mommy and Daddy? Is that ok?". Tom nodded, "Ok, just don't make it weird..". Wrathmelior snorted, and Dave snickered, "Ok, how about the story where we first met?". Tom's eyes glistened and his head popped a little more out of the covers, it seemed to have sparked his interest. His parents both yawned again. at this rate they'd pass out before Tom did. "Well, When i was about 17, I was kinda forced to attend one of the Balls the Butterfly Kingdom was hosting. I wasn't too about parties, but my mother insisted I go since It would give me an opportunity to meet new people....", Then he rolled his eyes, "Or what she actually meant, which was getting a date....". Tom giggled, "Well you DID get a date, right?". Dave bit hard on his teeth, "Well, I really didn't want to do so. The thing is.....the party was Queen Moon's official coronation, and considering what happened to Queen Comet....I didn't find it customary to go around flirting with people since it was still fresh in everyone's mind.....". Mel huffed and growled, "Yeah yeah, I know it was a few weeks after but it was still uncomfortable. Anyways, so the other royals families attended, and personally I really wasn't having much fun so I kinda wandered off and went outside to get some air, only to find your mom out there as well, in the gardens..". "What happened?", Tom asked in his small voice, Dave lifted his legs up onto the bed and got into a more comfortable position before continuing. "Well, I was kind've startled at first, but after calming I realized she was the Lucitor Princess and she looked kinda down so...I sorta asked her if something was wrong...". Then he sheepishy rubbed the back of his head, "Unfortunately, I didn't know demonspeak at the time, So when she saw me and growled at me.....I wasn't sure whether she was answering my question or warning me that she'd eat my flesh. I backed off and.....I bumped into Princes- er....Queen Moon, who was still rather distraught but she kept her posture and I asked about Mel being in the gardens....Apparently Mel wasn't much of a people person and just wanted to enjoy being outside and get a good view of the stars...". He blushed heavily, "I-I uh....well since I wasn't enjoying the party much myself, I went out to watch the stars myself. Your mom spotted me and growled to me, and although I couldn't tell what she was saying, she knew what I was saying. Told her I didn't understand, but that didn't matter, We uh....well I started talking and she was interested in what I had to say...which wasn't something I was used to back home. I guess....I guess I just kinda liked that....The party ended, I told her that maybe sometime we could meet up again? She nodded and we met again the next night somewhere I picked out...". He smiled at the large demoness in the room who was feeling a little less annoyed being trapped in an enclosed space. "Yeah, and uh....I brought a demonspeak translator book that time, and started teaching myself....which took forever, but It was worth it!", Tom smiled wide, " That's so coooll! I hope I get to meet my future queen at a ball  like that!!. Dave snicked and petted his hair, "That's adorable Thomas, but we'll see, you never know what the future holds in store. ". "Well, I wanna be a cool king! I don't wanna be scared of anything, and i'll fight off all the bad guys.", Dave brushed hair out of his son's third eye, "Aww, but Thomas, first we need to rid you of your fear of this room before you can ever not be sacred on anything!". Tom yawned, "Well, i'm less scared with you and mommy here, you guys are funny, and I liked your story daddy...". Dave smiled sweetly, "Thanks tom, so are you saying Daddy and Mommy's stories make you less scared?". Tom nodded silently. "Can I hear another story?", Tom asked, snuggling up into his covers, "PleASE!!!??". The Queen yawned, but Dave continued, "Alright, But just one more ok?". Tom laid back and giggled, Dave finished one story, only to end up telling another, and then another, and Dave kept telling him story after story until Tom's eyes drifted closed and his breathing slowed. It was almost midnight by the time Tom fell asleep, smile upon his face and pillow protecting him from sleeping on his small horns. Dave carefully woke his wife who feel asleep during Dave's stories, and they both made sure to give their prince kisses before exciting his room to their own. The queen growled, and then plopped in the bed, finally happy to be out of that tight room and into her large bed. Dave yawned, "Yeah, I know, But it worked! We actually got Tom to fall asleep without feeling scared of his room. I guess hearing pleasant stories before bedtime really do help." Dave made his way on the top and plopped onto the bed, closing his eyes for some shut eye himself. Finally, after weeks of worrying about tom and his fears, they could sleep in peace, he made himself comfortable and tried to rest up.  Only to find himself tossing and turning throughout the night, he tried different positions, removing the blankets, putting back on the blankets, but no matter what he did he couldn't seem to make himself feel comfortable or feel sleepy. That was weird, he had no problems sleeping before now, what was different? Then he looked between his arms to see the absence of his little boy between them. Tom's been sleeping in his arms for a whole month, snuggling close to his father for safety, and now he was back in his room, sleeping without it. He sighed, Now he was the one having trouble sleeping. He thought for a moment and stood up, making his way off the bed, out of the room, and over to his son's room nearby. Tom was still fast asleep, still having pleasant dreams. Tomorrow Dave was sure he'd be making some changes for the room to make Tom feel safe, perhaps implant a goat skull messenger to scare off intruders? But for now this was a good start to helping Tom through his anxieties. The king smiled and once again sat on the bed, admiring his son before yawning. They spent the whole night helping Tom with his fears, only to feed a little more into Dave's. His biggest fear was losing his son after all, he wasn't too fond of Tom being out of his sight in fear of him being hurt. Maybe he could stay here, just for tonight, just to keep an eye on him....to make sure nothing happened to him. He grabbed a chair and sat it next to Tom's bed before taking a seat in it and closing his eyes. Tom was continuing to grow up but- He'd always still be his little boy.

