General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSeriously... What is this crap about George Soros?
How is it that he's involved in absolutely everything?
I get that he makes donations, but is anything he's done any different than, say, the Koch brothers? (ideology aside)
Where the heck would anyone get the idea that a DA in New York has been paid off by George Soros? I mean I get that the MAGAs are so wrapped up in their white/straight/Christian/male victimhood that they grasp at straws and come up with the craziest conspiracies. I get it.
But why is Soros always the boogie-man?
Marius25
(3,213 posts)Any time they mention Soros, it's basically saying powerful Jews are responsible for doing something bad.
MissMillie
(38,525 posts)Then again, I didn't know Soros was Jewish (pure ignorance on my part), and frankly I don't care if he is.
But now I get it.
TheBlackAdder
(28,160 posts)AZSkiffyGeek
(10,957 posts)Because hes Jewish.
Soros, banks, international, Hollywood, secret, New York
theyre all code for Jews.
TheBlackAdder
(28,160 posts).
RWers should take note on how one Democratic billionaire can outperform dozens of Conservative ones.
.
FalloutShelter
(11,828 posts)Soros is behind everything, dont'cha know?
He's a busy busy man. Running the deep state is a big job. The Socialist takeover of the USA doesn't run itself.
George Soros's name=Jews
Woke= How dare 'you people' demand justice.
Ocelot II
(115,570 posts)In far-right circles worldwide, Soros philanthropy often is recast as fodder for outsized conspiracy theories, including claims that he masterminds specific global plots or manipulates particular events to further his goals. Many of those conspiracy theories employ longstanding antisemitic myths, particularly the notion that rich and powerful Jews work behind the scenes, plotting to control countries and manipulate global events.
The right-wing government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary have attacked Soros for years, claiming that he seeks to undermine Hungarys national ethos. The vehemence of the anti-Soros campaigns is chilling. For example, a slew of posters that appeared in Budapest last summer reminded many observers of Nazi-era propaganda used to stir up hatred and violence against Jews.
However, such anti-Soros activity is not unique to Hungary. Soros long has been a punching bag of authoritarian regimes across Eastern Europe where resentment lingers for his work to build democratic institutions and governments after the fall of the Iron Curtain. And voices in some liberal democracies like Israel cast Soros as a central figure trying to undermine the national interest.
More here: https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/antisemitism-lurking-behind-george-soros-conspiracy-theories
Wounded Bear
(58,584 posts)He's wealthy, Jewish, and a bit progressive. Therefore, in their minds he must be doing what all the wealthy repub-supporting assholes are doing.
Frankly, I wish he was. I haven't gotten my Soros check yet.
Zambero
(8,962 posts)Propaganda and disinformation work best with a small cast of familiar villains. George Soros fits well in this context, since he is wealthy, Jewish, foreign-born and is a frequent contributor to the Democratic party. As such, he "habitually buys votes by the tens of millions in order to promote anti-Anerican socialism and globalism". This preposterous nonsense predates QAnon and is eaten up by RWNJs.
TheBlackAdder
(28,160 posts).
That will be the new RW conspiracy to allow that name to be used in perpetuity.
But, I came up with it first, so it's pending copyright.
.
Emile
(22,449 posts)edisdead
(1,905 posts)I have never gotten my checks for protesting, voting democratix, writing senators, etc .
JHB
(37,152 posts)They know his name because their favorite hosts in conservative media said his name and railed against his imaginary evils. Plus, he's Jewish but his name doesn't "sound Jewish", so they have a smokescreen for the antisemitism that this kind of talk feeds into.
The people for whom Soros is an all-powerful boogie-man generally don't have a working knowledge of the political philanthropy of:
The Koch brothers
The Mercer family
The Coors family
The Walton family
Sheldon Adelson
Richard Mellon-Scaife
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
The Searle Freedom Trust
an assortment of less-visible and smaller-scale ideological donors
assorted foundations set up by persons named above who have passed on
etc.
