(Disclaimer: I talked about this with an actual witch who agreed.)
I hope people online realize that you can enjoy things without having to claim to be of a certain culture or style. You can like black clothes and eyeliner without being emo or goth, and pastel pink without being everything in your wardrobe matching. You can enjoy a game or two without being a gamer and watch an anime without being an otaku. Same applies with being a witch.
I’m not a witch but I’ve found myself on the witch side of tiktok and I like it a lot. I do not plan to practice witchcraft due to my severe lack of religious beliefs and beliefs in a higher power, but it is interesting to see. Though I’ve noticed a sudden rise in the number of witches. It’s cool that more people are discovering it, but it seems everyone nowadays, specifically lgbt people, are witches but I don’t think they realize it’s more than collecting rainwater and crystals and putting shit in a bottle. Parts of being a certain kind of witch include worshipping specific Gods, as my friend told me. He noticed that a lot of these “witches” have no knowledge on any of this and just... do the actions without any thought of what it really means. Which is, in a way, appropriation. He described it as “it’s like someone doing a Jewish prayer in a Catholic Church.”
Being a witch is religious. Certain religions come with rules of who can be part of it. Sometimes you have to be of a certain bloodline. You have to believe in certain Gods and things that go along with that. It’s more than just doing the fun stuff. There’s beliefs to it. This isn’t just some superstition shit.