THE INEXCUSABLE ABUSE OF HISTORY
THE INEXCUSABLE ABUSE OF HISTORY
One of the things that truly pisses me off is when people use actual victims of horrific things and hijack it to justify their own brand of the same sort of bullshit.
One of my pet peeves, if we can put it so gently is around such as the Salem Witch trials.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692 and 1693
This was not the United States at that time.
How Modern "Feminist Witchcraft" Rewrites History
One of the most frustrating dynamics in modern cultural discourse is the way actual historical victims of horrific atrocities are hijacked to justify a modern subculture’s brand of self-serving mythology. The modern tendency to hijack historical tragedy often serves as a quick shortcut to political legitimacy, but few subcultures have rewritten history as aggressively as contemporary pop-spirituality and "feminist witchcraft."
Over the past few decades, a pervasive narrative has taken root in popular culture, online spaces, and modern occult movements: that the Early Modern witch trials—and specifically those in colonial Salem—represented a systematic, misogynistic crusade aimed at eradicating wise women, herbalists, and independent females.
This dramatic retelling makes for effective identity politics, but it fundamentally distorts historical reality. By rewriting the Salem Witch Trials to fit a tailored, modern agenda, contemporary movements end up doing something deeply ironic: they erase actual victims, ignore the basic historical record, and unwittingly validate the precise logic that fueled the witch trials in the first place.
Hijacking History for Modern Campus Identity Politics
A prime example of this historical revisionism appears in contemporary student journalism, such as a feature from Oregon State University's OMN (Oregon Mutual), titled "Witches at Oregon State University: A Glimpse into the Lives of the Spiritual Students in Corvallis." In the article, the author uncritically asserts that:
"Paganism – or witchcraft – has been a spiritual practice that has been scrutinized, and even deadly, for centuries. From the Salem Witch Trials to the lack of accurate representation in the media, modern-day witches don’t have many positive memories to look back on their history."
This statement relies on a fundamental falsehood. The individuals who suffered, languished in jail, or were executed during the Early Modern witch trials—and specifically in 1692 Salem—were not witches. They were pious Puritans, farmers, churchgoers, and ordinary colonial citizens falsely accused of a crime they did not commit. Using the term "witch" to describe the victims is a manipulative misrepresentation that strips them of their true identities.
Furthermore, modern-day witches—who practice kitchen magic, stir tea clockwise, collect crystals, and dress in dark academia or "flower child" aesthetics—bear zero operational, theological, or historical connection to anything found in historical records. Claiming that today’s neo-pagans dont have very good "memories to look back on" from the Salem executions is a form of historic identity theft. It converts horrific Puritan legal panic into a trendy origin story for 21st-century campus clubs and misandrist horse shit.
The Erasure of Male Victims and Historical Reality
The cornerstone of the modern "witch myth" is that the trials were an all-out, systemic war waged by men against women. However, historical records from both the European witch trials and the 1692 Salem trials completely dismantle this gender-exclusive binary., and others who stood against the hysteria. Across Europe, depending on the region, male victims accounted for roughly 20% of all executions, while in places like Iceland and parts of Scandinavia, the overwhelming majority of those executed for witchcraft were men.
In Salem MA, nineteen people were hanged, and one man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to enter a plea. Of those executed, five were men: John Proctor, George Burroughs, Giles Corey, George Jacobs Sr., and Samuel Wardwell Sr. Across Europe, depending on the region, male victims accounted for roughly 20% of all executions, while in places like Iceland and parts of Scandinavia, the overwhelming majority of those executed for witchcraft were men.
Roger Toothaker died in prison on June 16, 1692, but historical consensus notes he died while awaiting trial under suspicion, though his inclusion strictly as a "witch trial execution/jail death" is sometimes debated relative to formal indictments.
Furthermore, women were not merely passive victims; they were active, driving participants in the prosecutions. In Salem, the primary accusers were young girls and adult women whose testimonies directly sent both men and women to the gallows. By reducing a complex community collapse—driven by religious paranoia, property disputes, frontier warfare trauma, and societal breakdown—into a simple "men versus women" narrative, modern appropriators strip historical figures of their humanity and erase the men who died alongside the women.
