Fear is a powerful motivator, and Trump feeds on that by making up the craziest lies he can think of. He knows that if he pushes the right buttons, the far right will secretly tremble and publicly rage against those he sees as threats to himself. Whatever he tells his base they swallow because they are too frightened to question what he says.
George Soros is financing the marchers from Honduras. What??? Why would Soros do that? How did Trump even think of such a stupid lie?
Trump says the immigrants heading for our border are hardened criminals hiding behind women and children. He hasn't the slightest evidence whatever for that—why would he say it?
Because lies will frighten his base and they will be even more ardent in supporting him.
When you frighten people they believe that they will have to defend themselves, and they become violent. Sometimes the craziness and violence are already there, and Trump's lies tap into that. Witness Robert Bowers saying he had to murder Jews because they were about to invade our country and massacre us. Where did he get such a totally skewed view of the marchers from Honduras, except that fear was already in the air?
Trump's mob rallying, with Fox News as his megaphone, is their real threat, but they are too afraid to let go of him.
10
The effect of Russian Trolls and the Americans who love them. Meanwhile the Yes of Millions the Conservatives add to our election are just fine. Russian rubles diverted into the NRA are OK. The difference Soros is a Hungarian Jew, an immigrant, who became an American Citizen. The words associated with Soros are anti Semitic Dog Whistles so they apparently pass muster with our GOP.
10
Keep digging - you've barely scratched the surface.
Try this one, from the Heritage Foundation, April 2017 - an article first published in The Hill that argues that Soros is a greater ("first order") threat than Putin or Orban because unlike those two (and others like Assad), Soros has an ideology:
"And everywhere he supports legalizing drugs and prostitution, abortion on demand, same-sex marriage, the erosion of national sovereignty, and the rise of transnationalism. The enactment of his agenda would fritter away traditional institutions. Here, in Hungary, and elsewhere.
"His vision has little or no place for national government, the family, God. It has room only for the individual and the world, a kind of the polyglot Hapsburg Empire writ large."
Full text here: https://www.heritage.org/global-politics/commentary/soros-no-second-order-threat-global-affairs
Dogwhistles, anyone?
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, anyone?
11
Wow. What mind-blowing ignorance sampled in the video.
1
The socalled democracy building of Mr. Soros is no building of democracy. He tries to build organisations and parties in all countries he involves in to create a foundation for all his speculations against the economy of those countries to harvest profits at the cost of the people. He sees to it that his staff control all these organisations. That is why Orban in Hungary has turned against him, not because Orban is rightwing. He participated in the coup in Ukraine to create just such a society in Ukraine. He has tried to inspire Ukrainians to war against Russia, and he has worked for influx of immigrants all over Europe. To destabilize the societies and get room for his economic and political empire. That is the opposite of democracy! I agree that the rhetoric of Trump most probably was a motivation for the pipe bomber. And political murders are to be condemned everywhere it occurs. And he is of course right when he condemns the murders of the Jews in Pittsburgh. But I have not seen him expressing sympathy for the killed persons in Ukraine, or regretting that he stole money from the ordinary british taxpayer.
13
@Magnar Husby
And yet ... there's no evidence at all to back up such a conspiracy theories.
In the meanwhile the only one destabilizing the US and Western alliances is Trump.
In the end, the truth always prevails, remember?
9
Shorting the English currency didn’t take squat from the British citizen.
It did take money from investors who bet against him.
Investors.
You are fiddling propaganda sir.
12
Don't understand the readers who think Soros "manipulated" currency markets and ruined countries. It seems a billion or ever 32 is not that much in the global FX market. Betting on an outcome entails risk as well, and what's a trader expected to do if they see a mispricing or a chance that artificial central bank intervention can't hold? I personally don't think you can manipulate currency markets to make a cool billion for multiple reasons, but one is that someone out there would be doing it all day long. Not to mention the lawsuits. I believe you can chalk up the negative image of the speculating money-man to antisemitism as well.
8
@not convinced
anti semitism?. setting yourself up to profit on on a 'short' bet is one thing fair and square.. to (help) nudge central banks closer to the edge to maximize profit would be frowned upon regardless the persons back ground...
3
The only problem the extreme right has with Soros is that he doesn’t give his money to Republicans.
21
Where Soros lives in Westchester GOP State Senator Terrence Murphy blamed the pipe bomb on his democratic opponent. Murphy couldn't be bothered to reach out to Soros or his neighbors regarding this kind of hate crime, or see if anyone was concerned about their safety. All the constituents got from the GOP was hate monger rhetoric, and nasty campaign rhetoric with lies in it. Trump rhetoric is not needed in this area, and hopefully the voters wake-up and vote this Trumpster out of office.
15
In any thriving democracy, the following questions should be easy to answer:
1. If you disagree politically with the Koch brothers, do you attack their ideas and actions, or do you attack them as "David and Charles Koch the Christians"?
2. If you disagree politically with Ted Kennedy, do you attack his ideas and actions, or do you attack him as "Ted Kennedy the Christian"?
3. If you disagree politically with George Soros, do you attack his ideas and actions, or do you attack him as "George Soros the Jew"?
Whether you're conservative- or liberal-leaning, if you reject dictatorship and support democracy as a political regime, the answer to these questions couldn't be easier: of course, you attack the ideas and actions of those with whom you disagree politically, NOT their religion, let alone suggest that their religion turns them into evil persons.
What GOP voters are doing today is to systematically elect politicians who claim to reject racism, but who deliberately use racism as a weapon to try to destroy the reputation of their political opponents.
That's not only morally wrong, it weakens a democracy more than what any gang member (immigrant or not) could ever achieve.
And when the GOP leadership/tv channel start to amplify this kind of racism, they're actively dividing and weakening America as a whole. That's the very OPPOSITE of putting America first, and any patriot of no matter what political and religious affiliation should firmly oppose these practices.
27
The "propaganda" on Soros, like every other issue and attack by the Republicans has been orchestrated by professionals, who after the monied people paid and others did all the research, relentlessly smeared him. They have done and continue to do this daily. It sticks because they have Fox News and the Radio commentators supporting and reinforcing the lies. That is similar to allowing Trump to use Twitter to spew lies and hate daily, with no confrontation for the truth.
So, the opposition, which could be using its money to air ads or convince PBS that it is their job to offset these lies, does little or nothing. There has not been one Democratic politician, including Sanders, to go on the air and demand that Twitter pull Trumps account because he has continuously violated their stated "Standards of Behavior! Not one! PBS had David Koch on its boards in Boston and NYC and to date I think he still gives money to the News Hour.
We, those who oppose this Republican Coup, are the ones that are complicit because we have not forced the Democrats to act in a more aggressive manner and allowed them to essentially sit in Washington and give lame answers to interviews, but do nothing like the amount of work the Republicans have done over the last 40 years! It is time to change and unless we demand this Party change, add new leaders and become viable again, we may not survive as a democratic nation.
10
This caravan reminds me of Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." Thousands of destitute farmers ruined by the Dust Bowl got leaflets telling them of the good life in the paradisal land of California.
"I seen the han'bills fellas pass out, an' how much work they is, an' high wages an' all; an' I seen in the paper how they want folks to come an' pick grapes an' oranges an' peaches."
They were being used by the agribusiness industry, lured to compete with each other for low-paying, dead-end jobs that left them poorer than they started thanks to "company store" schemes that took what little they made and turned them into indentured servants.
I've wondered what inspired these Hondurans to band together now, right before the midterms. Is it coincidental? Perhaps. But if not, whose political interests are served in this country by their exodus from their homeland? Certainly not Soros or the Democrats. The cynical GOP, who need enemies to stir up their base, are the only ones who stand to benefit from films of brown people walking en masse to the USA. This is a propaganda gold mine for them.
I also wonder why the coverage in the press seems superficial, mostly film clips and sound bites. I'd like some in-depth investigatory reporting. Have any of these people been lured here? Would you put it past, for instance, the Russians to launch a covert op, sowing tales of golden opportunities in the USA? Would the GOP's dirty tricksters be above such a scheme?
How about some journalism?
14
I discovered Karl Popper as an undergrad philosophy student at Stanford in 1960. Reading Popper formed my life. Soros discovered Popper ten years earlier at the London School of Economics and doing so seems to have formed Soros' life as well. If the notoriety now accruing to Soros were to accrue to Popper and people read him now, especially "The Open Society and Its Enemies," the world would be a better place. BTW, attention Republicans, Popper's papers may be found in that alleged bastion of conservative thought the Hoover Institution!
13
“I only hope one day I’m as effective as he has been — and as vilified,” Mr. Bannon said, calling threats like the pipe bomb “the admission ticket for playing in this arena.”
I hope Mr, Bannon does not have to rethink his remarks should such a ticket arrive at his doorstep and perhaps be assembled with a bit more thought.
Does he wish that ticket for his family so that they might achieve glorious martyrdom?
As Don Lemon might predict, a ticket from a radicalized white male.
2
@Lawrence
Fact is that it's only Democrats and those advocating for a more thriving democracy and less "globalism" in the original sense of the word (which wasn't anti-minorities but anti-financial elites who buy politicians in DC to pass bills that deregulate Wall Street and cut their taxes even more) who have to pay this kind of "admission ticket".
Any Republican taking the notion of a "republic" seriously should firmly condemn the fact that conservatives today are becoming so violent that they not only attack those who adhere to a different political philosophy personally (instead of attacking ideas, as any democracy needs) with words, but now also with bombs.
Republicans in this country have lost their moral compass and are going through a spiritual crisis "the likes of which we've never seen before", to quote a notorious liar among them.
5
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Friedrich Schiller (German poet, historian and playwright 1759–1805.)
9
People of good intention need, and therefore accept & adopt, justifications for the untruths they hold dear. It is therefore logical and predictable that Soros be vilified.
"Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out." - Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1473-1530)
8
It's the far-left that invented the fight against "globalism".
"Globalism" was defined as a doctrine adhered to by many elites of no matter what political affiliation in the West, and that supported bills that systematically shift money made by hard-working citizens to Wall Street and this planet's wealthiest elites. Dislocating companies to poor countries where they can actively exploit citizens, just to become even wealthier themselves, was part of this globalist doctrine.
What Trump has done, as a candidate, is to publicly attack the GOP leadership for their globalist behavior, AND to take over Fox News' distortion of that notion, to now start suggesting that equal treatment of minorities and respect for all religions should also be called "globalism", and that fighting back means starting to imagine that minorities, immigrants, Muslims, leftist Jews and actually all liberals and all journalists who don't work for Fox News or don't adhere to conservative political philosophy should be seen as "enemies" too.
Why couldn't Trump stick to the truth and attack the real globalists instead?
Because he has always been a globalist himself, of course. His companies are, without any exception, and he never even TRIED to oppose all the Wall Street deregulation and global elites benefiting bills that the current GOP Congress passed (and they ONLY passed bills like that).
Today, it's Trump and the GOP who are the worst globalists, and they need racism to hide that fact.
2
Has anyone bothered to read the previous statements from Soros, where among other things he characterized the destabilization of national governments as "fun?" Soros a hero? Seriously? With the assets at his disposal he is as dangerous as Vladimir Putin, and answerable to no one.
9
Soros wants to “build democracy” in the United States? It already is built. Its foundation is the Constitution. Does Soros have a problem with that?
9
@Ed
When gerrymandering, race-based voter disenfranchisement, foreign meddling, voter machine fraud, the Supreme Court putting a "For Sale" sign on our government with the Citizens United ruling, and outrageous serial lies by the White House validated by daily by Fox News -- a propaganda organ masquerading as a news source -- all serve to put a thumb on the scales, we have a long way to go before we've achieved a valid democracy and a "more perfect union."
Soros is putting his money where his mouth is and supporting efforts to create a healthy, legitimate democracy that works for everyone, not just corporations, right-wing oligarchs and the Russians.
Do you have a problem with that, Ed?
17
@MisterE...Do you have a problem with the Constitution, MisterE?
2
I have heard ridiculous conspiracy theories about Mr. Soros in the late 90s when he was mostly active - via Open Society - in former Warsaw pact countries and eastern Europe. I say ridiculous because what he was actually financing was development of civil institutions, but it was considered undermining "the state." It seems like Eastern Europe has proven by now that they prefer "strong" state to democracy - like any generalization it's not true, but anecdotally and to a certain percentage (usually over half) it is true - so it's no wonder that they are still running in that vicious circle of autocracy. All that effort to educate went nowhere.
And I guess this "reputation" has followed him to the west. It was easy to translate those bogus claims of sabotaging the governments to being a puppet master of a destruction of western civilization.
The paradox is that this bastion of liberty - "USA, USA" - is now revealing itself not to be that open minded and not to be that free and cocksure to be able to tolerate "the other." An of course, however easy it is to spit on the masses of "those" people (mostly black, brown, red and yellow), it's always better and more convenient to have one universal boogieman - "A JEWWWWW..! Run for the hills!"
And this just proves it - there is NO American exceptionalism. Americans are people like any other - and like the others they are a mix of good and bad - not immune to all the ailments that at one point or another plague those other nations.
7
Vilification? These guys tried and partially succeeded in cornering the silver market.
They have been accurately identified as generous supporters of very conservative candidates, the GOP and some ‘hate groups’ as identified by the ADL B’nai B’rith, the Southern Poverty Law Center.
George Soros is a banker/trader, “accused” of once legally short-selling the Pound Sterling for a $1 million pay day. He’s never been accused by the IRS or mainstream media of tax fraud, or breaking the law.
He had been accurately named a supporter of some international non-profits trying to build democracies, and improve general health in nations around the world.
And the Democratic Party and some candidates, NOT including non-party member Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
BUT Trump and his followers have lied, claiming the group includes Muslim terrorists and MS-13 gang members, and Soros specifically, and said organizations are behind the walk by now less than 2,00 or so,who annually visit the (in most cases) US Embassy in Mexico City to apply for political asylum.
This malnourished, underfunded caravan has been losing people daily, and if, for some reason stragglers make it to the US border, we can expect them in 2-3 weeks, where they will be met by 5,400 US soldiers busily and I suspect unConstitutionally , laying down miles of razor wire for show, along the border - all for show.
So much for comparing Soros and the Brothers Koch, one dedicated to a better world, two genuine criminals.
11
Dear Mr. Soros: On behalf of all freedom loving people, thank you, thank you, thank you. Your reward shall be tenfold, but you may have to wait awhile. And it'll be better than cash. Good on you.
10
At a center for american progress conference in 2004 I heard Soros speak, introduced by Hillary Clinton. He spent most of his talk on how he is a hero for bringing capitalism to Eastern Europe but also on how we must legalize all drugs immediately. Since then I followed the money as he donated to groups to legalize and promote drug use, through his drug policy alliance, one state at a time. He is also in favor of legalizing prostitution which is opposed by some sex trafficking activists. I am a democrat--but if democrats want to get money out of politics they should be even-handed. Soros, Koch, Adelson, Gates--the wealthy shape our thinking more than we know, and they are not responsible to voters. Soros has been a shadowy figure. He should be covered more by the main stream so we know how his money has bought influence on the left, just as the Kochs' have bought influence on the right.
13
The mainstream media, including the New York Times is showing up late to the party yet again. These lies have been circulating through social media for many years, why's that thrive in the vacuum created by a lack of countering information. The same thing is happening with the caravan. there is so little coverage of the details of how these caravans form, what Honduran activists are behind it etc, that the general public is free to fill in the blanks. Right-wing wackos are standing at the ready at all times to fill in those blanks with nonsense about George Soros and invasions. And we wonder why anti-semitism is on the rise yet again in America. We must be vigilant at all times! We cannot wait until a fire burns into a conflagration to counter these lies.
3
Is there any way Soros can sue Trump and Fox News for their blatant lies defaming him?
6
I have been a fan of Mr Soros for a long time and I was startled to find out he could be hated by anyone. I don‘t get it. Why is nobody talking about the truely distructive Rebekha Mercer and her husband Mirochnikoff with ties to Russian finance. They are the ones behind Breitbart, Bannon, Trump. What is all this Jewish, left, right, Black, White nonsence all about? Remember Obama‘s speech line: „...there’s the United States of America“ Where has all this gone - America?
8
"Critics argued that the image was meant to remind viewers of the “Laughing Jew,” a common anti-Semitic trope."
Come on. Everyone knows Jews don't laugh.
1
In our area Republican backed TV ads often feature the faces of George Soros and Nancy Pelosi with dark markings meant to simulate vermin and the scabs of the pox. They have apparently found that there is an innate revulsion evoked by such images. Who needs a real platform when you've got the plague working on your side?
2
Alex Jones says Soros was a Nazi collaborator. He plays a clip of Soros explaining to 60 Minutes that the year of his life when he disguised himself as a child of a Christian was the best year of his life. Of course, a 14 year-old can't be held accountable for anything, but Jones does not condemn Soros as a Jew.
Probably the most disturbing thing in the article is the attempt to define "globalism" as code for anti-Semitism. It's not. It's the juxtaposition to nationalism or sovereignty. It has no religious or ethnic nuance. If they wanted to dog whistle anti-Semitism, they would have called it "internationalism," to reference "the International Jew" smear.
Using anti-Semitism to squelch legitimate debate legitimizes anti-Semitism. The conflict between nationalism and globalism will continue, as will the tension between state governments and the federal level. Whoever wants to put Jews on one side of a historic and stable political dynamic could end up getting a lot of people hurt.
6
1930's Europe : the international jew organization, the globalists conspiring to take over Germany.
Only the true white Germans should have a future in the one thousand reign of the third Reich.
Germany was under attack and the internationalists had to be eliminated.
This is pretty much what we had in Pittsburgh with the murder of innocent lives in a synagogue last Saturday.
Trump enables this sentiment of paranoia from his base by saying that white racists nationalists are fine people too when they chant antisemitism slogans and kill a women Charlottesville Virginia.
Hopefully those thousands of American who fought in Europe a nazi regime didn't die for nothing.
3
Our president, on stage, openly declared himself a Nationalist.
If Mr. Soros is the Zionist representative of the Globalists does that make the Koch brothers the Nationalist financiers for white supremacists in the US?
So we, the people, are the gladiators for billionaires sport, except that Mr. Soros has a heart and the others are in it for power and money.
2
@Godot...$32 Billion is a lot of heart. Good thing Soros didn't amass that tidy sum just for power.
2
You're giving the deplorables too much credit. Most don't even know what anti-Semitism is, nor could they spell it. The folks I see bad-mouthing Soros in comments on social media paint him either as a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer. Nevermind that he was only a child during the Big War. Such is the state of reading comprehension and critical thinking in these United States. *Sigh* Unfortunately, this is how we've arrived at having the biggest con-man of all time convince these folks he's their "savior".
4
I thought that non-profits were to be nonpartisan or at least not promote a political stance. Also thought we wanted money out of politics.
3
@Ma
That's exactly what Soros wants indeed, when it comes to getting money out of politics.
But that itself is a POLITICAL idea, you see? You need politicians who agree with this idea and then vote for laws that do exactly that, before it will happen.