[engmjr419]

A Spectrum of Scares: The Red Scare, the Lavender Scare, and mid-20th century paranoia

History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.

-          Marsha P. Johnson, A Black Transgender Drag Queen

“A Promotion We Can Do Without” from the Miami Herald, 1954. It accompanies an article about police being “soft” on “perverts” (the typical term for a homosexual in this period) in Miami leading to moral failure. The first line of the paragraph in the top left reads, “Sex perversion is a growing public problem”. Source.

               The history of the LGBT+ community in America is a textbook of struggle, just as Marx claims history to be patterns of class struggle. The lesbian is told she needs a man, the homosexual is blamed for moral failure, the bisexual is called confused, and the transgender called mentally ill. They are constantly alleged to be corruptors, perverts, and conspirators trying to undermine the “normal” straight society, in other wards they are the “other”. In the McCarthy era, we were alleged to be Communists; but then again, who wasn’t?

The year is around 1948, the second World War had only ended 3 years ago, and America is feeling powerful. They’ve come out the victor with their allies and defeated the Nazi Party. However, their society is now forever tinged with this xenophobic culture, powered by anti-German, Russian, and Japanese propaganda, that paints them broadly as, President Donald J. Trump tweeted barely a week ago, the “Red Wave”. As Communist government expands in Eastern Europe, the communist, to the American, becomes a boogeyman, a coverall for any ill moral, counterculture, or otherwise “bad” action that anybody does. Furthermore, the Cold War pushes this even further as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union boil to a tipping point awakening anti-communist hysteria from the 1930s. Simply put, The Soviet Union and the US were goading each other constantly. Thus, begins McCarthyism and the second Red Scare (the first being in the late 1910s during World War 1).

The communist, the so called “Red Menace” becomes the anti-capitalist, the socialist, the critic, the questioner, the democrat, the minority, and, most important to us, the homosexual.

Amidst the McCarthy investigations and hearings, the societal panic, and the illusionary massive plan of the communists to uproot American Society (though we were literally pointing nuclear missiles at eachother), the second Red Scare was used to discriminate further against the “other”. All areas of minority were targeted for being Communist, some directly by McCarthy, from Black Americans, to the non-Christian, to the LGBT community. The figure of the Communist and the “other” became one in the same.

A newspaper headline from 1961 stating the “Reds” blackmail Homosexuals into being Communist spies. The paragraph above it reads, “The F.B.I. knew those two code experts were fruity fellows but nothing was done about it until the boys has already minced off to Moscow.” Their homosexuality is summarized as “perverted pursuits in hotel rooms”. Source

This resulted in the Lavender Scare, a mass investigation and eviction of LGBT, primarily gay people, from United States Government due to fear of them being Communist infiltrators along with public beliefs of the gay person.         McCarthy himself declared the “homosexual” to be a threat to the American lifestyle, as he thought they could be easily blackmailed by the communist into revealing state secrets or be “Corrosive” to their coworkers moralities. The Lavender Scare is the people’s moral fears over the homosexual lifestyle colliding with Mycarterism-era conspiracy fueled paranoia.

