Tweet from the president on Thursday morning, 18 May 2017:
“This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American History!” – DJT
Since Thursday, the “witch hunt” thing has gotten under my skin. I know the guy is an idiot, but still. I mean, he’s 70 years old; he knows what that saying means by now. Clearly, I’m not the only person bothered by the comment:
I cant imagine anyone fucking up a witch Hunt metaphor, one of the most straight forward metaphors in our language, worse than this pic.twitter.com/aIM4RzTYIv
— Dolphin Pilot (@TheAmitie) May 19, 2017
The saying, of course, refers to the persecution and search for a witch by the community. Nowadays, the idea being that it’s not possible for a person to be a witch so to accuse anyone of such and hunt them down is ridiculous (and shows the community’s ignorance). That is not to say that people aren’t witches nowadays, a religious or lifestyle choice. I’m referring to the olden days title of “witch” given to healers and herbalists and the like that society singled out. Sometimes it was because a remedy a healer offered didn’t cure the sick person. Maybe the healer was accused of being a witch because someone didn’t like them or didn’t understand their behaviors. It was also partly related to religion in that it was “witchcraft” that was used to turn water to wine and the like. Books are written on this by people much smarter than me so I’m just bringing up a couple of points about what a witch hunt is.
Basically, DJT is telling us “I am not a witch” as if we’re hunting him down to burn him at the stake because his cures didn’t work. It wouldn’t have anything to do with inciting violence, making promises of hate and division (and acting on some of them), possibly breaking laws including obstruction of justice, sexual assault, fraud, nepotism, and violating the emoluments clause, being careless with classified information, careless in foreign relations, being downright embarrassing as our representative, etc. Perhaps he was thinking we’re forming a posse to go after him, the outlaw? No. . .
To Trump a “witch hunt” means the media are being mean to him for no reason. He’s the victim. Again.
Along comes Seth Moulton, the Representative of Salem, Massachusetts. This made my day:
As the Representative of Salem, MA, I can confirm that this is false. https://t.co/8yJIzZBSE8
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) May 18, 2017
The original “witch hunt” post I’m referring to:
This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017
I brought this up in a post yesterday, too: Enough Chances.