By David Futrelle
The neo-Nazi internet tabloid The Daily Stormer is now declaring war on witches, and wants to bring back “the burning times.”
In a recent post on the site, contributor “Roy Batty” — presumably not the actual replicant from Blade Runner — reports the alarming (to him) news that the “Number of Witches [is] Drastically on the Rise.” As evidence for this claim, he cites a recent piece from a sometimes-fact-challenged far-right site called CNSNews.com asserting that
the number of witches (and Wiccans) has dramatically increased since the 1990s, to the degree that there may be at least 1.5 million witches in the United States, which is higher than the 1.4 million mainline Presbyterians.
As it turns out, this is an exaggerated misrepresentation of a questionable calculation based on a mistaken reading of a survey from Pew Research. CNSNews.com got the 1.5 million figure from The Christian Post, which got it from an article on Quartz, which claimed
the Pew Research Center … found [in a 2014 survey] that 0.4% of Americans, or around 1 to 1.5 million people, identify as Wicca or Pagan.
So basically a source claiming at most 1.5 million Wiccans and Pagans got turned into a claim that there are at least 1.5 million.
On top of that, Quartz got it wrong: the actual Pew study claims only 0.3% of Americans identify as Wiccan or Pagan. (The 0.4% is for all New Age believers.) If you do the math using the current US population figures you get a little less than a million following some form of Wicca or Paganism, fewer still if you only include adults. (Also, according to that same survey, there are roughly 4.5 million Americans who identify themselves as mainline Presbyterians; 1.4 million is the number the Presbyterian Church (USA) says are “active members.”)
But, whatever, there are a lot of witches out there, the number is apparently growing, and the Daily Stormer’s Roy Batty is feeling scared.
“I never really believed in all this bullshit,” he writes.
But recently… idk.
It’s hard to look at all this shit that’s happening in the world and explain it through economics. It’s hard to explain it even through the political lens.
He then tells a rather hard-to-believe story he claims to have heard from an unnamed “girl” who used to spend her summers in a tiny, rustic village, complete with a strange old woman who lived in an old house on the outskirts of town — and who once, the girl insisted, brought down a lightning bolt from the sky after scratching some weird symbols in the dirt outside the girl’s home while “muttering dark-sounding things” under her breath.
Now Batty isn’t quite convinced that witchcraft is real. But he doesn’t like the idea of strange women going around scaring people by scratching occult symbols in the dirt and muttering and whatnot.
All I know is that I don’t want to have to deal with that kind of shit in my life. And because my ancestors did such a good job dealing with it back then I never even thought about it as a real possibility.
But it is.
Think about it, you might end up with a freak as a neighbor in your little condo who likes to leave dark-looking squiggles on your door or dead reptiles under your welcome mat or something.
I guarantee you that it will freak you and the neighbors out because it is so antisocial and because it is just weird in a way that we’re not used to.
But alas, Batty continues, you can’t just punch the witches until they stop.
Witching is passive-aggressive. You can’t beat her up, otherwise you go to jail. You can’t admit to anyone that she’s spooking you and your kids out because the fedoras will mob you and chew you out.
Batty proposes a rather old-school “solution” to this old-school problem: bring back the so-called burning times.
He praises his Western European ancestors for doing
a very good job ridding Europe of its witches. People don’t realize how lucky they are to live in a witch-free society. Seriously. It’s like sanitation and roads and all the other things we take for granted in White civilization.
Now that witches are growing in number again, he suggests, what we in the west really need is “for an Inquisition to come back and purge the witches from our lands.”
In other words, literal witch trials — and the genocide of a religious minority.
Now, it might be tempting to see Batty’s post as little more than typical Daily Stormer trolling — especially given his casual, often flippant tone and his utter lack of interest in doing any actual research on the subject beyond quoting an incorrect number from a questionable site and relating a bullshit story he says he once heard.
But if you look at the comments under Batty’s post you won’t find a lot of jokes there. Yes, you’ll see a comment from someone called Willy declaring that “witches are insane cat ladies from hell who will steal you rhubarb plants.”
