
The Suburban Uncanny - byproxy
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-suburban-uncanny
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kachurovskiy
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.

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knolax
I've lived in both tiny apartments and suburban homes and I can tell you the
former is much more desirable. This can be evidenced by the ridiculous housing
prices in American cities. Suburban __homes__ are nice but they are surrounded
by nothing but other suburban homes. In many cases it's not even possible to
leave without a car because the only thing connecting the suburbs to the rest
of the world are motorways. After a while living in these conditions take a
toll, especially for the stay at home mothers the article describes.

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nerdponx
I guess we now know how the Salem witch trials happened.

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.

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brifee
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.

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Crye
I was just imagining the same thing, and it's not hard to relate it to similar
stories conspiracies happening today. QAnons belief that there is an
underground network of famous child pedophiles. Of which are secretly being
arrested by the current white house administration.

It's easy to disregard these stories as wild fantasies, while at the same time
there is a growing groundswell of people who fully believe it.

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shameshame
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.

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Forge36
Coincidentally there is a second thread relating this on the front page >Why
people confess to crimes they didn’t commit
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182282](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20182282)

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zamfi
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.

