(Zero Hedge)—In the past 70 years, the subject of the Salem Witch Trials has been hijacked by the political left as a historic example of the authoritarian nature of the “patriarchy”.  Arthur Miller used the trials as an allegory for “anti-communist hysteria” in his famous 1953 play, The Crucible.  As we now know, however, Joseph McCarthy was mostly right when he warned about an insidious and organized Marxist takeover of America’s social and educational institutions.

A more nuanced historic analysis shows that witchcraft was indeed a problem in the colonies just as it was a problem in Europe.  Not so much because of “black magic” or dark curses, but because “witches” were often early representations of social malcontents causing problems in Christian communities just as they cause problems in the western world today.

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There were false accusations, there’s no doubt.  But the narrative that most or all witch burnings were unjustified is simply false.

The reason women (and some men) were accused of being witches and burned at the stake was because they willfully engaged in highly destructive anti-social behaviors.  The local witch was often the village abortionist, a seller of poisons, and the town prostitute or harlot plying her “trade” at a time when there was zero tolerance for this kind of behavior.

It should be noted that the practice of casting out or executing sociopaths, psychopaths and other people with destructive social tendencies (considered black magic) is common among religious groups around the world, not just in Puritan towns and Christian society.  This includes Native American tribes that feminists tend to idolize.

When human beings lived in small villages, broken and dangerous people were much easier to identify and remove before they did significant damage.  In the new era of metropolitan isolation within mass population centers, they easily blend into the crowd.  Sometimes they are even celebrated as “visionaries” by Hollywood and the media.

Modern feminists proudly draw connections to the subversive world of witches because they tend toward delusional fantasies of dominance.  Women, by their biological nature, lack any real ability to project power, so they fabricate notions of magical influence in their minds.  Some of the most popular women’s trends today revolve around concepts of New Age “manifestation”, which is just a modern way of believing in magic.

It’s not surprising that feminists in the US in 2026 are flocking to “witchcraft communes”, an idea recently applauded in a expose by The Guardian.  The outlet notes:

“Witchcraft retreats…have proliferated across the US and Europe over the last decade. The practice they’re built around resists easy definition. Equal parts ancient folk magic, herbal remedies and self-soothing rituals, it encompasses everything from the spellcasting done by self-directed pagans to solitary practitioners who scatter protective salts around their homes. If you buy a crystal, that’s witchcraft. If you practice manifestation, that’s witchcraft…”

“The retreat boom was foreshadowed by an interest in witchcraft that has grown since the counterculture movement in the 1960s, says Helen Berger, a Harvard Divinity School-based sociologist of religion and one of the leading scholars of contemporary paganism. While it’s hard to really identify a single catalyst driving women to witchcraft, Berger sees a pattern: spikes in alternative spirituality tend to coincide with spikes in anti-authoritarianism. In 1968, for example, several feminist groups co-opted occult imagery, adopted the acronym Witch…”

The reason witchcraft appeals so much to women on the political left is because leftist movements operate on the same value system – Meaning, they have no values.  The problem is, Atheism leaves an emotional and spiritual void, leaving people desperate for answers to questions that scientific explanation does not satisfy.  The occult promises people answers, but without all those nasty rules and responsibilities commonly attached to Christianity.

In other words, witchcraft is a religion for people who think they are above moral obligation.  People who think they can revolt against the natural order.  In this way, witchcraft and feminism are fundamentally the same thing.  The Guardian continues:

“Clauré hosts at least two witchcraft retreats a year, in Savannah, Georgia and Salem, Massachusetts; prices run anywhere from $2,700 to $5,200 to attend. She says women are searching for something beyond the slumber party Ouija board rituals that loosely inspired her retreats in the first place.  “The patriarchy is not good for anybody, men or women,” Clauré says. “Women have been inherently drawn to [witchcraft spaces] after being demonized or called hysterical or stigmatized. We’re so fucking sick of it that we’re gonna do things our way, whether you call it crazy or not.”…”  

““If you look at the larger social gestalt right now, in which power is being systematically taken away from women and queer people, the traditional witch is the opposite of ‘right’ society,” says Sabina Magliocco, a professor of anthropology and religion at the University of British Columbia and a former Guggenheim fellow. “But if ‘right’ society is depriving women of rights, is excluding women, is saying that it is perfectly fine to sexually abuse women, that there aren’t going to be any consequences, then maybe being the opposite of right society is aligning with the forces of justice.””

It’s impossible to distinguish between the political rhetoric of modern witchcraft and feminists; they are symbiotic.  Fantasies of victimhood usually coincide with societal expectations.  Liberal women see basic laws, social norms and meritocracy as “oppressive”.  But really, they are narcissists who refuse to accept that the entire world does not revolve around them and their wishes.  This is who witchcraft appeals to.

The wider implications are serious, and not because these women have any real magical powers.  Rather, feminism and similar movements are a psychological plague that spreads, rotting nations from within.  If they face backlash it’s not because they are female or queer, it’s because they deliberately engineer disruption and encourage degeneracy that breaks society down.  They revel in chaos.

The witches of old were burned at the stake for such behavior; behaviors which the “Patriarchy” kept in check before they infested the greater community.  Feminists are lucky that they’re only mocked or shunned in modern times.