Seduction of the Innocent
by Fredric Wertham · first published 1954
100% neutral
This is the most shocking book of recent years. And it should be the most influential. Seduction of the Innocent is the complete, detailed report of the findings of famed psychiatrist, Frederic Wertham, on the pernicious influence of comic books on the youth of today. No parent can afford to ignore it. You think your child is immune? Don't forget — 90,000,000 comic books are read each month. On the basis of wide experience and many years' research, Dr. Wertham flatly states that comic books: - Are an invitation to illiteracy - Create an atmosphere of cruelty and deceit - Stimu
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…https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/scare-tactics-... > "On April 21, 1954, Dr. Frederic Wertham strode into the U.S. Senate hearing room in a white lab coat, a symbol of the same authority he wielded while writing Seduction of the Innocent, his condemnation of the comics industry, especially the horror genre, as corrupting America’s youth. The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, led by Senator Estes Kefauver fresh from his victory…
on “The Superhero Industry Hates Children (2019)” ↗There used to be calls to ban comic books because they were corrupting the youth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent "Seduction of the Innocent is a book by American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile…
on “The Internet Will Be the Death of Us” ↗I was wrong about the era, apparently the height of the comic book scare was the late 1950s, but it continued to the end of the century as far as I remember. It's all based on this book Seduction of the Innocent: https://www.amazon.com/Seduction-Innocent-Frederic-Wertham/d... Here's an article about it: https://slate.com/culture/2008/04/the-campaign-against-comic... The scare went all the way to Congress. Here's…
on “What Happens When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone?” ↗…pretty interesting! This is a thing people making Serious Work in a medium whose name has connotations of being silly need to grapple with. Of course, there was also Frederic Wertham and his 1954 book "Seduction of the Innocent", which lead to the creation of the Comics Code. Which essentially set back acceptance of the medium as something you could tell adult stories in for a generation, and it's only in the past couple decades…
on “In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business” ↗…source of moral decay in our society. We are generally more educated these days though so "look at them eating avocado toast!" and straight up fear mongering won't cut it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105.amp So they resort to unfalsifiable data. You all going to put the work in that would be required…
on “Gen Z first generation since 1800's with lower cognitive performance” ↗Yes, this exactly. The CCA grew out of a widespread moral panic about comic book content, and its effects on youth. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent. Basically, after this, the once thriving comics industry in the USA was reduced to just superheroes as all other genres like romance, horror, detectives (there's a reason Batman was published in detective…
on “What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me” ↗…works embedded in your memory, deference to which is not the aggregate’s obligation. Consider how religion has declined despite protests of the prior generation reality would end, yet it hasn’t. Consider Seduction of the Innocent and its authors fears about comic books fracturing society and it didn’t. Consider parental outrage at DND and rock music, which also did not end the world. Just another generation bleating like a goat…
on “How A.I. chatbots become political” ↗Why is this true and not just more elder moral panic like Seduction of the Innocent[1], outrage at books, DnD, comics, etc? Different context but why is this not just driven by generational fear of change? It’s trivial to pick a data set that supports a conclusion. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent
on “Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness” ↗Same as it ever was… https://americansongwriter.com/remember-the-filthy-fifteen-4... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105 https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/27/business/job-insecurity-o... Modern neuroscience provides enough evidence to argue older generations “synced” early on…
on “Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope” ↗Funny how you go on about the world ending while merely repeating it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_Advisory https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105 What's more likely? Reality is collapsing or you brainwave synced with elders riddled by post war and cold…
on “Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse” ↗What's infected HN is the same old discourse; old people find the kids social tropes dangerous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_Advisory What's more realistic; 50+ year olds of today just parroting sensory experience where they heard their dead…
on “Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse” ↗