A reminder from long ago – Procter and Gamble being accused of Satanism. I remember a neighbor kid’s mom earnestly telling me to let my mom know how to read the Satanist symbolism on a box of Tide. Thing is, I think this was well before 1980, when Snopes and other websites claim the rumor took hold. I remember it in Utah in the mid-70’s… from a lady who I think used and sold Amway products. Hmm. – Salon.com

What we have here is less a political than a community mental-health problem. We’ve seen it all before. Paranoia blooms whenever Democrats take power in Washington. Remember militiamen fearful of U.N. black helicopters during Bill Clinton’s first term? Remember “backward masking”? Procter & Gamble accused of Satanism? Same thing. To an excitable minority, particularly in the South and intermountain West, apocalyptic fads are encoded in their religious DNA.

I hadn’t heard before of P&G’s suit against Amway, but it sure hits the Utah angle again and it’s making really, really old memories surface.

And yes, the intermountain West has always had more than its share of wacky conspiracy theories, and thanks to that fat blubbering boob Beck, they’re getting more attention after languishing in well-deserved obscurity for years.