Thread by @MiloWheller

I recognise the sarcasm in @GreenJennyJones #CurfewForMen but worry that those who don't, whatever their leaning, simply inflame things more. I'm also aware that I risk doing just that myself but in the spirit of her invitation to discuss here is my thread, or possibly my hill:

In 1645 Margaret Moone was forcibly physically examined and reported to have 3 nipple-like marks. Tortured and violated, Moore confessed that these represented a contract with the devil and, despite retracting that confession when her tormentors rested, she was hanged as a witch.

In this case, atrociously, medical irregularities (whether or not they actually existed) ultimately proved the crime, and thousands more women and men were executed for witchcraft, many on the basis of evidence including scars, birth marks, moles or warts etc.

We now know, of course, that in the 1640s a person was not a witch because they had a skin tag, and in the 1940s a person was not a Nazi because they were German. Similarly somebody is not homophobic because they are heterosexual, not racist because they are white, not an abusive

predator because they are male. The identities are not conditional upon each other. Indeed, applying reverse logic proves this with obvious and commonplace examples: we are all aware of many anti-Nazi wartime Germans, of members of the LGBT community who attack each other with

gender or sexuality based slurs, and of men who are not rapists or paedophiles. Like the Witchfinder General we would be absurdly, and perhaps maliciously, wrong to suggest that psychological or sociopolitical traits are predetermined by physical characteristics or native origin.

I am not trying to trivialise the anguish and trauma of victims. I am not beating the drums of #NotAllMen or #AllLivesMatter. Our society globally has some desperate problems; some might say it is almost broken but it is society globally which must fix those problems - all of us.

We do not need to fix men, cisgender or white people (or Germans or witches) generally through regulation and/or retribution - we, as a whole, need to fix the faulty thinking that causes men and women of any colour, creed, citizenship or chosen category to abuse any other.

In fact those who lack the sociopathic tendency which is wrongly attributed to their biological nature could help further understanding of the real causes of the malignancy, so it would be irresponsible to burn them in the same fire as those who have actually offended.

Unless and until we work co-operatively to more specifically diagnose and treat the underlying ailments then we must all share some liability with those we generically accuse, and we are as fatally misguided by hysteria as those who pointed fingers during the witch hunts.