The Construction of an Infectious Propaganda Trope
“George Soros! George Soros!” The name recently cropped up again, this time in Republican propaganda decrying Alvin Bragg’s supposedly impending indictment of Donald Trump. There are a long string of such invocations from right wing figures. George Soros
has been accused by right-wing conspiracists of orchestrating everything from protests against the police killing of George Floyd and the national anthem in the NFL to the funding of Central American migrant caravans in 2018 and demonstrations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.
The words are no longer the name of a man born in pre-World War II Hungary who made a fortune and spends a significant part of that fortune in support of small “d” democratic values and institutions in countries of the former Soviet bloc. The words “George Soros” are now shorthand for all that can be imagined that is controlling and evil. Like any effective political dog whistle, the accusation of the involvement of George Soros in any endeavor means different things to differently conditioned listeners. For many the mental linkage conjures up images of The New World Order,
a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian one-world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history’s progress.
For others, the name conjures up images of a secret cabal of Jewish bankers bent on world dominion, an image that harkens back to the Rothschild banking family in Europe and its interactions with the Vatican.
Somewhat less imaginative (less indoctrinated) listeners might take the “George Soros” epithet simply to suggest a wealthy man of great self interest who funds liberal causes for his own aggrandizement—and to the detriment of Republican causes.
“George Soros” has become convenient shorthand for evil self promotion to the detriment of society. By 2017, the “George Soros” meme had become so embedded in right wing consciousness that McMorris Rodgers (“our” Representative to the U.S. House from eastern Washington) could look me straight in the face and remind me that “George Soros” was funding migrant caravans—as if this were incontrovertible fact with which I must certainly agree—rather than the spurious trope it surely was. (But then no one ever accused McMorris Rodgers of having an original thought.) To me in that moment it were as if McMorris Rodgers lived on an entirely different planet from the one I inhabit.
The widespread demonization of George Soros’ name for right wing political ends did not happen by accident. It was the brainchild of two originally Stateside Republican political operatives, Arthur Finkelstein and George Birnbaum. Finkelstein and Birnbaum worked on right wing political campaigns in the U.S. for decades before being hired to aid Benjamin Netanyahu in his early rise to power. Following Netanyahu’s original narrow election win, Victor Orban enlisted their political expertise in his efforts to convert Hungary into a rightwing authoritarian state. It was during their efforts to insure Orban’s rise to power that Finkelstein and Birnbaum recognized the utility of demonizing George Soros as the origin of all that plagues Hungary.
Millions of Americans now summon a negative mental image every time “George Soros” is mentioned—while very few know anything of story of the man himself. Fewer still are acquainted with the two Republican political operatives who hatched the trope and nurtured it, originally for the benefit of Victor Orban. Knowing the story of Finkelstein and Birnbaum, it should be no surprise that the modern day Republican Party in this country looks to Orban’s authoritarianism as a model to be emulated here.
I commend to you “The Unbelievable Story Of The Plot Against George Soros” that appeared in January 20, 2019. It is a fascinating, highly informative, and chilling read. (no paywall). Arm yourself with an understanding of one of the most chilling and dishonest bits of propaganda still in wide circulation.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. I note that the story of Finkelstein and Birnbaum has some parallels to the local story of Chief Meidl and Chud Wendle that I posted on Monday. Both represent concerted efforts to demonize for political purposes—to construct and plant the seeds of a highly negative impression based on little or no evidence. Understanding the origin of negative ideas is an important step in sorting out truth from fiction.
P.P.S. Another example of a Republican brain worm: In a conversation last weekend an otherwise liberal person asserted to me as a matter of fact that Hawaii suffers from a growing problem of homelessness because of “all those homeless people that Governor Cuomo flew from New York to Hawaii”. LeClaire’s rule is “if it sounds too ‘good’ to be true it probably is.” My friend’s assertion sounded far too convenient a narrative for a certain political party. Asked to verify, my friend pulled up “NYC secretly exports homeless to Hawaii and other states without telling receiving pols”, an inflammatory headline from the New York Post on October 26, 2019. The details don’t support the impression the headline wishes to convey. A tiny bit of further digging completely debunked the claim. See “Is New York really ‘exporting its homeless to Hawaii,’ as a recent article claimed?”
It was very sobering to recognize that the New York Post’s bit of propaganda from a single article had infected the brain of an otherwise highly intelligent, reasonable person—leaving him with an image of a New York governor clandestinely shipping hordes of homeless people to another, warmer state. How many other memes are planted in voters’ brains based on bald-faced lies and hearsay?