The “Satanic Panic” was a conspiracy theory that really took hold among a certain kind of Christian in the 1980s. Perfectly innocent people were accused of ritualistic child abuse, bad behavior was blamed on the devil, and the modern-day witch hunt ruined countless lives. No evidence ever proved this organized abuse was occurring—certainly not the way accusers insisted it was—but as with so many conspiracy theories, its power had nothing to do with the facts.

Conspiracy theories have never gone away, obviously, but as NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny writes in a truly disturbing article, the more recent versions of right-wing, religious conspiracy theories are taking pages from the Satanic Panic handbook. ...