A consistent thread in American politics — going back to before the US declared its independence from Britain — is that there are Satanists among us, organizing, controlling things, and coming for our children. One of the most prominent features of QAnon is this very thing — they say that the Democratic party is made up of a cabal of Satanists that are also running an organized pedophilia operation. It’s not true, but let’s break down this whole thing and figure out whether there are any Satanists, who they are, whether they are controlling things, and whether there are any organized pedophilia rings hiding in plain sight among powerful people.
1. Are there Satanists?
I don’t know about you, but when I think of what a Satanist is, I think of a person that a) believes Satan is a real entity, and b) worships that evil entity. To believe Satan is real, you’d have to take important parts of the Bible — the parts referencing Satan — as real, but then you’d have to turn the moral lessons of the Bible on their head and declare that the ethic of Satan is the superior ethic.
The Church of Satan is real. It was founded by Anton LaVey, who based it entirely on the moral philosophy of Ayn Rand. There’s just one problem — neither LaVey nor Rand believed that Satan (or God) are real. Rand was outspoken in her atheism — she did not believe God or any other supernatural force exists. LaVey didn’t believe in any such thing, either, but in contrast to Rand, he saw Satan as a potent symbol of rebellion against selflessness and the moral superiority of selfishness. He referred to the Church of Satan as a “cosmic joy buzzer” — an edifice designed specifically to freak people out. All of the offshoots of the Church of Satan have followed this same idea — embracing Satan as a symbol while not actually believing in the literal existence of Satan (or God).
To be clear: Ayn Rand’s “Objectivism” (a philosophy based on the subjective perspective of a malignant narcissist) and Anton LaVey’s Satanism are evil — they’re just not something you could call “worshipping Satan”. They aren’t what normal people would consider “real Satanism”. To find a “real” Satanist, we’d need to find someone who sees both the Bible and the work of Ayn Rand as foundational to their ideology because a real Satanist would have to believe that Satan is real.
Look! I found one! His name is Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan is a former politicians who served in US Congress from 1999 to 2019. He was quite vocal about his enthusiasm for both his Catholic faith and Ayn Rand; therefore, he is a Satanist. Would he admit to being a Satanist? Probably not.
2. Are these Satanist controlling things?
“Controlling” might be too strong a word, but the Tea Party Republicans (including Paul Ryan), with their dual devotion to Christian ideology and Ayn Rand’s “evil is good” philosophy, are the force that has brought the Republican party as a whole to the place it is in today. Their anti-science and anti-community positions are both manifestations of an ideology that puts the selfish individual above all else, much like Satan put his own glorification above the Will of God.
To be anti-science, you have to believe that your own ideas about something are more valid than the facts and interpretation provided by experts in their fields. To be anti-community, you have to believe that your happiness, comfort and safety are more important than everyone else’s. The Tea Party has been a campaign of selfishness and selfishness is winning.
3. Are Satanists in positions of power running organized pedophilia rings?
In this world, the closest thing we have to a powerful group running an organized pedophilia ring would be the Catholic Church and its campaign to hide the sexual abuse priests have committed against their own parishioners. The Catholic Church doesn’t seem to be encouraging the abuse, but when it occurs, they have attempted to hide the abuse and instead of punishing the pedophile, they’ve relocated him, which only provides him with new victims.
To be fair, there seems to be a shift in the church hierarchy’s position on abuse by priest and it is led by Pope Francis. I am not yet certain how serious they are about this shift, and of course, we will need to see if the policy changes stick after a new Pope is inaugurated.
But are these priests Satanists? I think it is possible, but there’s no evidence to that effect. They have not publicly endorsed a Satanic ethic, unlike Tea Party Republicans.
There are other groups running human trafficking rings and some of those traffic children. But those are not “powerful people” — they are common criminals. Recently, two FBI agents were killed and three wounded while attempting to apprehend a pedophile, and even wealthy pedophiles Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were eventually taken down by the US federal government (despite many politicians, including Donald Trump, having benefited from Epstein’s money).
In short, there’s absolutely no evidence of any powerful group of politicians running a pedophile ring.
4. Are Democrats pedophiles?
In terms of whether Democrats are more likely to be pedophiles, the answer seems to be “no”. In fact, we see in Republican ideology ideas that support pedophilia — specifically, the rejection of sexual consent (Republicans seem to not even understand what sexual consent is) and the rejection of the responsibility of male sexual aggressors in sexual assault (i.e., the “she was asking for it” defense).
If you look at political sex scandals, Democratic sex scandals are typically a man making non-consensual and offensive sexual overtures toward an adult woman. A great example would be Anthony Wiener who kept texting women pictures of his wiener. Another would be Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinksy which, though technically consensual, involved a problematic power dynamic and violation of Clinton’s marital vows (we presume).
On the other hand, Republican sex scandals tend to be a lot more repugnant. Here are some examples:
– Republican Ray Moore had a habit of pursuing adolescent girls (children) at the mall (he is a pedophile); Evangelicals and Trump endorsed him anyway.
– Republican Newt Gingrich was a serial adulterer, yet was one of the most outspoken attackers of Bill Clinton over the same issue.
– Republican Donald Trump had an extramarital affair with at least one porn star, was a rampant womanizer, bragged about sexually assaulting women, bragged about viewing nude adolescent girls (children) in the context of a beauty pageant (this makes him a pedophile), and was accused of raping one of his three wives.
– Rev. George Alan Rekers is a prominent anti-gay activist and part of two anti-gay organizations: Family Research Council and National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). He also cheated on his wife with a male prostitute while he was on vacation.
– Republican Dennis Hastert was a serial molester of boys (a pedophile). He was also a staunchly opposed to gay rights and abortion while he served in the US Congress.
Speaking of abortion, there’s a long trend of Republican anti-abortion lawmakers paying for women to have abortions.
Even among those Republicans who manage to practice what they preach, we see a weird belief that they can’t control their sexual urges. For example, Mike Pence won’t allow himself to be alone with a woman for fear that little Mike will compel him to do something immoral. Apparently, he is aware that he has no self-control.
Finally, Janus and Janus (1993) found that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to participate in BDSM. Given their view of sexual consent, this fact is quite concerning.
In conclusion, if we are deciding whether Democrats or Republicans are the most sexually noxious, that award goes to the Republicans, and includes the award for the most pedophilia of the two parties. Really, it’s no contest. If you want a more interesting competition, perhaps consider comparing Republicans to Libertarians; I don’t know how that would turn out.
Related: No, Biden did not lower the age of consent.
CONCLUSION
Every part of QAnon’s Satanic pedophile conspiracy theory is not only wrong but specifically designed to point you away from the real pedophiles and Satanists.