The difference between Soros and the Koch brothers is that Soros is investing part of his wealth in non-profits and political campaigns that support that idea, whereas the Koch brothers ar investing part of the wealth in non-profits and political campaigns that want to protect them against politicians who would pass laws that reduce their ability to financially influence politics (all while cutting their taxes - yet another idea Soros and so many other wealthy Democrats support ...).
Conclusion: if you want money out of politics, vote!
2
Keep it up George and stay safe!
6
$32,000,000,000!!! Wow.
I guess all of this howling about the 1% and their income/wealth inequality destroying democracy and oppressing/suppressing/depressing the little folks doesn't apply to liberal billionaires.
Never mind that all of these liberals use their foundations as tax avoidance schemes - yeah, Bill and Warren, that's you and your fellow "pledgers" - to buy their way into philanthropy heaven.
The depths of liberal hypocrizy never ceases to amaze.
6
@Albert Edmud
Except that your hypothesis here does't make any sense.
1. Democrats NEVER rejected wealth or hated rich people, remember? Check it out and you'll see.
2. When Democrats control DC, they systematically start regulating Wall Street so that more money can stay on Main Street, they increase taxes for the wealthiest Americans, negotiate international trade treaties that increase labor rights abroad, they increase access to healthcare and education for ordinary citizens at home, they protect consumers against big banks (Warren's Consumer Protection Bureau already shifted millions from banks to ordinary citizens), and of course, they fight against racism. The GOP systematically does the exact opposite, once they control DC.
3. The Democrats' wealthiest donors, including Soros, actively invest millions into the campaigns of Democrats who support campaign finance reform, higher taxes for the wealthiest, better labor laws etc.
Conclusion: there's absolutely no hypocrisy here, quite on the contrary.
The only ones being utterly hypocritical and cynical are precisely people like Trump and the Koch brothers, who systematically cut taxes for the wealthiest, deregulate Wall Street, use the government to let companies increase their wealth by destroying Americans' health, etc.
How come you can't see this ... ?
3
Interesting that when the authors stated Charles and David Koch have been attacked by some on the American Left, they linked two articles from Politico rather than any of the hundreds of opinion pieces from the NYT editorial board and columnists.
4
Soros’ Open Societies Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and numerous other tax-free entities distribute money to organizations that try to swiftly change our society to one they want. For example, the Open Societies and Ford Foundation both support the social service agencies that organize undocumented migrants to demand citizenship. And, it was these agencies which started planning to protest a Muslim ban as soon as Trump was elected, and then appeared to “spontaneously" turn out in mass protests at airports when a Muslim ban was indeed announced.
Most people do not quickly change their fundamental concepts. It could easily take 3 generations for a new concept to be accepted across an entire society. Soros, the members of the Ford Foundation, and some other philanthropists do not want to wait that long. They want their ideas to be accepted and put into practice now, if not yesterday.
As members of a democracy, we, the people, have the right to decide if we agree with their ideas, and if we want to accept them. What no one wants is for new ideas to be jammed down our throats. Instead of forcing us to accept mass migrations of poorly educated foreigners who would have a hard time making a living in our country, the philanthropies could be helping Mexican and Central American migrants in their own countries and helping Muslim refugees settle in Muslim countries.
7
@ann
Isn't Ann doing just what the article is referring to, namely, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Soros is behind the Muslim ban protests?
ann wrote:
"... And, it was these agencies which started planning to protest a Muslim ban as soon as Trump was elected, and then appeared to 'spontaneously' turn out in mass protests at airports when a Muslim ban was indeed announced ..."
2
While Trump derangement syndrome is not real since it's based on fact based criticism, it seems that Soros Derangement Syndrome which are based on lies is. It is also a code and meme for Antisemitism.
4
Mr. Soros can be the head of a cabal, a conspiracy, or a car show. I don’t care.
He just needs to use his powers for good. I think he is really trying to do that to the best of his beliefs. (Which happen to line up more or less with mine.)
And he helps counter the Koch brothers interests and investments. Stay strong! In this atmosphere, getting put through the rightists’ ringer means you’re doing some Good...
3
I pen this as a conservative Republican living in a very liberal city. Attempting to convert this man into some sort of demon or phantom is absurd. Treat him for what he is: an elderly rich man whose wealth allows him to fund projects that most in the political world find foolish or abhorrent. Yet as he is using his own money (as far as we can tell) he has every right to spend it in any legal manner he chooses. The best course of action for those who oppose his actions: he's an elderly man - wait until he dies a peaceful death. Investigate his activities if you want, publish what you find, but other than that: leave him alone.
5
@octavian
Any concrete example of Soros "projects that most in the political world find foolish or abhorrent"?
Apart from that, what you're writing is just basic decency, and as a consequence part of what being a "patriot" actually means, concretely. But are you also willing to vote based on this fundamental decency? Or will you allow racists and morally depraved GOP politicians to continue to control DC anyhow?
2
Promoting democracy and fighting corruption is only abhorrent in right wing world.
3
Soros is a Democrat's dream! $18bn donated to the Open Society Foundation in one of the greatest tax evasion schemes ever invented, generating hundreds of millions per year in donations to progressive organizations. Unlimited resources and zero accountability, the dream of Democrat politicians everywhere. And he can't be questioned, because that would be anti-semitism!
4
I will make this is simple as possible. If you want to remain a democracy after Nov.6; vote Democrat. If you want to continue down the path of fascism; vote Republican. The choice could not possibly be more crystal clear. Here is hoping and praying this time America does the sane thing. Not holding my breath.
3
The big difference between the vilification and Soros and the Kochs is that those vilifying Soros often make up information about what he supports and blatantly lie about groups receiving his money when they do not. For the most part, those vilifying the Kochs point to actual donations.
In the end though, the Soros and Kochs of the world should not have such undue influence on our politics. We need to have publicly funded campaigns and to limit all campaign related activities to a shorter time frame before elections. All private organizations (PACs) spending money on political advocacy must disclose all their funding.
6
@NH
And guess WHO is investing millions into the campaigns of politicians who want campaign finance reform so that the SC Citizens' United ruling can be overturned, companies are no longer considered to be "persons", and campaign donations become once again limited?
George Soros.
You cannot possibly support the idea of a democracy, where after a thorough and respectful, fact-based debate about the different political options concerning which future to decide to build for our country, it is the option preferred by a majority of ordinary citizens that prevails ... AND simultaneously argue that wealthy CEOs of big companies should dictate what politicians can and cannot run on and do once they're elected.
One man, one vote.
Today, only people like Soros support this basic condition for any democracy to thrive - including ending the current campaign finance laws that allow people like Soros to have much more power in deciding who will win and loose elections than people like you and me.
And of course, Soros never attacks the Koch brothers as "David and Charles the Christians". Because dividing people by suggesting certain religions are bad is ALSO against the basic principles of any kind of democracy, which by definition respects any religion.
THAT is how Soros is not simply a center-left wealthy donor, but apart from that also a pro-democracy donor, contrary to the Koch brothers who are attacking the very foundation upon which America is built.
1
The anti-Soros thing is still the fringes. It's just there are more people in the fringes than before.
6
For those of on Facebook this is not a surprise. False, defamatory and misleading Soros memes have been circulating for many years. I've reported the ones that are blatantly false but Facebook does nothing about them.
5
I work with an extraordinarily humanitarian craftsman who is an exemplary employer for his people, not a bad bone in his body. He dislikes and is adamant about not working for Jews because of negative interactions he has had where he feels he was cheated. I met a lovely (personality and temperament) older woman at my gym who is still a stewardess at almost 70, she reports being deeply disturbed by her Jewish passengers in flights along the Northeast corridor. These are real people working off of real experiences.
I try to explain back that while each set of events might be based on honest observation the sample set is too small to rely on, that what has happened is that they have run into irritating PEOPLE, not people intrinsically irritating. That is if they've been put off, it's human nature at work, not genetics being demonstrated. I get nowhere with that, because people go only so deep with an analysis and as is said, "You get only so many chances to make a first impression."
Explaining this sad circumstance to myself, I conclude that it is "identifiability", not identity, that reinforces prejudice. I know this first hand; when I was in public Jr High decades ago, the US history teacher angry at some wisecrack I made took me out of the class, slapped my face and told me, "You're typical of your race!" What she did not observe is that I happened to have been Irish Catholic, with the last name Weisman by virtue of my mom's remarriage to a Jew.
3
On a deeper level, what reinforces prejudice and racist hatred, is a profound spiritual crisis, where spiritual leaders no longer provide people with the tools to cultivate true self-love, self-compassion, and compassion for any human being out there.
The first goal of spirituality is to allow us to see that we're all human beings first. Even our feelings of anger and hatred and over-generalization are merely part of what connects us to any other human being on earth, of our common humanity.
Conversely, that means that if we want to cure this recurrent collective disease, we must start by VALIDATING these people's emotions: so yes, if you heard lots of bad things about group X and you meet someone belonging to that group and who treats you badly, it's normal and perfectly understandable that that reinforces your fear and as a consequence hatred (as all hatred is based on fear) for the entire group X. Having those feelings doesn't mean that you're a "bad person" at all. Fear never destroyed someone's inner goodness, it simply makes it less accessible in the brain.
Only once someone feels perfectly okay and accepted, even WITH lots of negative emotions based on false ideas, you can try step two, which is engaging in a real, respectful debate exchanging arguments and facts about that group of people. People tend to cling to their opinions anyhow, in debates, but most of us continue to think about the arguments of our opponent afterwards, and THAT is how change happens.
It's the GOP way through lies and fake news, to demonize anyone with power who is against them.
5
Everything that Soros is doing is exactly the same as what the Koch brothers are doing. One side maybe for progressivism and the other side greater freedom, but they are both doing the exact same thing: flooding the political machines with $ and attempting to sway it one way or the other.
Why are one of these parties is a villain, and the other is being vilified? Obfuscation intented.
A re-evaluation of our political system is needed if it is ok to flood the system with obscene amounts of money, but only if it supports one ideology over another.
4
@JuanValdez
You're leaving out the most important differences here. Why?
Here they are:
1. GOP leaders, including the very president of the US, attack Soros not for his ideas, but as a Jew. Democrats never fell that low. Especially as leaders in a democracy, you have the responsibility to NOT cultivate false perceptions and racism. Only Democrats today are still able to show strong moral leadership, whereas Republicans up until the highest level, decided to throw their moral compass away and deliberately divide the American people (because remember, in a democracy it's not adhering to different political ideas that divides society, but falsely attacking minorities as an entire group).
2. Democrats strongly rejected Bush's policies, but never tried to bomb him. Today, after all the violent anti-American (= against their own fellow American citizens) rhetoric by the GOP leadership, conservatives are doing exactly that.
3. That unlimited amounts of money are flooding the political machines is the direct result of the SC Citizens' United ruling. That's a ruling made by Republicans, and strongly opposed by Democrats.
4. Soros is giving millions to politicians who vow to end that SC ruling, and who systematically increases the taxes of people like Soros once they control DC. The Koch brothers are giving billions to people who want to keep campaign finance laws as they are, and who systematically increase the deficit by cutting taxes for people like Soros and themselves.
There's a lot of "both sides, Koch vs. Soros, what-about-ism" in many of the comments here.
Although this article refers to the funding of right and left by their various millionaire & billionaire supporters, not enough attention is paid to media support.
The right has had for over 20 yrs., a lock on a perpetual propaganda outlet, in the form of a major broadcasting network, in tandem with radio domination by right wing ownership.
There is no equivalent on the left, thus the right's demonizing of the free press as fake news. The free press is the only thing standing between our democracy and creeping fascism - the people's David against the oligarch's Goliath - is the press.
As so many of our citizenry have fallen under the sway of the right wing propaganda mills, it is more important than ever to support the press.
8
@Deb
National Public Radio, which is partially funded with our tax dollars, does not consider all things. It seems to have a litmus test for the reporters, writers, editors, and anchors that it hires which is that they must support illegal immigrants.
NPR does not investigate anything that could shine a bad light on illegal immigrants such as how much they have been costing our different levels of government and school districts compared to the little they contribute in taxes, how they have been cramming into affordable housing units, leaving many of our own poor citizens and legal immigrants on the streets, how the children of illegal immigrants need a disproportionate share of teacher time and resources, how the illegal immigrants raise the cost of medical care by not paying for the care they receive, etc.
Just about the only time NPR reports on something negative about illegal immigrants is when the rest of the media extensively covers such a story, and so NPR cannot avoid also covering it. NPR is quick to explain away the problem.
In NPR’s back catalogue of stories there actually was a report - only one over several decades - in which a NPR reporter interviewed Black people who could not find work because illegal immigrants had taken all of the jobs. With this exception, NPR has ignored the negative effects illegal immigrants have been having on our own less educated citizens and on legal residents and their families.
1
One is known by the causes one supports and by the enemies he makes. Bravo, Mr Soros! May you live a long and healthy life and support more democratic institutions.
BTW - George Soros is a true billionaire who made his money HIMSELF. A real sel-made man.
Donald Trump inherited millions, declared bankruptcy multiple times and won’t release his tax returns because he was probably near broke when he ran for President.
4
It seems that Mr. Soros can be all things to all people. To me, he is a Holocaust survivor, self-made American success story, and a promoter of democratic institutions and ideals throughout the world.
5
Soros activities don't hold a candle to the relentless actions of the Kochs.
1
Thank you for this factual article about George Soros. Facts are desperately needed here. The demonization of this survivor has been gone unchallenged too long. It’s escalated during these trumpian times because (1) Soros is Jewish, (2) he’s a progressive, and (3) he successfully advances his ideas through financial support—just like many rich Republicans finance their conservative causes.
Soros’s success demands demonization by the right. It’s like GOP-engineered voter suppression: If you can’t win with ideas—cheat and lie.
5
Bannon may think that bomb threats are the "admission price for playing in this arena," but I haven't noticed anyone sending him bombs. He might think this is a fun romp, but history has shown us the tragic outcome of men who choose violence as a means of being effective rather than intelligence, values, and respect for our democratic system.
3
I agree with the other comments regarding the the money and influence that the Koch Brothers, the Mercers and Sheldon Adelson have donate to further their agenda in the Republican Party. I am disheartened that Democrats and the news media haven't brought this up to the White House as they have vilified Mr. Soros for supporting democracy! This was not even mentioned in this article and needs to be addressed.
Some on the left have "similarly" attacked the conservative donors Charles G. and David H. Koch $2 billion over the past decade on political and public policy advocacy is a glaring false equivalency. First, no one has sent pipe bombs to them. Second, the memes of Soros, created by the right and/or Russia, are remarkably misleading and mostly false (Koch memes are usually spot on). And third, the Koch Bros. are trying to destroy our democracy while further enriching themselves. This is the exact opposite of how Soros spends his fortune. These are remarkable, important distinctions; not mentioning these distinctions further muddies the waters, adds to the media's ongoing false equivalencies and further inflames the strident, low-information GOP cultists.
7
George Soros the benefactor has done so many incredible things that have directly affected lives that I can hardly believe anyone with a heart and soul would want to demonize him, except the Liar In Chief and his stupid minions and the evil empire of Murdoch and Fox "News" - an oxymoron defined.
His funding of the Robin Hood Foundation has made such a difference in children's lives by funding after school programs in NYC, allowing children a safe and educational space for after school, parents who couldn't afford this luxury, to participate and alleviate them of one more financial worry - shame of those who even think his faith is an issue - he has done more good in one week of his life than the GOP has done in the last decade.
7
Your comment that the Koch brothers have experienced "similar" attacks as those made against Mr. Soros is ludicrous. The journalistic instinct to be fair is one thing. Creating a false equivalence between the hateful rhetoric and made up charges aimed at Mr. Soros and the criticism aimed rightfully at the Koch brothers is one of the reasons even liberals are started to yell....."Fake News".
4
Again, George Soros is one of of the heroes of democracy. I hope, at some point, he will be recognized alongside George Washington, Lincoln, and the Roosevelts.
At what point will Fox News and the right-wing PR extremists be held responsible for the truly dangerous lies they use to influence Trump and their gullible audience.
I recommend Umberto Eco's "Prague Cemetery," a difficult and chilling expose of how intelligence agents are used to create or expand on anti-Semitic and other fear-mongering ideology, until it becomes the foundation of social movements and disaster.
2
Soros supports democracy only when it suits his ends. Brexit was a democratic referendum and yet he won’t recognize the outcome. I have no doubt he’s funding the anti-Brexit turmoil. My comment has no anti-semitic reference, only that Soros is no saint.
3
Hate speech is really challenging our democracy. The corrupt use of our rights to free speech and a free press, should not protect liars and demagogues from vilifying and bullying good people. It is hard for me to watch any news program without getting furious at the obvious lies being told about good people.
George Soros is a hero, survivor of hate speech and champion of Democratic progression. Watching the video of the rubes repeating the lies and slander of FOX news and Trump makes me sick.
In Europe social media was forced to monitor their users and remove hate speech content. We need the same here or our future will continue to be ruled by oligarchs who spew lies . Lies that cause ignorant frustrated simple people to vote against their own self interest.
3
It is time to retire the euphemisms "populist" and "nationalist" where the phenomena in question is fascism.
3
"...a coordinated nationalist movement across Europe and in the United States that explicitly aspires to mirror and counteract the influence Mr. Soros has built on the left."
Come on, guys, come to any Red state (or, in any Blue state)where there are multiple Koch front groups on multiple issues + anything anywhere in the country with the word 'policy' in its name likely is Koch funded + college programs.
George Soros has no kind of influence to compare with the Kochs & their billionaire donor network. None.
This is ridiculu
10
This isn’t just about Fox news. They’re just part of the the right wing propaganda machine.
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2018/10/31/george-soros-and-migrant-caravan-how-lie-multiplied-online/1824633002/
Soros is a target because he’s a rich, Jewish, left wing philanthropist. A perfect target for right wing haters.
There has always been an inner Nazi in America. The difference is that today, politicians and especially the President, are encouraging it and drawing it out.
11
@Douglas Lowenthal
There's always an "inner Nazi" in any human being.
As neurologists have shown, both hatred and compassion are innate skills, in most mammals.
What kind of behavior a society adopts as a whole, depends upon which of those skills will be trained and cultivated.
Once you systematically cultivate (self-)compassion, it's not as if you're no longer feeling hatred or anger, but the brain networks developed during compassion training will embrace those feelings without questioning your own worthiness, and then either use them to try to non-violently combat false and dangerous ideas, or simply let them go and do something based on more positive emotions.
Fox News is the perfect example of cultivating hatred (not only of ideas, but - as hatred always does once it becomes intense - also of the people adhering to different ideas than the ones they believe in). And THAT is dividing this country more than anything else.
Many Christian religions today in the US unfortunately are doing the exact same thing, even though cultivating compassion is supposed to be one of their "core businesses".
Soros' democracy projects try to cultivate practices that distinguish respect for people from rejection of their ideas, so that real debates can become possible, and a democracy without real debates cannot but become dysfunctional, or as Nazism has shown, end up falling into something truly horrible.
