This is so out of touch with most of the world's population. In post-soviet world having a tiny 1 bedroom apartment on 10th floor with yard overrun with parked cars is the best middle class can hope for. Even in the western Europe having an American-sized garage is almost outside of reach of the row house owner. A large lot with a 4br house and a double garage is such a far away dream for most families.
I guess we now know how the Salem witch trials happened.<p>What's striking about the story is that the panic did not (apparently) start with the public. It started, bafflingly, with investigators and the police.
This seems like a similar phenomenon to the anti vax movement. I currently only pay glancing attention to the anti vaxers. I believe they're crazy and write it off because it has very little to do with my life. I imagine I would've done the same thing during this satanic cult scare. Mass hysteria coupled with conspiracy beliefs are a thing in America.
I wonder how much of this was a result of the "born again" evangelical movement. I watched my parents in the 80s go from apathetic Catholicism to fervent Protestants. During which things got weird. Suddenly Satan was real and things like Halloween were up for debate.
Coincidentally there is a second thread relating this on the front page
>Why people confess to crimes they didn’t commit
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182282" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182282</a>
Frankly this makes me a little happier to live in the present. As much as ubiquitous surveillance is terrifying, it also makes this kind of bullshit on the part of those in power harder to get away with.