To understand the actual human toll—stripped of modern political slogans and pop-spiritual mythmaking—here is the complete roster known individuals who were executed or died in prison during the Salem Witch Trials:
Executed by Hanging (19 Victims)
Bridget Bishop – Executed June 10, 1692
Sarah Good – Executed July 19, 1692
Elizabeth Howe – Executed July 19, 1692
Susannah Martin – Executed July 19, 1692
Rebecca Nurse – Executed July 19, 1692
Sarah Wildes – Executed July 19, 1692
Rev. George Burroughs – Executed August 19, 1692
Martha Carrier – Executed August 19, 1692
George Jacobs Sr. – Executed August 19, 1692
John Proctor – Executed August 19, 1692
John Willard – Executed August 19, 1692
Martha Corey – Executed September 22, 1692
Mary Eastey – Executed September 22, 1692
Alice Parker – Executed September 22, 1692
Mary Parker – Executed September 22, 1692
Ann Pudeator – Executed September 22, 1692
Wilmot Redd – Executed September 22, 1692
Margaret Scott – Executed September 22, 1692
Samuel Wardwell Sr. – Executed September 22, 1692
Executed by Torture / Pressing (1 Victim)
Giles Corey – Pressed to death (peine forte et dure) on September 19, 1692, for refusing to enter a formal plea
Died in Prison Custody (Accused / Awaiting Trial or Release)
Sarah Osborne – Died in prison May 10, 1692
Roger Toothaker – Died in prison June 16, 1692
Ann Foster – Died in prison December 3, 1692
Lydia Dustin – Died in prison March 10, 1693 (acquitted, but held because she could not pay her jail fees)
Rebecca Chamberlain – Died in prison September 26, 1692
Infants / Children Who Died in Prison
Infant Daughter of Sarah Good (Mercy Good) – Born in prison and died shortly after birth in 1692 due to harsh jail conditions
Unrecorded Infant of John and Elizabeth Proctor – Born in prison and died shortly after delivery due to malnutrition and cold
Key Historical Facts
Timeline: The trials occurred between February 1692 and May 1693 in colonial Massachusetts.
Legal Offense: All formal charges were under the legal felony charge of maleficium and spectral torment, not theological heresy.
Male Victims: 6 of the 20 executed individuals were men (George Burroughs, Giles Corey, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, and Samuel Wardwell Sr.).
Total Fatalities: At least 27 individuals perished directly as a result of the hysteria—20 executed, 5 adults dead in prison, and at least 2 infants lost to jail conditions.
When modern "feminist witchcraft" and pop-spirituality movements hijack the historical tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials, and elsewhere, they do not merely commit bad scholarship; they engage in a form of ethical bankruptcy. The actual historical record of the 1692 panic, specifically the human toll, highlights why these modern claims are deeply objectionable.
The twenty-five adults and infants who perished in Salem were not pagan revolutionaries, herbalists, or proto-feminist martyrs fighting against a patriarch. They were pious Puritans, farmers, churchgoers, and ordinary colonial citizens. They were dragged to gallows and cold prison cells on completely false charges.
Co-opting their deaths as an "ancestral lineage" or origin story for 21st-century lifestyle branding, crystal sales, and campus clubs strips these victims of their actual faith, agency, and humanity. Modern appropriators rewrite the real victims' identities to fit a fashionable modern aesthetic, converting innocent people's horrific deaths into political currency.
The Myth of the "Linear Ancestral Line"
A common trope in modern witchcraft circles is the claim of "ancestral lineage"—the popular slogan declaring: "We are the granddaughters of the witches you couldn't burn."
This claim is historically nonsensical. The people accused in Salem and Early Modern Europe were not practicing ancient paganism, modern Wicca, or herbal goddess worship. To say otherwise in a twisted way justifies the witch hunts. Being accused of witchery or warlockery was a terrifying false allegation, not a badge of honor or an expression of alternative spirituality of "female empowerment."
When modern enthusiasts claim a direct spiritual continuation from these victims, they are lying and commit an act of historical inversion:
Validating the Accusers: Claiming that the victims were in fact practicing witchcraft retroactively justifies the accusations made by the Puritan magistrates. The judges in 1692 believed they were purging the community of practicing agents of the devil; by asserting that the victims actually were practicing magic, modern enthusiasts ironically validate the accusers' premise rather than vindicating the innocent.
Erasing Christian Faith: The vast majority of those executed went to the gallows reciting Christian prayers (such as Reverend George Burroughs, who successfully recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly on the gallows, which was supposed to be impossible for a witch). Stripping them of their actual Christian faith to rebrand them as modern pagans is disrespectful to their memory.
From False Accusation to Self-Serving Myth
The transformation of the Salem Witch Trials from a solemn warning about mass hysteria, faulty judicial standards (spectral evidence), and communal mob mentality into a stylish, self-aggrandizing origin story reveals a profound intellectual bankruptcy and unethical abuse of the actual terrible historical records.
Instead of honoring the victims as innocent human beings trapped in a deadly social panic, the modern narrative converts their suffering into political currency. It uses a selective, fictionalized version of history to cultivate a sense of historical grievance, using the past not to understand reality, but to justify contemporary tribalism, hate toward men, and lifestyle branding.