VOTE!
1
Republicans hate it when someone rich isn't a Republican -- and when that person has the audacity to go all-in in supporting the opposition.
9
@Carla Charlto
Ditto......FDR
1
Difficult to understand modern antisemitism. It should be obvious that every humanistic development over the last 2000 years or more has come from the Jews, including Jesus and the concept of "forgiveness."
6
@Antoine
Uh ... you seem to have forgotten Asians and Africans ... ?
Asians developed meditation, which is probably the most needed tool in the West today. Africans developed democracy (and probably long before the Greeks did).
In real life, it's not difficult to understand false generalizations, we all tend to fall into this kind of trap once in a while ... ;-)
2
Nice try but it's getting old.
I oppose Soros (a Jew) because he's a hard-core leftist. I also oppose Elizabeth Warren (not a Jew) because she's a hard core leftist.
Ever heard of Mark Levin? Dennis Prager? Ben Shapiro? Well-known conservatives I admire who happen to be Jewish.
Please stop with the religious bias nonsense. Well, I guess it's all you've got left.
12
You are not paying attention. You need to look at the anti-semitic pictures that are circulating online, mostly focusing on Soros. They are responsible for spreading the anti-Semitism we see today. You of all people have more of a responsibility to speak out. People are taking things too far.
5
@The Sun Shines South
Any concrete example of a "hard-core leftist" thing that Soros is funding?
If not, how come you can honestly write/believe something like that ... ?
3
@The Sun Shines South
By the way, this article isn't writing that every conservative in this country hates Jews.
It is denouncing the fact that when leading conservatives, including the President of the US, disagree with a political opponent, they attack him personally rather than his ideas, AND attack his religion.
If you don't call this "religious bias", what is it ... ??
2
Just as racism around the world and in America will never disappear so too will anti Semitic sentiment be with us for many years. I remember as a little boy some 65 years ago another child screaming at me “the Jews killed Christ “. I didn’t understand it then because I was not a churchgoing person. Trump is no doubt an anti Semite but he doesn’t proclaim it quite as loudly as he would like.
4
George Soros is the boogeyman for anti-Semites everywhere. When Trump suggests Soros might be the dark force behind poor migrants fleeing horrific violence in Central America, he is adopting and reinforcing dangerous anti-Semitism. We just saw a nutcase, drunk on Trump worship, try to assassinate Soros with an active pipe bomb. What nutcase with a gun or bomb is listening to Trump today?
4
Two sections of capital fighting over of the control of wealth produced by labor.
8
I find this article interesting but a little one sided. The Koch brothers are used the same way by the left. Now Mr Soros is an avid globalist. He is unabashed in his support. He has used his fortune to help politicians he feels are sympathetic to the cause. Now to gain his fortune he has been done some unseemly things that ended up hurting other Countries citizens, but that is business. If the left chose to ignore this to receive his money so be it. There are many glowing stories about him and his philanthropy but let's have no illusions that he is a man driven by a cause. His cause has noble ambitions but let's debate that rather than have his bought and paid for minions try to enact it by stealth.
5
What"unseemly things" has he supported?
1
George Soros, a man who found himself with too much money, set out to use it for the good of the world and the US, moving assorted nations towards democracy, and trying to move the US back towards democracy.
What a horrible thing to do, the Nazis say. ‘So typical of a Jew to spend his money making the world a safer place for *his* people, by making it a safer place for all muf peoples.
‘Obviously out to secretly control those subhumans from -hole countries, so they can move agains “the white Christian race”. The reasons Jews, spawn of Satan, make common cause with those subhumans, paying them to break through our borders, rape our daughters and pollute pure white blood into the minority in a county ruled by sons of race traitors, mongrel half-breeds, while Jew bankers secretly pull the strings if their puppets’.
(Paraphrased from hate literature collected over recent decades from material collected at everything from South Jersey county fairs, Connecticut Klan rallies and Sanford, Fla. news boxes at bus stops, vending the most hateful publications of this nation - filled with so many twisted conspiracies and pure loathing of any its writers don’t consider “pure”.
This minority of American views has been set loose by Donald Trump to prey upon newly impoverished Conservatives to turn their attention from those who have really taken their cash
The 242-year-old Grand US Experiment depends on election of a strong Congress willing to reclaim its rights.
Vote Tuesday for balance.
6
A courageous man who as a child survived the Holocaust in Nazi occupied Bucharest.
I remember when Soros gave tens of millions of dollars to the state of New York to be distributed to help poor families, specifically poor children.
Anyone attempting to smear George Soros or implicate him in any kind of evil-doing is messing with one of the finest, most generous Americans in this country.
My deepest gratitude to George Soros for all he's done to help Americans.
10
The Soros slur is open anti-Semiticism. Trump has normalized it. His "globalism" and "caravan" are bullhorns for the white supremacists. Globalism means Soros and other Jews are a hidden-hand cabal that is running the world. The caravan means that Soros and other Jews are bringing in brown people in order to replace white Trump people. As usual, Bannon trivializes and thus normalizes the violence of those white supremacist groups who now commit the majority of terrorist attacks on American soil. The Trump family lie that Soros is a Nazi is fascism plain and simple. As noted here, Trump's last ad of the campaign--a classic anti-Semitic slur--says it all. MAGA is an anti-Semitic movement. The massacre in Squirrel Hill was perpetrated by an anti-Semitic MAGA mass murderer whose views and radicalization are by now anything but atypical among the members of the Trump Fox cult.
7
"After World War II, Mr. Soros fled Hungary for England as the Soviet Union consolidated control in his home country. He worked as a waiter and a railroad porter and studied at the London School of Economic".
One would think that Mr. Soros, who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, working what many would consider menial jobs, studying hard & working hard, would be the poster boy for Republicans, especially those on the further/far right wing side, who exhort poor people to work harder, be self-reliant & not depend on public/government help.
5
I so much wish they'd leave Soros alone. I'm sure his family had been through enough. He just does good and says quiet.
4
He's richer than the Trumps have ever been-- all put together from Trump's daddy, Donald down to Donnie jr. and of course they hate him and envy him. Their jealousy and greed has no bounds. They can't beat him financially and making up lies about him is the next best thing. Trump supporters are the most gullible losers --a billionaire is funding poor South American immigrants invasion of the US? So they can do what for him exactly--gardening perhaps?
6
Anti-Semitism is not a jewish problem. It's a white person (like me) social convention problem. When white people are sitting around with other white people and someone makes an anti-semitic joke or remark, we laugh or say nothing. That is the petri dish that American anti-semitism begins life, lives in and ultimately reaches it's horrific end. The shame I feel today and I assume many others like me feel today is having allowed ourselves to be bullied into this social convention that resulted in the last week's murders and bomb attempts. Let's get real. Crazy people have no preference in they way they act out their psychotic behaviors. They are just mentally ill. We create it the environment. We are the ones painting the bullseye on peoples' backs. White people like me need to take ownership of how our behavior is creating the horrific problems in this country.
4
Americans love our “shadowy cabals”, secret plots, and infiltrated government agencies, don’t we? Papist plots, Freemasons, Zionist Occupied Government, Communist-run State Department, Clinton’s Black helicopters, Lizard People, the Bush-Cheney-Saudi 9/11 conspiracy, the other Clinton’s Pizza Parlor Kiddie Sex Palace, Obama-backed Islamist terrorist training camps in Mexico AND secret League with Black Panthers (a 2F1), Tom Brady’s deflated balls, and now ol’ George Soros.
Here’s a tip for the conspiracy-minded; if the name and face of the leader of your secret shadowy cabal is public, there is no secret shadowy cabal there. Go make up another one; Like QAnon did. Or crawl out of the basement into the light and get a job.
5
Admirable essay on George Soros.
But can I just say that Steve Bannon is a despicable human being? Why do reporters insist on asking him questions? If you ignore him, he'll go away.
7
Uhm they should be careful with their anti-semitism if they want any more of Sheldon Adelson’s money. They don’t seem to have a problem with him... Funny how that works.
9
George Soros rightfully funds what he believes in. That is an American right. If only the Koch Brothers could be so vilified. While George Soros is funding a university, the Koch Brothers are funding warming, pollution, and ruination of the planet. Is there really any comparison between the Soros funding of enlightenment and Koch funding of destruction?
15
We’re becoming a nation of hateful, bigoted morons and Trump is playing on the hate.
5
Most billionaires donate to political causes that will increase their personal wealth, influence, and power. Soros's billions go to causes designed to improve life for ordinary people--causes that will empower regular folks. This makes him a villain?
14
Mr Soros is an honor to America and expansive policy towards immigrants. Who knew when he was a kid that he would be so successful?
8
Just yesterday, Trump again issued one of his winking could-be-Soros-funding-the-caravan-who-knows non-denials that his followers take as an affirmation. And the GOP has enabled all of this. Vote. Them. Out.
17
@Flaco
Yes, don't be fooled by Trump woodenly reading condemnations of white supremacist terror, written by his establishment staff. He obviously doesn't believe what he is saying.
Trump's racist base knows that when he is "riffing" and ad libbing, and making jokes and imitating a reporter being assaulted (a crime against the individual and again the First Amendment), that is what he really thinks.
If you are not a rich white Christian male, the Party of Trump doesn't think you are a citizen at all. That is what it means when they say a judge is originalist. If you let Trump strike birthright citizenship by executive fiat, your citizenship is soon to follow.
Right wing terrorists have killed more Americans than international terrorists. And that is not counting those killed by white supremacist traitors that attacked our Union because democracy wouldn't let them expand slavery into the new territories.
They wrap themselves in the Flag and sing the Anthem while they attack the plain meaning of the Constitution and turn language upside down.
I dare the right to name one instance in which kneeling was considered disrespectful before black football players knelt to call for you to respect the Constitution. Do you disrespect God when you kneel to pray.
The far right lies so much that now they say "truth isn't truth."
They create corruption and use it for an excuse to create more corruption.
If you are so interested in closing borders, stop letting capital move out.
5
I was inspired to do a search on his name. I found two sites that well here they are. One describes his life laudably the other tries to paint him as a criminal psychopath from age 13 or 14.
https://www.georgesoros.com/the-life-of-george-soros/
and this
https://www.newstarget.com/2016-11-28-the-disturbing-history-of-george-soros-that-every-american-should-know.html
I'm only a few paragraphs in on the second one and already it is clear to me the writer is a propagandist cobbling together things he has heard in the echo chambers of society such people live in.
4
Always amusing to watch the volleying between left and right as to whose bogeyman is worse — whose Emmanuel Goldstein is more real.
2
@Dan
Except that bombs ARE real, and coming from one side alone.
That's when things are no longer "amusing".
6
@Dan
This is not between left and right. The left does not like Soros.
Soros is allied with centrist Democrats who constantly attack the left, while they try to "understand" Trump's base. Soros is in the center.
It is very difficult to discern truth, when mass media, including social media, is owned by, for, and of global billionaires and their corporations.
But what is obvious is that while Republicans talk a lot about borders and immigrants, they have been attacking borders in the name of "unfettered free trade" for decades, and that the centrist establishment Democrats have been compromising with this for decades. NAFTA was a Republican bill that Clinton helped pass. The damage that it did was bipartisan and the only ones that actually opposed NAFTA was the left.
The world economic order, with the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization, etc, who regularly punish countries that raise taxes to take care of their citizens, reward countries for following Republican Supply Side Economics, the very Free Trade ideology that the far right loves.
It was an alliance between the centrist Clinton wing of the Democratic Party and the right that passed all of these trade deals.
The TPP would have been signed already if left activists hadn't spent five years trying to get corporate media to cover it. As soon as Trump can change the name to Trump Pacific Partnership, he'll sign that too.
The left organizes for humans, while the right and center kill for global corporations.
2
We Jews who love Eretz Yisroel have as little use for Mr. Soros (who does not count Jerusalem above his chief joy, not even close) as anyone else opposed to his activities.
Mr. Soros' views on Israel might stem from his general opposition to borders but it aligns with the goals of Jew-hating organizations who want to see Israel destroyed.
If we're going to play guilty by virtue of "politics make strange bedfellows, it has to cut both ways.
Soros' interview with Steve Kroft and his father's autobiography gave as much weight to the collaborator label as anything else. Jim Geraghty gives a good account of this today at National Review.
There is plenty of room for principled conservative opposition to Soros' political activities.
8
@Scolaighe
Purely religious opposition, apparently?
2
@Scolaighe
Supporters of Israel that ally with "christian"* Evangelicals need to watch some of their TV shows. I have.
They don't care about Jews or Israel.
Their support for Israel is based on their prophesies of Armageddon. According to your far right "allies," Armageddon and the Second coming of Christ can't begin until Israel is united.
As soon as Israel is untied, world war must begin IN ISRAEL. So much for Israel security. If the christian right decides Israel needs to be nuked for Christ, they will try to nuke you for Christ.
In the minds of the far right, there is no contradiction between hating Jews and supporting Israel.
Israel its a pawn in their biblical prophesies, and Jews are still mud people to them.
And for those on the right that don't believe in prophesy, Israel is still a pawn in their geo-political chess game, as they have made clear a million times. Israel is their military foothold in the middle east, a way to influence oil producing countries.
They may or may not hate Jews, but they have no problem using white supremacists who do hate Jews as yet more pawns in their game.
If you are not a white male "christian,"to the right, you are not fully human. They have said this for centuries. It i4t's time you started to believe them.
Making Israel dependent on U.S. Evangelicals is suicidal. Who do you think created the propaganda that enticed that lunatic into killing 11 Jews last week, the left?
(*"christians" are against what Jesus said and did. )
1
If someone does not agree with Mr. Soros' political views that's fine. It's when they use their dog whistles and out right anti-Semitism remarks. Trump, his son Fredo and Mr. Giuliani show their real Colors. Mr. Trump has never Mentioned that Anti Semitism attacks has risen close to 60% in the last two years.
His Son-in-Law and Daughter are hypicrites. They never speak out about that, but they talk about moving the Embasy in Israel.
What about the attacks her at home against fellow Americans of the Jewish faith. ......... America Vote Nov. 6!
4
When a newspaper runs a comment section, it needs to assure that its readers are contributing to high minded dialogue. There are as many targets on the right as there are on the left and hateful invective should never get a free pass. The level of the hatred in this comment section is high and courts danger. I think we’d be better off without it.
6
@michjas
You can flag any comment and have the moderator take a look at it.
Palestinians and many Muslims are also Semitic. When rampant antisemitism was applied to them, many people ignored it. When the antisemitism applied to Soros was in Hungary, many people ignored it.
Now that it has resulted in Jewish lives massacred in the middle of America, is that enough to take notice?
If not, I am sure things will escalate again. We can keep repeating this history until we learn from it.
8
Barely hidden? More like out in the open for all to see. Marches with torches, nazi flags, antiSemitism up 57% last year, and a recent synagogue shooting all duly reported by the news.
What does it take for the media to finally decide that there might be a problem?
8
It is the 1930s again, with power-crazed nuts challenging the world order, . . only this time they have nuclear weapons.
3
Soros has been accused by the right of sending Jews to death camps. Really? And when did he do this? When he was six years old in Hungary hiding from the Nazis by posing as a Christian? And where did he get the money for this as a young child?
8
Mr. Soros in his youth in Germany observed first hand what an ultra nationalist repressive dictator and regime would do to the rights and freedoms of people. That is what drives him to promote democracy around the world. God bless you Mr. Soros.
12
@P Lock
That would have been pretty difficult to do, given that he grew up in Hungary & London, not Germany.
Isn't there a law against exploiting the intellectually challenged? That's the gop strategy. I'm still a,axed how many stupid people are in this country.
1
In this article, you refer to "the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch, who have been similarly attacked by some on the American left..." but I don't recall bombs being sent to their homes.
You also quoted former House Speaker (and convicted sex offender) Denny Hastert; you couldn't find someone more recent who did a smear job on Soros?
And finally, you repeat false assertions tweeted by various people that Soros was a Nazi without calling them false, or citing actual fact.
There really AREN'T "very good people" on both sides.
10
Soros occupies the same place in the paranoid imagination of the right wing as the Koch Brothers do in that of the left.
7
@Melvin
Do you think so? As far as I can tell, Soros would make nothing if the causes he supported were successful. There's nothing in it for him.
The Koch brothers, on the other hand, stand to gain billions from their activism, and appears to be the sole goal of their activism. And once they wreck the US, they will go to their hidey holes in New Zealand where they will be taxed at an even higher rate than here.
7
@Melvin Hardly. Soros = anti Semitic dog whistle. The Koch boyz are merely greedy billionaires that spend a tiny fraction of their tax cuts to buy our government. "Money doesn't talk, it swears."
Let's talk Sheldon Adelson. He behaves just like the Koch boys, but no one on "both sides" reviles him for his religion.
Has Sheldon's casinos been shot up by anyone screaming anti-Semitic epithets and toting an AR-15? You're buying a false equivalency, and here you are selling it. SAD.
6
@Melvin
No, because:
1. the left never tried to bomb the Koch brothers (in case that you still care about arguments like this ...)
2. the left rejects the globalist agenda that the Koch's support, because facts show that there are no "trickle down" economies on earth. That means rejecting the Koch's because they merely use the government to increase their own wealth, whereas Soros fought hard against communist dictatorships and continues to spread democratic values.
So if you believe that there is something akin to "paranoid imagination" in the rejection of the Koch brothers by most Americans, could you please give any concrete example (a mainstream paranoia, that is, rather than one or the other obscure far-right left-wing pundit)?
Looking forward to reading you (no irony).
2
"Anti-Semitism, Barely Hidden, Moved Soros Smear Into the Mainstream"
Hidden? Even barely hidden? No. It's always been just as plain as the Southern Strategy can make it:
Here's Lee Atwater in the NY Times: (racial epithets are interchangeable.
https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/lee-atwaters-southern-strategy-interview/?_r=0
5
so George Soros is targeted for his support of Democratic candidates and policies and vilified by the right. and especially the anti-semitic Republicans , but Sheldon Adelson the billionnaire (and also Jewish) who has contributed millions to the Republican candidates and policies gets a pass by the same far right
8
Funny how the conservatives have been okay with the (Christian) Koch brothers buying one state legislature after another and pushing their selfish views on energy and labor.
But somehow, a Jewish billionaire who spends money to help preserve democratic institutions is reviled and smeared.
Who could have expected that?
7
@RWilsker And those same conservatives are okay with a Jewish Sheldon Adelson as well. Clearly conservatives believe that regardless of religion, as long as you believe in capitalism (which has benefitted society enormously with its greedily laser focused motivation of providing people with the best of the best so that they can maximize profits), then you are okay. I'm not sure if i helped your point, or hurt it, but I do think a progressive society can only sustain itself if it keeps profit as a motivating force. Capitalism with reasonable taxation is the best environment for a healthy society.
1
So the heavy-handed conspiratorial slander directed at the Koch brothers all these years wasn't a dog whistle ?
What a pathetic double standard---it's only when leftists are criticized that it's a problem.
