Here's some background about #FionaHill naming #conspiracytheories against #Soros as the new "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" at the #ImpeachmentHearings. (1/16)
Right-wing regimes have long broken down the fabric of political protest by using the antisemitic notion of rich Jewish financiers as the “puppet masters” of social unrest. #ImpeachingHearing (2/16)
During the Russian Revolution, the Tsar’s secret police disseminated the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fictional account of a meeting of rich Jews plotting to break down the society of their “host countries” and rule the world through the promotion of social upheaval. (3/16)
For a period, the Protocols did its job to undermine and destabilize the revolution against the Tsar. Because of its success, it’s been translated and promoted by right-wing ideologues around the world ever since. #ImpeachingHearing (4/16)
The Protocols gave us dog whistle terms like “globalist,” a slur associated with Jews that paint them as untrustworthy, ready to betray the nations of their residence in service of an unseen authority. #ImpeachingHearing (5/16)
The general idea, from @JFREJNYC "Jews are a powerful, corrupting influence on otherwise good, pure people—insidious troublemakers with a nefarious agenda at odds with that of the good, ‘true’ citizens of a nation." #ImpeachmentHearings (6/16)
During McCarthyism, these well known stereotypes about Jews were used to tar communists and leftist movement activists (Jewish and non-Jewish) as untrustworthy, two-faced “troublemakers” with foreign loyalties detrimental to the United States. #ImpeachmentHearings (7/16)
The over-representation of Jews and non-Jewish people of color (always seen as suspect by the white owning class) in leftist movement circles made these claims plausible. #ImpeachmentHearings (8/16)
Through institutional state repression and violence—blacklisting, closures of organizations, and ultimately the public execution of the Rosenbergs—the Red Scare successfully decimated the social fabric of leftist movements. #ImpeachmentHearings (9/16)
It is deeply troubling to see these same tropes, indeed some of the very same language, being used against today’s social movements by the president and leaders of the Republican party. #ImpeachmentHearing (10/16)
Trump and other Republicans have regularly claimed that George Soros (the central target of this anti-Semitic messaging) is entirely behind the Movement for Black Lives.#ImpeachmentHearing (11/16)
It’s not just antisemitism on its own, but antisemitism deployed against the left that gives the lie about Soros its cultural power. #ImpeachingHearing (12/16)
Our side can point out that right-wing efforts are funded by the Koch, Walton and Mercer families all day long, but that fact and its broadcast never delegitimizes their endeavors. #ImpeachingHearing (13/16)
That’s because the Soros lie—the invocation of the idea of the scary, untrustworthy Jew—is built on top of a bunch of other assumptions: that “real” Americans are Christian and white, and hew to patriarchal gender norms and racial segregation. #ImpeachmentHearings (14/16)
Luckily, we know how to fight back. We can recognize the ways in which racism, antisemitism, and misogyny are deployed to keep our movements weak and divided and we can refuse to fall for conspiracy theories. #ImpeachingHearing (15/16)
In the face of the destructive attacks of the extreme right wing, we have an opportunity to respond with a solidarity that buttresses and expands democracy—a rebuttal to an oppressive past and a promise for a liberated future. #ImpeachingHearing (16/16)
