Today I stopped to grab replacement frames for my daughter’s glasses. The lady asked about my daughter’s name (Hermione).

Me: Like the girl from Harry Potter.

Clerk: Oh I’ve never seen those movies, I don’t believe in the witches and warlocks and such.

Me, jokingly: Well it’s all make believe, nobody actually thinks that witches or warlocks are real.

She then informed me that they are indeed real and she’s a member of a missionary group who “casts them out” all the time…

This is a fully grown (looked to be 45-50ish) adult woman, who is allowed to vote and reproduce, who straight up believes that magic, witches and warlocks are real, and not only that, she is a member of a larger organization of people who go out on “missions” to “cast out” these evildoers. And she works in a business where she holds at least some authority over an aspect of peoples’ health and well being.

The crazier thing is, she’s not the first person in this area I’ve met who thinks witches and warlocks are real life people out there casting spells and shit.

And that is why Trump won re-election.

Edit for clarification: Around here when somebody says they “don’t believe” in a thing, specifically in this context, what they mean is they “don’t support” that thing. I’ve also heard people say they “don’t believe” in guns, despite them being very real. What they mean is, they don’t “support” a thing, not that they literally don’t believe it’s real.

  • BroBot9000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    7 days ago

    Ouch that was a hard one to read.

    Media literacy is so incredibly low.

    The brainwashing has got them thinking everything in tv they see is real. No wonder they will give everything to a scam like religion and toxic pedos running the operation.

    • Gerowen@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      When I was a kid (90s) my grandmother swore straight up and down that a certain woman she knew was a witch, and that one way to test it was to put a sewing needle down and see if she would refuse to step over it. So one day I took one and sort of mashed it into the wood in the bottom of her door frame so you couldn’t see it. The woman came by a day or so later and when invited in she declined and said she needed to get back home. That was all the proof my grandmother needed. My mom is also convinced they’re real. Pentecostal churches are reasonably common around here (eastern Kentucky) where people scream and holler and speak in tongues and cast out demons and all kinds of other nonsense.

        • Gerowen@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          6·
          7 days ago

          I have no idea. The old folks also used to think witches were scheming against them and casting spells because out here in the woods sometimes if you’re deep in the woods after dark you’ll hear something that sounds eerily like unintelligible voices babbling together in the distance. Guess what screech owls sound like, especially if there’s a group of them? 🤣

        • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
          3·
          7 days ago

          Needles, quills, pins etc are often used in defensive magic (yeah, thinking a witch can’t cross a needle is magical thinking, which is funny). One of the slightly less obscure examples is in Witch bottles, a sort of gross protective charm against witches.

          Needles and thorns protect animals and plants, so obviously knitting needles can also protect us, is what magical thinkers would say. Magical thinking is all about symbolism

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
            1·
            7 days ago

            I mean, anyone with enough skill at using chopsticks can probably wield a set of 8 gauge knitting needles with a high degree of efficacy