Once upon a time, I wondered how a town could get so crazy as to kill 20 people as witches

[unblock]

These days, it doesn't take more than a couple hours listening to or reading republicans, Foxnews, QAnon, hate radio, or social media to go...

"yeah, sure, thinking your neighbors are witches and thinking they need to be killed for that? The nut jobs these days are talking crazier and threatening far worse. Surprised they only killed 20."

[DSandra]

1. It's amazing what lengths they have to go to to make themselves the victim and liberals as the enemy

[Karadeniz]

2. What a great connection!

[Initech]

3. So where I live, we have a neighborhood watch internet forum setup.

And most of the time it's just boring neighborhood stuff. Watch out for crime, business closings / openings, lost pets and that kind of thing. But there is the occasional political rant on this forum. And they are off the wall batshit crazy. Like super far right Q Anon bullshit. And they've gone particularly off the deep end since COVID started, posting all kinds of things about how the virus is a hoax and anti vaxxer and anti mask conspiracy theories. If you want to see crazy, look no further than your local neighborhood online ranter.

[Mariana]

4. Religion made them that crazy.

And much of Trump's support is frankly religious in nature.

[Blues Heron]

5. And then there's Rwanda

Hate radio was definitely involved in that one.

[Hekate]

8. Yes, hate radio played a big part in that bizarre and horrible civil war

[uponit7771]

13. +1

[pandr32]

6. Groupthink

[lunasun]

9. +What about casual gatherings where they tortured and burned people less than 100 yrs ago too?

Then left them hanging in a tree ?
The same kill them burn them madness you mention but not even that long ago here. This country could be in an accepted Salem witch hunt mode or hangings from a tree if trump doesn’t go soon .
Crazy and very dangerous cults and their leader can’t be in our WH .

We often think of a mob as an insane, bloodthirsty collection of adult male ruffians. However, respectable community leaders, including police, often lynched blacks. Although women and children were not typically the active aggressors they were often in the audience; and, they, too, celebrated. There were "secret lynches," but there were many done publicly -- and planned. Lynching was a brutal attempt to reinforce white supremacy, but it was also entertainment
According to Dray:
"While attendees at lynchings did not take away a plate of food, the experience of having witnessed the event was thought incomplete if one did not go home with some piece of cooked human being; and there is much anecdotal evidence of lynch crowds either consuming food and drink while taking part in the execution, or retiring en masse immediately afterward for a meal or, in the case of a notorious immolation in Pennsylvania in 1911, ice cream sundaes."
from Dray, Philip. 2002. The Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America. New York: Random House.
Dray's book is a well-written social history of lynching.

Some of these crazy Qnuts and haters right now may even be a new generation coming from the same families involved in these past atrocities or the witch hunts

[Green Line]

10. I live next to that town

Salem is a huge tourist spot because of it, it’s difficult to get around the town in summer and fall because of all of them.

[PlanetBev]

11. The craziest thing about Salem Witchcraft Trials

It took only about five years after they killed those 20 people that those in charge realized they had made a terrible mistake. Most of the families of the executed were paid reparations.

That’s the worst thing about mob hysteria, especially religious mob hysteria. It has no brains.

[unblock]

12. If all goes well, in 5 years no one will admit to ever supporting Donnie

Just as after wwii, no one would admit to supporting hitler.