Witch Hunts, still a thing in 2023!
Witch Hunts, still a thing in 2023!
With interest in witchcraft at an all-time high, many people still think practitioners should be ridiculed and harassed
Perhaps you’re one of those people who thinks TFG is a treasonous motherf*cker who should be in prison, so you greet any news of legal proceedings that might lead to indictments of said treasonous motherf*cker with trepidatious hope.
Maybe you heard about the jury foreperson of the Special Grand Jury in Georgia who gave some media interviews after her service had been completed. This particular grand jury was not issuing indictments or even subpoenas, merely conducting hearings and interviews dedicated to determining who should be subpoenaed or indicted in the investigation surrounding 2020 election fraud. The foreperson, Emily Kohrs, gave several on-air interviews that are being shared on social media. The content of the interviews was not all that remarkable: she didn’t give any specific information, but when prodded, did say there were multiple indictments likely to happen and the names, when revealed, would not be a huge surprise.
She is 30 years old, but looks much younger. Her manner is somewhat odd: a bit smug and flippant, a bit excitable and girlish. Not the affect of someone who is used to being on national television, so maybe she should be forgiven for not projecting an air of decorous propriety.
Of course, social media being what it is, this poor young woman is being skewered for everything from her looks to her intelligence to the fact that she did not, in fact, vote in the last two presidential elections. (I have a problem with that last fact, but only because I think both voting and jury duty are part of the civic compact we all have as citizens in a democratic republic.)
I’ve been following the reactions to her media appearances on Twitter over the last couple of days. Some are saying her interviews were inappropriate and should not have happened, and maybe that’s true. But the people saying she has somehow “tainted” the proceedings are being a bit histrionic. Kohrs did not violate any rules or protocols, and apparently in Georgia there’s a tendency to want grand jury proceedings to be held up for public scrutiny.
Some have criticized Miss Kohrs for wanting her “fifteen minutes of fame” and “enjoying the attention.” Some think, based on her statements, that she is obviously starstruck at the prospect of meeting TFG in person; others think she can’t wait to swear him in because she knows he will gleefully commit perjury and she wants him to go down for it.
But what is really interesting to me about this story is the way that a lot of media trolls are targeting Miss Kohrs for her interest in…witchcraft.
Given the predatory nature of many MAGA types on social media, particularly towards women, it’s not surprising Miss Kohrs already took down most ofher social media accounts. The one she briefly left up, Pinterest (you know, the one where we have pictures and mood boards about all kinds of things we like), had some posts related to Wicca, Harry Potter, and other witchcraft-adjacent topics.
Cue the pitchforks, cudgels, and stupid memes. This is a witch hunt.
Now Miss Kohrs’ integrity is being attacked, she is being ridiculed for being “crazy,” and is also now a target of right wing hatred of the Christo-fascist variety.
Maybe this is a good time to remind everyone that witchcraft is not only an extremely popular cultural movement, but also a legally-sanctioned religious practice. Witchcraft is also a life-affirming path that honors nature.
Emily has had to take down her Pinterest board as well. I imagine before too much time goes by she will also have to change her phone number and address.
Witch hunts do still happen in parts of the world, and it’s horrifying to see such superstition, ignorance, and misogyny in the contemporary world. We tend to frame such occurrences as taking place in uneducated, unsophisticated societies. But the fact that this young woman is now being hounded for a few pagan-themed images on her Pinterest page, just because she’ decided to speak publicly about doing her civic duty to participate in our justice system, is appalling in the extreme.
This attitude makes me think of those young women thrust into the limelight some 300 years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, manipulated, groomed, and prodded to accuse their neighbors of unspeakable crimes. Those young women were also eventually targeted by their communities. The difference is: Mary Warren, Abigail Williams, and their cohorts, caught up in a maelstrom of corruption and delusion, were encouraged to speak, and to lie, in order to punish the innocent. Emily Kohrs, who is part of an effort to find the truth and implement justice, is expected to remain silent, and to hide who she is, and to refrain from implicating the guilty.