Yes.

Kansan here, Masterson probably doesn't believe it, but I also bet he's not entirely sure. There will be a small subset of voters who actually believe it because the American Heresy is strong. The vast majority of his voters/Kansans will literally never hear about this. And if they did, my guess is that most wouldn't believe it and most wouldn't change their vote if they heard about it.

Party loyalty is dumb.

It's dehumanization language, make the enemy an "other".

Some are true believers, but most seem to treat it like a football game or something mentally where as long as their team or the one issue they vote (usually abortion, bigotry or guns) is satisfied they don't care about all the other performative crap.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of the Christian population in North America actually believes that witchcraft is A Real Thing that needs to be fought against tooth and nail. I was raised by people like this, who believe to this day that Harry Potter is evil because "spells" and "magic" are evil, as though they're some kind of insidious gateway to hell itself. It's madness. :)

they voted for trump, twice… they are that stupid

I used to say: " They are not that stupid, they think you're that stupid."

Now I say: They aren't that stupid, they know you're that stupid.

I’m not sure if the speaker actually believes it. He’s a slimeball. But yeah far too many people here will. I hate what it’s gonna take to fix this, or else a millennia of darkness. ☹️

As an American, some do, others see it as explicit rejection of the in group/Christianity and hate it for that reason, still others just see it as a means of dehumanization that'll get the dumbfucks on their side riled up. The politicians though, most of them ain't believe in squat beyond what makes them more powerful. If the politicians believed in witchcraft that can overpower prayers you'd best believe they're secretly doing spells for their benefit.

republicans believe anything social media or a news network tells them.

being a little silly with your kids to the music of a disney musical film?

she's just like a lot of other moms out there, and totally unlike the far-right wackos in the current administration.

That's their Wichita line, man.

Witch honeypot.

She turned me into a newt!!!

Hanged*. hung means something very different.

Exactly!

Unless she's literally summoning demons

...and even then, just like Neo-charismatic movement evangelicals summoning their "Holy Ghost" which makes them speak in tongues, it'd be Freedom of Religion.

!nottheonion@lemmy.world

They're not emulating - they're as fucking stupid as he is.

Wiccan is a religion. Or animist, or Hekate follower, or Hellenist.

Even "pagan" isn't a religion, it's the absence of Christian religion from a Christian perspective. It's an Othering term.

Witch is just a title, like mailman or umpire or hot dog salesperson. If you do witch stuff, you're a witch. If you weld stuff, you're a welder.

But when a Christian does witch shit, they're a "mystic" as a loophole they invented to retcon the "evil mean pagan" stuff they tried to destroy and realized later were things they liked.

She turned me into a newt!