But most of the commenters seem to take this all very seriously — and to support Batty’s murderous “solution.”
One commenter declares:
The Book of Exodus states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This one line from the Bible is proof enough for me to believe that witches exist and should not be suffered to live.
Another adds:
k*kes are promoting witchcraft and other forms of Satanism/demon worship on normie television for kids/teenagers.
There is a supernatural world out there. Demons are real, if you doubt this, be happy you have never seen or experienced ‘meeting’ one. If you do encounter any demons, call out to Jesus Christ for assistance. Verbally. He will help you.
Listen to Gregorian chants if you’re being accompanied or stalked.
And look, I know this sounds crazy if you aren’t used to this supernatural mumbo jumbo, I get that. Trust me though. I wouldn’t say this kind of shit for no reason.
Still another says that while he thinks witches today are just “larping … they should still be killed.”
It would be easy to dismiss this comment itself as a sort of internet LARPing, were it not for the fact that Nazis in the US have already started killing people.
We live in fucked-up times.
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This is reminding me of when Sarah Palin had preachers praying over her to protect her from witchcraft. Think Trump is going to volunteer for a similar photo op – I mean, ritual?
I’ll take “Things Made Up To Impress the Gullible” for $600, Alex.
@Catalpa:
The great majority of the victims of Early Modern witch trials, were of course Christian—modern neopaganism didn’t get started until the last quarter of the nineteenth century at the earliest.
Weren’t these fuckers’ ideological forebears quite keen on the occult? I’m thinking of Alfred Rosenberg’s The Myth of the Twentieth Century, a work just as virulently racist/antisemitic as Mein Kampf, but a lot less well known.
@ V.P.:
content warning, this is the organization’s home page
https://www.potusshield.org/
Already done… this bunch of fantasy fans organized “POTUS Shield” right after the dumpster was appointed president.
In Frightened White People news, a CNN piece on the South African Evangelical White-wing….
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/africa/south-africa-suidlanders-intl/
“It’s hard to look at all this shit that’s happening in the world and explain it through economics. It’s hard to explain it even through the political lens.”
How about stupidity? Does that work for you? Works for me.
I have a neighbor I would gladly swap for a Wiccan. Especially one who can teach me how to clean my house by wiggling my nose.
I don’t need Wiccans to drop dead things on my doorstep. I have a cat.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia :
The whole story’s here.
I don’t know if it’s true but I’ve heard that most of the witches burned in medieval Europe were financially independent women.
Something tells me this is the “withcraft” that this bozo is afraid of.
@ lumpenbigot posting as “Roy Batty”:
Uh, as reasonable people are perfectly well aware, if you have a neighbor who leaves graffiti on your door or “dead reptiles under your welcome mat”, those actions are illegal and you can indeed have recourse to the law to stop them.
Unfortunately (or not), the law is helpless to protect you from your own irrational fears about an imaginary witchy neighbor who, somehow, not only gets away with violating laws against trespass and vandalism, but has an equally imaginary “mob” of “fedoras” to back her up if you complain about her illegal behavior.
I had a dog, some kinda hound (he wandered in one day, and stayed)…. One day, he dragged a dead animal home, so I took it and threw it in the field across the hiway…. Half-hour later, doggie is chewing on the dead thing in the driveway. I put the dog in the shed and took the dead thing down the road and threw it into the ditch. Half-hour later, doggie is chewing on the dead thing in the driveway. I got in my car, and with the dead thing hanging out the window, I drove about ten miles and dropped the dead thing in the ditch.
… the things we do….
@ Steven I Dutch
Regarding wite genaside, etc., I have read and heard an Encyclopoedia Brittanica worth of “reasons” why the lives of white-xian people are worth more than the lives of non-white-xian people…. A conversation with a former family member a few days ago (when a married couple divorce, are the siblings-in-law still siblings-in-law?? :\ )…
Began with a discussion of the land reform movement in South Africa, continued into a discussion of reparations to the descendants of enslaved and colonized people in U.S. and worldwide.
