An insight into suburban mass hysteria from one of its “victims.” I’ve always been interested in mob mentality, but I missed out on the McMartin preschool affair in 1984 since I was too young to follow it at the time. Reading about it now, it seems absolutely nuts that the fantastical tales the children were telling ended up launching a multi-million dollar investigation – it doesn’t even seem as ambiguous as Capturing the Friedmans was constructed to be. (via kevin drum)