Witch Hunts - Modern and Otherwise

Warning, this post is longer than most of my other posts, but I think you will find it to be worth the extra time to read.

I have had a difficult time writing issues of this newsletter because there have been so many things to write about that I can’t prioritize! I have about three issues started and I will finish them in time. I wasn’t necessarily planning this one yet, but recent events have made me revisit my decision. Some of this post is taken from my book Fake News, Witch Hunts & Conspiracy Theories: an Infodemiologist’s Guide to the Truth (more on that at the end of the post).

This post deals specifically with witch hunts. 

Let’s go back in time and talk about historic witch hunts for some context.

We may all be familiar with the most famous witch hunt in the United States. In Salem in the 17th century 14 women and 5 men were executed as witches. Over 200 people were actually accused of witchcraft.

[It should be noted that while men have been accused of being witches and have been executed, the vast majority have been women. Many of them were marginalized members of society. More on that in a second.]

Witch hunts also occurred elsewhere throughout history. There is even mention of witch hunts in the Bible and Talmud. Many countries in Europe including Germany, France, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Russia, at one point or another in history have had witch hunts.

The number of people persecuted as witches globally is unknown. Some cite the figure as low as 10,000 while others estimate it may be in the millions. Often witch hysteria was a result of some sort of religious, political or cultural fervor. It may also have been triggered by hatred or fear of the “other.” The witch hunt in Salem, for example, started with an accusation by young girls who had fits that today may be explained by science (there are a couple of competing theories including encephalitis or ingestion of a fungus). At the time, these fits indicated possession, therefore someone must be to blame. Enter scapegoats and accusations against anyone you didn’t particularly like or understand.

This led to witch hysteria. If all that was needed to be accused of witchcraft was a neighbor or someone saying they saw you with the devil who was sucking your third nipple, then you were arrested and tried as a witch. Neighbors would accuse each other to prevent being accused themselves or because they didn’t like you. If you were a bit different, you were a witch because we don’t like the “other.”

Women were also rooted out because they had some power. That power could take a number of forms. Women were often the healers within a group. To be fair, that hasn’t changed much. When a child gets hurt, for example, rarely do you hear them yell, “dad!” Before modern medicine, women often relied on herbal remedies. Some remedies seemed miraculous hence the idea that these women were practicing some form of magic or witchcraft. If those in power (men) couldn’t figure it out, clearly there must be a supernatural element at play and these women must have made a deal with the Devil to be able to cure.

We made assumptions based on faith and emotions more than with logic. When in doubt, cast aspersions.

As one example, Bubonic Plague or Black Death in the 14th century is believed to have killed about a third of the world’s population at that time. That is a great number of people. Hindsight – and science – being what they are, we are able to look back and identify that the plague was caused by a bacterium that was highly contagious and incredibly deadly (and still around but don't let that worry you). We had no knowledge of bacteria at the time so we were left to find other answers.

Perhaps it was that old washer women who lived on the edge of town. She wasn’t getting the plague. Why was that? Could it be that she was a witch and had cast a spell on all the rest of us? Perhaps we should execute her.

This woman may have existed but it’s not likely that she cast a spell on the townsfolks, though who could blame her if she did. It was more likely that if she was an outsider, she didn’t have many interactions with people in her community and was therefore spared any sharing of germs and the like. Isolation in the 14th century.

The townsfolks would have seen it differently. They would have made assumptions about her without much thought. They didn’t know much about her other than that she was not one of them. She was odd. She was different. Because she was not sick, she must be a witch.

The townspeople shared many of the same feelings we have today when discussing issues in which we lack information. The example of the Black Death mirrors some of the same concerns we had with Covid. We didn’t have all the answers. We were fearful because people were dying. We didn’t know how to prevent those deaths. We needed to blame someone. In the case of Covid, it was China. The Black Death? Witches.

Accusations also ran to revenge. Did you not like your neighbor? Was their garden more fruitful (pun intended)? Did they have better looking children? The reasons for envy are varied and plentiful. One way to bring them down a notch was to accuse them of witchcraft. It became a game of dominos in some cases because the accused would then point fingers at others and so one and so on.

Witch hysteria became the norm.

Let’s return to today and talk about modern witch hunts.

Sadly, we still hear of literal witch hunts today. As recently as 2009, Saudi Arabia established an Anti-Witchcraft Unit to root out “evildoers.” In 2011, a woman and a man were executed in Saudi Arabia for practicing witchcraft. Many other countries still consider witchcraft a problem. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights notes that repeated violence against women and children specifically is often because they are accused of witchcraft.

More often, though, we hear the phrase witch hunt used in the media when a public figure feels accused of some wrongdoing they did not commit – or claim to have not committed. They feel they are serving as a scapegoat, of sorts. It is intended to discredit the accuser by suggesting that the attack or investigation is politically, personally, commercially, or otherwise motivated. The phrase may also be used when mass hysteria surrounds a particular topic.

We have heard the phrase bandied about recently. Woody Allen described the public shaming and subsequent persecution of Harvey Weinstein as a witch hunt. Donald Trump has continued to say he is a victim of multiple witch hunts particularly with his criminal and civil indictments and attacks on his presidential policies or on him as a person.

When U.S. politicians referred to Covid as the “China virus,” it fomented hatred around Asian Americans – a witch hunt. After September 11, 2001, there was much hatred aimed at Muslims within the U.S. – another witch hunt. Immigrants to the U.S. who are not Caucasian are often singled out for one reason or another, particularly when the narrative is that you are a rapist, drug dealer and/or terrorist – another witch hunt.

