Posted on Jun 10, 2021
How Did ‘Witch Hunt’ Become the Complaint of the Powerful? (Published 2017)
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"In the last century, a parade of disgraced presidents and other public figures (almost all of them men) have also chosen to don this particular black mantle of victimhood. “Witch hunt” once meant persecution of the marginalized by the powerful. So how did it come to suggest something so nearly the opposite?"
How Did ‘Witch Hunt’ Become the Complaint of the Powerful? (Published 2017)
Posted from nytimes.com
Economy
Society
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 1
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I have always understood the term withc hunt to be seeking to find proof of something even though it doesn't exist. Such as the trials in Salem when there weren't actually witches.
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SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
And at the start of it who was accused? Poor women and then men. They didn't stop the witch trials until wealthy people started getting accused.
And at the time of the witch trials some of those people did believe the accused were witches because of the acting the accusers did. Until they went after the governor's wife, etc.
And at the time of the witch trials some of those people did believe the accused were witches because of the acting the accusers did. Until they went after the governor's wife, etc.
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SFC Casey O'Mally
SFC Kelly Fuerhoff - And?
Article is behind paywall, so all I can go off is your quote. If we are discussing the meaning of the term, then let's discuss the meaning of the term. I have only ever known it to mean seeking proof of something even though it doesn't exist. Long before Trump - or even before Reagan.
As long as *I* have been around, "witch hunt" had nothing to do with power, and everything to do with sham investigations.
As far as more recent uses of the term, they are using it in both senses. Sham investigations designed to prove a point, regardless of evidence. And while the targets of these "witch hunts" have been powerful, they have been targeted by those even MORE powerful - often in an attempt to weaken and/or marginalize the targets.
Article is behind paywall, so all I can go off is your quote. If we are discussing the meaning of the term, then let's discuss the meaning of the term. I have only ever known it to mean seeking proof of something even though it doesn't exist. Long before Trump - or even before Reagan.
As long as *I* have been around, "witch hunt" had nothing to do with power, and everything to do with sham investigations.
As far as more recent uses of the term, they are using it in both senses. Sham investigations designed to prove a point, regardless of evidence. And while the targets of these "witch hunts" have been powerful, they have been targeted by those even MORE powerful - often in an attempt to weaken and/or marginalize the targets.
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