History deserves better than to be flattened into a slogan for crystal sales or campus fluff pieces. The victims of the witch trials—both the men who were hanged or crushed and the women who perished in dark cells—deserve to be remembered for who they actually were: innocent human beings destroyed by superstition and legal breakdown, not props for 21st-century ideological myth-making that should justifiably infuriate any actual practitioner of the crafts.
The Broader Contagion of Historical Revisionism
This intellectual bankruptcy is not confined to a single campus publication in Oregon; it is a pervasive, nationwide trend across modern pop-occult spaces, online subcultures, and contemporary media. From viral social media trends like #WitchTok to mainstream lifestyle journalism and academic fluff pieces across the country, the systematic rewriting of colonial and European history has become the default marketing strategy for modern "feminist witchcraft."
Across these platforms, the real history of judicial terror, land disputes, and religious paranoia is routinely replaced by a sanitized, aesthetic-driven fantasy, and likewise imposed politics showing they are nothing more than powerless griping cosplayer twats. Authentic folk magic traditions, historical practices, and serious occult scholarship are cast aside in favor of a commercialized, politically convenient victimhood narrative.
Why this Revisionism Is Inexcusable
Perpetuating this false narrative is inexcusable for several reasons:
Insulting the few Genuine Practitioners: For anyone who engages in serious, historical study of folk traditions, esotericism, or ceremonial magic, this trendy revisionism is infuriating. Genuine historical practices had nothing to do with the Puritans executed in 1692. Conflating historical legal victims with modern aesthetic trends degrades both real historical scholarship and legitimate spiritual disciplines.
Profiting off Historical Tragedy: Turning a brutal legal tragedy—where innocent people were starved, hanged, or crushed under stones—into a lucrative brand for selling crystals, tarot decks, and online clout is a cynical commercial exploitation of human suffering.
Manufacturing bigoted Misandry with False Pretenses: Using a distorted, one-sided history to generate anti-male tribal resentment against men relies on an explicit lie. Denying that men like Giles Corey, John Proctor, and Reverend George Burroughs were executed alongside women strips those men of their historical existence simply because their deaths do not fit a neat anti-male political binary among so many other widely perpetuated lies.
Reclaiming Historical Truth
When subcultures flatten complex human suffering into corporate-friendly slogans and gender-war propaganda, they abandon historical truth for personal validation. History is not a dress-up closet for modern identity politics, nor is it a weapon to be weaponized for contemporary grievances.
The twenty-five human beings who died in Salem—and the thousands who perished across Europe—were not modern witches, feminist revolutionaries, or spiritual influencers. They were innocent people whose lives were stolen by hysteria, corrupt legal mechanisms, and fanaticism. Continuing to perpetuate this inexcusable myth does not honor their memory; it dishonors their sacrifice to serve the egos of the present.
Turning a historical massacre—where mothers gave birth in rat-infested dungeons, infant children died of cold and malnutrition, and elderly men were crushed under boulders—into a marketing angle for selling tarot decks, cottagecore aesthetics, and online clout is a cynical exploitation of tragedy.
True ethical historical memory honors the victims for who they actually were: innocent human beings destroyed by superstition, mass hysteria, and a broken legal system. Flattening their suffering into a self-serving myth to justify modern tribalism and hatred toward men isn't just dishonest—it is morally bankrupt.
Being aware of the realities
Historical records demonstrate that open practitioners of magical crafts—specifically those using historical self-identifiers like "cunning man," "cunning woman," "wise man," "wizard," or "charmer"—existed across Europe and Britain and operated publicly without facing execution or capital persecution, and were rarely called or called themselves warlocks or witches.
However, records from ecclesiastical courts, municipal tax rolls, local newspapers, and contemporary diaries explicitly document numerous individuals who openly advertised, charged fees for, and publicly identified as workers of magic without being prosecuted under capital punishment laws for being such practitioners (initially).
Historical Figures Who Identified Openly and Escaped Persecution
James "Cunning" Murrell (c. 1780–1860) – Hadleigh, Essex, England
Self-Identification: Publicly called himself a "cunning man" and astrologer.
Public Activity: He operated a full-time, open practice. Murrell openly offered services including finding stolen property, casting horoscopes, making copper "witch bottles" to counter hexes, and exorcising spirits.
Legal Status: He operated completely unmolested by the law, charged set fees, was widely consulted by local authorities and citizens alike, and died of natural causes at an advanced age.
Biddy Early (Bridget Ellen Early, 1798–1874) – County Clare, Ireland
Self-Identification: Identified openly as a traditional healer and "wise woman" who worked with supernatural sight.