A 1950s Newspaper article warning Americans “DON’T Patronize Reds” in the entertainment industry. The last line reads, “every time you permit REDS to come into your Living Room VIA YOUR TV SET you are helping MOSCOW and the INTERNATIONLISTS to destroy America!!!” Source.

          During the late 1940s and stretching into the late 1950s, a “Red Scare” occurs, a conspiracy theory where the American people believed that Communists had infiltrated their society with the goal to bring down democracy. People believed “Reds” had infiltrated government, Hollywood, TV, schools, and any other public place with an express hope of “corrupting” the populace. The era overall is called the “McCarthy Era” after Senator Joseph McCarthy, a right-wing republican who in 1950 rose to prominence by declaring there was “Communist penetration of the State Department, the White House, the Treasury, and even the US Army” (Miller Center). In his speech, titled “Enemies Within” he declares:

The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral. For instance, the Marxian idea of confiscating the land and factories and running the entire economy as a single enterprise is momentous. Likewise, Lenin’s invention of the one-party police state as a way to make Marx’s idea work is hardly less momentous…Karl Marx, for example, expelled people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice, humanity or morality. He called this “soulful ravings” and “sloppy sentimentality”

He points the finger at the end, claiming:

I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.

He later cut this list down to 57, in an address to President Truman, “Despite this State Department black-out, we have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State Department”. Two of these cases specifically targeted homosexuals.

This speech polarized the nation, creating parties who both believed and dismissed his allegations. McCarthy in the early 1950s would comb over nearly all government departments, questioning countless witnesses (Who a large majority of the time were only accused of being Communist), and in 1954 it all cultivated in its peak, the McCarthy Hearings. The McCarthy Hearings were 36 straight days of televised investigative hearings ran by McCarthy, however this turned public opinion against McCarthy after seeing ludicrous claims by the Senator against trusted people, along with a well written criticism by Edward R. Murrow (Achter). However, the Communist fear would never truly fade, nor the effects this conspiracy theory created.

A McCarthy era flyer, urging the viewer to report any “suspected Communist Activity” to presumably the police or the House Committee on Unamerican Activities (HUAC) which were a committee entirely focused on monitoring Communist activity within the United States. Source.

Countless numbers of individuals were fired, blacklisted, ridiculed, and years of trust swept away from a mere accusation. “Hundreds of elementary and high school teachers were investigated and lost their jobs, sometimes as a result of being named by proliferating "anti-subversive" groups and individuals” (Billington). The McCarthy era wreaked havoc on American society, enabling an easy accusation to sling around by anybody with a near 100% guarantee it would stick even without any solid evidence.

In one instance, Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney blame Hollywood Labor conflicts over unionization as “Communist Infiltration”, Walter R. Disney states, “Well, it proved itself so with time, and I definitely feel it was a Communist group trying to take over my artists and they did take them over” ,along with, “I even went through the same smear in South America, through some Commie periodicals in South America, and generally throughout the world all of the Commie groups began smear campaigns against me and my pictures”.

A 1947 comic by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning about Communist Infiltration. It puts forward a story of Communist heads step by step breaking down American society, through class conflict, division, corrosion of morals, race war, and media until they manage to elect a Communist president, leading to food rationing, book burning, and the murder of Catholics. One panel reads “And here goes the greatest trash ever written – THE BIBLE!” linking Communism to comical levels of Atheism (and thus amorality). Source.

       The McCarthy Red Scare has all the key points of a conspiracy theory, as described by Hofstadter in Harper’s Magazine 1964 edition. He paints the Conspiracy finger-pointer as such,

“The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms—he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point”

McCarthy and other believers of this “Red Menace” saw the complete downfall of the United States in the future, the upheaval of society, and the destruction of freedom. In the comic book shown above, Americans saw Communists breaking apart American society step by step, inciting race wars, media races, and snapping of moral coils to push America into Communism, which to the American was presented as a removal of all freedom. Hofstadter stakes, on the actions of the perceived conspirator, “He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced.”

