Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism • Hacker News Board

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#31

Post by TheSpiceIsLife » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 5:37 AM UTC

vmception wrote: post #3

paulgerhardt wrote: post #2

One thing that becomes immediately apparent when visiting the medieval witchcraft museum in Iceland[1] was how strategic the use of Witchcraft accusations were by the middling elite. One cunning foreign family with ties to occupying Denmark was able to secure land hold rights for nearly an entire peninsula from local Icelanders on the northwest through the strategic use of witchcraft accusations. During this period o…

Those articles are more interesting than OP's article. When I research a lot of wealthy families I frequently find their level of comfort not possible to replicate because it is something considered impropriety today. Taking advantage of an imbalance in the socioeconomic order that was promptly fixed as soon as anybody noticed.

> not possible to replicate because it is something considered impropriety today

At first glance, but then we're forced to recall the entire Epstein shenanigans.

And that's only bits of insight in to that level of indulgent debauchery.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#32

Post by Mirioron » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 5:38 AM UTC

Or in 2020: "China created the virus and must be held responsible!"

Except that viruses jump from other animals to humans all the time. It can happen in any country.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#33

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 5:42 AM UTC

paulgerhardt wrote: post #2

One thing that becomes immediately apparent when visiting the medieval witchcraft museum in Iceland[1] was how strategic the use of Witchcraft accusations were by the middling elite. One cunning foreign family with ties to occupying Denmark was able to secure land hold rights for nearly an entire peninsula from local Icelanders on the northwest through the strategic use of witchcraft accusations. During this period o…

[deleted]

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#34

Post by PeterStuer » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 5:49 AM UTC

ogurechny wrote: post #20

There's a stereotype that witch hunts were “mass hysteria” (as Wikipedia calls them) affecting stupid backwards people (another common stereotype) or stupid believers (a stereotype with a militant atheism flavour). In these cases, we would see more witch hunts the earlier the age is or the stronger the church is. People weren't much more stupid than people today are. Moreover, it's a fairly recent era, I'd even say t…

And many of the ordinary people didn't go along because they were stupid. They knew full wel that not going along upped the risk of being accused of being a witch significantly.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#35

Post by KKKKkkkk1 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 5:54 AM UTC

ogurechny wrote: post #20

There's a stereotype that witch hunts were “mass hysteria” (as Wikipedia calls them) affecting stupid backwards people (another common stereotype) or stupid believers (a stereotype with a militant atheism flavour). In these cases, we would see more witch hunts the earlier the age is or the stronger the church is. People weren't much more stupid than people today are. Moreover, it's a fairly recent era, I'd even say t…

Why can't witch hunts be mass hysteria affecting stupid backwards people and be instigated by manipulative elites at the same time? Even mask wearing during a pandemic can be turned into a culture war.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#36

Post by 082349872349872 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:02 AM UTC

A parallel european change between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries was the nature of mounted tournaments. In the thirteenth century, tournaments were not far removed from wargames, occurred over the entire terrain between two villages, and were generally open to anyone who had the panoply and training. By the fifteenth century, tournaments were more of a spectacle, occurred in special jousting lists, and didn't admit participants outside a hereditary aristocracy.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#37

Post by lostgame » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:03 AM UTC

AFAIK truly organized witchcraft, in the form of the Magickal Orders and Secret Societies that make up the majority of the study of Western Ceremonial Magick, is a fairly recent phenomenon, based on my (fairly thorough) research.

I love the study of modern occultism; and Ceremonial Magick, in particular.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#38

Post by 082349872349872 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:07 AM UTC

vmception wrote: post #3

paulgerhardt wrote: post #2

One thing that becomes immediately apparent when visiting the medieval witchcraft museum in Iceland[1] was how strategic the use of Witchcraft accusations were by the middling elite. One cunning foreign family with ties to occupying Denmark was able to secure land hold rights for nearly an entire peninsula from local Icelanders on the northwest through the strategic use of witchcraft accusations. During this period o…

Those articles are more interesting than OP's article. When I research a lot of wealthy families I frequently find their level of comfort not possible to replicate because it is something considered impropriety today. Taking advantage of an imbalance in the socioeconomic order that was promptly fixed as soon as anybody noticed.

India is supposed to be an example. Families with extensive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagir holdings under the Mughals were apparently relatively easily convinced that their possibly de facto but definitely not de jure hereditary estates would be better protected under John Company, whose officers had grown up assuming de jure hereditary estate transmission.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#39

Post by kstenerud » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:08 AM UTC

ogurechny wrote: post #20

There's a stereotype that witch hunts were “mass hysteria” (as Wikipedia calls them) affecting stupid backwards people (another common stereotype) or stupid believers (a stereotype with a militant atheism flavour). In these cases, we would see more witch hunts the earlier the age is or the stronger the church is. People weren't much more stupid than people today are. Moreover, it's a fairly recent era, I'd even say t…

The modern word is "moral panic", and it's used just as effectively to destroy rivals as it was in times of old. The only difference is that we don't kill the losers anymore, but rather imprison, harass, fire, and bankrupt them. Anytime there's a moral shift (good or bad), there's an opportunity to co-opt it in order to remove rivals, and it works very nicely because all you need to do is sow seeds of doubt about someone if they happen to be in a vulnerable group, and then let the mob do the rest:

- Witch trials

- Reign of Terror

- Utah

- Lynch Mobs

- Prohibition

- Kristallnacht

- Wartime relocations

- The red scare

- The Dungeons & Dragons scare

- The war on drugs

- The war on terror

- The pedophile scare

- #metoo

- BLM

It's unfortunate about the last two because a lot of good came of them, but one must not let a moral shift go to waste.

Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism

#40

Post by eirini1 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:14 AM UTC

vmception wrote: post #23

ipsum2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give an example of that level of comfort? Servants were more common back then, but not sure what else.

For example, the family that was able to exploit the socioeconomic order to pick up those land plots from people indicted for witchcraft probably still owns those land plots, but new people will not be able to use the same tactic to obtain land now.

maybe not witchcraft accusations per se, but im quite unsure how you can be aware of events occuring in the world right now and think that exploiting the current socioeconomic order to gain land and wealth is not done.