Public Activity: Famous throughout western Ireland, hundreds of people traveled to her cottage for cures, divinations, and herbal remedies using her famous "magic blue bottle."
Legal Status: Although local Catholic clergy attempted to discourage her practice, the local populace strongly protected her. She was brought to court once under outdated 1586 witchcraft statutes in 1828, but the case was thrown out immediately when no witnesses consented to testify against her. She lived out her life unpunished.
John Dee (1527–1608/1609) – Mortlake, England
Self-Identification: Self-identified as a Christian philosopher, mathematician, and practitioner of Hermetic and Angelic Magic (theurgist).
Public Activity: Dee maintained an extensive library and openly conducted scrying sessions, ritual magic, and astrological consultations to converse with angels alongside his associate Edward Kelley.
Legal Status: Because he held royal patronage under Queen Elizabeth I and framed his practices as holy philosophy rather than demonic pacts (maleficium), he was never indicted or executed, despite public accusations of being a "conjurer."
Hannah Spence (18th Century) – Yorkshire, England
Self-Identification: Openly practiced under the public label of a "wise woman."
Public Activity: Provided counter-charms, herbal medicines, and divination for lost goods to rural populations.
Legal Status: Recorded in local town archives as a standard service provider. She faced no legal prosecution because her work was viewed by her community as a public utility rather than malicious sorcery.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) – Holy Roman Empire
Self-Identification: Scholar, physician, and ceremonial magician.
Public Activity: Authored and published Three Books of Occult Philosophy, an explicit manual detailing ceremonial magic, Kabbalah, and elemental sorcery.
Legal Status: Though he drew intellectual fire from theological faculties, he served as a court scholar and government official across Europe, never suffering capital execution or formal witch-trial conviction.
Wright of Wisbech (Early 19th Century) – Cambridgeshire, England
Self-Identification: Known publicly and referred to in regional records as a "cunning man."
Public Activity: Advertised his ability to break spells, locate lost animals, and identify thieves through divination.
Legal Status: Worked openly for decades with zero legal interference from English courts.
Why These Open Practitioners Were Not Executed
The legal and historical record reveals three clear structural reasons why these open magic workers avoided trial and execution:
The Legal Requirement of Maleficium (Harmful Magic): Early Modern witch trial laws were strictly targeted at maleficium—magic intended to cause physical harm, kill livestock, destroy crops, or murder neighbors. Healers, cunning folk, and wise men were seen as practicing beneficent or protective magic. Courts rarely prosecuted people for helping the community unless a neighbor explicitly accused them of causing illness or death.
Social Necessity: In rural Europe and Britain, cunning folk served as doctors, veterinarians, private investigators, and counselors. Local communities relied on them and actively shielded them from legal authorities.
The Witchcraft Act of 1735: In 1735, Great Britain completely repealed its legal capital penalties for witchcraft. The new law declared that actual magic did not legally exist; consequently, anyone claiming to practice magic could only be prosecuted for minor fraud (pretending to hold powers to steal money), completely eliminating the possibility of execution for 18th- and 19th-century open practitioners.
Warlocks and Witches in Scottish and Irish Folk Tradition
Benevolent and Protective Warlocks (Fear Feasa / Wise Men): In Scottish and Irish folk tales and local poems, warlocks were often depicted as community protectors, scholars, or clever heroes who used their magical knowledge to outwit malicious spirits, cure diseased livestock, or protect local families. Far from being viewed as evil, these male magic workers were sought out by neighbors to undo hexes or break curses.
Folk Poems and Ballads: Regional folk poetry and tradition explicitly depict "good" or neutral witches and warlocks using their powers for harmless entertainment, healing, or community aid. In local lore, a warlock might be described as a local man who possessed "the secret" or "the gift"—skills used to locate lost cattle, find stolen property, or brew medicinal remedies—and was respected by his village for those abilities.
Fairy Doctors and Cunning Folk: In Irish oral history, male practitioners (fear feasa / fairy doctors) and female practitioners (bean feasa / wise women) were frequently referred to in regional English dialect as warlocks and witches. Their roles were strictly functional: curing "fairy-struck" horses, blessing crops, and protecting households. Rural communities viewed them as essential, helpful neighbors and protected them from outside interference.
The Reciprocal Transmission of Magic: Folklore archives record that magical "cures" and spoken charms were traditionally passed from man to woman and woman to man across generations. Within this system, the male practitioner (warlock/wise man) and female practitioner (witch/wise woman) held equal legitimacy and respect within rural society.
