We may never shake that off.

as we witnessed most recently at that pool in McKinney, Texas.

What this article is about is a series of (mostly) media scare articles that caused unreasonable amounts of panic among suburbanites who were prone to that sort of thing.

Well, except for "the marriage crunch." After my divorce, I took a great deal of comfort from that one, the notion that I was safer from getting stuck in another marriage than I was from terrorists.

On close examination, all the panic stories fell completely apart and it didn't take much close examination to do it.

The worst, I think, was the Red Scare. We're still dealing with that one in various forms and right wingers are still calling Democrats "commies."

The number of lives lost because of the US government, and especially Ronnie Reagan, in the AIDS pandemic, is nothing short of genocide

And unfortunately many of them are in the media. They must laugh at the American people.

In what way?

Indeed, for many of those, they don't make the case for "lasting damage"

In fact, it's quite ironic that a list of examples of media hype, has hyped its title.

that's pretty damaging.

It also pushed the "women are unworthy of attention if over 40" thing.

5? 19? 27,000? I'd bet on the low end.

Presumably it was about women having kids, hence the whole thing about 40.

Divorce rate is a pretty decent proxy for "settling" for someone in a marriage. And it's pretty high from marriages during that era.

Do you get bonus points for being rude?

You could argue that the AIDS hysteria was worse, but consider the situation at the time. After a decade already being condemned for gross excess, the Retribution of God (tm) struck Good White Folks Just Like Me and You (tm). Remember the Time cover about "The New Scarlet Letter?" The AIDS epidemic, OTOH, was initially scoffed at, even sneakily approved, because it was the disease that only struck gays and blacks, and who cared about them? Dunno about you, kids, but I remember acquaintances telling me that AIDS was a good thing because it was killing off society's refuse.


Let's review the first press conference to mention AIDS, 15 October 1982:

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement — the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What’s AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don’t.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President—
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any—
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping—
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn’t have gay plague, is that what you’re saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn’t say that.
Q: Didn’t say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn’t you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you, Larry, that’s why. (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don’t put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It’s too late.


Hardee-har-har and chuckle, chuckle. And suddenly, herpes dropped right off the radar.

I wonder why that happened?

-- Mal

All I consider a bunch of BS.

Not all, of course, but most of them.

came about at a bad time for me - I was 25. My self esteem was low. I resented men because of it.

I had no idea some folk took it seriously - I laughed because I recognized it for what it was -misogynistic bullshit

And everything would stop!

Yes remember January 1 2000 and how nothing happened.

time and the main problem with the societal reaction to the epidemic was inaction and criminal negligence on the part of Ronald Wilson Reagan and his hate filled Party of bigoted thieves. Reagan was silent about AIDS for 7 entire years saying nothing until the death toll was at 30,000 in the US alone. To blame the public for a 'panic' when the threat was actual and the government maliciously apathetic is not the correct placement of blame.
I think many current people seek to downplay the Republican's genocidal intentions with their AIDS non policy and they do so in service to the public images of Republicans past and present who still all refuse to address that time, refuse to apologize or even offer a simple explanation as to how and why they could have endorsed such ignorant, deadly policy. Lincoln Chafee. Jim Webb. Elizabeth Warren, all three of them voted for Reagan and Bush both times, the second Reagan vote taking place with thousands of Americans dead without a hint of concern from their government.
There are rich white straight people on DU who voted for all of that Reagan horror as well, and some of them sit here sniping at LGBT people and African Americans. One of them asked me 'Was AIDS really all that bad'? 36 million dead so far so yes, it was all that bad.

Hyperbole and misinformation results in risk taking behavior often. The thread was, is, real, yet still too many do not understand the true facts.

I remember people being aghast that I would do home visits for people with AIDS, HIV+, htlv3 (earlier name for HIV). Wasn't I afraid I'd catch it!??!? "I didn't know they were gay!" Etc etc etc

Spouse of a local doctor died from AIDS, it educated a whole lot of people, brought it home.

Even now I hear something say the won't get tested because they don't want to know as "there is nothing to do about it anyway". Or snickers about it being a result of sinful behavior.

More research, more real information is needed and indeed. Aside from the economic crap, the huge failure of the Reagan yrs was the mishandling of HIV AIDS .

Argh argh argh

The whole stripping / breakdown / fraud thing aside, it was funny to watch people fall for such BS.

After the Columbine school shootings and similar incidents, there was an attempt to blame the whole thing on violence in video games; there were congressional hearings on the subject. I think part of the phenomenon was an attempt to deflect attention away from the subject of guns, and a reluctance to address the problems of bullying and mental health. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine discussed the subject.

The whole flap resulted in a further alienation of some very bright young people. That seems to be a recurring theme with panics over music, gaming, the Goth subculture, etc.

Tipper Gore led that folly!

"There were many victims of the satanic ritual child abuse panic of the 1980s and ’90s. But the victims were not the children (unless you count the psychological damage to a four-year-old of being told that grownups dismembered babies in front of you). The scandals destroyed the lives of every adult associated with the McMartin Preschool in California, Frances and Dan Keller in Texas and hundreds of other daycare operators and workers.

The scandal was the modern equivalent of a witch-hunt, and gullible America was riveted."

A crackpot prosecutor who believed every word she was told by psychologists who planted the stories in a bunch of kids' heads tried to arrest and/or indict half the town of Jordan MN on this utter horseshit. Everything was eventually thrown out except charges against one person and the prosecutor was subsequently disbarred. Not that it was much recompense to the people whose lives she destroyed.