10
@FredO
Any concrete example of that slander (strange how Republicans here claim that the left is doing the exact same thing, but then can never come up with concrete examples, no ... ?)?
3
I suppose attacks on Soros at least from some people may have an antisemitic undertone. But, funny: I don't recall the NY Times too concerned and hand-wringing when progressive Leftists made a book arguing Israel controls American foreign policy a best seller, or even more recently the emergence of the canard that Netanyahu controls the White House I'm starting to hear from a few illustrious Leftists these days (I suppose something has to replace the failed Trump-Putin Collusion Conspiracy theory now that it's pretty much fizzled out).
6
@JW
"starting to hear from a few illustrious Leftists":
1. any evidence to back up such a claim?
2. when did Obama or Democratic politicians take over false accusations against Israel or Jews?
3. where are the far-left militants trying to bomb former GOP presidents?
The whole point of this article is that there is no equivalency at all. If you think there is, where's the evidence?
5
@JW Are you talking about "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (2008) by John J. Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Stephen M. Walt (Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government)? There could not be a more fair and reasoned criticism of a country's hand in U.S. politics.
This is where this whole division goes off the rails: Equating antiSemitism with any criticism of Israel's politics, Zionism, or trends in (separate from Israel) Jewish politics in the U.S. People can bash Christians as a group as much as they like--heck, they can submerge a cross in urine or smear feces on Mary and call it art--but reasoned criticism of Israel or trends in Jewish thought are deemed evil. The same goes for Islam, to a large degree. Take a look at the history of civilization: No group of humans is innocent. (Only women, as a group, have caused far less atrocities than any other group.)
Accusing those with reasoned arguments of being "racist" or "xenophobic" or "antiSemitic" is fanning the flames of division, and widening the abyss. There are plenty of real racists, xenophobes, antiSemites, and misogynists in this world to worry about. We do not need to accuse moral, reasonable people of these evils. That is another form of prejudice all its own.
2
I hope people teaching journalism in America get this article, break it down, and use it as an example of hypocrisy and lack of objectivity among news organizations.
The New York Times is consistently and steadfastly against the influx of huge amounts of money into politics, backing Supreme Court cases that would limit it and regularly doing exposes on people like the Koch brothers that never fail to paint them as nefarious...
That is, until the subject is someone whose vision of the world aligns with theirs. Then, spending any amount of money to override the democratic impulses of a local population is A-OK.
And how laughable is it to put three reporters on a story, only to have them accept this lame description of what Soros' organization has spent $32 BILLION on: "what it calls democracy-building efforts." Yeah, I'm sure it, and he, does describe it that way. The rest of us might call it something a little less noble, and expect the Times to apply some scrutiny. But then -- again in a laughable failure of journalistic standards -- the Times' buys into the canard that to challenge Soros would make us anti-Semites.
I won't even mention the Times' failure to allude to serious financial fraud against Soros in Europe.
All in all, a laughable effort. Really, a shameful commercial of the type Soros usually has to buy. Maybe he did.
12
@Philboyd
You clearly never had a serious journalism course .. ;-)
1. You're confounding news reports and editorials. News reports describe facts, editorials comment on facts with subjective opinions.
2. Not one single Democrat is against allowing money from billionaires to fund political campaigns. The NYT never wrote an editorial that would claim to do so either.
What Democrats, the NYT editorials, and a vast majority of the American people want is to get rid of the Citizens United SC ruling that allows UNLIMITED amounts of money to finance political campaigns.
Conclusion: Soros himself strongly supports politicians who want to increase his own taxes and limit campaign contributions.
Finally, to start imagining that someone who fought communism and dictatorships very hard, somehow would NOT be investing in "democracy building efforts" today but do the opposite, is just that: your imagination. You cannot possibly refuse to do any fact-checking and then reject an article because it goes against your own subjective imagination, of course ... .
3
Trump/GOP is pushing America into fear; hate and fascism. Vote out Republicans to save Democracy in America. Ray Sipe
5
If Soros converted to Christianity but continued doing the work he's been doing, no one would say anything. This is anti-Semitism at work. And please stop quoting Steve Bannon. How long before the US turns into Chile under Pinochet, Italy under Mussolini, Spain under Franco? This country is moving very quickly in that direction.
9
I’ve often wondered why the Right So vilified Mr. Soros, blaming him for all sorts of Socialist intrigue and being for everything that they felt was wrong with the USA! Never knew, or suspected he was Jewish. Evidently the stone-throwers did though, causing this special, intense hatred of this Olde man. If so, that is despicable and un-American..
4
Soros is often referred to, rightly or wrongly as a Nazi collaborator because as a teenager in Hungary, he assisted in the confiscation of Jewish owned property.
In the 1990s, Soros was interviewed about this on 60 Minutes, at which time he expressed no remorse about it. Soros described himself as coming from a "self-hating Jewish family" and stated that if he had not assisted in the confiscation of Jewish property, "someone else would have done it."
To omit a detail like this from this extremely sympathetic portrayal of Mr. Soros speaks volumes about the actual intent of this piece, which is not to inform so much as it is to mislead. It also does immense harm when this piece is preceded by similarly biased ones from Soros' son Alexander. Can you genuinely not see how this creates the impression that Soros has bought the most august of venues to present a polished image of himself? Do you not see how this contributes to anti-Semitism, rather than combating it?
Historically, I have read this paper, and come to this site because it remains the paper of record. However, realize that this pattern of omitting facts and details that do not support your positions has only created a niche for right wing news sites, and also increased traffic to those sites from persons who recognize that you are not presenting all the facts. To paraphrase Jon Stewart, from his legendary upbraiding of Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala on CNN's Crossfire, please stop! You are hurting America.
12
Globalists, cosmopolitans, and now the familiar slander of a wealthy Democrat who is Jewish (and a Holocaust survivor to boot). All buzz words of Nazis and neo-nazi nationalists with their conspiracy theories of Jewish plots to control banking, media and everything else. Paradoxically they were accused of simultaneously being Communists back in the day. We have heard and seen this all before. It was in German and spoken by Hitler, Goebbels and that crew of evil. It has been an undercurrent (way under) in western democracies but with the rise of Trump is out in the open. The alt right white supremacists dance each time he identifies with them, calling them fine people, calling himself a (white - unspoken but understood) nationalist.
George Soros is entitled to back the causes he believes in as are Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. Note that there are no complaints about Sheldon Adelson backing the GOP.
Americans should be very afraid of the Pandora's box of evil that has been opened by Trump, giving permission for xenophobia, racism, anti-semitism, and so much more to be openly supported. It is unacceptable, undemocratic, and counter to the very foundations of US democracy.
Stand up and say no America. Lives depend on it.
5
George Soros is not hates for being a Jew but rather he is hates for what he spends his money on.
Globally he spends his money to try and overturn the popular vote for policies he does not like. He comes in with lots of money and helpers. That can overwhelm local voting activity. He does not believe in the popular will, but rather tries to manipulate popular voting by using his money and bringing in outside helpers to agitate for causes he supports.
Personally I find his actions and the causes he supports despicable.
5
@judyweller
Please list these despicable things.
6
As a political scientist I think that the Times would be well advised to designate such people by the term "chauvinist nationalists" not merely nationalists.
1
Republicans have for decades scorned minorities, Catholics, and our Jewish brothers and sisters.
That is why smokers, the cream of the trailer parks, and assault rifle owning white supremacists are the base of their party.
3
From a 1998 interview with 60 Minutes:
Steve Kroft: Are you a religious man?
Soros: No.
Kroft: Do you believe in God?
Soros: No.
George Soros is not even Jewish, at least in a religious or observant sense.
He is an atheist.
6
@John So? he's not alone. Ronald Reagan's son is one too. Does that mean God does not love Soros? I think he does. I think the Pope would agree. I think most clergymen would agree. And finally, if you lived through the holocaust, perhaps your belief in The Almighty would be shaken as well.
1
@Barry
No need to be defensive.
Of course it doesn't matter. I was only pointing out that negative claims about Soros being Jewish are inaccurate.
If Koch-brothers sponsors right wing racist and anti-Semitic groups, than we should call the Koch brothers for who they are: right wing, racist and anti-Semitic.
3
Blah, blah, blah: this all fits an old and well-established pattern. George Soros is just the latest incarnation, fueled this time by the internet. None of it has any validity, and it only serves the political needs of far-right extremism.
In the 1960's and 70's the New World Order conspiracy targeted the same type of shadowy Jewish cabal. At that time the handy targets were the Rockefellers, the Rothchilds, the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission. Then, as now, these conspirators cited the same junk evidence, such as 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'.
Gustave Gilbert, a U.S. Army Psychiatrist at the Nuremberg war crimes trials after WWII, acknowledged the role of the same New World Order conspiracy theory in the Nazi regime. According to Gilbert (1950):
"The notes of some of his first conferences as Governer-General of Poland (which he preserved in his voluminous diaries) indicated the general line that [Hans] Frank laid down in applying the master-race philosophy to his segment of the New World Order: [...] 'We must exterminate the Jews wherever we encounter them and wherever it is possible, in order to uphold the general task of the Reich here.' " (p. 140)
Cite:
Gilbert, G.M. Ph.D. The Psychology of Dictatorship. The Ronald Press Company, 1950.
5
Have any members of the trump cult who repeat the name Soros as readily as they repeat "lock her up" and "build the wall," ever heard of the Koch brothers or the Mercer family? Soros may be spending lots of money on humanitarian issues, which obviously contradicts the philosophy espoused by trump and his followers, but do those folks know what the Koch brothers are doing to our environment and the Mercers are doing to our healthcare system. trump was telling the truth when he said he loved the "uneducated"; unfortunately, only an uniformed electorate can support the despicable and immoral policies of trump and his ilk.
3
Seriously, how is this different than the absolutely vilification for years of the Koch brothers? Who were shadowy figures controlling republican's and the agenda with there cash. This seems like we are reaping what we have sowed in demonizing people on both sides. And this is the outcome. Sad times. Elections are no longer about ideas but strictly identity politics.
4
What this article fails to detail is the manner by which
f-x "news", in particular, but one can also throw
Sinclair and Breitbart into the toxic stew, facilitated
this mainstreaming of disinformation and innuendo. Repetitive dropping of evidence free pejoratives into its "content", after the thousandth time does something to the passive
accommodating low info brain by simple neural conditioning.
For example, glenn beck was a star of f-x "news" when
he was executing this anti-Soros rhetorical strategy in 2010. Why was that little detail not included, and then developed, in this article to sketch how this smear campaign grew
with the conscious efforts of f-x?? That was
very much low hanging fruit right there for the taking.
It is all very similar to how any of the many other precedents
in scare tactics in American history went mainstream. You
start with endless repetition of a few choice paranoid tropes by a core cadre of spinners, never with any evidence, just a lot of fear inducing smear, and then find more mainstream operators to increase their diffusion, insuring that they too never are forced into a situation where they must defend their nonsense both before and after the commercial break.
At the same time, you count on mainstream media to pretend
that this process is not actually happening by ignoring it.
There was no Murrow to take on the anti-Soros
campaign. This helped a lot.
1
The lies and hate speech against Mr. Soros seems to be the tip of the iceberg of fascism and anti-Semitism. When Nazi Germany fell, we thought the threat was over as well. But just like a virus or mold, the threat was just hiding in plain sight waiting for the right conditions to let it develop and grow again. Now the sickness is spreading all over the planet, but this time America is sickened with it also. No FDR or Churchill to lead us to the light.
Children learn what they live, so we are seeing what happens when generations of prejudiced people pass on their hatred to their own families, keeping it behind closed doors until now, when Trump's hate speech and his sycophants on Fox and other right-wing media allowed them out into the light and to be acceptable in polite society.
None of this is acceptable. None of this is healthy for children, and none of this is good for America. We should be thanking Mr. Soros for doing good deeds with his money. Trump used his own charity as his private piggy bank, and the Koch Brothers are treated as saints for doing the same thing as Mr. Soros, only on a smaller scale and not to benefit everyone in the country, but only conservatives with a small-minded viewpoint.
1
Investor Soros could approach MGM Pictures and help fund James Bond hitting Delete-Alt-Right cliques on several wannabe retro ‘40s villains. Opening scenes could be in Rio with nonstop action moving to India and opening credits.
If it is anti-semitism then why were not pipe bombs sent to Ivanka or to Kushner? And why were ones sent to many who are not Jewish? What they had in common was not Judaism but that they were Democrats and critics of Trump.
Please do not add fuel to the fire. Your speculations - which are patently intended as election ploys - are doing a great deal of harm.
7
Anti-Semitism is just an old tool to get the “target” away from the real enemy.
The Trump Organization has been getting most of its operating cash, especially to pay for Donal Trump’s failures as a business powerhouse - the three Trump casinos in Atlantic City, for example, including the “Taj Majal” where the house needed a $1 million a day profit just to break even, or the destruction of Eastern Airlines, the discount commuter route, rebranding it as luxury travel (NYT investigation), from Russia and Saudi Arabia.
“The Jews” have been the enemy since Christianity was created in Rome, and adopted as the State Religion.
And they have the nerve to survive the ghettos, pogroms, random uprisings of the Populace.
The Pittsburgh shooter’s shouts put him at the most extreme range of anti-Semitism.
But, since Constantine’s conversion, Jews have always been the Enemy.
The pipe-bomb recipients represent the ‘new’ enemy.
Donald Trump did not just name the Democratic Party “the enemy” of America.
He specifically singled out individuals as the chief enemies - and all who received explosives were on that list.
He fid not just name “the Media” the enemy, he singled out CNN and on-air stars. One got a pipe bomb.
We will probably have to wait for trial to find out who was next.
I suspect the bomber was a TV watcher. Then again Trump has not mentioned “the Failing New York Times” once, since it revealed his tax avoidance.
And don’t blame the messenger, look closely at the message.
“I only hope one day I’m as effective as he has been — and as vilified,” Mr. Bannon said, calling threats like the pipe bomb “the admission ticket for playing in this arena.”
When Steve Bannon starts receiving pipe bombs in the mail, he'll get a much more accurate take on the price of admission.
2
Mr. Soros needs to use the US Libel laws to go after Trump et al.
Enough of this nonsense that is getting dangerous.
When the GOP offers NOTHING to solving problems but just gives their followers an irrational list of names of people to hate, Pavlov-style, it is time for them to be kicked out. It simply demeans the whole concept of democratic government.
2
The only way Soros, a public figure, could use libel laws is by proving Trump lied, he did it to inflict personal damage, and that he acted with “legal malice”, taking no steps to determine truth.
Deliberately a difficult task.
While Trump seems to have gone off the Teleprompter, discovery of a single Breitbart or Fox News claim of support through organizations and alleging presence of a single MS-13 and Muslim in the group- or a backdated Homeland Security report would be enough to shake a jury. Not worth it.
1
The right vilifies Soros. The left vilifies Koch brothers.
Money talks, and gives both of then a voice
5
The 25% or so of the Jewish population that backs trump has to deal with his alt-right fascist supporters. Ignoring them is no convenience. The lies that they and trump spread are like those that Hitler used to incite his masses.
I appreciate the support from George Soros. Until we can remove money from political causes, good causes need financial support. Ideally there is enough free coverage of ideas in the free press and other internet sources to obviate big spending. But obviously there is a lot of necessary spending despite the availability of low cost channels for expression.
I don't trust the lying, traitorous, egomaniacal, fascist, lunatic trump and his poorly educated followers whom he manipulates through twitter, his rallies and Fox Noise. Trump is an enabler for other fascist lunatics who seek to control uneducated populations. Education is their enemy.
George Soros not only supports causes for democracy, he encourages us to look for good causes to support. Our nation is now moving into a fascist government; trump and his trumpkins have destroyed our democracy. We need to get it back with all of the resources that we can muster.
2
The anti-semitic attacks and the vilification of George Soros or the violent intimidating threats to the Trump critics is a part of the systematic campaign to terrorise and silent the dissenting voices.
4
Let's put this in perspective, Mr. Soros has not been attacked anymore than the Coch brothers for their political involvement.
4
Good point. Except for the pipe bomb, the endless anti-semitic slurs and allusions, and the attacks from fascists and their fellow-travellers, of course.
8
Seriously???
2
@F1Driver Someone sent the Koch Bros pipe bombs?
1
I like to think that I post as many negative comments about Trump as anyone. Yet I have never gotten a dime from Mr. Soros. Frankly I could use some extra cash. Could someone please tell me what more I have to do to get paid for my efforts?
7
This is so shameful. Soros could have turned his back on the world. Instead he uses his wealth to set a moral example of selfless engagement. He’s heroic. However, don’t look only at what used to be the radical fringe as the souce of anti-semetic and racist hate. The main stream Republican party has been dog whistling anti-Soros memes for years. They aim to staunch the flow of cash to liberal causes and are perfectly willing to stoke any ember of hate to do it.
10
Sheldon Adelson is the target of left wing attention as the source of political funding, including in the NY Times, quite often. It's not difficult to find conspiracy theories about him, and he is amply vilified. It's rather ironic that the only disagreement between the far left and far right seems to be about which Jews own the government.
5
@Steve could you post one conspiracy theory about Mr. Adelson please
6
Soros is a target of Putin, Orban, and Trump. Birds of a feather...
8
If Soros has these three despots as enemies, he must be doing something right. Jesus had strong enemies when he spoke of similar values.
2
Let's not lose sight of where most of us happened upon that lunatic with a baseball bat who kept referring to Obama as a "reverse racist" and George Soros as a "Nazi sympathizer" - Glenn Back. It was at Fox "News".
It's also where we kept hearing pro-Teabag commentary, where racists were so angry that Obama was elected had their first mass protest on April 15, 2009 - the day when our Federal taxes were lower than they'd been in decades.
They carried filth-driven signs along with hundreds of confederate flags. They spat on Congressional representatives who wre not white.
And you'll find them now at Trump rallies and tuning into their favorite channel, the channel they have always tuned into, ie, Fox "News".
The channel whose sponsors SHOULD be boycotted. Why should I contribute one thin dime to people who are attacking my fellow citizens and myself.
10
May God bless George Soros and keep him from all harm!
13
From time to time when the topic of politics comes up with a conservative I'm talking with, I tend to find that it isn't long before they bring George Soros into the conversation. It's just amazing. Whether we are talking about a piece of legislation being introduced to help working families, the curriculum at a local university, or dozen people marching for transgender rights in Sheboygan, somehow George Soros is behind it. He has become something of a Fu Manchu character for the right, for those old enough to remember-- a supervillain antagonist behind everything that conservatives don't want to hear about their world. Rather than accept that either their world is changing, or more frighteningly it has never been the way they thought it was in the first place, they have invented an evil mastermind that is trying to break their parochial world. Perhaps it's a lot easier than accepting reality.
The irony is that right out in the open, corporations are using dark money to buy politicians, gerrymandering is corrupting the voting process, voter rights are being repressed, activist judges are being hand selected from "think tanks" to take away women's rights and destroy labor and not a whisper from the conspiracy theorists. Reality is too boring if it doesn't support one's fantasies.
