What do you think Witch trials were really motivated by? (war, economic)

[Unsettomati]

Which trials?

[Retroit]

Many of the people accused of being witches claimed to be witches. They were terrorists in a sense.

[Unsettomati]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Many of the people accused of being witches claimed to be witches. They were terrorists in a sense.

They were tortured until they were willing to say anything just to make the torture stop immediately.

So, they were 'terrorists'... in the sense that 'terrorists' doesn't actually mean anything but a torture victim tortured to the point where they will make any claim whatsoever.

Sounds like Newspeak to me.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Griphin

Do you think back when witch trials were a thing it was motivated more by a genuine belief in witches and witchcraft or more just as a convenient excuse to kill someone others didn't like for whatever reasons?

Same thing that happens today with muslims
Fear and hate are great ways to control population

Demonize a group of people and then tell them that you are the person that will protect them from those people
And they'll give you anything you ask

[Lodestar]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Many of the people accused of being witches claimed to be witches. They were terrorists in a sense.

Or in the case of aged, poverty stricken women with little self protection other than knowledge of a few healing herbal remedies perhaps it could be an attempt to frighten those who wanted to hurt them or rob them of their ability to make a living.

Whenever you begin to delve into social issues of abuse, sexuality and interpersonal relationships you will have a puzzle to solve. Everyone involved will have a different interpretation and some may be misrepresenting the facts.

There has been speculation about motivation of victims in this thread and I'd like to comment on only one possible facet of that. Since I was in practice during Minnesota's episode of accusations I had some direct and some peripheral involvement in this area.

It was a tangled mess with a multitude of agencies, each with their own agendas, interacting. Family members were extremely unreliable in their information and that was compounded by the media and subsequently the public.

But it is my opinion that some of the children were, indeed, being abused and probably did not receive the help they should have when the whole thing was labeled Satanic Panic and dismissed. Practitioners in psychology and child protection treaded carefully lest they be perceived as falling for the hype.

And it is also more than possible that some of the victims, realizing the power they were being given to draw attention to themselves and to possibly meet some psychological needs deliberately lied.

Sometimes children are ignorant of the consequences of their deceptions. I know several good people who lost their jobs in trying to help sort through the mess.

I am confident that "where there's smoke, there's fire (though not necessarily witches)" And that at some further date it will be necessary to re-evaluate the dismissal of the concept of recovered memory.

[Dopo]

I haven't read one single thing about the witch trials
but I bet $1000 that it was, at times, it used to get rid of people that exposed the abuse of powerful people (rich people, politicians or priests)

[saltine]

In the northwest it started with this-
Samuel Parris brought his slave Tituba from Barbados to Danvers. She was an occultist/voodoo type.
This should get you started.

[C24L]

I think a lot of it was religious hysteria,young women wanting to be the center of attention in a male-dominated society and also trying to take away property of strong women.I read a book and watched documentaries about Salem and those were some of the things I read.Some people think a hallucinogen like mushrooms could have contributed also.

[Rowan123]

Power, influence and to feel important.

[thriftylefty]

Seems like they also believed in some thing called "Spontaneous Generation" back in those days. That would give you an idea of how dense thinking was.