From a 1949 trial of the American Communist Party Leaders on a charge of conspiracy, the Government states against the Communist Party through John F. X. McGohey,

“In each of these schools it is reiterated constantly that the students are being trained as professional revolutionaries. Marxism, they are taught, is not merely dogma, it is a guide to action. . . . At the proper time, they are taught—the proper time being a time of national crisis, unrest, disorder brought about by a severe depression or war”, and further in, “They teach that this revolution cannot be without violence, for to be successful the entire apparatus of the Government must be smashed”

In a 1947 accusation of John Howard Lawson, an organizer of the Screen Writers Guild and leader of Hollywood’s Communist Party in the 1930s, John Charles Moffitt declares to the HUAC that Lawson instructed:

It is your duty to further the class struggle by your performance.

He said: If you are nothing more than an extra wearing white flannels on a country club veranda do your best to appear decadent, do your best to appear to be a snob; do your best to create class antagonism.

He said: If you are an extra on a tenement street do your best to look downtrodden, do your best to look a victim of existing society.

They believed “there has been the now-familiar sustained conspiracy to undermine free capitalism”, that government had been “infiltrated by Communists that American policy has been dominated by men who were shrewdly and consistently selling out American national interests”, and that “the country is infused with a network of Communist agents…that the whole apparatus of education, religion, the press, and the mass media is engaged in a common effort to paralyze the resistance of loyal Americans” (Hofstadter). To summarize, the continued existence of the United States, at least to them, rested on unearthing and outing the “Reds”.

Several News Headlines of the era, all talking about the organized purging of gay men and women from Government, ranging from calling them Homosexuals to Deviates to “Sex Perverts”. One reads ““sexual perverts have infiltrated our Government in recent years” were “perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists.”” Source.

               As is the case with Conspiracy Theories, those who believe in them find it far too easy to associate the conspirators with the “other” of society. Jewish people were blamed for the Black Death, and thought to be in Anti-Catholic organizations, African Americans celebrities are associated with the Illuminati, and Gay men and women were thought to be communists or simply painted as such to be ousted. This was the Lavender Scare.

In this era of McCarthyism, thousands of gay employees, or just suspected gay employees, of state and federal governments were investigated, questioned, outed, and fired (Adkins). This was amid the wave of congressional investigations for communists, “bound up with anti-Communism and fueled by the power of congressional investigation”, painting the homosexual red and claiming them to be Communists, Communist sympathizers, or blackmailed to reveal state secrets. This was in addition to the major societal view of the time, calling homosexuals “sex perverts” or “deviants”, being listed as a mental illness in the official psychological database, and being jailed for even looking “non-conforming to one’s birth sex” in parts of the country.

Even before McCarthy’s claim to Communist Conspirators, the homosexual was being persecuted in this era. This was because World War 2 created an unexpected side effect, a rising community of LGBT (and thus societal visibility) due to many homosexual people finding themselves in the same army bunker.

“In 1947 the U.S. Park Police initiated in the city a "Sex Perversion Elimination Program," targeting gay men for arrest and intimidation.” Only a year later, Congress passes the act “for the treatment of sexual psychopaths”, facilitating the arrest, punishment, and jailing of people acting on same-sex desire, labeling them mentally ill. Judith Adkins summarizes the view of the time, “Homosexuality was perceived as a lurking subversive threat at a time when the country was coping with tremendous social change as well as rising anxiety about another lurking subversive threat: Communism.”

A 1950 report by an investigative committee of Government, concluding that homosexuals were unsuitable for employment in the Federal Government due to “security” reasons. Source.

McCarthy blamed the homosexual figure claiming, “the government had been infiltrated by homosexuals, and that they posed a threat equally as grave to national security”. In his address on February 20th, 9 days after his President Truman address, McCarthy linked homosexuality and Communism citing two cases of Homosexual men in Government, stating “practically every active Communist is twisted mentally or physically in some way” and implied “that the men in these two cases were susceptible to Communist recruitment because as homosexuals they had what he called "peculiar mental twists” (Adkins). The pressure from McCarthy and other republicans caused the State Department to have fired 91 homosexuals as “security risks”. Later the US Senate, led by the “Hoey Committee”, investigated employed homosexuals “and other sex perverts” within the government:

Although they could not uncover a single example of a homosexual American citizen who had betrayed secrets as a result of blackmail, they wrote a highly circulated and influential report that asserted that gay men and lesbians exhibited weak moral character and had a “corrosive influence” on their fellow employees. “One homosexual can pollute a government office,” the Senate report concluded (Johnson).