What happens in a case of hysteria? You see people not involved in the conflict at all being ridiculed, bullied, tormented, harassed, harmed, and even killed. In each example referenced above, people from one ethnic and/or religious group were targeted and ridiculed, bullied, tormented, harassed, harmed, and killed. And it continues.

I would like to unpack this a bit further. Specifically:

• A particular group was primarily accused in the face of some real or perceived harm to a large group.

• Hysteria may have ensued.

• Reason may have been abandoned.

Does the above list look familiar? A group of people is targeted. Science is questioned (or at least the science of the time). Accusations and logical fallacies are shared to discredit and shift the narrative. People are fearful and are looking for answers and community. In doing so, they may abandon reason.

Witch hunts are an historic and current disinformation campaign.

Let’s unpack a current example and one that prompted me to write this post – Immigration.

People are fleeing their home countries for any number of reasons. Perhaps it is for educational or economic opportunities not afforded them at home. Perhaps they seek better health outcomes. Perhaps they are fearful of torture, imprisonment or worse in their home counties because of their anti-establishment beliefs. Perhaps they have nothing and just want a chance. Perhaps they are escaping religious or other persecution. Perhaps they are scientists or researchers who want to study and practice at leading institutions. Certainly some could be criminals hoping to fleece people in another country or to escape criminal prosecution in their own.

I could have written the above paragraph in the 15th century. The 16th century. The 17th century. You see where I’m going with this. (Though in earlier centuries, I wouldn’t have been able to write it. My husband would have and he would have used a quill pen not the laptop I am using but I’m just splitting hairs.)

My point? Immigration is a hot-button issue worldwide. It is also one that seems rather cyclic. People are emigrating for the same reasons our ancestors did. They are likely facing the same criticisms our ancestors did. Our own president, Donald Trump, accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country,” and has called immigrants “animals, drug dealers, criminals and rapists.” He isn’t the only one waving this flag of hatred. Wasn’t Australia settled as a penal colony?

This rhetoric continued during the most recent presidential campaign when we heard rantings about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating the cats and dogs. This turned out to be untrue but there are still people who believe it. The rhetoric continues with our recent ICE roundup of individuals who are different and/or are speaking truth to power. The party line is that we are rounding up criminals but that hasn’t been the predominant case.

Our own history with the “other” is abysmal and we often try to rewrite it to cover our mistakes, which is also sadly cyclical. I am aghast with what I didn’t learn about the history of treatment of Native Americans, African Americans and Asian Americans. Yes, I learned about slavery, but I didn’t learn about the role Asian Americans, specifically, played in opening the western United States to settlement. I also had no idea we had Japanese internment camps during World War II. I learned that on my own years after my formal education. My education about Native Americans was just as sparse. Growing up in New York State, I remember a two-week period in the seventh grade in which we learned about the Iroquois Confederacy. It turns out there are many more Native nations.

In immigration we see too much disinformation and rhetoric around the “other” that makes it difficult to discern the truth.

Every time I read about an immigrant who commits a crime, I cringe. First, because I would like no one to commit crimes but more importantly because now there is a stigma and we, as a collective, will paint the entire immigrant population with a criminal brush. And you will hear, “See! We said they were criminals! Out damn spot!” One person does not a collective make. Also, whenever a heinous crime is committed like a mass shooting incident, the first reaction of many is that an immigrant is the perpetrator.

This discussion is not intended as a treatise on immigration or immigration policy. It is a reminder that we are singling out the “other” in a way we would not like to be singled out ourselves and in a way that is not helpful.

We rush to judgment. We cherry pick. We magnify the minority. We use all the tactics favored by disinformationists, many of which I have written about here. The rhetoric around immigrants and immigration is intended to cause fear and raise questions. We are expected to fill the information void and allay our fears by seeking out a community of like-minded others because there is safety in numbers and those numbers don’t include “them.”

Do these examples sound like the historic witch hunts I detailed? Someone is creating a false narrative for some gain whatever the flimsy motive. Or someone truly believes the narrative that is created regardless if there is any truth to it. They are relying on fears. They are hoping we seek answers from their sources and that we find community with them and go along with the figurative and/or literal rounding up of “witches.”

In each example above, I articulated the central issue as well as what is being said and done in the absence of accurate information. We are attacking the marginalized because we don’t understand them nor do we understand what the real problems are. We believe the wrong people and don’t fact check. We do so because we have our own fears, harbor our own insecurities and biases and maybe just don’t know.

In describing conflicts and differences, it is important to recognize that we all have feelings about it. When I discuss any conflict, for example, some people want to shut the conversation down because it makes them uncomfortable. Conflict should make us uncomfortable. How will we learn and understand if we don’t ask questions and challenge assumptions?

Censorship is not the answer. When people say you shouldn’t read, see or hear something, you should find that information right away and read, hear and see it. I’ve faced criticism myself for talking about certain topics. The answer is not to shut down conversation but to open dialogue. Education and communication may set us free. It will certainly allow us to achieve a certain level of understanding.

Witch hunts are our historic bane, but they are also our current reality. We cannot stop rounding up groups of people and “othering” them. Is that human nature? Sadly, it seems so.

For more information about dis/misinformation and witch hunts, may I suggest you purchase my book, Fake News, Witch Hunts & Conspiracy Theories: an Infodemiologist’s Guide to the Truth wherever you buy books. Continue to follow me here, on Substack, and the usual social media outlets (see my website for the links). As always, I value comments.

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