#f. carson mencken

[finalgirlfall]

talking about one of my classes—mentions of csa + memory wars

i've encountered the memory wars (re: the reliability of repressed memories) not once but twice in the past few days—once on my tumblr dash and once in a reading for one of my classes:

In addition to including thorough sets of questions on the paranormal, we asked extensive questions about perceptions of supernatural religious evil. Who believes Satan and demons are active forces on Earth? Who believes that humans can be possessed by the devil? Who fears an upcoming Armageddon? Sometimes such beliefs about evil coalesce into widespread panics, as occurred in the 1980s when the FBI began to receive reports from therapists across the country that their patients had "recovered" memories of hideous abuse perpetrated by secretive, underground Satanic cults. The victims claimed to have witnessed animal and human sacrifices.

Christopher D. Bader, Joseph O. Baker, and F. Carson Mencken, Paranormal America: UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture, 2nd ed. (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2017), 20. emphasis added.

and thinking, relatedly, about this quote @bananapeppers posted some time ago—

This book is based on the first systematic examination of court records in these cases. The book argues that even though many cases have been held up as classic examples of modern American "witch hunts," none of them truly fits that description. McMartin certainly comes close. But a careful examination of the evidence presented at trial demonstrates why, in my view, a reasonable juror could vote for conviction, as many did in this case. Other cases that have been painted as witch-hunts turn out to involve significant, even overwhelming, evidence of guilt. There are a few cases to the contrary, but even those are more complicated than the witch-hunt narrative allows. In short, there was not, by any reasonable measure, an epidemic of “witch hunts” in the 1980s. There were big mistakes made in how some cases were handled, particularly in the earliest years. But even in those years there were cases such as those of Frank Fuster and Kelly Michaels that, I believe, were based on substantial evidence but later unfairly maligned as having no evidentiary support. The argument of the book begins with the McMartin case, the subject of Chapter Two. This is the foundational case in the witch-hunt narrative. Whether or not the narrative applies to other cases, it appears to offer the definitive account of the McMartin case, which ended without a single conviction after once being described as the largest child abuse case in history. The only competing account is a narrative about ritual abuse that was created near the beginning of the case, an account so thoroughly discredited that the witch-hunt narrative became all the more credible. Chapter Two argues that there is a third way to see the case—as it evolved, in stages. By this account, the case began with credible evidence of sexual abuse. Significant evidence was developed in the earliest stages of the case, before it was even referred to the agency that ultimately did hundreds of interviews later blamed for ruining the case. The McMartin case became six parts of overreaction to one part reality, sweeping up six women in criminal charges that never should have been brought. But the strongest evidence—the evidence that started the case—has been lost to history. Recognizing this evidence challenges the witch-hunt narrative in several ways. The McMartin case nevertheless stands largely as a monument to injustice to five, possibly six, of the seven defendants. The uncertainty about whether it is five or six reflects the kind of complexity that is not captured by the witch-hunt narrative. Chapter Two portrays that complexity. The basic claim of the witch-hunt narrative is that there were at least a hundred, maybe several hundred, cases “just like McMartin.” The narrative is a claim about a social phenomenon that swept the country during the McMartin era. The claim has been widely accepted as fact. The best evidence consists of studies of a handful of cases, along with lists of additional case names without any elaboration about the facts. Those sources, even taken at face value, do not add up to one hundred cases. More surprisingly, a substantial number of the cases held up as “witch hunts” actually included credible evidence of abuse, or even something stronger than that. But that is only apparent after doing extensive original research on a substantial number of cases. Chapter Three scrutinizes the claim that there were hundreds of these cases across the country.

The witch-hunt narrative began an account of child sexual abuse over the span of eight or nine years, starting in the early 1980s. It is offered as the sole account of sexual abuse in day-care centers then. There is scant recognition that there were true cases of sexual abuse in day-care centers during the time period—and before, for that matter. The witch-hunt narrative is also a story of overreaction; it often employs such terms as “hysteria” and “panic” to describe the social reactions surrounding these cases. Since child sexual abuse came to be identified with this narrative, there was a sense that our social reactions to the problem were largely panic-ridden. But this account overlooks the social forces that existed before child sexual abuse “emerged” into public discourse. Those phenomena, including silence and denial, continued during the McMartin era. This is part of the unacknowledged history of child sexual abuse, which is the subject of Chapter Four. Chapters Five and Six take up two other foundational cases in the witch-hunt narrative. They provide an arc from the McMartin case. Seen in this light, the Kelly Michaels case in New Jersey is the turning point. It marked a major shift in the press, in academia, and in the courts. It was the most prominent reversal of a conviction from the 1980s. The shift was precipitated in part by dramatic change in the position of among academic psychologists about the issue of child suggestibility. It was also precipitated by the rise of the witch-hunt narrative in the popular media that began immediately after the demise of the McMartin case. Chapter Five is a systematic analysis of the case. It argues that there was substantial credible evidence of abuse that has been almost entirely ignored, and that there are significant exaggerations and other errors in the widely accepted view of this case.

