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By JONATHAN P. BAIRD
For the Monitor
Sunday, January 13, 2019
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There is a long history of people on the far right casting Jews as malign puppet masters who work behind the scenes to manipulate both national and international events for their selfish gain. The puppet master is always fantastically wealthy, greedy and amoral.
In our era, the puppet master stereotype has been embodied by George Soros. Few people, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton, have been more vilified by the far right. Both the number and intensity of the attacks on Soros are astounding.
President Donald Trump has tweeted that Soros had paid professionals to demonstrate against his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter posted that Soros controlled the Honduran migrant caravan. President Trump’s son Donald Jr. retweeted a claim from comedian Roseanne Barr that Soros “was a nazi who turned in his fellow Jews.”
The actor James Woods tweeted that Soros was “satanic.” Trump attorney Rudi Giuliani retweeted a post calling Soros “the anti-Christ.” On Twitter, Soros has been accused of supporting both Colin Kaepernick and the mass shooter at Las Vegas.
Outside the United States, especially in Eastern Europe, Soros has achieved an even greater level of notoriety, with nationalist and authoritarian governments running propaganda campaigns against him.