They also don't know the RW funders' history of being much more focused on "working the system" to reshape to their liking, as opposed to Soros' more individual-project funding, and that the numbers of what the RWers spend swamp his spending manyfold.
rgbecker
(4,817 posts)euphorb
(279 posts)They dont want to acknowledge that large numbers of Americans are against the far right, that they would protest or take any steps against the right on their own. So Soros must be funding them. Thats the idea they want to get across. They are actually in the minority, but they cant acknowledge that, so they have to posit some evil force that is funding the opposition.
spanone
(135,776 posts)Celerity
(43,057 posts)It often is still along the lines of Left v Right (granted there are plenty of straight up neo nazi style MAGAts who hate all jews).
Also, many of the christofash RWers only support the jews in Israel because they need them there in order to fulfil their batshit cray buybull end times prophecies.
EYESORE 9001
(25,907 posts)The International Jew made flesh. Its an old tale resurrected for today.
All totalitarian regimes - from the Roman Empire onward, and likely before that, but its the earliest example I can come up with spur of the moment: Nero blaming early Christians for burning Rome.
Modern totalitarians are no different. They need a scapegoat on which to pin all of societys ills. No regime is willing to admit any fault or weakness (ironically, their fear of displaying weakness is actually their greatest vulnerability).
Like Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwells novel, George Soros is portrayed as a traitor to the system in which he had soared to dizzying - nay heavenly - heights. Theres a comparison to Satans fall from Gods grace in there somewhere. Hes also considered a traitor to the Jewish community as well as to capitalism itself.
Personally, I dont know how anyone could live in fear of George Soros, but conservatroids of all stripes use him as a boogeyman in their attempt to spread fear. It just adds to background anxiety that is free-flowing and used like the bell in Pavlovs dog experiments:
Media or some random public figure: SOROS!
MAGAts et al: Gnashing teeth, grumbling, sneering, hissing, and thats about it.
At the end of the day, they remain proudly ignorant of even rudimentary facts about the object of their five-minute hate.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)in Germany and Poland. Even claimed he was a German SS officer. Some crazy right wing conspiracy theory group put it out on one of the social media sites. So I asked these two clowns how in hell did a 3-year-old Jewish kid come up with millions to help Hitler start building death camps and why would he want to kill and torture his own people. All I received for an answer was a few seconds of silence and then "Well it was on the Internet, so there must be something to it".
Boomerproud
(7,938 posts)OMG.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)they hear or read from right wing sources. They believe because they WANT TO BELIEVE. They are like trained circus animals.
LakeArenal
(28,791 posts)Other than Republicons tell them too.
sakabatou
(42,134 posts)emulatorloo
(44,057 posts)Trump constantly uses antisemitic tropes to incite the MAGAs.
First several results in a google search just now - search terms were Trump and Antisemitism.
(Sorry I didnt bother to format my copy and paste, so I dont think the links will work. But if you want to read the articles you can just reproduce my search. It returned a ton of articles)
https://www.cnn.com 2021 12 17 politics trump-anti-semitic-comments index.html
Trump uses anti-Semitic tropes to again criticize Jewish Americans - CNN
Dec 17, 2021Trump's comments are the latest in a series of controversial remarks he has been known to make about Jewish Americans. During his first campaign for president, Trump delivered a speech to the...
https://www.reuters.com world us trumps-comments-american-jews-were-anti-semitic-white-house-2022-10-17
Trump's comments on American Jews were anti-Semitic -White House
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's recent comments that American Jews have offered insufficient praise of his policies toward Israel were "insulting" and "anti-Semitic", White House.
..
https://www.theguardian.com us-news 2021 dec 18 donald-trump-antisemitic-tropes-anti-defamation-league
Trump condemned by Anti-Defamation League chief for antisemitic tropes ...
Dec 18, 2021The chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League led condemnation of Donald Trump after the former president used antisemitic tropes in remarks about American Jews and Israel. Mark Meadows was...
https://www.npr.org 2022 11 30 1139971241 anti-semitism-is-on-the-rise-and-not-just-among-high-profile-figures
Antisemitism is on the rise again. Here's why : NPR
Nov 30, 2022Antisemitism returns to politics. Trump's dinner with the musician Ye, who's made a number of antisemitic remarks, and a notorious Holocaust-denying internet streamer is just the latest example of ...
https://www.vanityfair.com news 2021 12 donald-trump-anti-semitism-jews-israel
Trump Goes Full Anti-Semite, Unloads on American Jews in Wildly Bigoted ...
