You've hit a pet peeve of mine: The key feature of witch hunts as a concept is the non-existence of witches. If you have a hunt for something that certainly e

You've hit a pet peeve of mine: The key feature of witch hunts as a concept is the non-existence of witches. If you have a hunt for something that certainly exists (Soviet spies infiltrating US institutions come to mind) it definitively isn't a witch-hunt. For my part, I'm going to keep downvoting comments that say nothing in the most bland way imaginable, and flagging anyone who posts "I put your question into ChatGPT; here's what it says" (in contexts other than discussions of chat bots).