What is “moral panic”? We know the word panic… But “moral panic”? It is when great concern spreads in the media, in social networks, in short, in the general public, without any connection between facts and reality. The threat is exaggerated, and usually one group is singled out.
The term moral panic was coined by Stanley Cohen, a sociologist, who speaks of a phenomenon of “deviation amplification”. Basically when a group is outside the norm and that deviation from the norm is exaggerated or presented as a threat.
From serial killers to feminists
There are several well-known examples of moral panic. In the US, serial killers were the subject of many fantasies and fears in the 1980s, just as satanists were in the 1990s, but it’s not just pedophiles, Covid-19 or very scary things that can cause moral panic.
Feminists have often been caricatured and portrayed as a threat. Do you remember the cover of Valeurs Actuelles magazine referring to feminist “terror”?
“Moral panic” ensues when the threat is exaggerated
Lately it’s the “awakened”, that is, people committed to fighting discrimination, who are accused of all sorts of evil. Because of the “awakened” exhibitions or plays are deprogrammed, films are boycotted, books are censored. Which is partly true. But there is moral panic when the threat is exaggerated.
Former national education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, for example, accused wokism of “undermining democracy and the republic” and leading to “totalitarianism”. Another exaggeration or lie, the “Awakened” are accused of preventing any criticism, while on the contrary there have been a whole series of articles criticizing “Wokism”.
There you will know a little more about “moral panic” and we hope you can now recognize it better.