Practitioners of witchcraft have joined the cause of liberal student groups at the University of North Texas (UNT) in an attempt to remove a conservative student organization from the school’s campus.
As first reported by Texas Scorecard, UNT College Democrats joined LGBT campus group UNT GLAD and “Chicanx/Latinx” student group MUEVE to write a Change.org petition demanding the removal of the UNT chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT).
The petition, addressed to University President Neal Smatresk and signed by more than 2,500 people as of Monday afternoon, alleges that YCT “has shown a pattern of racism, transphobia, and homophobia throughout the 2019 through 2020 school year.” It goes on to cite examples of what they deem objectionable behavior, such as when YCT tweeted that “pronouns in your [T]witter bio isn’t a personality trait.”
Also listed is the time YCT encouraged students to celebrate National Coming Out Day by “coming out” as conservatives, as well as when they made a point about affirmative action by holding a bake sale that charged different prices based on the customer’s ethnicity. Claiming “these actions have hurt numerous organizations, minority groups, and the well being of harassed students,” the petition maintains that “YCT needs to be held accountable for said transgressions.”
Various iterations of YCT have existed since the organization was first founded in 1980. Its chapters across Texas “participate in a variety of activities, including campaigning, political activism, informing the general public on a variety of political topics, and much more,” wrote Kelly Neidert, who is the chairman of the chapter at UNT, which was reinstated in Fall 2019 after being dissolved in 2005.
Screenshots provided to The Daily Wire of tweets and direct messages sent to YCT and Neidert show that the campaign against the organization took on a more ominous tone when alleged witches began claiming to invoke otherworldly forces against them. “It started with, like, one,” Neidert told The Daily Wire. “But now there’s like 30 of them threatening me.”
In one since-deleted tweet, “Anna Katz, a recent graduate of UNT, tweeted a picture of a drawing of a goat captioned ‘the devil’ and a cauldron. Katz, who later removed the Tweet, could not be reached for comment,” as reported by The Washington Free Beacon. Katz informed Neidert that she was performing a ritual with “intentions of misfortune” against her, but qualified her hex by explaining that it was not intended to induce “physical harm.”
Other tweets sent to YCT depict images of menacing Tarot cards, one of which shows an image of death, which a user interpreted as predicting imminent downfall. Other messages expressed overtly satanic sentiments.
“I prefer the attacks that are just like name calling and that sort of thing,” Neidert said. “The whole witch stuff, it hasn’t really freaked me out, but it’s been concerning. I think that it’s alarming that there are this many young adults who find that acceptable.” As a Christian, Neidert views the witchcraft being used against her and her organization as “pure evil, especially when they make references to Satan and they think it’s funny.”
“It’s not funny, and I’m definitely more concerned for them than I am for myself, if they think that’s okay,” she added.
A spokesman for UNT College Democrats told The Washington Free Beacon they had no comment on the hexing but stood behind their petition, which they said was not in response to YCT’s politics. “This is not a choice made by political decision, we do not care that they are conservatives, we would do this if any group on campus was spreading the rhetoric YCT spreads,” they said.
A spokesman for UNT GLAD echoed the College Democrats and said they would begin an emailing campaign if the administration fails to respond to the petition’s demands. The University of North Texas did not respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.
Since the election of President Donald Trump, occultists have grown increasingly brazen in ceremonially cursing their political opponents. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, self-proclaimed “magical thinker” Michael M. Hughes published a “mass spell to bind Donald Trump and all those who abet him,” which went “internationally viral” to become “the largest magical working in history,” according to his website.
Since then, many have performed Hughes’ spell repeatedly during waning crescent moons with the intention of removing Trump from office. He later published “Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change,” which offers “ideas for altars, meditations, community organizing, self-care, and […] a toolkit for magical people or first-time spellcasters who want to manifest equality and peace.”
It's finally here! MAGIC FOR THE RESISTANCE: RITUALS AND SPELLS FOR CHANGE is on store shelves and shipping from online retailers. Ask for it at your local bookseller or order online: https://t.co/JjnB5ENBig#BindTrump#MagicResistance#WitchHunt#M4TR pic.twitter.com/cU503saxYv
— Michael M. Bind Trump Hughes (@michaelmhughes) September 11, 2018
Shortly after contentious confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, witches made headlines when they repeatedly gathered to hex him at Catland, an occult bookstore in Brooklyn. In a statement on Facebook advertising the ritual to the public, Catland wrote, “We are embracing witchcraft’s true roots as the magik [sic] of the poor, the downtrodden and disenfranchised and it’s [sic] history as often the only weapon, the only means of exacting justice available to those of us who have been wronged by men just like him.”
Father Gary Thomas, the Catholic exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose, held a special Mass in response to hex, telling Newsweek, “The decision to do this against a Supreme Court justice is a heinous act and says a lot about the character of these people that should not be underestimated or dismissed. These are real evil people.”
During the protests that erupted last month in the wake of George Floyd’s death, videos offering instruction for performing rituals of protection for protesters went viral on the TikTok app under the hashtag “#BLMWitches,” according to The Guardian. One of the witches told Bustle, “Hexes and curses can be used to slow police down — witchcraft is all about manipulating the supernatural to your will.”
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