How a Witch Hunt Works

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The Salem Witch Trials were a very interesting social phenomenon in which two children went into trance-like fits and claimed to see 'forms' of people, who were then deemed to be witches and subsequently imprisoned and hanged. Some of the accused were able to confess witchcraft and were spared because they confessed. One man was almost spared when he began to recite the Lord's Prayer at his hanging, causing people to question his being a witch since witches weren't thought to be able to recite the Lord's Prayer, but when someone else told the public it was just the devil trying to trick them, they went on calling for his hanging.

Why do witch hunts work? Why don't people question popular opinion and see what's going on? Preponderance of testimony and emotion is not conclusive, but it induces an intuitive/emotional sense of wanting to do something to bring justice. The culture of ridicule is so strong in contemporary times, that witch hunting has become an informal norm in the media, and the question is whether formal institutions of justice will be able to separate themselves from it.

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@livinglava,

Quote:

Preponderance of testimony and emotion is not conclusive

You lose me here. "Preponderance of testimony" can be conclusive in any court of law.

When there is any accusation, be it witchcraft, murder or abuse of power, there should be a set process that starts with investigation. Then the evidence should be presented and considered.

It seems to me that we should follow the Constitutional process to see if this particular witch has abused his power. If he has, then we should impeach the witch.

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The Witch Hunt analogy doesn't work in the case of Trump.

In the Salem Witch hunt (following a pattern invented in Europe) they were afraid that their were witches living among them and they weren't sure who they were. That is why it is a "hunt". They are looking to drive out witches from among them.

In the McCarthy Witch hunt, they were afraid there were communists living among them and they weren't sure who they were. They had the hunt to seek and the communists.

In the #MeToo witch hunt, they are afraid there are sexual abusers living among them. Again the effort was to hunt down the perpetrators hidden among them.

In the McCarthy and #MeToo cases, there were actually "witches" (i.e. communist traitors and sexual abusers) to find. The metaphor is still valid to explain the fear that causes people to accuse the people around them.

In the Trump case, it is one man who is being accused of abusing his executive power for political gain. We know perfectly well who he is, there is no need to "hunt". The effort is to prove (or disprove) that he abused his power.

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@maxdancona,

what sets a ""witch hunt apart from a mere inquiry" is that , in a witch hunt, the concept that there be witches is taken as a given. In an inquiry, we first try to determine of they exist at all.

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@livinglava,

Did you learn your History off a set of cigarette cards?

You have no sources, no record of events just your sketchy third person account of something you might have heard.

This is like your thread on Rome, just like you did there, you hear a few buzz words from the Trump machine, then you add your own half baked version of history and run with it.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Quote:

You have no sources...

What?! You want a source? Are you daft, man?!

I can only surmise that you must be a warlock.

1 Reply

@Sturgis,

I can't find the Lisa Simpson quote but it's something like being able to do long multiplication doesn't make you a witch.

When I looked I found this, which doesn't seem an appropriate response, but what the heck.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/88/6c/34886c3d43701747f2ea330c2d05f1e7.jpg

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

The Witch Hunt analogy doesn't work in the case of Trump.

Makes me think you might understand what a witch hunt is.

1 Reply

@McGentrix,

I explained my reasoning... would you care to respond intelligently to my point?

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@izzythepush,

The "witch" in this case is Donald Trump (not a woman).

1 Reply

The "lynching" metaphor actually works better than the "witch hunt" metaphor in the case of Trump.

Lynching refers to an extra-judicial punishment based on an angry mob rather than on justice. When Trump referred to the impeachment as an "impeachment" he was making the claim that the Democrats aren't following any set process and are acting on outrage rather than justice or evidence. I don't agree with this narrative, but at least it makes sense.

As I said, the "witch hunt" metaphor implies that there are some unknown number of "witches" being hunted are acting in secret. Trump is a known person, an individual, in a prominent position. He isn't being hunted as anything.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

We used to throw them in the pond. If they drowned, that was proof of innocence. If they floated, we tied them to a stake, and you know. . . .

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Quote:
Preponderance of testimony and emotion is not conclusive

You lose me here. "Preponderance of testimony" can be conclusive in any court of law.

When there is any accusation, be it witchcraft, murder or abuse of power, there should be a set process that starts with investigation. Then the evidence should be presented and considered.

It seems to me that we should follow the Constitutional process to see if this particular witch has abused his power. If he has, then we should impeach the witch.

Or impeach everyone who abuses impeachment as a partisan political tool.

0 Replies

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

The "lynching" metaphor actually works better than the "witch hunt" metaphor in the case of Trump.

Lynching refers to an extra-judicial punishment based on an angry mob rather than on justice. When Trump referred to the impeachment as an "impeachment" he was making the claim that the Democrats aren't following any set process and are acting on outrage rather than justice or evidence. I don't agree with this narrative, but at least it makes sense.

As I said, the "witch hunt" metaphor implies that there are some unknown number of "witches" being hunted are acting in secret. Trump is a known person, an individual, in a prominent position. He isn't being hunted as anything.

Actual witchcraft is not an issue in a witch hunt. If anything, the witchcraft going on in a witchhunt is the accusers conjuring up fear/anger/hate against the accused.

There's so much scapegoating among Democrats because of white guilt. They feel legitimately bad about slavery and racism, but because they have no way to feel better without giving up (the pursuit of) privilege they don't want to lose, they scapegoat Republicans, and they legitimate the tactics they use by believing that doing so is going to achieve social justice.

They should just work constructively at solving problems instead of scapegoating and attacking/discriminating against their scapegoats.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Your pushing your narrative rather than responding to what I said.

Even if I accepted your narrative.... the "witch hunt" narrative still doesn't fit. Read what you wrote, you are positioning the Democrats as the witches? Who is hunting them?

The "witch hunt" metaphor doesn't at all fit. You are here to rant about a process that you think is unfair. Your misuse of the metaphor hurts your rant.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Your pushing your narrative rather than responding to what I said.

Even if I accepted your narrative.... the "witch hunt" narrative still doesn't fit. Read what you wrote, you are positioning the Democrats as the witches? Who is hunting them?

The "witch hunt" metaphor doesn't at all fit. You are here to rant about a process that you think is unfair. Your misuse of the metaphor hurts your rant.

No, I think it is clear that white guilt is the spiritual motivation behind the scapegoating of Republicans generally and Trump in particular.

In Democrat magic, sacrificing a rich and powerful white man is how they atone for slavery and racism without having to sacrifice their own pursuit of power and privilege.

It's witches using witchcraft to get away with witchcraft by scapegoating/sacrificing someone else as 'the witch.'

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@livinglava,

Quote:

It's witches using witchcraft to get away with witchcraft by scapegoating/sacrificing someone else as 'the witch.'

Wait! Let me get this straight...

You're the one who is hunting witches?

(That's funny. You really have this witch hunt narrative wrong....)

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@livinglava,

Quote:

Why don't people question popular opinion and see what's going on?

Well, in reference to the Salem witch trials, I wonder what the demons posing as church authorities would do to someone who openly defended an accused witch. Actually, I don't think we have to wonder about that.

1 Reply

@roger,

Quote:

We used to throw them in the pond. If they drowned, that was proof of innocence. If they floated, we tied them to a stake, and you know. . . .

When you say "we," who was it that was with you? More importantly, which one of you did the throwing?

1 Reply

@Glennn,

We. The whole community

Same answer.

Very open minded, we were. Some were determined to be quite innocent. Of course, some did float.

0 Replies

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