I read a recent article about witchcraft and it said that women were also persecuted for being independent and to resist Alisa the traditional patriachy.
Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
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Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#42There'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.
That would boil everything down to pure power and fear of that power, which is an explanation a bit too simple. In countless other villages across the globe, an attempt of some official to try someone for being a witch would result in a good beating of that idiot (even if villagers did believe in witches in general). No, they went along that what was existing to be went along. People do generally stop on red light even if there is no policeman around, everyone expects a shop to sell goods instead of having a swimming pool and a giraffe inside (there is no one to force that), and witch trials were trials, not mere accusations.
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#43As ironic as it may be, there are cases of "witchcraft" now in India. Just like in the Middle Ages, even now it is being used as an excuse to rob the land of the poor.
There are many videos and documentaries on YT on this.
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is essentially the thesis of Silvia Federici’s tremendous book, “Caliban and the Witch.” Witch hunts were pursued to reorganize familial, gender, and labor relations to suit the needs of an emergent Capitalism: >For serfs, who tilled the land in exchange for a share of its crops, home was work, and vice versa; men and women grew the potatoes together. But in capitalism, waged laborers have to work outside the ho…
You're going to have a tough sell with that for folks who haven't read her work. I have, and it was more or less the first thing I thought of when I read the title of the article. I mean, if "primitive accumulation" isn't a thing you're curious about, then her work is just gonna not make a lot of sense... but I personally find her ideas quite convincing. So I am not surprised when folks who aren't in that political d…
I find that most people are amenable to a materialist conception of history if you just phrase it without the Marxist specific terminology. No need to go into primitive accumulation or explaining dialectics.
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#45Earlier 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.
That sounds more like a technique to attain comfort rather than a comfort level itself.
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#46As ironic as it may be, there are cases of "witchcraft" now in India. Just like in the Middle Ages, even now it is being used as an excuse to rob the land of the poor. There are many videos and documentaries on YT on this.
What is the premise? There are accusations of witches and then what is the outcome?
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#47Fun thought. What if in the future, witchcraft and sorcery and magic, is rediscovered. And it comes to rule the land, and the people. But in actuality, sorcery is really just applied computer science. Like, in the future, some engineer manages to tap into the quantum realm, which allows for all kinds of mystical apparitions to manifest, but instead, it’s really just another quantum artifact. But our limited understan…
Have you read The Laundry Files? It's a Lovecraftian / James Bond mashup on exactly this idea.
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#48Fun thought. What if in the future, witchcraft and sorcery and magic, is rediscovered. And it comes to rule the land, and the people. But in actuality, sorcery is really just applied computer science. Like, in the future, some engineer manages to tap into the quantum realm, which allows for all kinds of mystical apparitions to manifest, but instead, it’s really just another quantum artifact. But our limited understan…
> Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#49I don’t know how much the numbers we have today are accurate, but I would like to see the following stats:
1. Ratio between men and women executed for witchcraft.
2. Number of people executed for witchcraft by century.
3. Number of people executed for witchcraft by denomination (catholic, lutheran, calvinist, etc)
Re: Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
#50There'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 som…
A more understated one was the lead up to the Iraq war where people were labeled “unpatriotic” for opposing the war (or scared of being labeled unpatriotic). For example, Dixie Chicks were blacklisted for being outspoken against the war. This would almost qualify as a “soft” witch hunt, but essentially the same strategy, a Scarlett letter of sorts.
The list is exhaustive (as you enumerated), and quite the recurring pattern. Unfortunately, at scale, it’s a super effective strategy with consequences only being realized way after the fact, by which point there is another wave already forming in another direction.