The rhetoric the believers pushed directly linked the two, assumptions about Communists mirrored the societal beliefs about homosexuals. “Both were thought to be morally weak or psychologically disturbed, both were seen as godless, both purportedly undermined the traditional family, both were assumed to recruit, and both were shadowy figures with a secret subculture” (Adkins).  However, there was one key difference that pushed the Lavender Scare further. They weren’t finding Communists, but they were finding Homosexuals. It is important to recall then, the two were the same figure to America.

In a particularly distressing action, President Eisenhower, backed by the 1950s Congressional investigations and the Hoey Committee’s report, created an executive order in 1953 that specifically banned homosexual men and women from working all jobs within the US Government. “That order explicitly added sexuality to the criteria used to determine suitability for federal employment. With the stroke of a pen, the President effectively banned gay men and lesbians from all jobs in the U.S. government—the country's largest employer” (Adkins). Private businesses followed suite, enacting their own discriminatory probing, hiring, and firing practices specifically targeting LGBT individuals.

It echoes the “Paranoid style” of Conspiracy theory that Hofstadter stated, “Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated—if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention.” The goal was to eliminate the homosexual from government, and in a way, they succeeded at least for a few decades. In particular, the homosexual of this represented a sexual freedom that the straight individual was not allowed, they were the sexual deviant, the pervert, they offered the populace ���an opportunity to project and express unacknowledgeable aspects of their own psychological concerns” (Hofstadter). Primarily, how society was changing, in terms of the sexual discussion and sexuality (as a whole) was developing as the LGBT community in America truly began to grow.

LGBT+ were massively fired and thrown out of government, outed against their will, and forced to deal with the consequences. “Not only were LGBT federal employees fired, but many others were also simply fired for “guilt of association” in knowing someone who was LGBT” (Gleason). This ruined Queer lives, not only for the loss of a job, but also being thrown into the public eye, into a society that was aggressively anti-LGBT led to many people dying, either by suicide or by murder. They faced Stigma from the federal government, along with the larger society, “many of the federal investigations and resulting firings lead to dismissed employees’ suicides — most of which were later covered up by the federal interrogators.” The Lavender Scare did not gain massive public knowledge however, this anonymity managed to save many by not outing them on a major scale which certainly would have resulted in massive suicides and death.

The Mattachine Society marching for a “National Gay Task Force”. The Mattachine Society is held as one of America’s first “homophile” acceptance societies, pushing for acceptance and change within American Society. Source.

Investigations continued in through the 50s, though this is not to say there was no fightback. Brave sorts such as Frank Kamney stepped up, taking his case of dismissal to the Supreme court. Even though he lost, he started a wave where a few federal courts began agreeing with him in the late 1960s leading to more right for LGBT people within Government. In 1950 the Mattachine Society was founded (later investigated themselves for assumed Communist behavior) by Kamney, and later in 1955 the Daughters of Bilitis was created, both LGBT civil and political rights groups. As I stated before, LGBT communities can be found in struggle.

While it is not the revolution McCarthy and others were fearing from Communists, it is still a revolution of the rights of the LGBT individual. It is the beginning of a change in American Society, the Lavender Scare created from fear a public outcry for homosexual acceptance.

The Lavender Scare officially ends in 1975, for civil servants, after the Civil Service Commissions announced that gay people could no longer be legally fired or barred from federal government jobs based purely off their sexuality. However, it left behind a trail of discrimination and queer lives ruined by McCarthyism, public paranoia, and Cold War-era fear.

The anonymity, as “the Lavender Scare featured no public naming of names and no dramatic spectacles in which the accused testified”, I stated before saved the lives of countless LGBT People. However, it also made them into vague concepts. The full tragedy of this event is lost except the whispers found in transcripts of Committee hearings, mementos, private diaries, and unpublished records. We only have the outlines of these discriminated people, shaped in government papers.