Chapter Six takes up the Fuster case from Dade County, Florida, also known as Country Walk, after the name of the babysitting service that fostered the complaints in this case. The Fuster case plays a prominent role in Ceci and Bruck’s Jeopardy in the Courtroom, second only to the Michaels case. The acclaimed television program Frontline applied the witch-hunt lens to the Fuster case in two separate episodes. The case is considered by many to be one of the last convictions still standing from the misguided era of the 1980s. Chapter Six takes the opposite view, arguing that there was extremely strong evidence to support this conviction. Indeed, it takes a special kind of bias to minimize or ignore all of the evidence. Chapter Seven considers how the rise of the witch-hunt narrative has affected how we view child sexual abuse and children as witnesses. It begins with a consideration of two important developments since the end of the McMartin era, the successful civil and criminal cases against Catholic Church priests over child sexual abuse and the increase in punitive policies aimed at convicted sex offenders. The chapter concludes with an examination of how child-suggestibility claims have evolved since the Michaels case. Although it has become impolitic to ask whether children are being unduly discredited in court, there are several reasons to think they are. The arguments about child suggestibility have evolved into a much more expansive effort to label children as tainted even in cases with strong corroborative evidence. There has also been an effort to discredit disclosures simply because they were “delayed.” That worrisome development appears to be part of a larger movement to dismiss the expertise and knowledge of child-abuse professionals.

Ross E. Cheit, "Introduction," in The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children, EPUB ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014).

like—man. if this class, or this textbook, which deals with fear, conspiracies, and the paranormal in america, is going to be consistently weird about csa. then. i don't know what i'm going to do lmfao. because it's the only class that seemed interesting to me that's being offered this semester.

[who-is-page]

"Whatcha doin'?"

Tagged by @thaumasilva

Currently reading: Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religions and Culture by Christopher D. Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph O. Baker; God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right by Rebecca Barrett-Fox; and A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics edited by Paul Waldau and Kimberley Christine Patton. The last two are technically re-reads! I find myself circling back to the CoS so, so often in my own work.

Last song: Against the Kitchen Floor by Will Wood, from his performance in Charlotte, NC.

Last Movie: Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio, watched with the polycule. A really visually stunning movie.

Currently working on: An absurd amount of writing projects, the details of which I can't say here since I don't want to get any hopes up without finish dates in mind. Also, practicing my alto saxophone to join up with a marching band that does shows outside the US sometimes, which will be fun (though don't expect to hear much else about it on this Tumblr; I don't feel like doxxing myself!)

Tagging: (Just gonna throw out some friends I see in my most recent notes lol, but if other people see this on their dashboard and want to do it, consider this an "invisible tag" if you will) @kingofthewilds @angrysnakes @revoltradio @panopticonsys @noodledragonsoup

[spaceintruderdetector]

https://archive.org/details/CreepyStories/ParanormalAmerica-GhostEncountersUfoSightingsBigfootHuntsAndOtherCuriosities/

A significant number of Americans spend their weekends at UFO conventions hearing whispers of government cover-ups, at New Age gatherings learning the keys to enlightenment, or ambling around historical downtowns learning about resident ghosts in tourist-targeted 'ghost walks' They have been fed a steady diet of fictional shows with paranormal themes such as The X-Files, Supernatural, and Medium, shows that may seek to simply entertain, but also serve to disseminate paranormal beliefs. The public hunger for the paranormal seems insatiable. Paranormal America provides the definitive portrait of Americans who believe in or have experienced such phenomena as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs, psychic phenomena, astrology, and the power of mediums. However, unlike many books on the paranormal, this volume does not focus on proving or disproving the paranormal, but rather on understanding the people who believe and how those beliefs shape their lives. Drawing on the Baylor Religion Survey a multi-year national random sample of American religious values, practices, and behaviors as well as extensive fieldwork including joining hunts for Bigfoot and spending the night in a haunted house, authors Christopher Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph Baker shed light on what the various types of paranormal experiences, beliefs, and activities claimed by Americans are; whether holding an unconventional belief, such as believing in Bigfoot, means that one is unconventional in other attitudes and behaviors; who has such experiences and beliefs and how they differ from other Americans; and if we can expect major religions to emerge from the paranormal. Brimming with engaging personal stories and provocative findings, Paranormal America is an entertaining yet authoritative look at a growing segment of American religious culture.

[currentsinbiology]

White male gun owners with money stress more likely to be morally attached to their guns

White male gun owners who have lost, or fear losing, their economic footing tend to feel morally and emotionally attached to their guns, according to a Baylor University study.

This segment of the population also is most likely to say that violence against the United States government is sometimes justified, reported researchers F. Carson Mencken, Ph.D., and Paul Froese, Ph.D., professors of sociology in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences.

"This speaks to the belief in some 'dark state' within the government which needs fighting," Froese said.

"What's paradoxical is that white male gun owners in the U.S. see themselves as hyper-patriotic, but they are the first to say, 'If the government impedes me, I have the moral and almost patriotic right to fight back.'"

In contrast, nonwhite gun owners who have faced or may be coping with financially difficult times do not place as much importance on the gun, researchers found. They also are much less likely to approve of violence against the federal government even if they feel high levels of economic stress.

[latesthubnews]

They are also more likely to see violence against US government as sometimes justified, -- ScienceDaily

They are also more likely to see violence against US government as sometimes justified, — ScienceDaily

White male gun owners who have lost, or fear losing, their economic footing tend to feel morally and emotionally attached to their guns, according to a Baylor University study.

This segment of the population also is most likely to say that violence against the United States government is sometimes justified, reported researchers F. Carson Mencken, Ph.D., and Paul Froese, Ph.D., professors of…