Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Yes, The Campaign Against Vohra *IS* a Witch Hunt

Do you know where the term "witch" originated?

It is thought to be descended from words used to describe midwives in ancient Roman times.

Midwives found abortifacients and antifertility effects in various herbs, spices, and roots.  One of the theories about the disastrous decline in population of the Roman Empire was the primary reason for its collapse: It no longer had anywhere near enough young bodies to fill military needs.

Over time, midwives went underground, and their go-to kit containing things like peacock flower went underground with them.  As Europe became more and more paternalistic, and more emphasis was placed on the need for women to squirt out babies, anything that disrupted that model became something that had to be stopped by any means necessary.  A "witch" was a woman who learned how to take control of their reproduction -- and thus since few knew how chemicals worked, the myth that these women were putting spells on men to make them impotent or unfertile became more and more common.

Thus, burning witches.

Which brings us to the current outrage-of-the-day, regarding Arvin Vohra.  Many have described the campaign to remove him from our ranks as a "witch hunt".

Of course, the outrage fetishists are whining that such a characterization is "unfair".

Is it unfair?

It's actually pretty accurate.  It IS a witch hunt.

Check out the definition.

A crowd of people, both on the LNC and off, who are calling for Vohra's immediate removal.  They're not interested in censure, they're not interested in waiting until the convention, they want him purged *now*.

He has also been doxxed, threatened with violence either now or at the National Convention in New Orleans, has had complaints against him filed with the police, his business has been attacked, and he has been slandered in many ways; chief among them the hundreds of claims that because of his opinion on Age of Majority, that he is ipso facto a pedophile -- despite not one single shred of evidence being presented.

Pretty much all falls under definition #2 of "witch hunt".

If it ends up going further than that, it might even fall under definition #1.

Certainly all of this is "free speech".

Of course it is.

So is any speech inciting to riot.

"Witch Hunt" is an accurate word.

Outrage fetishists should maybe stop being offended by words or phrases that are accurate.