Ty Masterson had a lot to say about witchcraft while speaking at a Wichita church this weekend.

Witch hunts are back in vogue with Kansas Republicans—literally.

Ty Masterson, the Republican candidate in the Kansas gubernatorial race, accused his Democratic opponent, Cindy Holscher, of being an actual witch capable of “demonic” magic, while speaking at the Praise Chapel in Wichita on Sunday.

Masterson introduced the dubious portion of his pseudo-sermon by suggesting that God wanted him to run for Kansas’s top political office.

“God’s armies are out there in this,” Masterson said. “What we’re fighting right now is a spiritual battle that I’ve never seen before, in [this] state, in this politics.

“Evil is maturing with the brotherhood, and it is rising to a level that is just in your face,” Masterson continued as a pianist played a contemplative melody beside him. “Really, my race and the U.S. Senate race with Roger Marshall versus [Adam] Hamilton. Those are spiritual battles.

“Like I said, my opponent, she didn’t even hide it,” Masterson added. “She talked—they had witch—I mean, they’re doing like witchcraft spells on TikTok so she can win the governorship. I mean, they’re like … it’s like demonic stuff that they’re doing, right? Just in your face that way.”

  • frazw@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    2 days ago

    Why do the evil people always point at someone else and say the evil is over there? Actually that’s not my question, my question is why do people fall for it when they do this?

      • bedwyr@piefed.caEnglish
        2·
        22 hours ago

        The professional class is given to believing bullshit too, and they’ve all been educated by societies’ standards.

        Even in grade through high school, critical thinking and evaluating sources was drilled into us.

        I think the failure is the anti intellectual bent in this country, which I believe was fostered by the rich in the business roundtable of 1971 that made a long game to overthrow liberal democracy.

        Not being critical is hardly the only thing to mention, the nihilistic worldview where nothing matters other than money for oneself, that it’s not dishonorable to make obscene profits parasitically feeding on productive companies, killing of History class in any real way and corrupting what is left, and so forth.

    • W. Pilecki@piefed.socialEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      Why do the evil people always point at someone else and say the evil is over there?

      psychological projection and/or political expediency

      Actually that’s not my question, my question is why do people fall for it when they do this?

      A subset of the population wants to fall for it. There was a recent essay (can’t find it now) that described public repetition of the dear leader’s bullshit as a way to demonstrate membership in the tribe. A political altar call, if you will. In this scenario the more outrageous the statement the better it functions to show group loyalty. “I am willing to say this galactically stupid and trivially disprovable stuff in public so I must be a true believer, right? Right?”