A PSA from the Mattachine Society in 1960, stating that “Homosexuals are Different, but we believe they have the right to be.”  The final line reads “Mattachine defends the rights of homosexuals and tries to create a climate of understanding and acceptance.” This stands in the face of the Lavender Scare, a push for acceptance where the Government offered none. Source.

               The McCarthy era stands as one of the largest instances of a Conspiracy Theory taking over the American populace. “The Red Menace” was this constant specter haunting the American lifestyle, it was the boogeyman, the big threat to the Nuclear Family standing in as the face of the possible Nuclear War. However, it also became anybody who was othered by society, the African American, the critic, the curious, and the homosexual. The Lavender Scare was a massive event of LGBT discrimination within American Government. It is a vital event to understand to understand the history of struggle that LGBT people have had in America. However, a person can live their entire life without knowing about it, even when they know of the Red Scare.

It is a silent history, a color that blends into the background of the Spectrum of Scares America witnessed in that era. However, it shows itself plain in LGBT history, as both a low point for Queer lives and a high point for LGBT Rights, as the Mattachine Society was founded during it. While the Stonewall Riots would appear around a decade later, the Lavender Scare is part of the foundation for LGBT rights in America.

Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist, on his podcast InfoWars, claiming that the Government has produced a “Gay bomb” that infuses chemicals into the water to induce homosexuality in people. This quote “turning the friggin frogs gay” has become a meme amongst LGBT people, due to the absurdity of it. Source.

It is interesting to see the echoes of the Lavender Scare though, as a Conspiracy Theory, in modern day America. People believe LGBT+ people have a central agenda, labeled the “LGBT Agenda”, that they have a centralized goal as a community beyond equal human rights. Right Wing Republicans such as Mike Pence, who endorses Conversion Therapy, and Alex Jones, who is known to believe that the government has produced chemicals to turn people gay (among other Conspiracy theories), echo McCarthy’s absurd accusations that Homosexuals posed a threat to national security and reports that they “pollute a government office”.

Minorities seem have this inability to escape being the conspirators in Conspiracy theories. It always appears that they are the target, the revolutionary, the “Red Menace”. Conspiracy Theories offer people a different way to look and perceive the world, however that also offers ideal situations for racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and sexism to thrive as it is easy to pin the charge onto the minority class. After all, who would benefit more from societal upheaval? Certainly not the white, straight man.

Achter, Paul J. “McCarthyism.” Britannica, August 16th, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/topic/McCarthyism

Adkins, Judith. ““These People Are Frightened to Death” : Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare” Prologue Magazines, Vol 48, No. 2, 2016. National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html

Hofstadter, Richard. “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” Harper’s Magazine, November 1964. https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/

Johnson, David K. “The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government” The University of Chicago Press, 2004. OutHistory, http://outhistory.org/items/show/1425

McCarthy, Joseph R. “Enemies from Within”. 1950. History Matters, historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456/

Miller Center, “McCarthyism and the Red Scare.” University of Virginia, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare

Congress, House, Committee on Un-American Activities, Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry, 80th Congress, 1st Session, October 1947 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1947). History Matters, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6441

“Communists are second to none in our devotion to our people and to our country”: Prosecution and Defense Statements, 1949 Trial of American Communist Party Leaders. History Matters, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6446

“We Must Keep the Labor Unions Clean”: “Friendly” HUAC Witnesses Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney Blame Hollywood Labor Conflicts on Communist Infiltration. History Matters, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6458

[alpha-centari27]

From the moment he walked on screen in The Force Awakens, some Star Wars fans felt like they already had a handle on Kylo Ren: he was obviously a good guy.

Or at least, he was going to wind up that way by the end of the trilogy. The original trilogy ended with Darth Vader’s redemption, so logically, Kylo Ren’s story would end that way, too.

That assumption rang false to me, and not just because I was skeptical that anybody could come back from murdering his own father, Han Solo, one of the most beloved characters in Star Wars history. It’s because Star Wars isn’t about redemption — not in the original trilogy or even in Return of the Jedi.

It only seems that way.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.]

Return of the Jedi’s immortal third act set the tripartite structure for all future climatic Star Wars battles: A fight on the ground, a fight in the air, and a fight of Jedi emotions. As his friends desperately try to destroy the second Death Star, Luke Skywalker stands in the Emperor’s throne room and duels with Darth Vader. The stakes are his life and the very future of the Force.

