Satanic Panic 2.0: The Momo Challenge hoax [TW: Self-harm/suicide]

Hey! Get your lawn off MY lawn!

image

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These kinds of hoaxes are primed to be self-fulfilling, even if only as a joke (which then gets confused for something real).

And then eventually you get something like QAnon out of it.

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So it’s MOMO FOMO.

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FO SHO, YO!

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Yeah, that’s an extreme endpoint, where a slight confusion about reality becomes pathological and turns to outright madness.

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Or, maybe it’s just supposed to be creepy. Maybe we should evaluate art aesthetically, rather than constantly moralizing about every creative decision anyone makes.

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Yup. We got an e-mail from GirlChild’s school principal yesterday about this.

Unfortunately not the “hey it’s a hoax” e-mail, but the OH NOES!!! e-mail…

Now all the kids are talking about it…

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I think unfortunately this elaborate hoax has now morphed into a harmful meme being inserted into youtube videos scaring young children see this article

In same way that in positive culture to quote the famous YouTube video “everything is a remix”.
It looks like the trolls of the internet are remixing hoaxes and scary memes and general disturbing crap and splicing it into videos meant for young children.

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i mean we’re talking about art that is obviously meant to be provocative and weird. While it’s possible i don’t understand the intent and my comment may have seemed harsh, i think intent is absolutely important. We aren’t exactly talking about the decorative scroll work on wallpaper or the shape of a porch here. There’s beautiful statues of southern segregationists and hitler did some, well not really good, but not totally terrible landscapes, but i think it’s very acceptable to judge those things on more than an aesthetic basis. You can argue that the moralizing is misplaced or just wrong, but i think intent absolutely matters.

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Right so. We need to strictly evaluate any piece of arts by it’s author’s persona and must not allow anything “weird or shocking”, ambigous or politically suspicious to be exposed to the public.
Think of the children/moral of the working class/people’s republic!

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dude criticism and censorship are not the same thing.

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I hear you. It’s horror. Misogyny comes up a lot in the symbolism of horror. It’s getting irritating how defensive culture has become in general that this seems provocative somehow as a statement when all of us probably realize there is misogyny literally at the core of just about everything in our culture. Fear of women/femininity is totally a thing in and of itself and horror is all about what scares us.

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My kid’s school sent a long email about this dingus TODAY, so kudos to you for prescience. I salute you. Also, even a cursory glance at the internet shows this to be exactly what it is.

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i want to prepare an instant grilled cheese sandwich with added bird nip to launch with my pistol crossbow , the dm asks to see my inventory sheet ( again )

Well, feel free to call it a hoax, or whatever you want.

However, I did personally witness my 6yro godson draw a creepy smiling face along with the words “momo tchalen”, and after asking a few questions, it turned out the bigger kids were showing him said picture, and telling him momo would come at night to cut his legs off.

So i’m not sure exactly what you are trying to achieve by calling it a hoax or comparing it to a panic. The image exists, is scary, children with access to electronic devices are definitely using them to scare each other off, and there is a traumatic effect that they may need help dealing with.

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When I was a kid we did this to each other frequently. The kid I wished would have been my friend most was a girl who was just wonderfully good at spinning a creepy tale. I adored her despite her manipulative tendencies because of her phenomenal “spin” skills. She had me up all night once thinking every bit of red light I could see in the city might be something evil. It was much more fun than worrying about the things in my life that I had to worry about, that’s for sure.

I always wished I could craft a story that really got to people because I dunno I guess I’m a fear masochist at this point or something and I know I’m not the only one, so I understand the urge. At the same time though, I can see how destructive it can be and how dangerous the “fun” some kids take in manipulation can get. I also see how the message itself can be manipulated to speak to the anxieties of adults, which is where I think the panic/hoax part comes in.

The “manufactured” aspect seems to speak to one of the greatest real fears that modern parents actually face: that malicious people will use technology you have little ability to control or understand to harm your child. Adult creepy pasta about children’s creepy pasta.

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Which is not what the hoax is about. Those kinds of stories and bullying, whether it’s Bloody Mary or Momo, or whatever, have been around forever.

This specific hoax is that kids are getting instructions on how to self-harm or kill their families. That’s why “Satanic Panic 2.0” is apt. D&D was going to induct us all into covens, daycares were sacrificing kids… The original Satanic Panic, just like this round, wasn’t about kids scaring each other, it was fear mongering to adults. It’s “your kids are not with you 24/7 and terrible things are happening because of it”.

I could give a longer lesson about the social pressures behind the original and how it ties into today’s version, but suffice it to say, that what you describe is not the same as what Corey is talking about. They may use the same character, but they are entirely different at the core.

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“Momo challenge” is allegedly to get kids to hurt or kill themselves

Well, you can call it a hoax, but I have read that it was seeing Momo that made little Mikey from the Life commercials commit suicide by mixing soda and pop rocks.

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