They objected that all these evils happened over a generation ago, and some happened as much as eight generations ago. I allowed as how, no, the people who are alive today didn’t MAKE that bed… no…. BUT they have been fighting tooth and nail, since the beginning, resisting every effort to CHANGE THE BEDDING
They asked me if I cared at all that white people were being marginalized and murdered in South Africa. I allowed as how of course I cared, I’m not an asshole (notwithstanding that the crisis is not NEARLY as extreme as some believe, if it were, I would care.) They then demanded that I justify my opposition to the political and social forces which are attempting to stop the wite-ists from being genasided….
My answer is, I am not going to vote to sacrifice the lives and welfare of my children and grandchildren, of my friends and loved ones and of literally every group that is not white-xian to enable people who have actively avoided doing anything to stop the oppression of others.
@Moggie:
Well, some of the Nazis were into the occult; I believe one of the big ones was (can’t remember which one) but Hitler himself definitely was not. My understanding is that Hitler was pretty much a Catholic creationist with little emotional connection to any actual church; he’d probably have been a Sedevacantist if Vatican II had happened in his lifetime.
@Katamount:
Well, there’s a reason why it’s called the ‘Episcopalian’ church in the U.S. rather than the ‘Anglican’ church.
That said, I recall hearing years ago that there actually was a growing ‘Anglican’ church in the U.S…. consisting mostly of the conservative members who though the Episcopalian church was getting too liberal but who didn’t want to break entirely with the power structure yet, instead banding together with some of the more conservative Anglican churches in Africa to try and force a split from the inside.
@All:
With regards to POTUSShield and such groups… isn’t it interesting that a lot of the people talking about evil witches placing curses on people also have no problem talking about ‘imprecatory prayer’. Of course, when they do it it’s calling down God’s wrath; when somebody else does it, it’s the Devil’s work. Aside from the supposed source, how much difference is there really, at least in the shallow minds of those doing the talking?
(Aside from the fact that most actual Wiccans I know have a rather more in-depth understanding of the world and their belief system than the folks who loudly proclaim themselves to be Christian…)
@Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie It’s the doggo version of “The Cat Came Back”. 😀
THE CAT CAME BACK – Oscar Nominated Short Animated Film …
@ Weatherwax
They don’t think it’s genetic, but they understand that a great way to destroy the social power of a group and stomp out their traditions is to persecute them. This isn’t a thing I know anything about but I’ve been told that most surviving witchcraft is indigenous and that most European witchcraft traditions are pretty much irretrievably lost. Witches have no institutional power in western societies like they used to before the persecution.
I read that the those accused in the Salem Witch trials were predominantly elderly people whose land abutted some of the richer landowners’ property. Those accused refused to sell their plots so the richer farms could not expand as much as they’d like
In other words, they wanted to get rid of the victims. They were hated, “unreasonably” stubborn, considered strange because they still clung to the “old ways”…. and in the way. Demonization makes it easy to do that eh?
OT – Theodore Beale (aka Vox Day) has published a book, “Jordanetics”, criticizing everyone’s favorite Lobster King. Milo “Look at me!” Yiannopolous wrote the forward, which is just as cringe-inducing as you’d expect. The Reddit Lobsterkin are beeping and honking about it. It’s a little like seeing meth dealers fighting heroin dealers in an alley; you wish there was some way for both sides to lose.
Weird ( ) Eddie – I remember that! It didn’t end well.
My husband and his two best friends are witches; it’s been a real education for me. A number of years ago, I made him a wand and an athame by hand for Solstice. His friends were gratifyingly impressed.
@Jenora The ‘big one’ you’re probably thinking of is Rosenberg, as I mentioned above. As I recall Hitler promoted TMot20C because he thought it was good for the Nazi cause, but privately he hated it.
