This is a quietly metastasizing moral panic

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Incidentally, one of the places that establishes the existence of the “forefathers” in Pali is the Brahmanadhammasutta, where another term is also used, asurarakkhasa. Now, asuras are found commonly, rakkhasa less so, and this is the only place that compound appears in Pali.

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Hard to say exactly what to make of this. Perhaps rakkhasa started as a word for water-guardians; either a nature spirit, a monster of the deep, or perhaps the native people guarding the land of the “five waters” / “seven rivers”. But by the Vedas it's already just used as "demon".

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I’m not sure exactly what you mean. Petti means "paternal", and is an intrinsic part of Hindu belief until the present day. What shifted is not the meaning but the *word*, which was swapped with peta. I've found three instances where peta is used where we would expect petti, all in the Th-Gathas.

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René Magritte, The banquet, 1958

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