History tells us of the witch trials back in the 1600’s; of how people that the State, religious leaders and often the mob claimed were witches could be (often unjustly) tried and then burnt at the stake for imagined acts of heresy and dark deeds.
One of the most infamous of these trials were the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and 1693, with more than 200 people accused of practicing witchcraft.
The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft – the Devil’s magic — and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice, and it continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later.
Now, over 300 years later the modern-day witch trials are back in full swing! The mob is out on the streets with today’s pitch forks and torches of the mobile phone, social media and the angrily worded placard. They chant and scream for justice, wanting their pound of flesh as they believe that they are morally justified, just as they did back in 1692.
The mob selects its victim, then trolls that victim’s profile for “sins” against the new orthodoxy of social justice. They harass, bully and de-platform to take away the right to reply (a fair trial). But that is not the end, once they smell blood in the water they want more, they must have their perverse justice enacted. The victim must kneel and repent, denounce their families and friends and apologise for their sins.
But is that the end? No! Next comes the destruction of the sinner’s livelihood and income, as the mob piles on with establishment and media backing. The righteous accusers use this backing to magnify the so-called sins of the victim for all the world to see. They manipulate words and give them new meanings to justify their appalling behaviour; words such “silence is violence”, “racist” or “bigot” stirring up an almost religious frenzy in the way ‘witch or ‘heretic’ did back in the 17th Century.
Today’s “burning at the stake” is the torching of your reputation, livelihood, and even relationship with family and friends. You will be silenced, and even after all this is done repenting will still not be enough, there is no redemption. Ever.
Unless you join the ranks of the left of course. Then even those several ‘blackfaces’ will be overlooked as minor indiscretions.
Did we learn anything from the witch trials of the 1600’s? We did, but now we’ve forgotten those lessons again. All we have done is modernise with technology, but the religious zeal of eliminating perceived ‘evil’ has survived the ages well.
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