History Main / WitchHunt

* In the first-series ''{{Series/Blackadder}}'' episode "The Witchsmeller Pursuivant", Prince Edmund is accused of witchcraft by the Witchsmeller and convicted on completely ridiculous "evidence". [[spoiler:The ironic part is Edmund's mother ''is'' a witch: it was her actions that burned the Witchsmeller alive and freed Edmund.]]

** In the Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}} episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]", Giles notes that a certain breed of demon prefers to turn humans against each other rather than attacking them directly, from Salem all the way back to Hansel & Gretel. One such demon convinces Buffy's own mother to lead a witch hunt that almost gets Buffy, Willow and their friend Amy burned at the stake.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'':In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS7E6 The Straw Woman]]", once the two priests are killed and clues seem to suggest witchcraft the village literally starts to call for the heads of a witch historian and a woman who practises herbal medicine.

* The Landlord Purges during the rise of Maoist China, in which the government incited mobs to kill former landlords during the collectivization of agriculture. Later also the Cultural Revolution in which many intellectuals were publicly humiliated, purged from their positions, and put to work in the fields.

* The "Satanic Panic," which took place from the 1970s to the 1990s in the US and UK. Thanks to people like Mike Warnke publishing books like ''The Satan Seller'' (later discredited), people became convinced that massive numbers of Satanists were engaged in all sorts of nefarious activities, including but not limited to underground child pornography rings (using children left at daycare centers), sacrificing people, putting subliminal messages in everything to corrupt the youth, and trying to TakeOverTheWorld.

* A modern one is the outgrowth of the PedoHunt obsession, especially in the United States. Anyone even accused will be instantly convicted in public opinion and their life ruined forever, even if they are completely exonerated or never actually charged with anything. It's become somewhat toothless in recent years due to overuse; several popular conspiracy theories (ripping pages from the Satanic Panic playbook) have used the accusation against basically everyone famous enough for them to know their names.

* Many Western governments, politicians, and commentators criticize Russia's current plan of criminalizing the spread of "ideals and propaganda that encourages homosexuality" in the country as an excuse for the government to carry out massive witch hunts to root out the country's LGBT population. In fact, the laws are written so broadly that they can effectively be used against ''anyone'', making them a good tool for Putin's authoritarian regime generally.

* People who have done or said racist things or support someone involved in politics who's been accused of racism often blame accusations on this trope, with their opposers claiming this "karma" for their actions.
* The [=#MeToo=] movement, which was born out of the Weinstein Effect and destroyed the careers of some celebrities accused by the movement (in particular men), has been called this by those accused and the movement's detractors, accusing them of deliberately ignoring the presumption of innocence - that being "Innocent until proven guilty" - and trying to have those accused ConvictedByPublicOpinion instead of by a court of law. On the other hand, members and supporters of the movement itself have stated that calling the movement a witch hunt is a slanderous attempt to avoid accountability of the accused.
* UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict: Supporters of the pro-Palestinian movement have accused their opponents (supporters of the pro-Israeli movement) of inciting a political witch-hunt against them. This is because pro-Israeli activists frequently criticize pro-Palestinian activists for making actions or statements which they allege to be evidence of the pro-Palestinian side having antisemitic beliefs (not helping matters is that some legitimate antisemites have mingled with the pro-Palestinian side in the past), which the pro-Palestinian side vehemently denies and considers to be a slanderous campaign designed to silence all criticism of Israel. Within Israel, some accusations of this are made too, with Israelis opposed to the government policies on Palestinians asserting they are being persecuted for it. Naturally, they are called [[CategoryTraitor traitors]] by the government supporters. And in Palestine, Palestinians in favor of the two-state solution idea are labelled traitors by the extremist side of the pro-Palestinian movement.
* Online debates about FanFic and fan art can degenerate into this, one of the reasons WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings. {{Shipping}} in particular gets into SeriousBusiness territory. Ship Alice and Bob? Well, you are homophobic because Bob clearly belongs with Charlie and Alice should be with Eve. Ship Bob and Charlie? Well, then you're racist because ThoseTwoGuys are white and Alice is not. Ship Eve and Charlie (who despise each other in-universe)? Abuse apologist. Ship Bob and Eve? Bring on the PedoHunt because even though Eve is twenty, Bob is thirty and that's "problematic."

* ''Fanfic/WhisperedTribulation'': Aizawa's search for a mole supposedly working inside U.A. amounts to this, as he fixates on the innocent, [[ForWantOfANail quirkless]] Midoriya as his prime suspect. He and his cohorts prove more than willing to [[WouldHurtAChild kidnap and viciously interrogate]] Izuku for the sake of their crusade; fortunately, [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Principal Nedzu]] intervenes on his behalf, pushing back against their extreme methods.

* In ''Manhwa/{{Rebirth}}'', it's more like "Vampire Hunt" for poor young Deshwitat L. Rudbich, a half-vampire with a vampiric father and a human mother. During the 17th century, he lived a normal childhood until Captain Maybus, leader of the KnightTemplar Sacred Knights, stormed the Rudbich Castle. Falling into obscurity, the Captain targeted the family, who hadn't committed any crimes, as a target to re-establish himself. Forced to watch his mother beheaded and father burned in the morning sun, Deshwitat barely survives with the help of the captain's son, Kalutika (who would later become both his closest companion and then the BigBad). After that, his life can be summed up as going FromBadToWorse.

