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

Islamist Terrorism

9/11

Muslims/Islamophobia

Siwi , OK / May 03, 2022

Death

Confrontation with Religion

Christians

Molly , CA / May 02, 2022

Stolen Election

Trump Lost

Black Communities

JW , CA / May 2022

Losing Political Control

American People Waking Up to The Politacal Reality

Trump

Anonymous , Washington State / April 25, 2022

Liberia

Mao Zedong

Assassination of JFK

Phil , pittsburgh / April 25, 2022

The Other

Trump

Immigrants

Donna , NH / April 2022

Misinformation

Donald Trump

Media

Carolyn , MA / April 2022

Sickness

Covid-19

Hatred Against Asians in USA

Nina , Denmark / April 2022

People being in charge who spread hate.

Fox News

Free thinking people.

Hillary , NY / April 22, 2022

Going Blind

The Sun

Solar Eclipse

Anonymous , MA / April 22, 2022

A student getting a bad grade

Parent/s Going to School Board

Teachers

Anonymous , MI / April 21, 2022

Falling Living Standards

Right Wing Culture War

Resurgence in Homophobia and Transphobia

Fintan , April 2022 / April 2022

Decline of the Ottomans

Government

Armenians

Trevor , CA / April 2022

People being different

People being proud of who they are

Social Media

Anonymous , IN / April 19, 2022

Infection

COVID

Asian Americans

Anonymous , MA / April 2022

Iron Maiden

Devil Album

Satanic Worship

Ian , CT / April 2022

Ukraine’s power and inderpendence

Mentally Ill Russian President

Ukrainian children

Andrea , Canada / April 13, 2022

Immagrants stealing jobs

2016 election

Imagrants

Caroline , Atlanta GA / April 08, 2022

Police Brutality

George Floyd Murder

White Race Persecution

Andy , WA / April 2022

Magie

Les sorcière cherche la paix

Sorcière

Morgane , USA / April 06, 2022

Truth

Election

Trump

Max , IA / April 04, 2022

Unexplained Happenings

Bad Luck

Black Cats

Tiana , NY / April 04, 2022

Infection

Covid

China

Jennie , IL / April 2022

9/11

Xenophobia

Muslims

Anonymous , MA / April 2022

Communism

Attempted Coup in 1965

Indonesian People

Anonymous , MA / April 2022

Virus

Covid

Unvaccinated

Lorraine , NJ / April 2022

I can't drive my car

gas prices

Ukraine

Andreina , Allentown, PA / March 29, 2022

Gen Z being gay

homophobes

social media

Grace , NY / March 26, 2022

Italian Americans and Anarchists

Anti-Immigration and Italian Sentiments

Sacco and Vanzetti

Dolores , Hampton, NH / March 2022

COVID-19

Chinese Origin

Asian American Hate

Jed , CA / March 2022

gun violence

shooting

black community

Anonymous , Nevada / March 24, 2022

A parent having an "average" child athlete

Child not getting playing time

The Coach

Carrie , Connecticut / March 16, 2022

sexuality

people changing their sexuality

women

Jay , ma / March 14, 2022

Bible/God's Word

Love of Sin

Obedient believers

K , TN / March 12, 2022

being fat/fatphobia

body positivity movement

fat people

Whitney , CA / March 10, 2022

Earth is Flat

Inability to think logically

The government

Jake , CA / March 10, 2022

Rumbling

Subjects of Ymir

Discrimination against all Eldians

David , Paradis / March 10, 2022

white people

guns

anti 2nd amendment

Anonymous , CA / March 10, 2022

Having rights taken away

biggots

people trying to live

Anonymous , texas / March 09, 2022

COVID

Freedom

Science

Anonymous , MA / March 2022

School Shootings

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Scapegoat *

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