On Fri, Apr 02, 2021 at 06:18:51PM +0200, Zlatan Todoric wrote: > [...] still not good enough to throw tantrums > around with "witch-hunt". Women in past were burnt alive on stakes, so stop > with extreme rhetoric when some expresses that they had it enough with > sexist behavior.
Witch-hunt is a reference to McCarthyism. and, of course, Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. I'll assume you're both very young and not a native speaker of English, but "witch-hunt" has been a common idiomatic term for what is happening to Stallman and the FSF board since at least the 1950s, and probably a lot longer for reasons that should be obvious. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it was 1919: https://www.etymonline.com/word/witch%20hunt 1853 in the literal sense (witch-hunting is from 1630s), from witch (n.) + hunt (n.). The extended sense is attested from 1919, American English, later re-popularized in reaction to Cold War anti-Communism. Senator [Lee S.] Overman. What do you mean by witch hunt? Mr. [Raymond] Robins. I mean this, Senator. You are familiar with the old witch-hunt attitude, that when people get frightened at things and see bogies, then they get out witch proclamations, and mob action and all kinds of hysteria takes place. ["Bolshevik Propaganda," U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings, 1919] In short, it's a purge of political or other "undesirables". usually with a rampaging mob hyped-up and eager for a taste of blood(*). (*) just to be clear, not necessarily literal blood. that's also an idiomatic phrase. most of the time. craig