12
@Mickey
Fu Manchu = Asian Willie Horton.
Americans (maybe all humans) need to belong to a team (tribe) and find an enemy to focus their communal energies.
For decades we were on America's team during the cold war.
We see it in sports, and we certainly now see it in politics. We are watching both sides demonize the views of the other side, and select a villain (enemy) to focus the attention and energy of their team (tribe). That is why it feels like war.
Those of us in the middle agree sometimes, and disagree sometimes with the direction and focus of the tribes. That is why we are independents. Soros, Kock, and Adelson just have the funds to beat a very big war drum at their teams pep rally.
1
“I only hope one day I’m as effective as he has been — and as vilified,” Mr. Bannon said, calling threats like the pipe bomb “the admission ticket for playing in this arena.”
When Steve Bannon starts receiving pipe bombs in the mail, he'll get a much more accurate take on the price of admission.
6
Once the GOP accepted and adopted Trump as their candidate, president and leader, then all this fringe ugliness, bigotry, racism and violence became mainstream in America. Last week we all witnessed the concrete results of normalizing this bigotry and its accompanying violence. When Trump can declare himself a nationalist and there is barely a whisper of challenge from the Democrats, media, or many Americans, then we all should recognize that a dangerous, deadly Pandora's Box has been opened. Notice also, how there is little mention of the Kochs these days. The demonization of Soros has allowed them to fade into the background and continue their puppetry of people and events unchallenged. So, dear Media(only those who are guilty of this) keep on normalizing this hate even though you are often Trump and the Right's target. So, complicit GOP, keep on supporting Trump and his hate until the Republican Party no longer exists. So, too many Democrats, keep silent and do not push back hard enough against this violence and hatred as it engulfs us all. It may be almost too late to wake up. The results of the midterms will tell us graphically where we are in this fight.
4
While I have come to the conclusion that Trump perpetuates anti-Jewish sentiments, if not embraces them, I have to admit that maybe I'm wrong. I would love to know what Kushner and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin think about Trump's rants about globalism and Soros, and the suggestion that Soros might be financing the Central Mexican Caravan. Trump's approach with Israel is not reassurance to me. There is a big difference between support for Israel and support for and heartfelt kinship with Jewish people generally, here and abroad. I am completely unconvinced that this administration's unquestioning support for Israel is in the best, long-term interests of Jews generally. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem, something both Republican and Democratic administrations had long deferred for good reason, is not good for long-term peace prospects in the region. Only after the players in the region achieved progress on peace, should the USA then have followed the lead and locate its embassy. Instead, the USA has poked the Palestinians in the eye. There are many American conservative and evangelical supporters of Israel from whom I sense no love and affection for Jews. Their support derives from their view of religious history and biblical ties to land (and perhaps hostility to other groups in the region) Back to the point of this article, however, I confident that Trump perpetuates, if not embraces, anti-Jewish sentiments. How sad to say this about an American President.
6
George Soros is one of the most admirable men on the planet. Like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, he has been able to use capitalism for good, showing how financial speculation can help not destroy human well-being. He has then used his deservedly-gotten gains to promote genuine freedom around the world. He should be the poster-child of the libertarian capitalist-loving right. The fact he is vilified by the folks at Fox etc. shows how stupid, prejudiced and dangerous they are (all characteristics that our President shares in spades).
5
Soros grows up under oppressive government to give his ill-gotten riches away to fund more oppressive government.
3
My issue with this article is that I really don't have any concrete idea on what Mr. Soros is spending his money on, although the amount ($23 billion dedicated to it worldwide?) is staggering. (Ditto for his peers, on both sides of the political aisle). That, I think, would be really helpful to structure the discussion. It's easy to demonize both sides (calling someone an anti-Semite, a fascist, a supremacist, etc.) , but the point should be for the NYT to illuminate specifically what everyone is doing, and advocating, in more detail.
6
The front page headline blares:
Anti-Semitism, Barely Hidden, Moved Soros Smear Into the Mainstream. ...
But when I read the article, there' essentially no mention of anti-semitism. Seems like the TImes, as usual, is just stroking its base and not bothering with the facts or news.
12
In the novel 1984, Emanuel Goldberg is the target of the daily “2 minute hate”. Soros has now been given that role in real life by the right wing haters, all over the world. Let’s all vote next week, please.
7
Well, the NYT has given Soros a nice whitewash in the article but I think he's an agent for regime change on behalf of the state department and CIA.
8
In the face of this Kremlin administration, he’d be all the more a hero!
1
@Laughingdragon
Behold Soros, an “agent for regime change” surreptitiously working “on behalf of the state department and the CUA (Central Unintelligence Agency).”
Let me guess ... he walks on water, and can change mine into wine. Elephants dance and sing in his presence. Trees bloom in the dead of winter as he passes underneath. He can levitate a chair across a room. If he closes his eyes, sits quietly and concentrates, concentrates, concentrates, the Earth wobbles on its axis.
It would be funny, all this “Deep State” conspiracy theory nonsense — if it wasn’t so Jew-bating, Jew-hating and just-plain stupid. Exceptional American stupidity at that.
Soros’ enemies are the richest, deadliest, most vicious dictators on Earth — criminals all. And they are behind this relentless publicity campaign to destroy him because his deep-pocket support of “democracy” in Eastern Europe (the cradle of fascism) and throughout the Developing World is an existential threat to them. Like “Deep Throat” said in “All the President’s Men”. “Follow the money.
5
The actions of ignorant people looking for someone upon whom to blame their failures and hatred instead of rising to the occasion and acting as responsible human beings.
Too much to expect from today's Trumplicans. They have entrenched themselves in a cocoon of fabricated delusion and jigged up fear and artificial resentment. Yes, they are acting like greedy morons without foresight or a grasp of reality. They are a mob of bullies that justify their incivility based upon their leader, a narcissistic sociopath who belongs in a nursery or cleaning toilets in a fast food joint, not Tweeting from the White House.
The only present hope for our Democracy is an attitude adjustment for these people who just don't "get it". Doubling down on lies and delusion will not solve their problems; education and a grasp of reality might. This new swamp is the most vile in my long history and needs to be relegated to the trash heaps of history. We have, as a nation, the chance to become great again - but absolutely not under Trump and his sycophants.
VOTE on Tuesday. Vote against anyone who could/would/does support Trump and his insane policies (that means every Republican, at least until they become civilized). We need a transfusion of integrity, honesty and competence - NOW!
9
I enjoy these trump yahoos saying George Soros is signing $15 checks to protesters carry anti trump signs. They’re just jealous because they’re doing it for free. Suckers.
4
Vilification. Awful word. Must people be abused to that degree? Wouldn't it be nice if in this volatile American political environment we could focus on our better selves and the actual issues on which we may differ? There appear to be vilifiers on all sides. It all depends on your lens.
2
This is a great opportunity for the NY Times to do a compare/contrast analysis of the extremes of both parties. What tactics and strategies did the far left to do lessen the impact of the Koch brothers? This article only discussed the far right's tactics against Soros. Is the far right more effective in attacking Soros than the left's efforts against the Koch brothers?
6
The alt-right and Republicans villifiy Soros, Bloomberg, and Steyer but they totally ignore Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson who has given millions to support Trump and Republican causes.
Double standard??
3
You get what you give NYT. Your one sided vilification of the Koch brothers over the years masked equal if not much larger shadow funding on the left from the likes of Soros.
At least the Kochs are transparent about who they give to. Soros funds a shadowy network of radical groups that goad their opponents into violence.
If the NYT were interested in actually reporting the news they would look very hard at how this "spontaneous" march across Mexico came into being. I guarantee you will find ties to multiple Soros funding organizations
10
Antisemitic conspiracy theories will never disappear. They are a poison pervading our global consciousness.
6
George Soros admits to helping the Nazis round up Jews in Hungary when he was a teenager, and in a televised interview on Sixty Minutes expressed no regrets for his actions. Yet the NY Times has described him merely as a man who "survived the Nazi occupation." The Times has such a wonderful way with words..
9
@Bob Kantor-
You sure about that?
1
Soros was 9 years old when war broke out and 14 when it ended. Boys had to be 17 to join the Nazis. This is a fact.
4
@Steve Singer
He expressed no remorse for assisting the Nazis in the confiscation of Jewish owned property, using the reasoning that if he had refused, then someone else would have done it instead.
This IS in the 60 Minutes interview, which you can find on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWizajL7tA
3
But yet, philanthro-stooges; Adelson and the Koch Brothers cabal INDIVIDUALLY worth more than George Soros pouring millions more into the Republican/Nationalist Party. Source: the RNP’s own “Business Insider” publication.
5
Steve Bannon the ex-advisor to this president of the US calls pipes bomb threats "the price of admission". Rudy Giuliani hollering about the Antichrist.
Think about that and get thee to the voting booth.
9
Ah, poor fellow. He's too good for this world.
4
Soros biggest problem is that he went from the difficulty of surviving Nazism to "globalist"--the earth Grand Collective--while reputedly destroying the Exchequer along the way.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, depending, he happens to be Jewish, too. So any criticism is always two-edged, whether true or not.
No tears for Soros, though, did quite well for himself given where he started.
6
Nationalism and anti-semitism have gone hand-in-glove since the beginning of fascist thought. Now it will be associated with the Trumpism as it should be.
7
Odd that Soros is so demonised for donating to candidates when the Koch's, Mercer's and Adelson's have donated far more for their own benefit. The anti-semitism is quite open and the media frequently just add to it.
10
Funny how they didn't have any hesitation in accepting millions from the Koch Brothers. Republicans need to figure out what they are going to be - a conservative political party or just a bunch of racist, bigots who are only in it for the money.
6
I don't see much difference between the right's vilification of Soros and the left's vilification of the Koch brothers. Just read the comments on the NYT and one would think the Koch brothers are Satan and Beelzebub personified.
4
The Koch brothers have been “similarly targeted by the left”??? Please. Remind me when the Koch brothers were attacked with pipe bombs. Or called the Antichrist? The violence, vitriol, anti-Semitism, and absolutely fact-free attacks on Soros by the right have no parallel in the left. The Times needs to stop this “both sides” reporting.
6
Why does the New York Times continue to use the term 'conservative' for a party and a group that does not fit the description? The Republican party is not now conservative. It is right wing, it is neo-fascist, it is nativist, nationalist, racist; it is anti-environment, and it is wholly plutocratic.
It is certainly not conservative.
11
Was this article put together from press releases from Mr. Soros?
The article stretches several points, most particularly this one - connecting the shooting at Pittsburgh synagogue to President Trump (whose son-in-law is Jewish and whose daughter has converted to Judaism and who is the President who moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem after numerous failed promises from prior Presidents).
Where are the editors at the NY Times? What are they doing when they see something like this submitted to them for review?
6
These are the same people who happily believed that a former First Lady and US Senator was running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza shop. Do we need any more proof of how irrational and ridiculous they are?
9
I wonder how they would characterize their Sheldon Adelsen.
3
You finally ran a marginal story this week about Obama sponsored Democratic operatives with their own secret dark money pools, barely scratching the surface of what's going on now through 2020. I wondered why the need to get in front of it a year early. A pitiful of a story dismissing the secretive backroom politics of democrats. Here is why, to deflect focus to Soros and away from the Democratic Alliance, the trifecta Governor's race that is so internationally important to the Pritzker's and again demonize the Koch brothers who are no different to the Obama operation you deem small. Mr.Soros is hardly in the same class as the Koch and Pritzker networks who have extensive political pull, domestic and international, leaders in the room and at the table. Who does Mr. Soros control these days? What policy can he effect? The Koch's and Pritzker's own the US political and economic landscape. You deflect to dinosaurs.
You never did publish it-- what is the total ad spend by all the Pritzker entities? All the affiliates? If the NYT's were to lose the Pritzker affiliated companies ad revenue and other DA members, what would it do to the value of the NYT's company and the family holdings? The value of their shares? By elevating the Pritzker dynasty, how does the New York Times stand to profit? Conversely, please do share the Koch spend as well.
Stripped of all baloney: George Soros has now become the reincarnation of the stock antisemitic trope — shadowy *Jewish* banker/leftist and outsider.
In the 1940s and early 1950s, right-wingers spoke, darkly, of a putative "Jewish Communist conspiracy". That phrase went out of favor; "Soros" has become the new code word. President Trump and his entourage should be ashamed to be repeating and encouraging such coded antisemitism (but, obviously, they aren't).
The "stable genius" in the White House should stop playing dumb. He should develop enough courage to stop hiding behind his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. He's become a purveyor of antisemitism.
6
No, Bannon, pipe bombs in the mail are not "the admission ticket" for participation in democracy. They are acts of terrorism. That Trump and the Republican party would entertain such despicable, fringe insanity and place it at the center of their platform shows how disgustingly bankrupt they are.
Democracy is crucial for our nation and for the stability of the world. Not this revolting neo-Fascist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist nationalism embraced and promoted by Trump, the Republican party, Bannon, and thuggish dictators in other nations.
We need to vote the Republican party out of power on Tuesday, and again in 2020, and again and again until they realize that the vast majority of the American people reject their twisted, fringe insanity. Vote blue!
5
"By contrast, the network of conservative donors led by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch, who have been similarly attacked by some on the American left..."
Really, similarly attacked? Please report on the last pipe bomb sent to Charles Koch's house.
Political activity by the Koch network has been painstakingly documented, by Jane Mayer among others. Claims that George Soros is a Nazi are beyond spurious.
7
George Soros throughout his time in the spotlight has actually manipulated world economies for personal gain. He is the epitome of the War Profiteer, the Haughty Priveledged "filthy rich" Elitist.........and now we're going to let him hide behind this age-old alibi...."the poor man is the victim of anti=semitism"??? Good grief .... YOU people are gullible...easy to manipulate.
4
Soros is to the left as The Koch Bros. are to the right. Both of them fit their stereotypes to a degree the Koch Brothers are oilmen and chemicals, enough said, and Soros has dished out a lot of financial misery to regular folks when he shorted Sterling in England, making himself a billion in the process and did a bit of financial shenanigans in Thailand with the baht, he was found guilty of insider trading by a French court; none of this does the image of a Jewish banker much good and adds fuel to the fire for the anti semites, couple that with the Blankfeins, Fulds, Adelsons, Zells in America, Sir Philip Greene in England who attempted to make off with pensioners money, but was shamed or forced into giving some or most of it back, the lady CEO (Rosenfeld?)who promised to keep Cadbury open if a merger was allowed but then immediately closed it and threw thousands out of work, Bibi and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and you can see why we are having an image problem.
2
Whenever the NYT writes a "How ________ moved into the mainstream" It validates the extremist view being examined. "Mainstream" is a misunderstood term and a lot of people just read headlines, just repost headlines, and these are now all over the extreme right social media as examples of the New York Times conceding that the loony right accusations are real. Please take care. So much more harm done than good simply by a poor choice of words.
5
Thank you George for trying to look out for you fellow man.
5
Soros is not villified because he is simply effective. He is villified because the right is full of conspiracy theorists and propagandists who have decided it's OK to use any smear or tell any lie to enroll people in their cause.
10
Anti semitism has been normalized. They succeeded at their goal. Now, anyone can read the most detestable comments and watch the most hateful videos on YouTube. You need not go to the dark web. It's all right here on Main Street now and no one seems to be disturbed by this. I find it deeply disturbing and alarming. That we sit by and allow it, is simply not to be believed. What an empty shell of a 'community' we in fact really are when a good honest look reveals us.
6
The Sheldongambling and Kochhead billionaire party was simply jealous that a far more internationally sophisticated peer didn’t want to join the bland old and boring country clubs.
3
Soros advocates for open borders which which will lead to the demise of the Western civilization. His view of democracy is a large bureaucratic state controlled by the "educated elite" - just like old aristocracy. Not my view of the future.
7
Thank you Mr. Soros for all of the good you have done with your wealth. I'm sorry you have to put up with slander, lies and conspiracy theories that have no basis just because there are those, like this president, who want to demonize you.
I am wondering if those who think and vote like you do the same thing to the Koch brothers? I don't like them, how they got their money or how they are spending it to influence elections, but I just didn't think of using social media to whip up hatred and death threats against them.
4
Part of his vilification by authoritarians and their thralls is his effectiveness as a advocate for freedom.
Part is that "Soros" is so much easier for the mouthbreathers to key than "Elders of Zion".
2
Soros is my Angel and he is your Angel, a champion of Democracy now threatened in the world. If you believe in American Constitutional principles, you should thank Soros and defend him from the onslaught of totalitarian power hungry rage. Thank you my Angel.
2
Why not pick on the Koch brothers? Because they’re not Jewish and because they never heard of them.
Money is not the issue. Hate is the issue.
3
This is exactly what happened to HRC. First it was the fringe of the party trying to engineer Bubba’s and, by extension, Hillary’s demise. Then, as the years unfolded, the active and mainstream Republicans signed on and began to get deeply personal in their attacks against the President and First Lady. Finally the drumbeat of destruction had been thumping for so long (decades) that when Joe the Plummer or Harriet Harpy hears the name “Clinton”, the reaction is venomous vitriol. Hillary was the most qualified candidate in the 2016 election by a large margin and yet we see the likes of Andrew Sullivan sneer and spit her name on Bill Maher Friday last - a full two years removed from the 2016 election.
5
Funny (or stupid me) thing is that I didn't even know he was Jewish, until the recent series of articles about Soros in the NYT.
He should be a fair target of vilification and attack, since he chose to back one party in US politics. I'm glad I didn't know he was Jewish, so I could vilify him without being accused of anti-antisemitism, which along with racism are part of the standard Democratic playbook to discredit those with opposing views.
3
No, because you didn’t know he was Jewish does not mean there isn’t anti-Semitic tactics being used. They use coded, and not so coded, language to describe Soros that they do not use for the Koch’s. I am sorry, but anti-semitics exist and they are front and center. Please do not hide behind the “it’s a democratic ploy to counter people they don’t like”. That is ignorant at best.
1
@Baron95 Now people should be vilified for backing a particular party? Do you feel the same about the Kochs or Adelson, for example. They fiercely discredit anyone who has opposing views.
1
It never ceases to amaze me how those Jews who support Trump wink at his antics and simply say that, "He's good for Israel." This is like the quip by Jonathan Swift, "He loves humanity. It's people he can't stand." Clearly, then, Trump may love Israel (it's useful, you see), but he hates Jews.
The Republican party has, for many years now, dating back to the 30s, been in bed with anti-Semites and bigots. It is a traditional anti-Semetic code to describe "Internationalists", in fact the whole phrase is "member of the international Jewish conspiracy".
The idea of conspiracy, of course, is a paranoid ideation that has always lurked in the background. What has changed is that Trump and his shills in the GOP and on Fox Propaganda have embraced this rhetoric ("globalist" is no different from "internationalist") and given it a legitimacy it hasn't had since the GOP's isolationist days in the 1930s.