Witchcraft
Frank Sinatra
Those fingers in my hair
That sly come-hither stare
That strips my conscience bare
It’s witchcraft
And I’ve got no defense for it
The heat is too intense for it
What good would common sense for it do?
‘Cause it’s witchcraft
Wicked witchcraft
And although, I know, it’s strictly taboo
When you arouse the need in me
My heart says yes indeed in me
Proceed with what you’re leading me to
It’s such an ancient pitch
But one I wouldn’t switch
‘Cause there’s no nicer witch than you
‘Cause it’s witchcraft
That crazy witchcraft
And although, I know, it’s strictly taboo
When you arouse the need in me
My heart says yes indeed in me
Proceed with what you’re leading me to
It’s such an ancient pitch
But one that I’d never switch
‘Cause there’s no nicer witch than you
Songwriters: Carolyn Leigh / Cy Coleman
Witchcraft lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Words & Music A Div Of Big Deal Music LLC
dust bunny:
AFAIK, while Christianity eradicated most pagan traditions and beliefs, and while witch trials were a horrific abuse of justice, what really made people stop believing in witchcraft was modern science and education.
Over the last couple centuries, emerging nationalism and the breaking of Christian theocracy has also allowed some revival and reinventing of fragmentary pagan traditions in countries such as Lithuania, Estonia, Iceland and Wales. I think the idea of modern witchcraft is not usually considered central in these national neopagan movements, unlike (?) in Wicca.
@Robert:
Huh. And here I thought those attention-hungry bozos would love him because he affirms their hatred for unmanly men and unwomanly women and other, harder-to-stereotype folk. But hey, as long as they’re tearing each other’s hair out, there’s no need for the rest of us to do it, so…win?
At least one well-known Finnish neopagan activist (Miika Vanhakylä, of the officially recognized Karhun kansa community) titles himself “noita”, an old Finnish word which in general usage has taken a convergent meaning to English “witch”. However, he doesn’t seem to explore actual witchcraft but rather seeks connection to ancestors and nature’s resident spirits.
Re: Witches and Wartime
This is a moderately interesting case.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Duncan
The Witchcraft Act 1735 was abolished by the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951. That Act stated that witchcraft was no longer an offence; but created a new offence related to charging money for ‘spiritual’ services.
With the rise of mediums as popular entertainment it was thought that that offence was obsolete; so the government did intend to repeal the 1951 Act. But then it was pointed out that that would reinstate witchcraft as an offence.
re: witchcraft, particularly wicca
where’re Dalillama and Scildfreja? In my estimation, they know a LOT about this subject!
On the contrary, Hitler had an extensive occult library, and a sustained interest in occult subjects. See for example Hitler’s Private Library by Timothy W. Ryback (particularly chapter 11), and Hitler’s Monsters by Eric Kurlander. His interests did not, however, resemble those of most neopagans, and shaded into what is more naturally described as pseudoscience, particularly the “World Ice Theory” of Hans Hörbiger. He was a baptised Catholic, and never publicly renounced the Church, but his beliefs in the later part of his life seem to have been remote from doctrinally orthodox Christianity, although he continued to believe in a supernatural force that guided his decisions.
The museum in Lichtenstein has an excellent exhibit on this very topic. It carefully explained how people who informed on witches were allowed to claim all of the witch’s property as a reward. And the consequences of that fact.
Now please excuse me while I turn the readership of Daily Stormer into toads.
@Victorious Parasol:
I’m reminded of the time – I think it was during the last Presidential race – when a bunch of holy roller-type preachers did the old “laying on of hands” with the Cheeto. He looked quite uncomfortable.
I wonder why witches would want to steal rhubarb. That’s what one of these cretin commenters suggested.
Wicca – I know it’s a huge subject, with many varieties – really appeals to me. Especially since I’ve pretty much soured on my birth religion of Catholicism.
@Dormousing_it
I have a vague memory of that as well, now that you mention in. I wonder if his discomfort was over being touched without his permission, or if it’s simply that he didn’t know how to behave in that situation.
Stealing rhubarb is strange.