Key Historical Takeaways
Language in the Vernacular: While official religious and legal authorities viewed all unsanctioned magic with suspicion, rural populations used the terms warlock and witch in everyday speech to describe local practitioners whose magic was helpful, neutral, or protective.
Community Protection: Because these men and women served vital roles as local doctors, veterinarians, and problem-solvers, their communities actively valued them, shielding them from legal persecution and preserving their stories in local poetry and song.
Historical Dictionary Evidence: Warlock and Witch
Examining English and Scottish dictionaries from the 18th and 19th centuries confirms that warlock was defined as the male practitioner of magic alongside the female witch.
Dictionary of the English Language (1755):
Defines warlock (or warluck) explicitly as the male equivalent of a witch. It does not list the term as a slur or as an ungrounded insult, but as the direct male pairing to a female practitioner.
Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808):
Documents warlock as a common Scottish and northern English noun referring to a man who practices sorcery, magic, or charm-craft. It explicitly pairs the term with female "witches" who shared similar roles in local folklore.
American Dictionary of the English Language (1828):
Defines warlock directly as a counterpart to a female witch; and generalizes it with a wizard. It places the two terms side-by-side as distinct gender counterparts. The wizard part is inaccurate but that's it.
The false claim that Warlock was always a bad word in Wica
Gerald Gardner ("the father of Wica") did not strictly prohibit the word or aggressively preach against it. In fact, in his 1954 book Witchcraft Today, Gardner occasionally used the word "warlock" as a standard synonym for a male magician or sorcerer and witch as a standard fro a female magician.
The "coven traitor" definition originated in Margaret Murray's 1920s pseudo-historical coven theories. It was subsequently adopted and popularized as standard dogma across the broader 1970s and 1980s Neopagan and extremist feminist movements.
In doing so, it glossed over centuries of historical dictionary entries, regional literature, and folk records where "warlock" was used to identify a male practitioner of magic and "witch" was used to identify a female practitioner, and that's another part that these anti-male bigots continue to float along with each generation.
The modern feminist effort to "reclaim" the term witch while aggressively vilifying and discarding the term warlock is a another masterclass in historical revisionism, ideological hypocrisy, and anti-male bigotry.
1. The Asymmetric "Reclamation" Standard
Both witch and warlock accumulated heavy pejorative connotations throughout early modern history, witch-hunts, and Christian demonology.
The Double Standard: Modern feminist rhetoric selectively "redeems" witch—painting it as an empowering, revolutionary identity for women—while simultaneously insisting that warlock remains an unforgivable slur (oath-breaker or coven traitor).
The Hypocrisy: Reclaiming a historically stigmatized term for one sex while weaponizing the historical stigma of the corresponding male term is not an exercise in liberation; it is pure gender-based double standards.
2. Erasure of Historical Lexicography and Folk Reality
For centuries, standard English and Scottish dictionaries (including Samuel Johnson in 1755, John Jamieson in 1808, and Noah Webster in 1828) defined warlock directly as the gendered male counterpart to a female witch.
Furthermore, in Scottish, Irish, and rural British vernacular, both terms were applied to local folk practitioners—cunning men, wise women, charmers, and fairy doctors—who were recognized as essential, non-evil community figures. The mid-20th-century push (popularized by Margaret Murray and later Neopagan and feminist writers) to erase warlock and demand that men be called "witches" intentionally rewrote historical linguistics to centralize female identity while erasing male practitioners.
3. Misandrist Historical Flattening
By portraying the early modern witch trials strictly as a gender war against women, modern feminist pop-spirituality commits two major ethical offenses:
Denying Male Victims: It erases the hundreds of men who were hanged, burned, or tortured across Europe and North America (such as one-third of the executed Salem victims, including Giles Corey, John Proctor, and Rev. George Burroughs).
Denying Female Accusers: It suppresses the historical reality that women regularly accused, testified against, and condemned both men and women to the gallows during times of communal panic.
4. Summary of Ideological Failures
Linguistic Double Standard: Historically, witch and warlock were simple gender-paired male/female terms in dictionaries, whereas feminist rhetoric redefines witch as gender-neutral and demonizes warlock as an anti-male slur.
Distortion of Folk Reality: Historically, male and female folk practitioners were viewed as helpful community assets, whereas modern revisionists recast all historic practitioners as political feminist martyrs fighting a patriarchy.
Erasure of Male Victims: Historically, men and women were executed and imprisoned together in panics, whereas modern narratives ignore male victims entirely to preserve a rigid "men vs. women" political framework.
In Closing
True historical ethics demand honoring victims for who they actually were, recognizing both male and female practitioners throughout folk history, and rejecting the cynical manipulation of historical tragedy for modern political expediency.