Anti-Semitism Trump Goes Full Anti-Semite, Unloads on American Jews in Wildly Bigoted Rant The former president hit on nearly every anti-Jewish trope in the book, including the one about Jews...
https://www.timesofisrael.com donald-trumps-anti-semitism-controversies-a-timeline
Donald Trump's anti-Semitism controversies: A timeline
JTA Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing growing accusations that his campaign is countenancing anti-Semitism - if not encouraging it outright. Trump's foreign...
Trenzalore
(2,331 posts)However, dog whistles to right wing nationalist are still accepted.
I don't know, we are at a crossroads where I think they are about ready to drop the dog whistles and just flat out say it at this point.
Hekate
(90,517 posts)
and Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. I am pretty sure most Americans with a shred of decency or any sense of shame just saw where that kind of bigotry led.
Sure, there was plenty of prejudice lying around in plain sight if you had eyes to see it. Ive heard the stories of my in-laws experience when they came to New York City in 1953. Jobs lost. Jobs not offered. And for my husband and his 2 brothers, in the mid to late 1960s there were colleges who would admit them and colleges that would not quotas, you know. (Ruth Bader Ginsberg was a two-fer regarding things like quotas: a Jew and a woman. )
But this kind of shit? This just-about-in-your-face kind of shit? You had to be pretty low-class to indulge in that.
And here we are. At the crossroads.
TheBlackAdder
(28,160 posts)2naSalit
(86,307 posts)That is so old it has a rind n it.
keep_left
(1,779 posts)...the Cold War, especially in Europe (he's Hungarian). The new totalitarians (MAGA chuds and the alt-right) hate that because they love strongmen like Orban, and of course because Soros is Jewish.
It should be noted that the coddling of totalitarians by the right and far-right began not too long after the end of the Cold War. Eric Alterman, who at that time was at The Nation, wrote a piece that was titled something like "Where Are the Anti-Communist Conservatives When You Need Them?". This was in response to the neocons (particularly Bill Kristol) sucking up to the Chinese regime. This was in the early 2000s, around the time of the second Gulf War.
I doubt the alt-right types have any use for Bill Kristol or the neocons (as a rule, the alt-right hates the neocons for their support of Israel and because a number of them are Jewish), but it is interesting that as soon as the Cold War was over, the neocons started this trend of sucking up to some pretty vicious dictatorships. Kristol was an apologist for whatever atrocities the neocons wanted to support, and wrote some really execrable pieces in the media that got scathing criticism by Alterman among others. The far-right has continued this trend with their worship of numerous strongmen around the world, most notably Orban in Hungary.
Richard D
(8,737 posts). . . for "THE JEWS!!!!"
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)some of whose documented activities have resulted in deaths of innocents -- and been continued. They're intensely corrupt and corrupting, with many documented evasions and smashings of laws over the decades. They claimed "libertarian" ideology as an excuse for their years of illegal and destructive activities, though their father was actually just a typical archconservative fascist sympathizer and that may be a far better explanation of them.
In contrast, do these below from liberal philanthropist George Soros sound like that? He avoids party labels but is unmistakably our kind of person.
An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.
When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and principles of a free and open society. ... I'm doing it because I can afford to do it, and I believe in it.
Law has become a business. Health care has become a business. Unfortunately, politics has also become a business. That really undermines society.
We must recognize that as the dominant power in the world we have a special responsibility. In addition to protecting our national interests, we must take the leadership in protecting the common interests of humanity.
Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
And he's a positive realist:
hippywife
(22,767 posts)MayReasonRule
(1,460 posts)Hekate
(90,517 posts)
anti-Semitism making a roaring comeback, its quite real: just read what they accuse Soros of. Hes a great liberal philanthropist but theyre checking all the boxes. By the first week in April there will be whispers about the blood-sacrifice of Christian children. (April 5 Passover begins. April 9 is Easter)
Its real. The Nazi monsters are abroad.
Behind the Aegis
(53,915 posts)and this applies to more than just the right, especially when they feel the need to shit on threads about Jews by "whataboutism" "concern" regarding Israel.