Comment on What is the typical sentence for Hunter Biden's Tax Evasion?

• bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Sincere question, is it a witch hunt when the punishment is unsubstantiated and unjust (like innocents being burned alive)? My understanding was that politically motivated prosecution was a type of witch hunt and that witch hunt described the act of searching of for the witch, not the burning of the witch.

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  • the_wise_wolf@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Hm. Interestingly Wikipedia defines the term differently than I expected:

    In current language, “witch-hunt” metaphorically means an investigation that is usually conducted with much publicity, supposedly to uncover subversive activity, disloyalty, and so on, but with the real purpose of harming opponents. It can also involve elements of moral panic, as well as mass hysteria.

    By that definition you can indeed call it a witch hunt. But somehow it still feels wrong to call an investigation a witch hunt, if the person being investigated really did commit a crime.

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    • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I feel like the distinction is that when they started the investigation they had no idea about the crimes. They were just looking for literally anything. It was a fishing expedition, basically.

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