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# The Time I Got Coffee with Hollywood Satanists
January 21 2021
Written by Jill Richardson.
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**OTHER WORDS**-In the interest of stemming [the QAnon conspiracy theories about Satanist pedophile rings in Hollywood](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/20/qanon-conspiracy-child-abuse-truth-trump), I’d like to share my experience with *actual* Satanists in Hollywood.
The truth is so much more boring than the (completely false) conspiracy theories.
It’s worth starting with [the original Satanic panic of the 1980s](https://www.vox.com/2016/10/30/13413864/satanic-panic-ritual-abuse-history-explained). I recommend the account relayed in the podcast “[You’re Wrong About](https://podbay.fm/p/youre-wrong-about/e/1525291200).”
The co-host Sarah Marshall is writing a book on the Satanic panic and she really knows the topic inside and out. It’s not too different from today: adults became hysterical over alleged sexual abuse of children by a Satanic cult that didn’t exist. It never existed.
Even still, until a few years ago, I’d keep my black cat in the house around Halloween each year because of rumors common among cat owners that Satanists like to abduct cats — especially black ones — for ritual torture and sacrifice.
Then, one day I was out with a friend and she told me she was a Satanist.
Umm, a what?
My friend seemed so normal! She was a military veteran. She worked in IT. I knew that she had clashed with her parents over their belief in evangelical Christianity but — what?
I asked some questions and then went home and [Googled it to fact check](https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/what-is-the-difference-between-the-satanic-temple-and-the-church-of-satan). It turns out that Satanism is not very different from the [Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster](https://www.spaghettimonster.org/). Neither one believes in Satan — or in a flying spaghetti monster. They’re jokes intended to troll Christians who try to impose their beliefs on others through politics.
The Satanic Temple is essentially a political protest group disguised as a religion. If another religion wants to have prayer in schools or the Ten Commandments in a public building, these Satanists show up to say it’s only fair that they give the school children Satanic coloring books too or something. It’s a political tactic to enforce the separation of church and state.
Once I’d established that my friend wasn’t going to harm my cat, I left it alone. Satanism wasn’t for me, and my friend’s beliefs were her business.
Then one day she needed a ride to a Satanist meetup in Hollywood. . . and I wanted to go to Hollywood. They were meeting somewhere kind of touristy that sounded fun. I planned to just nerd out about movies while they did their thing without me.
I ended up hanging out with the Satanists through a fluke. As we walked in the door, my friend began talking to a woman who was also there for the meetup. In all of the introductions, we established that the woman we’d just met, and I had the same fourth grade teacher.
I stuck around while we chatted about fourth grade, and then mostly killed time. I talked to a woman about Italian Renaissance art for a bit — she was surprisingly knowledgeable. I got a coffee. I ate some pie. That’s honestly all there was. It was a boring night. Then we went home.
QAnon conspiracy theories about child sex trafficking rings are not just wrong — they are harmful. The only people who could believe that Satanists would make a sex trafficking ring obviously have never met any real Satanists.
As [the people who work to save real sex trafficking victims](https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-qanon-child-sex-trafficking-20201028-eclhifensfdqlnduqodoehexji-story.html) point out, QAnon’s hysteria over a made-up story [diverts resources from helping actual victims](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/technology/qanon-save-the-children-trafficking.html). If you want to truly help victims of sexual abuse, donate to an organization like the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN).
*(OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is pursuing a PhD in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This op-ed was distributed by* [*OtherWords.org*](https://otherwords.org/the-time-i-got-coffee-with-hollywood-satanists/)*) Photo: Shutterstock. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.*
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