Witch Hunt Fears, Triggers, And Scapegoats

What is a witch-hunt? When studying the history of witchcraft, it is important to understand that witchcraft was a crime created and imposed on innocent people. No individual actually had the power to cause hailstorms, spread mass disease, or fly through the night to a gathering of evil beings. This was a crime imposed on innocent people during times of mass fear and hysteria. While the legal prosecution of witchcraft came to an end in the eighteenth century, the pattern of behavior that caused witch-hunts can be identified throughout history and in the modern day.

The Salem Witch Museum’s mission is to be the voice of the innocent victims of the witch-hunt of 1692, while also bringing awareness to the root cause of witch-hunts and how they continue to impact our society today. In our second exhibit, Witches: Evolving Perceptions, we present a formula that can be used to describe the pattern of behavior responsible for sparking witch-hunts, with examples from 1692 through the twentieth-century.

This formula is “fear + a trigger = a scapegoat.”

A scapegoat is defined as a person who is unfairly or irrationally the object of blame.

Over the years, many of our visitors have made suggestions to our staff, offering examples of what they feel qualify as an instance of a witch-hunt. There are so many examples of witch-hunts that have taken place throughout history, that we couldn’t highlight all of these suggestions in our exhibit. Since August 2017, we have been asking our visitors to fill out this formula with examples they believe fit this pattern, and to submit these suggestions to our museum. This webpage is a place to share these examples. Within this project, our Department of Education is currently actively imputing and updating these pages so as to display as many submissions as we are given, in their entirety, without alteration or interpretation.

The goal of this project is to give our public a voice to interact with the concept of a witch-hunt. Please note, the views and opinions expressed on the witch-hunt website are those of our visitors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Salem Witch Museum.

You may view these examples month to month, or thematically by scapegoat. If you wish to add a submission, please enter your example into the blank spaces below.

Fear

Trigger

Scapegoat

3rd World War

October 7, 2023

Israel + Antisemitism hate of Jews + Israelis

Tamar A. , Israel / September 2026

Transphobia/homophobia/challenging gender roles

Christians/Republicans/Maga etc.

Trans community

Jay , Piqua, OH / September 2026

Youth violence

School schootings

Violent video games

Lazaro , Phoenix, AZ / September 2026

Post WWI Germany

Hitler rise to power

Holocaust

Anonymous , / September 2026

COVID

Death

Government

Anonymous , / September 2026

Terrorism

9/11

The Arab world/Arab Americans

Yara , Alexandria, VA / September 2026

Immigrants

Violence

Brown people

Jonia , Daly City, CA / September 2026

Disease

COVID-19

Chinese people

Benjamin , Daly City, CA / September 2026

Terrorism

9/11

Middle Easterners/South Asians

Elizabeth , Peabody, MA / September 2026

Mexico

Trump/Gov

Hispanic immigrants & citizens/children taken 2 prison camps

Meyvin , Los Angeles, CA / September 2026

Loss of jobs and/or traditional "white" culture

Trump hate speech

Non-white peoples (Hispanic)

Anonymous , / September 2026

Different culture

Trump

Immigrants

Linda , New Bedford, MA / September 2026

Progress

The other being happy

The other

Katherine , Fort Worth, TX / September 2026

Immigration

Trump

Black $ brown Americans

Roselein , Honolulu, HI / September 2026

Deadly infection

COVID

Anyone who wouldn't get vaccinated

Peter , / September 2026

Words

Democrats

Charlie Kirk

Anonymous , / September 2026

Oppression

History

Christians