There can be no excuse any more for decent people to support Trump and the Republican party. It is a cesspool of bigotry, hatred and lies.
3
Why the US needs to consider a yearly graded exam on history and current events, science and basic math to allow someone to vote. Add campaign finance reform and we might have a democracy. Otherwise we have the extreme idiots on both sides controlling the narrative.
The vilification of George Soros has been something that certain individuals on Fox News have been pushing for a while, and even yesterday, President Trump is still floated the possibility that George Soros was funding the caravan.
Really?
Did we not have a Bomber sending bombs to ex-Presidents, George Soros and Democrats, citing the Donald Trump's rhetoric?
Did Donald Trump not just come back from paying respects to the families of the slaughtered in a the worst Jewish massacre in United States history, with the man using some of Trump's same words on the caravans and immigrants?
What is wrong with this Racist, Bigot and Anti-Semitic President?
6
George Soros Wikipedia bio states that he went along on a trip to seize Jewish assets but did not participate. Should it not say according to Soros he did not participate? What other witnesses to this could there be?
2
As ever, two thoughts:
(1) So--back in the day--Mr. Soros was a supporter of Ronald Reagan. A "freedom fighter.' Interesting!
I would ask you--has this estimable man moved far far to the LEFT?
Or have his erstwhile friends and allies moved far far to the RIGHT?
It has been alleged that, should Ronald Reagan himself apply for membership in today's Republican party--
--he would be summarily turned down.
That I believe.
Today's GOP is in the hands of loonies and fanatics.
And liars. Those clumsy attempts to smear Mr. Soros--
--despicable! Beneath contempt. Have these men no shame?
No. I guess not.
(2) I don't know much about magic. Conjuring, that is.
But I understand--
--that (for skilled conjurors) the trick is:
(A) Distract you audience with ONE hand
(B) while the OTHER hand does the trick--whatever it is.
The Republican party--the Grand Old Party--
--understands this to a T.
Prop up the cardboard devils and boogie men--
"My goodness--what have we here?--TED KENNEDY it looks like! a dreadful man--and over here, HILLARY CLINTON--what a nasty woman!--just look at that face!--and over here--NANCY PELOSI--a woman simply pining to destroy this fair land--and over here. . . .. "
And over here--George Soros. Joining a pantheon of painted devils.
Meanwhile--back at the ranch:
(A) massive tax breaks are given to the super-rich.
(B) the safety net is quietly deemed "unaffordable."
These guys are good!
Very good!
But not for us.
4
Trump could simply make up a name, let's say...Elliot David Hartswern, call him a liberal, and his mobs would be chanting "Lock him up!" within seconds, not even realizing that it's not a real person.
I guarantee that 99 out of a hundred Trump voters know nothing about George Soros. The Kool-ade is a powerful drink. Stay stupid, my friend.
1
Mr. Soros is everything the extreme right & extreme Left despise, A wealthy Jew that fights back, and doesn't let them hide under their rocks, in other words he makes them miserable.I thank God for him.
1
Alex Jones, Jeanine Pirro, Ann Coulter, D’Souza, Hannity, Limbaugh, Farrell, Dobbs didn’t get pipe bombs sent their homes.
Why? Plain as day. The current President.
1
Demonstrably, If Jewish people wanted to go to synagogue safely they should have voted for Hillary. Trump is following the agenda set out by white nationalists. He gets frequent praise from David Duke and Richard Spencer. How do you think that will work out?
Jews should be able to go to synagogue safely no matter who is the president.
Sorry Steve, that “admission ticket for playing in this arena” ends up with this “arena” game of yours more like a Berlin bunker surrounded by real Americans and real Russians.
I don't believe anyone on the right or the left should be able to donate unlimited amounts into our political system. Thank you US Supreme Court.
I have never heard any liberal news channel, serious politician or internet conspiracies attacking the Koch brothers as part of a global fascist cabal. That said I know plenty of liberals who despise them.
George Soros survived and thrived and is giving back. Fox News and right wing talk radio, aided by far right wing nationalists across the globe have used classic anti-semitic stereo types to try and both discredit him and gin up fascist nationalism. This isn't just in the USA it's in Europe where white nationalism is on the rise. Soros is the rich Jewish global banker just like Jews were dipicted in Germany and the connection isn't by chance.
The differences between main stream liberals and main stream conservatives in the US used to be on the margin. We argued we moved in one direction and corrected. It's changing fast, the Trump rallies are scary and any decent Conservative should be at least worried if not outright scared. Things can go from bad to worse. Body counts are growing. Soros is being used as a tool for fascist who support a radical change both here and across the globe. US Conservatives should be disgusted, ashamed and afraid of what is going on in the Republican party and rallies across this country and across the globe.
1
You’d think George Soros was actually creating Golems, sculpted from clay, and animated by some magical Jew powers, just to prove that geographical borders cannot hold us.
With that kind of power, it does beg the question as to why Mr. Soros does not just forever banish all anti-Semites from existence.
Why on earth do we continue to make such off-kilter attempts at some sort of 'balance' as the statement in this otherwise excellent article that the Koch brothers have been "similarly attacked" by the left? There is no equivalence between the criticism of the Kochs and the vilification of Soros. To imply otherwise diminishes the seriousness of the problem. No one ever suggests that the Kochs are part of some centuries-old mythic Jewish cabal that manipulates the globe.
2
is it just me, or does Steve Bannon sound truly crazy?
is he the loudmouthed edge of a growing epidemic of crazy and dangerous?
1
The Right vilifies Soros. The Left vilifies the Koch brothers. Which one though gets the bomb?
3
But the left does not use antisemitici, racist or otherwise demeaning language when describing the Koch’s. That is the difference to me. That is what is truly scary.
1
The only think Soros is trying to do is promote democracy and freedom. That is why Putin fears him so much, and attacks him with the full propaganda resources of the GRU.
4
"In addition, in the United States, Mr. Soros has personally contributed more than $75 million over the years to federal candidates and committees, according to Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service records."
Big deal. By her own admission, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has given something like $200 million of her Amway and auto parts fortune to right-wing Republican causes. This seems much more newsworthy given her current position in the Trump administration.
1
The good deeds we do have a way
of being so twisted they fray;
there's many a stooge
will cry "Subterfuge!"
when we try an evil to stay.
1
I have always been somewhat amused by the right's preoccupation with Mr. Soros. I'm sure that he probably only wished that he had the power and influence the right wing attributed to him.
My eyes were opened when a good friend of mine, a smart, WSJ reading conservative SF banker actually believed me when I jokingly told him that my wife received a check from Soros after attending a contentious town hall meeting here in bright red Mariposa by Republican Congressman Tom McClintock that received national news coverage.
I was shocked that such a bright guy so easily fell for the Soros trope, since he was well aware how liberal me and my wife were and that she would have paid for the chance to confront McClintock, rather than being paid by Soros and I was saddened that this right wing propaganda even resonated with him.
How deep and depressingly effective the right wing memes are.
3
"said to emphasize that the person who has control of a situation in the end is most successful, even if other people had seemed originally to have an advantage."
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/he-who-laughs-last-laughs-longest-bests difficult to laugh with
It's strange what people laugh about.
Steve Bannon need not worry. He is already vilified by anyone with a sense of decency.
1
A small political fringe describes globalism as a secret, Jewish cabal.
This is ludicrous, because it is neither secret, nor Jewish, nor a cabal.
But globalism is very real. It is openly advocated by Soros, the Koch Brothers, Bush/Clinton, much of the DC establishment, and many others. It’s not an organization per se, but more of a movement.
Globalism is based on two basic principles. One, it believes that national borders are artificial, unnecessary, inefficient, and costly barriers to the movement of goods, capital, and people/labor. This is where Soros, the Koch Brothers, libertarians, and Chamber of Commerce Republicans have common ground.
The other principle is that all people around the world are “equal”. In practical terms, this means that Americans or Europeans have no right to exclude anybody from coming into their countries, especially if they are leaving bad living conditions. This is where Soros and Democrats/liberals find common ground.
Globalists don’t fundamentally believe in the primacy of sovereign nations, so they advocate for open borders. And they oppose the significant number of people who consider themselves first and foremost citizens of their countries rather than citizens of the world.
3
The bottom line to me is people can agree or disagree, like or hate George Soros
The issue is not that. It is that somehow his being Jewish comes into it.
The overt racism and anti-semitism of those who define their opponents not as individuals but by the race they belong to does their argument and our country no favors.
3
Had to check to make sure I was on the New York Times app! The comments demonizing Mr. Soros are so many that I believed I was on Fox instead!
I do not know Mr. Soros, but I know he is a Liberal. So what? What about Adelson, Mercer's, Pope, the Koch's....and other billionaire for whom Citizens United was created?!
A reminder of what the Left stands for....
HEALTHCARE for all
A livable wage - Minimum Wage brought to YOU by Democrats
Medicare was brought to YOU by the Democrats which at the time were demonized as communists for wanting Medicare for our elderly!
The Lilly Ledbetter Act which granted women equal pay for equal work. This was repealed by Trump.
Medicaid also brought to YOU by Democrats
The Civil Rights Act
Social Security brought to YOU by the Democrats
Obamacare aka the Affordable Healthcare Act which has been gutted by the Republicans and they are now LYING about protecting the pre-existing conditions clause, while they are in court fighting to remove it!
So you see, we evil Leftists, are concerned for America, for the people to have freedom, Justice and equality. Apparently, these values terrify Conservatives!
And .......NO.....we do not want .....open borders.....we want equitable and just immigration laws! Asylum seekers should be welcomed, we have always welcomed refugees and asylum seekers. We must not close our hearts.
If something makes YOU afraid, God isn't in it!
4
'How Vilification of George Soros Moved From the Fringes to the Mainstream'.
Well. Soros is entitled to use his wealth for what he wants too. But, if he enters the political fray, he should have expected some unpleasant feed back.
However covert antisemitism is clearly unacceptable.
1
There are quite a few comments below that compare the Koch brothers and Soros. As far as I can tell, Soros focuses on promoting democracy in a wide variety of countries. Those democracies with their elected representatives are free to vote for things that Soros opposes - he isn't directly affecting outcomes.
The Koch brothers focus on swaying US elections to make more money for themselves. This seems like a significant difference.
I think one thing the horribly polarized parties members in the US (not elected reps, but civilians) could agree on is getting money out of politics. I support prohibiting corporate donations and electioneering of any type (change the constitution to define a person). No individual may contribute to a person for whom they cannot vote. No individual may donate more than $200 to any candidate. All contributions shall be anonymous. No contribution may be spent more than 2 months before an election. And so on.
1
No wonder the far right wing (which nowadays includes Fox “News” and the GOP) hate Soros. He’s a patriot who supports making our country better.
2
To the average reader this looks very similar to the treatment Sheldon Aldeson or the Koch Brothers have received. If you choose to influence politics with your extreme wealth it comes with the territory.
2
Except liberals don't mail pipe bombs to Adelson, the Mercers, or the Koch's.
1
Bannon thinks pipe bombs are the ticket for supporting democracy and like tyrants throughout history believes violence is the way to suppress liberty, except the liberty to pursue personal greed over the common good.
This is a great battle between the forces of good Democratic representation of "The People" supported and promoted by Mr. George Soros and the forces of Fascist Totalitarian psuedo-communist followers of Russia led by Don Trump.
Essentially that means the power of the people of the world versus the empowered privileged people of the world.
This is a very big deal.
Thank you Mr. Soros.
1
Mr Soros work has elevated him to an honorable position, hated by dictators, worldwide. Keep up the good work!!
1
Im calling shenanigans.....one sided media bias here.
Soros' bizarro world twin (intentional Seinfeld reference) is Sheldon Adelson.
Just as Soros is vilified by the right, Adelson is vilified by the left. Most NY Times readers will think "but Adelson deserves it", as most Fox news readers will think that Soros "deserves it."
If the media were truly honest and not biased, both names would be mentioned in similar type articles.
3
If Soros is so "evil and dangerous" and "out to destroy democracy and Western Civilization," why are the constant attacks against him steeped in antisemitism? It's a dead give away.
btw, now is a good time to recall the meme that Trump retweeted months before the 2016 election. The one with Clinton, a Star of David, and $100 bills. The one previously circulated on white supremacist websites. Trump said it was a "sheriff star". Anyone who doubted Trump's intentions were ridiculed. Unfortunately, those people now look prescient.
3
I do not understand why every critic of Mr. Soros is labeled as an anti-Semite. If someone happens to attack Mr. Soros a a part of a "Jewish conspiracy", then yes, he/she is an anti-Semite. However, I legitimately oppose Mr. Soros' political views and do not like the organizations that he supports. What's wrong with that? Soros is doing for the Left what the Koch brothers are doing for the Right.
4
George Soros is a good man who only wants good from governments. He stands behind liberals whose goals are to help people. Conservatives, Republicans, and Alt-Right organizations hate him for that reason. They vilified him because he stands against their goals of world domination, of totalitarian government, of nationalism that continues to divide people, of keeping people on their knees, of amassing the wealth of the world for themselves, while we, the regular people who struggle and fight for decent pay, healthcare, of having the American Dream continue to be their slaves. The supporters of trump will believe anything he says, which is nothing new, they are truly brainwashed after all. There are so many poor people who live in major cities, in rural areas across the world, but so many of them have this belief that conservatives are the answer when conservatives are the ones who want nothing more than to take everything from them. Conservatives don’t believe you should have rights, don’t believe you should have privacy, don’t believe you should receive help from the government you pay taxes to, don’t believe you should have public schools, don’t believe you should have free college, don’t believe that they should pay for anything that you need to make a better life. But for some insane reason so many people who struggle everyday think they are the saviors. And a man such as George Soros is made out to be a deranged madman because he wants true democracy. What a crazy world.
1
Soros's conspiracy theories are also very common here in Brazil. President-elect Bolsonaro still hasn't mentioned Soros. But lots of prominent politicians this year (including Bolsoanro's sons) have. Red scare became mainstream here and the right tries to paint George Soros as a funder of communism world wide. Which is ridiculous if you know his story.
1
Ironic that Soros is the target of anti-Semitism. My guess is that Soros hasn't seen the inside of a synagogue for 75 years. He may have been born Jewish but no longer identifies as a Jew - religiously or culturally. His support for J Street clearly delineates his anti-Israel views and it's outrageous that his many Soros groups helped fund the Women's March led by supporters of Farrakhan and anti-Semite Linda Sarsour. Of course he's in good company - Gillibrand was recently introduced by Sarsour at an Anti- Kavanaugh event. Soros, of course, did fund virtually all the groups opposing Kavanaugh, including those sending professional disruptors into the Justice Committee hearing room. Being born a Jew shouldn't innoculate Soros from criticism for his shadowy political activities that seek to undermine democracy and free speech, not support them.
4
Per your story: "His decision to short the British pound in 1992 earned his funds a reported profit of $1 billion." Too bad you didn't add that he darn neared tanked the UK currency. Maybe it's John Major that's has a long memory (I'm kidding), but this man is not an angel.
4
Rumors are spread word of mouth. When it is a President of our country, and a major news organization repeating the false rumor, that rumor gains substance and validity. There is no doubt that Mr. Soros is being cast as evil, and used as a scapegoat. The vilification of Jews has a bleak history in Western culture. Mr. Trump knows that. Fox news knows that. They know that their spreading of these vicious rumors could threaten Mr. Soros's life. They don't care. If it feeds their base, and motivates them to vote, what is the value of one man's life?
1
Republican hate- and fear-mongering. They seem always to vilify someone other than them to distract from their miscreant wanderings.
What about the Koch Brothers and other Republican mega-donors? Do we simply ignore them? Absolutely not. It is not that Soros has done anything criminal or subversive, it is that the Trumplicans desperately need to strike at someone - Soros, Latinos, Muslims, Clinton and any easy target.
When you look objectively at the abomination that is Trump, all else pales in comparison - but Trump is a master of a few things: lying and distraction.
The solution is simple: place finite limits on all cumulative campaign spending by office. We CAN do this and we must if candidates are to start being elected on the basis of achievements and qualifications instead of defeated by vicious negative propaganda spread by their opponents and paid for by rich people who should have only ONE VOTE. Money is not the answer to good governance. Look at what we have - a failed fake billionaire narcissistic sociopath with no brains and no soul.
How are you going to explain THAT to your children? VOTE!
1
Soros uses his money to get his way, as Trump does.
Some of these conspiracy theories are bizarre, of course. But it is not a conspiracy theory to say that Soros is the mastermind of a left-wing effort to foster immigration into America and Europe and undermine the traditional nation states. That's simply obvious facts. And that of course makes him an implacable enemy of everyone who is conservative and against mass immigration.
Also if critique of him seems anti-semitic, then only because Soros is a living caricature of how anti-semites see all jews. Which is of course wrong in regard to most jews - but not to George Soros. He did, as I learned from an admiring portrait of him here in the Times, make his money in immoral ways, basically robbing billions from ordinary tax-payers by deliberately causing market crashes. Legal, unfortunately, but deeply immoral. And now he uses those ill-gotten gains to push his leftist policies that most of the people he gained the money from would deeply oppose.
4
Trump hates Soros because Soros has real money. And lots of it.
This article does little to address the scapegoating an individual because it doesn't allow him a single quote. And $32 billion given to his foundation? Where did the Times get that figure?
Ironic that a truly self-made man, who has done more for Democracy around the world in the last 20 years than the entire Republican Party combined, is vilified by the ultimate parasite, Donald Trump, a man who has defrauded us of hundreds of millions of tax dollars and bankrupted a real-estate empire built on government subsidized loans. A man who has had to turn to money laundering for Russian oligarchs to maintain his ridiculously gilded lifestyle... ugh.
But the Republican vitriol has gone way, way beyond mud-slinging now. It's getting truly dangerous, and it will be some innocent mailroom clerk or security guard who will get killed for handling a bomb now. I can't understand why Soros doesn't sue some of these high-profile people for what is obviously dangerous and slanderous defamation. It should hold up in court, shouldn't it? This kind of thing has to stop.
How is Soros' contribution to American politics so damaging, when the Koch Brothers' and Rupert Murdoch's is business as normal?
1
What seems to be a common practice among these haters of Soros and the extreme right wing whackos is the degree to which they accuse him (and others) without scintilla of evidence to back up their charges. It is part and parcel of the extreme right.
In the end what passes for modern conservatism is nothing less than a bloc of entrenched and powerfully wealthy people who invariably use Jews and most other minorities as tools to energize low information voters. ( Edmund Burke is spinning in his grave.)
That the NRCC produced the commercial used as an example in this piece, boggles the mind; it's something out of Goering's playbook.
One thing is certain in this political climate: Truth has been a sorry victim of the political process here and around the world. Democracy is in retreat everywhere, attacked by a rabble of irrationalism, cynically manipulated by its entrenched and wealthy leaders.
The worst part is that it turns out to be an American president who leads this army of ignorance.
George Soros is a single powerful voice reminding us what happens when freedom and open government are dismembered.
