Sleepwalking to Fascism: America Flirts with Anti-Semitism

George Soros is the proxy du jour for anti-Semites. Jews and other minority groups are in the cross-hairs of America's fascist-friendly. They must not succeed.

Neo-Nazi leaflet distributed near my home

Elon Musk this week compared billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros to Magneto, a Marvel Comics supervillain, adding, “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.” In reality, the only thing Soros has in common with the fictional Magneto is that both are Jewish.

Cutting to the chase, Musk is simply the most prominent American of late to use Soros as a stand-in to indulge in that oldest of conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism. “Respectable” citizens like Musk are self-aware enough to know they can’t stoop to the gutter-level of The Stormer to indulge their dislike of Jews. So, they follow the distressingly growing mob of those who disingenuously use a 92-year old Holocaust survivor as proxy for their bias. Soros perfectly fits the age-old trope: Rich. Powerful. Progressive. Jewish.

A few years ago, working on a story for the Washington Monthly, I sought to interview an official in Soros’s charity, Open Society Foundations. What I thought would be straightforward and quick turned out to be as twisting and surreptitious as any of my assignments tracking down and interviewing spies.

A public affairs officer put me in contact with the right subject expert. This woman would not talk to me from her office, but insisted on using an encrypted app while she was outside of Open Society’s offices, cheek-by-jowl to the Trump White House. So, we carried on the interview on the hoof, so to speak. Huffing and puffing as she briskly walked the streets of the nation’s capital, the woman answered my questions amid traffic noise and urban hubbub. When I asked her why all the “comsec,” she explained that many Open Society employees felt targeted by right-wing actors, including the Trump administration. Paranoia? Or operational security?

Funny how the far-right seems to overlook such other ultra-wealthy Democrat donors such as George Marcus, Karla Jurvetson, Fred Eychaner. Ever heard of them? Their profiles, alas, just don’t fit the template. Soros’s does.

The American right’s fair-haired child of fascism, Hungary’s president Viktor Orban, also sets the tone: “We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open but hiding. Not straightforward but crafty. Not honest but unprincipled. Not national but international. Does not believe in working but speculates with money. Does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world.”

This malicious message is picked up by prominent American influencers, including journalist and erstwhile Tucker Carlson acolyte Kaitlan Collins, who interviewed Trump for CNN’s recent disastrous “Town Hall.” In a 2016 statement with Fox, she said, “Soros is this foreign-born, left-wing guy who essentially wants to change the nature of our country. He is a staunch advocate for open borders. He wants people to be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, for whatever reason.” Chalk it up to youthful indiscretion, if you will. As for myself, I’m still awaiting a public apology, or at least the fashionable statement of “regret.”

The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg sums up what the Musks, Orbans, Collins’s and fellow travelers are playing with:

This is the language of anti-Semitism through the ages, which perpetually casts powerful Jewish actors as the embodiment of social and political ill. Rather than treat Jews like humans, who are fallible and often mistaken, this mindset refashions them into sinister superhumans who intentionally impose their malign designs on the masses. . . the arc of conspiracy is short and bends toward the Jews.

Several years ago, I described in an article how the KKK was actively seeking to recruit members in Upstate New York, where I reside and where, sadly, the Klan once had a strong and active base. They left pamphlets at people’s homes decrying “cultural genocide of white people.” Now neo-Nazis are at it. Residents throughout the region last month reported finding on their doorsteps leaflets bellowing, “Are you tired of walking on Jewish eggshells? If so, join the National Socialist movement!” A neighbor forwarded the propaganda screed displayed in this piece.

The Anti-Defamation League reports a record number of anti-Semitic incidents throughout the country:

In 2022, ADL tabulated 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States. This is a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents tabulated in 2021 and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. This is the third time in the past five years that the year-end total has been the highest number ever recorded.

New York heads the list.

Anti-Semitism has been aptly called, “the socialism of fools.” One of the few things Friedrich Engels got right was to describe anti-Semitism as “merely the reaction of declining medieval social strata against a modern society.” Jean-Paul Sartre echoed this anti-modernism: “The anti‐Semite understands nothing about modern society.”

Apart from the racism and the violation of essential American values, what also bothers me about this surge of hatred toward Jews is that it fits in lock-goose step with other trends toward fascism in America — White Christian nationalism, voter suppression, putschism, anti-intellectualism/science, book banning, violence against minority groups, politicized curricula, gun fetishism and the growth of militias and hate groups. Add to these recent polls that show not only the twice-impeached, sexual assault-court proven and soon-to-be multiply indicted Donald Trump holding a commanding lead among Republicans, but also potentially beating Joe Biden in the presidential election.

In 2016, in the words of H.L. Mencken, “the plain folks of the land” reached their heart’s desire at last and installed “a downright moron” in the White House. Should they repeat that mistake in 2024, all bets are off for the American Experiment in democracy. And watch for many American Jews to follow in the footsteps of many of their European co-religionists in hightailing it to Israel for safety. Then anybody’s a target. Which means those of us who want to keep America the “shining city on a hill” must not only speak out, but take action to safeguard democratic processes and rights for all.

“It takes a lot of effort not to be free, keeping your head down, holding your tongue,” states a character in The Man in the High Castle TV series, based on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel presenting an alternative history in which the Axis powers won World War II, occupy North America and have imposed fascist rule. The upshot is that tyranny usually requires the passivity and collaboration of citizens to acquire and retain power. “You don’t need anybody to keep you down because you got your own little inner fascist right there telling you what you can and cannot do. That’s how you let them win,” says another character. Are Americans not better than this?