Just when it seems that the Emperor’s power is inescapable, his loyal lapdog, Darth Vader, betrays him. Moved by his son’s example and Luke’s genuine belief that he is not beyond saving, Vader hurls the Emperor down a shaft, taking a mortal blow as he does so. He dies in Luke’s arms. After he escapes the Death Star, Luke gives him a warrior’s pyre.

But here’s the thing...

Darth Vader was never redeemed

In the moment Vader turned on the Emperor, he repented. He saw the error of his ways. Perhaps more importantly, he saw that it was still possible for him to perform some lasting good by saving his son, the only creature in the galaxy that held some honest love for him.

The original Star Wars trilogy wasn’t about Darth Vader redeeming himself in the eyes of others — about the impossible task of making up for the thousands dead, the lives irrevocably altered, the families, including his own, shattered — nor should it have been. It was about Luke growing into his own.

The Empire Strikes Back sees our hero hubristically chafe at the guidance of his Jedi mentors, and suffer immense consequences for it. Luke not only fails to save Han from carbonite, he barely escapes an encounter with Vader with his life, and has to be rescued by the very people he went to Cloud City to rescue. In Return of the Jedi, when Luke insists to Yoda and Obi Wan that there is still good in Darth Vader, it’s his first rebellion that actually pays out.

Luke grew up idolizing an idea of his father as a heroic veteran of the Clone Wars, and has the training to intimately, psychically sense Vader’s emotions. Vader’s turn is vindication of Luke’s instinct to forgive, and of his destiny as one who can recreate the Jedi order.

But asking for forgiveness and actually making amends for your actions are separate things. Vader’s nearly immediate death created a useful emotional illusion that completed Luke’s character arc in a satisfying way. The audience easily mistakes that with the real thing.

Vader’s act of repentance meant that he could no longer stand among the series’ other bad guys, but Return of the Jedi never attempted to figure out whether that alone was enough to allow him to stand alongside the heroes.

Yub nub nope

Imagine, for a moment, what the end of Return of the Jedi would have been like if Luke had walked into that big party on Endor’s moon arm in arm with a contrite Darth Vader. Vader personally tortured Leia in A New Hope, and Han in The Empire Strikes Back. He forced Leia to watch as Grand Moff Tarkin destroyed her home planet.

But we were never forced to watch as Leia looked Darth Vader in the face, knowing that his blood ran in her veins, while she decided what the fledgling Republic should do with its second greatest boogeyman.

This is a good thing. For the purposes of the kind of story that Return of the Jedi is trying to tell, this is a great ending. Vader’s death is narratively necessary.

So, naturally, The Rise of Skywalker attempts to mirror Vader’s turn with Kylo Ren’s — with the added problem that, thanks to J.J. Abrams’ tactic of echoing the original trilogy, but going bigger, Kylo’s crimes are an order of magnitude larger than his grandfather’s.

Discarding anything from expanded Star Wars media, Kylo’s version of “the Empire” carried on a systematic campaign of kidnapping millions of children to brainwash them into loyal cannon fodder, and used a superweapon to destroy the fully populated star system that served as the galaxy’s political center. He personally tortured both Rey and Poe and murdered his own father, Han Solo, in The Force Awakens. He attempted to murder and indirectly caused the death of Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. In Rise of Skywalker, a previously hale Leia Organa sacrifices her life force to do ... something related to making Kylo turn, making him the indirect cause of her death as well.

The scene in which Kylo truly turns is an emotional one. In isolation, his talk with a (memory?) of Han Solo is a nice acknowledgement of how difficult it can be to recognize when one has done something truly wrong, and how hard can be take on the work of making up for the hurt you’ve done to others when it would be so much easier to just accept the advantages those acts awarded you.

But, like his grandfather before him, Kylo never gets the chance to do any of that work. He turns to the Light Side of the Force, but ultimately sacrifices his life to save (or possibly resurrect) Rey. He dies without ever facing the consequences of his actions, and without ever reckoning with what it would take to make amends for them.

He repents, vindicating Rey’s belief that he always carried the seed of that within him. But, just like Darth Vader, Star Wars doesn’t redeem him. It’s all a necessary Jedi mind trick.