#18: Hysteria Is a Repeatable Pattern
Salem’s most chilling lesson is that it wasn’t a one-time event. Human mass hysteria tends to repeat. It starts with shared anxiety: damnation, communism, a new disease, and a changing world. That fear finds a target, usually a group of outsiders. Accusations fly, evidence is ignored in favor of emotion, and a mob mentality takes over. It was clear during the Red Scare of the 1950s. It still echoes today in online call-outs and political polarization. Each generation seems to find its own kind of witch to hunt.
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