Phantom Panic
Often the result of Threat Picking, Phantom Panic, aka moral panic or good old hysteria, takes a real or imagined anecdote turn into mainstream political talking points, sometimes resulting in real world consequences.
Pinball machines, for example, were banned in New York City from 1942 to 1976 because people thought they were a game of chance which corrupted kids by getting them hooked on gambling. The ban fell apart after pinball wizard Roger Sharpe demonstrated that it’s actually a game of skill in a much publicized event.
