Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

Today Donald Trump tweeted this, regarding protesters campaigning against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.

This signals that the President of the United States buys into antisemitic conspiracy theories. Here's why. THREAD 1/

Right up front, George Soros is a very, very rich man. He's worth, at present, around 8.3 billion USD. He's made that money as a banker, starting in London in the 60s, before moving to America & becoming an investor in the US. /2

Much of the 'higher-level' ire for George Soros comes from his establishment of the @OpenSociety Foundations, that yearly pumps millions and millions of dollars into progressive causes. /3 opensocietyfoundations.org

I'm getting ahead of myself.

George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930. His family were secular Jews - Hungary was quite antisemitic at the time, as was much of Europe, and they wished to shake off their heritage. Even changed their name from 'Schwartz'. /4

George, by all accounts, had a happy childhood. However, things would not always be so good.

In 1944, Nazi Germany invaded their ally, Hungary, in retaliation for suing for peace with the Allies.

Now, under Nazi occupation, explicit persecutions of Jews began. /5

George Soros was 13 when the Nazis invaded, which makes this photo that the Far Right like to peddle seem quite ludicrous.

It actually shoes Oskar Gröning, the so-called 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz'. /6

Now, the Soros family may not have practiced Judaism, but they were ethnically Jewish. This mattered to the Nazis. Deportations swiftly began.

Soros was made to report to the 'Judenrat' - a body designed to assist in organization & deportation. /7

This lies at the heart of another claim the Far Right like to make - Soros helped the Nazis round up Jews.

In truth, Nazis had him run notices to tell Jews to report for deportation.

He worked out what they were & quit after 2 days, as per his father's words, from @Snopes. /8

Shortly thereafter, Soros' father bought him papers to pose as another man's nephew, a Mr Baumbach.

Part of Baumbach's gig was inventorying deported Jews' properties, that gives rise to another accusation - that he felt 'no guilt' for an active role in stealing property. /9

Turns out, again, that Soros was only involved in this very briefly, hardly taking any role at all, as these two accounts from Soros' biographer & his father bear out - again taken from @Snopes. /10

Nor did he say that it was the 'happiest time of his life' - here are the relevant quotes, taken from his biography & the book, 'Masquerade' that Tividar Soros - George's dad - wrote about outsmarting the Gestapo.

Taken again from @Snopes. Note the context. /11

After the war, Soros escaped as the Soviet Union took control. Following studying, his banking & investment career began.

Soon, he was worth a fortune. Remembering the authoritarian government he lived under, & the one he escaped, he started his philanthropic efforts. /12

For decades, Soros dedicated his philanthropic efforts towards organisations that promoted liberal democracy.

For much of that time, it meant funding anti-communist efforts, as this @reddit post rather succinctly catalogues. /13 google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.redd…

Come the fall of the Iron Curtain, however, Soros' millions became a threat to the nationalist movements that swept in to fill the void left by the Soviet Union.

Groups like Hungary's Fidesz, who started out as 'classical liberals' (heh), before veering way to the right. /14

Hungary's PM, Viktor Orban, has made Soros one of the country's primary antagonists due to the fact that he's:

-> Hungarian!
-> Jewish!
-> Supportive of migration!
- > Not there! /15 theguardian.com/world/2017/jun…

Orban has reached back decades to recycle antisemitic tropes, and linked them directly to Soros, as a recent speech shows. /16 google.co.uk/amp/s/www.haar…

This is exactly the kind of imagery that the Nazis used in the 1930s, and the Soviets, to a lesser extent, in the 1950s. /17

As the kind of strongman that a resurgent Russia admires, the Kremlin has poured millions in Orban's Hungary.

It's also amplified his messages across EU & US Far Right, from the increasingly successful populist parties, to InfoWars & Breitbart, to any number of YouTubers. /18

There's a lot more that could be said - comparisons made between Soros' funding of liberal democracy, and the Mercer's/Kochs on the Right, for example.

However, I want to keep this as brief as I can, so the upshot is in the next tweet... /19

The image of George Soros as some amoral Jewish puppetmaster attacking Europe is a antisemitic construction of the Far Right.

It was created in order to cement & direct nationalist favour - the creation of a common enemy.

That POTUS is repeating is fucking appalling. /FIN