Cab you imagine being George Soros, having fled the Nazi bloodbath, working at menial jobs, then becoming educated and a self made person of means.. now billionaire, seeing his name used to invoke the same racial/ethnic hatred and violence that disrupted his childhood and youth now that he is an old man?
Beggars my imagination.
And the Americans who fall this? Is the problem lack of education? lack of reasoning ability? or just plain repetition and laziness of thought?
I will go with repetition and laziness, although the others ring true.. as they say.. keep repeating a lie and everyone thinks it's real... also, once the falsehood has been spoken it cannot be taken back..
I greatly admire what George Soros is attempting to do. The Koch Brothers use their money and influence to change environmental and business laws to help their bottom line. They are concerned solely with their own enrichment. The other rich donors aligned with the Kochs such as Robert Mercer, Sheldon Adelson, The Scaife Family and others are all interested in their own self enrichment and power. Contrast that with Mr Soros who isn’t trying to change laws to enrich himself. He is spending huge sums to make a better world for our children and grandchildren. His reward is being targeted and slandered by the entire Republican Party and every right wing lunatic. For me I hope God blesses Mr Soros. He deserves every blessing!
394
@hankypanky
Yet all those you have named would not have anyone think of them as anything other than what Mr Soros actually is!
4
@hankypanky Seriously you demonize the Koch's the same way these people demonize Soros. FYI all your statements are just your opinion. You have no idea what they really believe. This is exactly what is wrong with politics today. There is zero difference between your statement and what they are doing to Soros.
5
@hankypanky I basically agree with this comment except for one thing. It ignores the observation that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The
republicans have reached their long desired goal of getting complete control of the three constitutional branches of the Federal government without accepting any responsibility for the consequences of their actions such as turning schools into shooting galleries and snatching nursing babies from their mothers' breasts and marching army troupes to the Mexican border to stop a caravan of people marching peacefully through countries where their lives and/or livelyhoods are threatened. They will not be here before the midterm election. Since SCOUS has declared 5-4 that Money = Speech, why shouldn't the super rich use their money to retain power based on fomenting fear and hatred? I hope enough people come out to vote for what Soros is funding rather than what the Republican party is doing. It is the voters who need to agree with a more equal society rather than one ruled on the basis of fear rather than a united society, not God.
8
No one can deny the ruthlessness, shamelessness and unfortunately effectiveness of right wing machines in smearing their perceived enemies, such as Soros.
They take no prisoner approach to commit personality assassination against Soros by making up stories and spreading false accusations. Thus they are the toxic force in our democracy, by violating our foundational values of speaking of truth and maintaining civility in political discourse.
Soros has put his wealth where he is mouth is, advocating and promoting important causes (charitable or political). Right wings' ruthless attack only indicates that Soros is formidable and effective.
If our society is just, Soros' domestic and international contribution should be applauded and not falsely condemned.
I have always respected this self-made billionaire, his generosity to the causes he believes and his forward-thinking ideas.
5
This otherwise good piece of journalism is ruined by the usual both sides do it. I followed the link on the left condemnation of the Koch brothers. It is to a Harry Reid speech in 2014 on the floor of the Senate. No where is there a reference to allegations of the Koch brothers creating a worldwide religious based conspiracy much less sending pipe bombs. Time to face the facts. The accusations made against opponents by Republicans and Democrats are not the same. Treating very different behaviors as the same is not good journalism, it is both silly and dangerous.
2
I think the Trump presidency has jumped the shark. He seems to be flailing around in his efforts to boost his ratings. So he promotes the worst conspiracy theories around to do this.
3
George Soros is the new Hillary Clinton's emails. Before that there was gay marriage/abortion, etc. Republicans are good at advertising, in part, because they have, in American media, a venue for such advertising. Also, they "own" Fox News, Sinclair Broadcasting News and right wing radio which is the same as classic state propaganda. Donald Trump, who like Mr Orban, is a puppet of Vladimir Putin, gives the Republican party their ultimate weapon for their advertising as he lies non-stop, all day and every day. These are trying times for a democracy which we may have lost already.
3
But Sheldon Abelson, who funds the GOP more than Soros ever funded Democrats -- him they like. He's great.
2
And so the dog whistle continues. A recent conversation I had with my brother comes to mind, where he excoriated Soros, asking me if I knew how evil the man was.
In the same conversation, if it can be identified as such, every one of the politicians or celebrities who were sent pipe bombs recently were mentioned by my brother in the most vile of terms. It was as if he were reading from a script.
That script is being written by Fox News, which is the only station my brother will watch. His adoration for Trump and his disdain for facts is cult-like.
Will it come to a point where an intervention is called for? What would intervention entail for 30% of the electorate who are hardcore Trump supporters? They have allowed hate to overcome reason and logic, chugging a toxic mix of kool aid as fast as it can be delivered.
And they call us the mob.
288
@Yakker, you just struck a nerve. I have several friends that are republican and for the decades that I have known them I considered them mainstream. Now, just as you mentioned, they seemed to have joined a cult - the Trump cult. To me they appear hypnotized and nothing I say can get them out of their trance. At this point I'm wondering whether they will come back to life after Trump leaves office, whenever that may be.
37
@Yakker
I have the same issue. Whenever I talk to my brother, he's literally watching Fox and robo-repeating every word.
Tearing families apart....
33
@Yakker
I've got a brother and brother-in-law who watch only Fox and support Trump and all his vile and ridiculous statements, including of course fabulist lies. Soros because he is both Jewish and wealthy became a target after his own change from the "GOP" and Reagan to the left to support. Soros was an immigrant from Hungary who had to leave his native country because of the Nazis. Pittsburgh and other acts of violence toward Jews as others of course sadden him, as they do so many of us. Vote against the new mob in town.
31
This anti Soros campaign is all part of the right wing Republican agenda/playbook. Soros knows what it is like to live under oppressive regimes the likes of Putin and the Saudis that is why he has put his money behind candidates that promote Democratic ideals.
The Republicans can no longer run on real issues that effect the vast majority of Americans such as healthcare, taxes, Medicare, wages etc. so, they have taken to inciting fear and demonizing people like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelozi, Tom Styer-- people who have actually done so much to make life better for Americans. Shame on the people who simply accept lies without question because they can't get past their bigotry, malice or hate. It is really sad because the Democratic ideals of helping their fellow man-- working and middle class-- are truly more in line with their needs. They just refuse to see beyond their prejudiced noses. It is so absurd and sad.
145
@C Hernandez:Let's not smear Republicans as something evil when they just project different political ideals. I believe our deficit is over $20,000,000,000 and growing and Democrats just want to spend more. Voted for Pres Obama twice where he campaigned to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and Iraq where he actually restarted those horrible wars and started new ones in Syria, Libya and Yemen. Are you OK with those wars raging because of Pres Obama?. Republicans are not prejudiced against immigrants they only object to illegals sneaking into the country pregnant ready to give birth to new Americans?. Democrats assume all these new Americans will vote their way.
5
@C Hernandez
But the anti Koch, anti Fox News campaign of the left isn’t anti Semitic because Koch brothers not Jewish.
Opposition to Spending billions for a political ideology is only based on hate if it’s directed from the right.
Opposition to Obama ideology is because of racism. But opposition to Mnuchin or Ben Carson isn’t anti Semitic or racist. Convenient.
2
@Larry
How did you ever go from voting for logic-based and nuanced Obama twice, to becoming a fact-denier party supporter? The time-span involved doesn't seem to match. It takes more than a couple of years to get the facts mixed up enough to be able to espouse right-wing rhetoric.
8
Mr. Soros's pro-democracy initiatives are laudable. However, let's not forget that he made his billions through financial manipulation. Every billion he 'earned' was off the back of hapless nations whose currencies he manipulated, costing those societies tens if not hundreds of billions that could have been better spent on hospitals and other necessary infrastructure.
Whatever you think of the politics of the Koch bros., they did build businesses that employed tens of thousands of people.
46
@disappointed liberal
Maybe you should look further at some of the environmental repercussions wrought by Koch Industries before you laud them.
http://polluterwatch.org/koch-industries
27
@disappointed liberal trump made his money by scamming unsuspecting naive struggling people who wanted more out of life. They fell for buying books & university courses that promise quick millions without working for it. They are still buying trump's lies & scams on becoming a great country without everybody just those you like (be it white, male, christian, european, aryan, whatever).
19
@Nostradamus Said So eh what now? So it is ok to talk about him as the living personification of Lucifer? Which billionaire do you know of that made his money without harming others? I may not agree with every decision Soros made in his life but why is he singled out by Fox instead of so many other Capitalist loving billionaires? And in the way he is - putting his religion front and center. It smacks of antisemitism and justifying it doesn't make it any less so. Jews have been used to this kind of talk for so long we don't even bother pointing it out anymore.
13
The left has been vilifying the Koch brothers for as long as I've known them. Mr. Bush wasn't exactly a figure that was easily vilified - mocked, certainly, but the vilification was left for the Kochs and Mr. Cheney.
In contrast, the right had eight years to vilify Mr. Obama - that was the mainstream vilification I heard. Now that Mr. Obama has significantly reduced public power, and with his power void left unfilled by another politician, the right has latched onto the next source of power in the Democratic arena: money.
1
Anyone who tries to manipulate how the rest of us are governed should be under scrutiny, especially multi billionaires with shady pasts. I don’t feel sorry for Soros one bit.
6
We live in an era of comic book politics: it is so much simpler to peddle or demonise a single face than it is to analyse a cause or understand a motive. Storybook themes don’t need to be elaborate or make sense, they just need to convey a an idea that appeals. After the Oklahoma City bombing, the face of Osama Bin Laden haunted our screens as the despicable super villain. He personified an external threat to a paranoid America sold on its own purity. Of course, he had nothing to do with it, however, his visage would not be rendered obsolete. In Iraq, it was the face of Saddam that presented as the man to fear and hate. Slobodan Milosevic became the face of Serbian aggression. George Soros is the face of a democratic super villain that the Right seeks to demonise. If was George Soros, I’d be deeply flattered.
Someone needs to ask Trump et al if they believe in democracy. Someone should ask them to define democracy. They need to be closely examined on ideology and application of such. I distrust activist investors as much as I distrust anyone with an ego, but I have more faith in Soros as a man with a defined goal that the reptilians who seek to skewer him. By harping on about Soros, they hide their own true intent.
6
Some will stop at nothing. They will vilify, invent conspiracy theories, take money from anywhere - all to protect their 'job' - defined by our Constitution as representing We The People, they represent their own self interests and those of their big donors. As important as healthcare, education, border security, free press and fair taxation is, it all pales in comparison to the real problem in America today: money drives politicians of all ilk to do things that are counter to their defined mission. George Soros' money would not be of any value to the left wing liberals than Koch Brothers' if our Congress did it's collective job to protect our democracy against this absolute perversion of the American ideal. Get the money out of politics.
4
Money from wealthy donors is a big issue. The Times should write a article comparing fund raising by democrats and republicans. People need to see how Democrats are getting large portions of their funds from small doners. There was an article yesterday showing that politicians don’t talk about or legislate what people want. Big surprise when your money is from the Koch’s.
2
Soros is guilty of advocating for democracy.
What could be more dangerous to autocrats and their wannabe imitators?The media should defend Soros and explain his activities before the free press here becomes a thing of the past.
4
Let's not canonize Mr. Soros to quickly. His currency speculations, that made the fortune he dispenses for good today, did serious damage to real people in their everyday lives. It took Indonesia a decade to climb out. There is nothing anti-Semitic about that comment. Mr. Soros and his money are everything the left claims to despise. Take his money and use it for good. But let's not inoculate him against criticism because of the personal he lived long before he plundered and pillaged he way around the worlds financial capitols.
9
Soros’ vilification by the right is comparable to the vilification of the Koch brothers by the left. They’re all billionaires and they try to influence public policy with their money...I think the hate comes with the territory.
4
In almost every instance, the right seems to engage in “projection” - accusing the left of exactly what the right is doing. “Angry mob”, lying, fake news, paying people off to claim falsehoods...
This makes me wonder who is paying off the folks at these trump rallies?
2
For his entire public life Soros has promoted the Euro-Socialist Parliamentary form of government and he would like for America to adopt it. He believes a strong, overbearing central government is needed for the sort of governance he wants. He is an opponent of a decentralized plural republic like the USA where regions (states) have signicant political power regardless of population (Senate, Electoral College).
5
In watching this video, I am struck that most of it dwells on repeating the lies rather than spending the time giving the facts. Please don't give more air time to lies than to facts. You are playing into their hands.
1
Soros is no more demonized by the Right than Trump is demonized by the Left, and most probably much less.
Just 2 reasons for the criticism -
1. His decision to short the British pound in 1992 earned his funds a reported profit of $1 billion.
2. The Open Society Foundation that through direct and indirect funding, advocates for open borders, which the majority of Americans are opposed to.
Democrats rightly complained about the Citizen United ruing, but it looks like Democrats were the chief beneficiary of the ruling, since Soros donates much more funds to the Left than the Koch brothers do to the right. A perfect example to be careful what you wish for.
9
One way you can judge an individual is by their enemies, in this case that’s all you need to know.
1
Mr. Soros may have a trove of money and he may have an ominous agenda, but one thing he does not have is copious amounts of time. An 88 year old man in his position has little to fear and nothing to lose, but time. Time indeed is the great equalizer.
2
You really have to smile at the description of Mr. Soros being described as a person of flexible morals when we watch our president with no morals in action.
1
What seems to always be lacking in these recent pieces about Soros is a detailed description of what his Open Society Foundation advocates for in terms of immigration and their views on illegal immigration.
So I went to the Open Society website and did a search for immigration and read several of the pieces : https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/search?key=immigration
It is very clear that Open Society - which funds hundreds if not thousands of initiatives to the tune of billions of dollars - is on the far left when it comes to illegal immigration.
It is not a stretch by any imagination to raise the prospect that Open Society (Soros) is providing resources to support Central American migrants
9
I don't know about this. I share some views with Republicans, but I have always thought of Soros as an idealistic man and frankly I did not know that he was Jewish or that it mattered.
OK, he received that pipe bomb but so did others who are not Jewish and the person who mailed these bombs seems like a crackpot, not typical of either party. Let us not make a big deal out of the actions of one man.
It would be nice to see more words and fewer dollars from Soros. What is his vision of the world? How does he intend to deal with those who do not share his vision? Will he try to browbeat them with his money or will be try to come to an understanding?
These are the things which matter. As I said already, more words, more tolerance, and fewer dollars.
1
Excuse me, but the Koch brothers have not been "similarly attacked by some on the American left." Please. No critique of the Koch brothers comes anywhere near the vilification of Mr. Soros by the antisemitic Right; nor are their lives in danger. No one is sending them pipe bombs. This is yet another example of false even-handedness that is robbing some in the press of their moral responsibility as human beings to make clear judgments when called for. I can understand it; they've been brow-beaten, bullied and threatened themselves by Trump and the Right, and are bending over backwards to demonstrate that they harbor no prejudices. But they've got to grow a moral backbone. Better to have left the Koch brothers reference out of this piece.
3
Trump despises anyone who has more money than he has and the money is real money.
The corporate takeover of US democracy is being funded by the likes of Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers. That is what should be vilified.
Soros does epitomize the elitist establishment at its worst. The man who "broke the Bank of England" and pushed interest rates sky high in the UK (for a matter of hours before forcing the Chancellor's surrender), operates a hedge fund without scruples and wants to impose his personal vision of the world, which no doubt suits him. In the UK he is bankrolling an anti brexit campaign. He really has no idea as to why people would want to vote, but still he funds groups that throw out vicious labels as ignorant or racist. I doubt he really cares about the Remain voter either. It's just his view that the UK must stay in a arrogant and elitist club run by his cronies. He has not business meddling in UK politics. At least Obama and Trump were elected by people somewhere, Soros elected himself. As a citizen of Hungary and the US, I understand, he has a right to speak as private citizen. Presumably he could really put it on the line by running for office. Afterall Bloomberg did and overall did a great job in New York. Soros is the global flip side to the equally vilified Koch brothers (by the left in this case). Both sides try to use cash, immorally I would say , to impose their world vision. Be it Kochs or Soros, they are a stain on democratic processes too over reliant on big money.
8
Funny how nobody is calling the Koch brothers the boogeymen. Their dark money that is truly influencing our world in a very harmful way. For example, pushing to get rid of common sense climate change regulations that we all (not just Americans) need. All for what, greed and money? If anyone deserves to be demonized, it is them.
2
As someone who has stayed away from fringe media for their entire life, I had never read about George Soros' vilification until the news got a platform on NYT and CNN. I don't live in a filter bubble but we should really think what kind of news do we want to read. There are problems on the left and the right which are worth listening to and solving. But spreading news about bigotry, hatred is not worth it, in my opinion. These fringe media use that as a tactic to garner prominence in this click driven world. Please do not give them a platform here.
I don't bother to read what fringe media writes because there is always going to be a tail end of the society which will come up with such ideas. But bringing that mainstream and providing such news a platform here on one the most widely read newspaper in the world (may be as a news or to get clicks) does contribute to the problem. It's probably going to be hard accept "unintentional" culpability in this.
Beginning of 2018, I have decided before clicking on any news article I have decided whether that news deserves my click or not. I don't want to read about Steve Bannon and the likes when even the moderate right has dismissed them. But anything he says gets a platform here and other major news outlet and a lot of attention. We should start by rethinking that strategy.
The political world has really turned upside down. Conservatives and Republicans now villify someone who stands for "democracy building efforts in the US and around the world."
3
Again, too much corrosive objectivity in this article. The Koch brothers have not been "similarly attacked" by the Left. There are no anti-Semitic smears that have been leveled against them, merely honest criticism. And there has been no mainstreaming of those critiques, either.
1
The ultimate betrayal. A billionaire who doesn't seem to think only billionaires count. All the wannabe billionaires can't stand it.
3
George Soros is a good man. The Right-Wing need a scapegoat to blame all their problems on, and unfortunately George Soros is their target.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Mr. Soros was a billionaire contributor to CONSERVATIVE causes all over the world, all the commenters here who love him now, would be hating and demonizing him and using the same antisemitic language to describe him. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in today. It’s not about the person or what he does with his billions of dollars. It’s only about the side of the aisle that he supports, plain and simple.
1
The Right have mastered the art of destroying someone's name and reputation by simply saying the name and then eye-rolling, gagging or making some other bad noise. Repeated as often as possible, it becomes the background music of our time. It's as if everyone knows why they do that, so no one wants to look stupid for asking "why ugh?"
They have done this to Hillary Clinton for decades--that's why so many young people in 2016 called the former Secretary of State and Senator from New York with a lifetime of civic engagement and work an unqualified candidate and instead voted for a failed reality "star". They didn't know anything about her, but "ugh, Hillary" did the trick. Now the right are doing it to Mr. Soros. They are doing it to Elizabeth Warren, and will continue to use this cheap and easy tactic to tarnish those on the left that they fear. The left should use the same trick on Dumb Don in the White House. Trump, ugh!
Interesting reading.
