Something That's Always Bothered Me About "Moral Panics"

Sometimes I think I have good instincts. For my entire life, I've been suspicious of the term "moral panic". A "moral panic" is (supposedly) something that occurs when there's public alarm about some trend or phenomenon, real or imagined.

Here is Wikipedia's list of moral panics.

The most obvious fact about "moral panics" is that the term only ever seems to be applied to either conservative anxieties (such as McCarthyism) or those which are politically neutral (like Y2K, or the wave of clown sightings in 2016). Left-wing scares are never called moral panics. You won't hear the term "moral panic" applied to liberal fretting about home-schooling, the rise of the supposed "far right" (via "online radicalisation"), or "disinformation".

But that's low-hanging fruit. That's true of everything. (In the same way, right-wing reactions against social trends are always called "backlashes", while left-wing reactions are "resistance." In the same way, political satire for my entire lifetime has been overwhelmingly aimed at conservatives-- or perceived conservatives, such as Margaret Thatcher.)

No, my suspicion of the term "moral panic" goes deeper than that. And I just realized it today.

The thing about moral panics is that they presume some sort of public-spiritedness. Most "moral panics" aren't really about dangers faced by the individual. They have to do with social and cultural concerns-- concerns about the way society is going. Not so much the body politic, as the social fabric.

The left often resorts to this formula, when they're trying to push for something conservatives oppose: "If you don't want an X, don't get an X." That's a pretty atomistic way to view society, if you ask me.

("But...but...didn't you say you're becoming ever more libertarian?". Yes, I am! But a "moral panic" doesn't necessarily have to do with demanding government action. Social and cultural debate can also be about trying to warn, persuade, evangelize, denounce, etc. etc.)

I have a special interest in "moral panics" because I'm a horror movie fan. Horror movies (as critics and academics love to explain, and very often persuasively) often reflect moral or social anxieties of the day. For instance, threats to the nuclear family, or to childhood innocence. I suppose these could be construed as a personal danger, a personal threat-- but the impression I get is that they tend to be much broader and more public. I can't really argue that, except by saying that movies (and stories) have a universalizing tendency. They only seem to have emotional resonance if they apply beyond the individual.