I went to a private religious school in Texas for a time. In 8th grade we had to take a class, for a grade, in which were taught "the connection between Satanism and rock and roll" among other things. We spent an entire class day dissecting the lyrics to "Hotel California" piece by piece and being told how it refers to a specific satanic temple somewhere in San Francisco. We learned about Richard Ramirez aka "The Night Stalker" and how he created pentagrams near the corpses of his victims in order to draw directly on Satan's demonic energy to help him evade the police. We were taught about the dangers of demonic possession, and about how you wouldn't know that you were possessed because only holy people can know that and being possessed makes you unholy.

We learned all about the allegations of widespread secret satanic ritual abuse in the US. We learned about the supposed massive conspiracy to silence and discredit these victims, which proves the level to which Satanism has infiltrated and dominated our society. You never know who could be a secret Satanist, so you should assume everyone is until they go to church and pray with you. Real Christians are the underground, the persecuted, the last warriors of light against a demonically corrupted society. I am not exaggerating this portrayal of their worldview. This is the kind of fervor and zeal that is commonplace in evangelical America, and they start em young.

It's not just tribal and authoritarian and willfully ignorant. It goes beyond that. It is a kind of shared delusional paranoiac mania, masquerading as a legitimized way of life.