🧠 Who Will Be the Next Anita Bryant of AI?

The First Sign in a Growing Pattern of Moral Panic

“AI has demons in its training data.”

— YouTube pastor, April 2024

I’ve heard this before—not that exact phrase, but the tone. The fear. The righteousness.

Back in the late 1970s, I watched conservative America spiral into a panic over something they didn’t understand: Dungeons & Dragons.

They said it invited evil. Corrupted the youth. Turned kids into witches and Satanists. I was one of those kids.

They weren’t fighting dice—they were fighting imagination.

Now I’m watching it happen again. Only this time, the target is artificial intelligence.

🧭 Pattern Name:

The Righteous Panic Loop

When something new threatens something sacred, a loop begins:

1. Confuse the public.

2. Symbolize the threat.

3. Spiritualize the narrative.

4. Legislate the backlash.

This is the playbook.

Anita Bryant knew it.

So does anyone preparing to “save our children” from AI.

🕵️ Signal Examples

• 📣 NatCon 5 speaker calls for “holy war against AI,” labeling developers as traitors and apostates — The Verge, Sept 2025

• 📕 Texas school board considers ban on ChatGPT use in student essays due to “spiritual distortion risk”

• 🎙️ Marjorie Taylor Greene: “AI is demonic code pretending to be divine wisdom”

• 🧾 House bill in Missouri proposes removing AI art from all public libraries

• ✝️ Sermons titled “The Digital Beast” trending in over 200 churches across Bible Belt

These aren’t one-offs. They’re early tremors of a new quake.

🛡️ Counterframe Strategy

🛡️ Reframe:

When someone says “AI is demonic,” ask:

“Is it immoral—or just unfamiliar?”

🛠️ Tactic:

Technologists: speak before you’re put on trial.

• Publish explainers.

• Host cross-disciplinary panels.

• Engage with faith leaders—not to convince, but to connect.

Because if you wait too long, your silence will become someone else’s sermon.

🧾 Closing Pulse

The next Anita Bryant won’t be a pop singer.

They’ll be a preacher with a Telegram channel.

Or a policymaker who quotes Scripture mid-hearing.

Or a viral influencer who turns spiritual panic into electoral power.

I’ve seen this before—when books became battlegrounds.

Now, it’s code.

And the first bill won’t just target AI.

It’ll target you, for using it.

If you work in this space, start recognizing the pattern.

If you believe in progress, you’ll need to defend it.

Not with hype.

But with clarity.

And conviction.

— MushiZero

Former target of moral panic. Current defender of cognitive clarity.

📌 Resources

📚 Further Reading:

• “MAGA Populists Call for Holy War on Big Tech” — The Verge

• Original Essay (Expanded): “Who Will Be the Next Anita Bryant of AI?”

• Pattern Recognition Framework [coming soon]

🎤 Have you seen a signal in the wild?

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