-->-- ''Comicstrip/{{Dilbert}}'', [[http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2003-07-17/ July 17, 2003]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'''s episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street]]" was a wonderful example: [[spoiler:everyone was looking for the aliens among them who were responsible for the power outage, but the real aliens were watching from outside the town. They knew they just had to cut off the power, and the people would kill each other in their witch hunt]]. In [[Series/TheTwilightZone2002 the remake of that episode]], [[spoiler:It was a military experiment instead. The soldiers found the results disheartening to say the least]].
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "A Message from Charity", Charity Payne is accused of being a witch after she tells her best friend Ursula Miller of the wonders of 1985 that she has seen through Peter Wood's eyes or that he has told her about such as cars, television, airplanes, men walking on UsefulNotes/TheMoon and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. The "evidence" against her is her family's well being the only one in Annes Town whose water is not tainted and Master Croft's ewe giving birth to a lamb with a ThirdEye. While searching for references to Charity's trial in books on [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies colonial Massachusetts]], Peter finds a reference to Squire Jonas Hacker being posthumously convicted of the murder of two sailors in 1704. During her trial, Charity claims to possess [[{{Seers}} second sight]] and describes the root cellar in which the bodies are hidden. Squire Hacker holds that her second sight is a gift from {{God}} and proclaims her innocent of witchcraft. However, Charity reluctantly breaks off contact with Peter to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' had elements of this inspired by the {{ShapeShift|ing}}er masters of the Dominion. The fact they keep up the blood screenings even though they know that the guy who came up with it was a changeling and it didn't work on him... TruthInTelevision, to a degree. Reference the concept of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater security theater.]]

* The backstory of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' deals with [[BigBad Delling Rembrand]] using the public's opinion on the GUND-Arm technology to put a ban on it and the resulting "Gundam"-type Mobile Suits that come from it, going so far as to having a colony working with the technology obliterated with it. Years later, when [[TheHero Suletta Mercury]] unleashes the full power of the Aerial Gundam, he starts up a trial and tries to force the Gundam to be destroyed because he said so.

* A modern one is the outgrowth of the PedoHunt obsession, especially in the United States. Anyone even accused will be instantly convicted in public opinion and their life ruined forever, even if they are completely exonerated or never actually charged with anything. It's become somewhat toothless in recent years do to overuse; several popular conspiracy theories (ripping pages from the Satanic Panic playbook) have used the accusation against basically everyone famous enough for them to know their names.

* Despite the stereotype, the situation with witchcraft in the medieval period was more nuanced than many expect. Throughout the Middle Ages, the official position of the Church was that witches and witchcraft did not exist. Believing and teaching that witches existed was actually considered heresy, and killing anyone for "being a witch" was considered murder. However, this seemingly straightforward condemnation can be misleading today, as what they meant by "witch" does not correspond exactly with our 21st century understanding. "Witchcraft" at the time was connected with paganism, and pagan beliefs remained widespread among the common people even after the Christianization of Europe. The condemnation of belief in witches was partially to protect innocent victims, but was primarily out of concern that peasants would ''willingly'' turn to witches for help and revert to paganism. It wasn't all just wild, superstitious accusations. Some people actually claimed to ''be'' witches and possess magical powers. Such people were condemned not as witches but as heretics (i.e. false belief). Claiming witchcraft did not exist at all was an attempt to impress the idea that ''only'' the Christian God was legitimate. Despite the official Church position and their efforts, belief in witchcraft remained widespread. Gradually, the idea of witchcraft moved away from "invoking pagan gods" and more towards the modern idea as a "deal with the Devil," and actual witch hunts started receiving official sanction only at the start of the Renaissance and Early Modern Era. Joan of Arc's execution for witchcraft in 1431 and Heinrich Kramer publishing his witch hunting guide the "Malleus Maleficarum" in 1487 were major turning points in peoples' perception of witches.
** Because UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition had [[FairForItsDay insisted that ordinary standards of evidence applied in witchcraft cases]], they didn't have witch hunts as France or Germany did. The sole witch hunt was the Basque witch trials, which was more limited than most, with some judges expressing open skepticism of the charges. In the end, although some ''5,000'' were accused of witchcraft, only 15 were actually convicted and burned. The Spanish Inquisition therefore abandoned its prosecutions of witchcraft a century before Protestant governments.

* Despite the stereotype, the situation with witchcraft and witch hunts in the medieval period was more nuanced than many expect. Throughout the Middle Ages, the official position of the Church was that witches and witchcraft did not exist. Believing and teaching that witches existed was actually considered heresy, and killing anyone for "being a witch" was considered murder. However, this seemingly straightforward condemnation can be misleading today, as what they meant by "witch" does not correspond exactly with our 21st century understanding. "Witchcraft" at the time was connected with paganism, and belief in pagan gods and spirits remained widespread among the common people even after the Christianization of Europe. It's true the condemnation of belief in witches was partially to protect innocent victims, but was primarily out of concern that peasants would ''willingly'' turn to witches for help and revert to paganism. Yes, it wasn't all just wild, superstitious accusations. Some people actually claimed to ''be'' witches and possess magical powers. Such people were condemned not as witches but simply as heretics (i.e. false belief). Claiming witchcraft did not exist at all was an attempt to impress the idea that ''only'' the Christian God was legitimate. Nevertheless, despite the official Church position and their efforts, belief in witchcraft remained widespread. Gradually, the idea of witchcraft moved away from "invoking pagan gods" and more towards our current understanding of witchcraft as a "deal with the Devil," and actual witch hunts started receiving official sanction only (ironically) at the start of the Renaissance and Early Modern Era. Joan of Arc's execution for witchcraft in 1431 and Heinrich Kramer publishing his witch hunting guide the "Malleus Maleficarum" in 1487 being major turning points in peoples' perception of witches.