When a moral panic kicks off, it’s easy to perceive everyone who doesn’t push back against it as a uniform mass of bad faith agitators or dumb rubes. Naturally, I think there’s a more complex taxonomy.
First, the Bad Seeds: These are the people who kick off moral panics, who painstakingly build the first lies, who rise to prominence — and eventually disappear into ignominy. Sometimes they’re malevolent, other times they just have brainworms.
Then, the Masterminds: your profoundly nasty Goebbels-level Big Lie purveyors. They rarely invent lies, but they’re dedicated to operationalizing them. They know they’re lying, and they do it both tactically and strategically to advance their cause or hurt someone else’s.
Naturally, there’s a layer of Hucksters. Hucksters are aware, at least on some level, that they’re BSing people — but they’ve got bills to pay and penis pills to sell. They rarely craft the Big Lie, but they often embellish it, jumping onboard and making it their own to cash in.
Those three are movers and shakers, but they’re far outnumbered by the “ground troops” of a moral panic.
First, the Craven. They don’t craft lies — they don’t even think they’re lying, not REALLY… but they knowingly ignore contradictions because the lie works for them on some level. They often share an underlying ideology with a Mastermind or Bad Seed.
Then, naturally, the Self-Righteous: They desperately need SOMETHING to separate themselves from external evil, and they’re quick to seize on any idea that “proves” others are the problem. They can be found passing on the big lie to their friends to show they’re in the know.
Then there’s the Prejudiced. Like the Self-Righteous, they’re are quick to accept information that confirms their existing distrust or distaste for an out-group. The focus is what makes them special: they’re specifically keyed to nastiness about a PARTICULAR group they dislike.
With the movers and shakers covered, and the ground troops categorized, we move on to the broad base of people who support the panic even if they don’t agitate for it.
Dupes are people who believe the lie but are willing to step outside of the Hype and Panic, given the right information and circumstances. They’re part of the problem, in the same way that your mom is part of the problem when she forwards email, but also the least diabolical.
The Credulous are a bit different. They live in a communications bubble, and uncritically believe what a trusted source tells them. Maybe it’s a gossippy Self-Righteous, or a Huckster on their favorite talk show. They can be convinced, but it’s about personal trust, not facts.
Finally, The Terrified. The saddest group, IMO. They harbor doubts about the Lie, but they’re afraid not to go along. After all, what if it’s right? Won’t we think of the CHILDREN? These are rarely the people yelling: they’re quietly fretting as they read the vitriolic headline.