Modern Day Witch Hunts: Start Here!

Modern and Contemporary Witch Hunt Topics

• Japanese Americans during WW2
• Muslim Americans after 9/11
• Satanic Panic of the 1980s
• The myth of "the welfare queen"
• Asian Americans during the COVID pandemic
• Gay community during the HIV/AIDS epidemic
• Propose your own topic. Must be approved. 

The three “ingredients” of a witch hunt are fear, a trigger, and a scapegoat:

• Fear - something that scares the country or a large group of people
• A Trigger - an event; something that “sparks” the witch hunt
• Scapegoat - the people blamed,“hunted,” and often punished

The three ingredients combine to look like this: 
Fear + a Trigger = Scapegoat

In the Salem witch trials it looked like this:
The supernatural + the girl’s odd behavior = accused witches

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