It time for another What if... Thread!

[Violet]

If you want to play sick with in the senerio, don't wander off into history or self righteousness.

Well, you make these oddly specific. Each facet brings forth a facet of human social behavior. Each one 'changes the game'.

Ok so what if.... witches as per folk tales and scary movies existed? (Not the dbag witch/emo/hippies we do have) but real fly on a broom, steal your children cook and eat them, prey on people in general, no prision can hold them, can only be killed by water or fire, but real as the day is long???

If flying on a broom was a thing, everyone would want to do it. Can anyone be a witch in this scenario, or just a minority of the population?

Stealing children to cook and eat them is a lot of work, what's the gain? What's the use?

People prey on people in general... how would witches preying on people be any different?

Is this because of teleportation? Because if it is: they cannot realistically be killed with fire and water, and humanity can pretty much just bend over for its magical girl overlords

Would it then be ok to have an hold witch hunts of old/Salem witch trials?

Not really, Salem witch trials had no government oversight. Perhaps if a whole nation had a way... but how can you know if someone is a witch?

Ultimately... are we willing to kill innocent people for the *chance* that we *might* catch a witch among a set of innocent people? How would we find these 'witches' such that a 'witch burning' would be an effective solution?

What if #2: what if just a few hundred years ago these type of witches really did exist and it wasn't superstition and rampant ignorance that over took people. What if the population was then just as aware of reality as we are now, only that the variable in the equation was reality itself and not our ancestors knoweledge of it? Meaning the supernatural was stronger than it is now?

If so, there would be today people trying to return magic to the world.

One of my projects is kind of exploring that scenario, except it's in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Would that change your view of what they did and why they did what they did?

No. I can respect measurable countermeasures, or reasonable calls of sacrifice for the greater good...

I have a hard time respecting mass hysteria, and trials without evidence where it is literally impossible to find out if someone is a witch... and based on the fact that the man or woman dies regardless of whether or not they are a witch: one would have to cull the entire population, just to be sure.

But that wouldn't be sustainable... and lingering trust might allow some to live. Dangerous road to walk.