I'm now waiting for your companion article on the vilification of the Koch brothers. If vilification of the Kochs is acceptable political discourse, then vilification of Soros is also.
1
@cfranck
Truth is not equal to vilification.
Mr. Soros is being used as a dog whistle for Republican anti-Semites that dates back to the time of Mordecai in the story of Esther. It is wrong, it is disturbing and shows that America has not advanced. The fact that Jared and Ivanka Kushner have not stopped their Father-In-Law/Father from using his name in a derogatory way and spoken out publicly shows either they lack the intelligence to understand the meaning, or their spines are akin to jellyfish.
Stop making this man a saint because the Right wingers are against Soros.
Soros is neither a Leftist nor a Right winger.
He is a successful business man who has made his money by betting against others, against entire states and financial systems - quite often rather successful.
That has made him a number of enemies to start with.
He is running a political agenda of his own making via his Soros Foundation and that too has made him quite a few enemies.
And, this is where it gets problematic with Soros, he holds a number of grudges against people, companies and even entire countries and continents for all kinds of reasons.
The Soros Foundation is running a number of entities from universities (the Central European University) to NGOs like "Welcome 2 EU" which have a lot of heavy political agendas that run alongside his grudges.
And that has won him more enemies for one or another reason, like his support for massive immigration into the EU or his hatred of Hungary (from which he originates).
So Soros is your everyday villain on one hand and your every day saint on the other hand, depending on where you stand.
Still, the real problem he offers, apart from his business practices, is that he tries to run politics from outside the democratic or even the political system.
He never stood an election, he never ran for any type of office, he simply tries to buy or, if that buying not work, to bully, his way into a position of power.
He is a relict of a totalitarian past.
4
If Soros was a billionaire Republican donor and supported moderate and conservative causes, the Democrats would vilify him.
Whether he is Jewish or not is unknown to most people and a non-issue.
Anti-Semitism is abhorrent.
Falsely accusing others of anti-Semitism is a smear used for short term political benefit and undermines its true meaning.
3
I have a very dear friend who supports Trump. She is very conservative and had to work very hard for everything she has achieved. When we talk politics I don't say much since I cannot fathom her views since her facts are from unreliable sources. I had never heard of Soros until she mentioned he " betrayed his people" during WWII. I have done extensive reading regarding the Holocaust am very sensitive about it since I am Jewish. When I read his story I realized what he experienced as a very young teen. I never said anything to my friend since the subject never came up until recently . I then proceeded to explain to her the atmosphere of terror and brutality under Nazi rule and how her information was total lies. I felt I had an obligation to educate her and point out her information was very questionable. I believe she accepted my explanation . The point I am trying to make is the misinformation perpetrated to Trump supporters is shameful and what is worse is that his supporters swallow it lock stock and barrel.
It's classic Orwell, to the point of cliche. He's the decreed Enemy of the Week, and the faithful dutifully shout their imprecations at the screen.
What Orwell didn't foresee is that people don't have to be forced to watch. They love being told what to think and who to hate.
If this sounds unfair to the right, liberals might ask themselves why they love a center-right politician like Obama so much, beyond his nice manners.
Steve Bannon hits it right on the head. Soros is effective and can defend his positions against anyone. So Ultra Righties hate him. Almost the same way they vilified Hillary Clinton. Nothing like promoting Freedom around the world that gets those neo- cons in a fit. And Soros has done just about more than anyone to fight authoritarian rule & Communism. He was another person that was so right about Iraq for one. They have no real argument against him so they make up things.
1
Just based on the title without reading the article I would say this Soros myth has been mainstream since the Clinton Administration and was created and put forth by the republican party members of Newt Gingrich ilk.
No wonder the far right in the US hates George Soros, because he does not want to squander his money on shallow politics and support candidates who are simple-minded and narrow minded, dwelling on nostalgia and conspiracy theories.
He is hated in Eastern Europe, because autocratic regimes are afraid of his activities there - to help modernise their political system, by strengthening the rule of law, combatting corruption and upholding liberal and democratic rights etc.
Unlike many of his peers, who speak in platitudes and stay away from serious engagement with civic life, Soros is an intellectual. He writes regularly for the Project Syndicate, and many of his articles don’t reveal him as an out-of-touch plutocrat, but a provocative and consistent thinker committed to turning the world into a big civil society, in which racism, income inequality, jingoism etc. were things of the past. He is extremely perceptive about the limits of markets and US hegemony in both domestic and international contexts.
He, like Angela Merkel, will go down in history as the very few true advocates for humanity of our time.
2
The guy is a hero... 999 out of 1000 rich guys are entirely about self interest... this guy spends on purely democratic institutions. When he was making money, he was a friend of the right... when he started spending the money, he became a friend to the left...
But if you look closely at what he spends his money in, it's anti-corruption and with genuine human interest.
Objectively, if you're calling him out, it's because he is trying to help someone you want to see put down. Period.
He's a hero. But then, so was Hillary... 30 year public servant with direct ties to the last administration to oversee zero deficit and a healthy middle class...
Hillary was the greatest smear campaign in the history of smear... but what they'd doing to Soros comes close.
It's time people start to use common sense... what does Soros gain from calling out corruption? Nothing but a headache compared to the financial rewards of those who are corrupt and being called out...
168
There are valid reasons to vilify George Soros. He invests heavily in Monsanto Corp. and GMOs. His globalist agenda has hurt small subsistence farmers around the world. His currency manipulation has also primarily hurt the poor. So while he may be a friend to the"left", he certainly is not a friend of mother earth or poor people.
3
@GillyfloweraAre you sure Soros invests on Monsanto and GMOs?
5
@Gillyflower How is it we can ignore the income source repercussions of Republican supporters but throw shade on a Democrat for his route to success? Remember Mitt Romney? How are American businessmen forgiven for the impact of their path to riches, but not liberals?
If this is not a red herring, the expression loses all meaning in our money obsessed culture. Soros is selfless beyond belief, and if this his way of atoning for currency manipulation elsewhere in the world, I for one, am glad he has changed his 'evil' (yet legal) ways.
9
Thank you Mr. Soros for all the good you have brought to the world and for standing up tall against bullies the world over.
We are so terribly sorry about the incessant hatred that comes your way, the absolute deluge of it all, and we send you our love and deep gratitude.
26
Democratic leaders, here and around the world, should be unified in their support for Mr. Soros, a very good man.
14
I used to chair a media committee for the Soros Foundation here in Latvia and then the Latvian committee of the Baltic American Partnership Fund, in which half the money came from the US government and the other half from Mr. Soros. In both cases, money was used to fund various projects, and in one case in relation to the media committee, a magazine for hearing-impaired people was published while we provided financing for it and shut down right after the committee was disbanded because the foundation felt that the media were strong enough without its assistance. I met Mr. Soros several times and found him to be charming and helpful. He is demonized by certain political parties here in Latvia, as well, and in my eyes that is, both here and elsewhere in the world, pure demagoguery. Few people in history have done more to facilitate the emergence of a civil society in countries where previously there had been none at all. I am deeply grateful to him.
21
What is mentioned in the article as, “His decision to short the British pound in 1992 earned his funds a reported profit of $1 billion”, some would argue helped trigger a recession in the U.K. That was probably not a good thing for the poor and the NHS.
Just like the rest of us, Mr Soros has good and not so good things about him. Mindful of where the money came from, I much prefer his form of philanthropy over that of the Koch Brothers. It is more compassionate.
11
@Pedrito-
Lowering the B/pound’s exchange value makes B/pound denominated assets more attractive for foreigners to purchase, and exports priced in B/pounds cheaper and, therefore, more competitive in overseas markets. In that sense devaluation was a boon to the economy, not a bust.
Of course, for UK’s wealthiest citizens it was more thsn a bit deflating. They used an over-valued B/pound as a battlement to keep foreigners out.
England’s economic problems arose from longstanding social and economic inequalities, some dating back many generations, and the cost of winning WW-1 and WW-2. The final dissolution of an “empire on which the sun never set” became the last straw.
The simple fact is the UK was living well beyond its means even before VE Day in 1945; and for four decades after. The free ride had to end some time. Soros merely saw the situation for what it was and acted on it.
I'm against political violence. Bombing billionaires is not a solution to anything, no matter their political persuasion. They should be investigated and prosecuted for their crimes.
I'm on the left and Soros spends money on left causes. That doesn't mean I trust him.
I don't trust billionaires. No one is productive enough to create a billion dollars in wealth. You get a billion dollars in wealth from making other people's productivity into your money. It doesn't happen through hard work. It happens through market manipulations.
Soros is a good example. Soros got his billions by manipulating currency markets. Soros bets against a currency, then goes about destroying that currency. The fact that those countries go into economic tailspin does far more damage than any good he will do by throwing a few million dollars at left causes.
The right doesn't have a problem with him destroying economies through market manipulations. That is their definition of a successful business man. Look at Atlantic City. The right hates him because of the few millions he spends on left causes. Bannon said, "he is vilified because he its effective."
I find the apparent battle between American, Russia., Chinese, and European billionaires, through billionaire owned mass and social media a little too convenient. They have more in common with each other than they have with the rest of us.
Market manipulations are a lot easier without democracy regulating them.
Divide and Conquer is their tool.
4
The attacks on George Soros for trying to help establish democratic values around the world is one of the greatest examples of the adage that no good deed goes unpunished.
10
@Ted Pikul Oh, you mean like Steve King?
1
The leveraged manipulation of currencies, commodities, economies, democracies and election outcomes can be legitimately considered manipulative.
4
The ability to cause the written word to influence those who can be convinced (led) to pick up, or otherwise access a publication, so they can see ( experience) truth, see their perceptions reinforced, often perceptions which exist because of sophisticated and deliberate actions by various interests to create beliefs, such ability has become the weapon of choice in this core battle being waged, in the world war for the mind and consequent support of the masses, many (most) of whom, as history teaches, are longing for leadership which seems to address their angst, leadership which nearly always betrays them.
These days what successfully passes for "truth" and often isn't, is widely accepted by vast majorities of people, regardless their political persuasion.
The 24/7/365 repetition, via the web, is creating a world of united believers, especially believers in the existence of an all-powerful globalist corporate alliance, managing the world economy and controlling governments, solely for the benefit of this globalist corporate alliance, and the .01%ters.
Destroying this powerful weapon is nearly impossible, but it can be done, but only by removing the inequality which is the fertile ground for the sowing of the belief, inequality willfully created by the, wait for it, "globalist corporate alliance", which of course does indeed exist, and which itself, again as history proves, nearly always fails to reign in it's out of control rapacious appetites, which create inequality.
2
When the right wing attributes widespread liberal citizen engagement to one man's money, it is not only an unfair insult to this man, but also a dismissal of the real concerns of the majority of our nation's citizens.
Dismissal of liberal concerns by conservatives is common in my experience. Here is one personal example. In 2004 as I registered voters at my local grocery store, as a part of an effort organized by friends and connected to no official organization, I was yelled at by a conservative man who was offended by my efforts. He accused me of being lazy and jobless, and asserted that I was being paid by the Democratic Party. He did not recognize me as a fellow citizen engaged at the very grassroots level of our participatory form of government.
I am a 50 year old liberal from a mostly conservative extended family who works and lives in an area that is at least 50% conservative. I have had similar experiences of dismissal by conservatives throughout my life. I actively listen to conservative friends and relatives and try to understand. But my efforts are not reciprocated. It is especially frustrating to have my personal motivations attributed to a person I do not know who has been vilified by the right wing media.
Also, NYT, please clearly correct Mr. Bannon's framing of Soros' power. Clearly state that Soros' contributions are a fraction of the Kochs', Mercers', and others'. Please follow George Lakoff's advice and don't reinforce conservative messaging.
3
Those who use George Soros as the face for all they despise are guilty not only of historical amnesia but also colossal bad faith. They have apparently forgotten World War II, the most horrific war in history, in which millions of American and European soldiers died to protect the very freedoms Soros so fervently supports. And in their blinkered nationalism, they conveniently ignore the fact that if it weren't for the democratic openness promoted by Soros they wouldn't be allowed to spew their hate-filled vitriol in the first place.
4
I'm a proud American of Asian descent, but I will never forget the damage done by Soros and various other financial speculators to the East Asian economies in 1997. It's heartbreaking to know how many millions suffered as result of an economic crisis that was spurred on by heartless Westerners who have never regarded the lives of Asians as worthy of any consideration at all.
Shame on Soros for using the money obtained by making others suffer to pursue his own goals, regardless of what those goals are. The end never justifies the means.
9
The evangelical base (and then some) here in this country buy into the anti-globalist view for religious reasons. I'm sure the reference to Soros as the anti-christ by Guliani caught the attention of many in the evangelical camp. Anyone notice the growing number of seminars offered in their communities instructing on biblical Revelation? These conferences will lay out for you, step by step, their interpretation of of how the bible predicts all the geopolitical and military maneuvers around our planet. I have no doubt many see Trump as the second coming of Jesus. Yes, the president who has a problem with the truth.
Unbelievable that George Soros would use his resources to oppose despots and authoritarians, and promote real democracy. What would Jesus say about that?
5
When the fringe right is vilifying something or someone I know to pay attention. That person (thing) is probably doing something good.
6
Exactly. As reliable as Donny Pu being precisely what he tries to shames others as.
Is the vilification of George Soros any greater than the vilification of the Koch brothers? When the super-rich spend millions to advance their own political views, doesn't that go with the territory?
5
I can only associate those nationalist groups who attack Mr. Soros over his defense of democracy and the use of his wealth to promote democratic ideals as "forces of darkness". Those who wish to return the world to the xenophobic nationalists states that existed in the past and contributed so much to world upheaval must be countered at every turn. This is a fight for the betterment of humanity and social progress.Those of us who believe in that worthwhile goal and Enlightenment ideals must be prepared to counter these movements everywhere they rear their heads. Education of the young...and increasingly, the old...is more important than ever before. Failure to do that adequately will result in return to an ugly past that many of us of a certain age remember all too well. The "barbarians" are inside the gates of civilization...and simply voting may be not be enough to counter the threat.
2
And the overarching issue today is globalism vs. nationalism - Soros vs. Bannon. People have been badly hurt by globalism and therefore nationalism is on the rise! Interesting times we live in.
5
@Bette Andresen
"globalism vs. nationalism"
You hit the nail on the head. Please keep in mind that while many people have been hurt by globalism, others have benefited, Soros and the Koch Brothers among them.
1
My husband was among the first to graduate from CEU in the early 1990s. CEU was and has been a godsend to many Hungarians (and of course it was a magnet for many around the world) who for financial or family reason could not go abroad to further their studies or who were simply committed to staying, who were concerned about the "brain drain." It cannot be underestimated the hope and opportunity if provided to many. Intellectual life in Hungary is under attack -- make no mistake: Orbán Viktor does not want a vibrant, thoughtful OPEN society. His goal of controlling ideas is well underway. I understand some of the criticism of Soros, and the opposition people have to big money of any kind in politics, but CEU was different. It was place that nurtured and supported freedom of thought. I had students on both the right and left who went on to study at CEU, and developed skills and acquired credentials that have allowed them to thrive and contribute to society in Hungary and abroad. The loss of CEU is not something Hungarian society will recover from quickly. In fact, it is just one more step towards darkness.
4
Excellent reporting and contextual analysis, kudos!
Before these past few months, the name Soros was some sort of vague reference point, although I knew little about his background or current influence in politics (yes, I was that uninformed!).
But this at least opened my eyes to why his name takes center stage at rallies, and also explains quite a bit about the tragedy at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
In a nutshell, it shows how much hysteria and antisemitism can be demagogued on the right, when compared to the far milder moral outrage on the left over the undue influence by the Koch brothers.
As a Democrat, it's hard for me to believe the wild claims about a man who escaped Nazi torture and devoted the fruits of his labor to democratic causes both in Europe and America, because he knows all too well the horrors of fascism.
It's always convenient for demagogues, and the unformed, to create bogeymen based on pretty much nothing. Since Trump invaded our political space, conspiracy thinking has replaced truth.
Soros responsible for this "caravan"? Give me a break. Why don't I blame the Kochs for the ebola outbreak a few years ago?
I'm not a fan of money in politics to the degree either the Kochs or Soros donate. But I believe this man is demonized more for his religion than for his influence on political causes.
5
@ChristineMcM
I had never heard of him until I heard of him referenced in a snide remark intended to convey villainy in his philanthropic efforts.
To my eye it was classic GOP defection tactic of accusing a chosen opponent of the illicit thing they are doing.
I've honestly only just begun to learn who Mr Soros is because of the recent article here in the Times by someone in his family. Other than that the only things I have ever heard about him were GOP propaganda or a newscast mention that he was at this or that event or supporting this or that cause.
1
@Magicisnotreal: Many don't know who he is, apparently! I find it disturbing that only now, when Donald Trump is in power, that this guy is being demonized. I have to believe that the alt-right is largely responsible and to me, it demonstrates just how much power the right-wing conspiracy groups believe they have under Trump.
Read the NYT picks today--there is fairly short one by a German woman, warning us where this could all lead.
I find today's political climate very dangerous. In the beginning, it seemed Trump was just awful, but as he becomes increasingly under siege from the Mueller investigation and other fronts (yeah, elections!), he's going out on limbs never before seen here in the US to amass even more power, the power of demagoguery.
1
@ChristineMcM
I heard things being said about "Soros" in the Clinton admin. Its only recently I learned some of the truth about him. I never believed the stuff I was hearing said because its just so obviously based in prejudice and intent to belittle and very careful to never present facts.
Reading about Soros’ history and political philosophy, I can understand why Putin-aided right wing groups, here and abroad, would seek to disparage him in any way that they can.
And, yes, the sulphuric odor of anti-Semitism is strong in the criticism.
The mass delusion in the right wing is evident. They rail against the pro-Democracy Soros but not against the real “Globalists”, the Oil and Gas multinational Oligarchy, who really are dictating how we live and what wars we will die in. I suppose this is what listening to propaganda 24/7 does.
PS NY Times would do a service if it provided a graph showing the Koch Brothers and Friends contributions to political groups versus Soros’ contributions.
15
I didn’t find a graph with totals but opensecrets.org lists individuals who have contributed over a million to one side or another for 2018.
It is pretty depressing to see how big money controls politics and explains why nobody cares what us commoners think.
It is a travesty that wealthy people of any political leaning can use vast sums of money to push their agenda. This is why we are concerned about Russian influence in our elections. Undue influence corrupts people’s ability to seek the truth for themselves.
Personally, though I’m moderately liberal I don’t have much respect for Soros. His manipulations of foreign currencies destroyed the economies of several countries and with his offshore hedge fund he is avoiding taxes in this country.
If one wants to see the kind of person he is check out his interview on 60 minutes some years ago. His posing as a Christian to escape the Nazis is understandable but when asked how he felt about his confiscating money and possessions from Jews on their way to the death camps he said he had no guilt because if he hadn’t done it someone else would have. Chilling.
I don’t have the link but I’m sure this interview is easily found online.
17
@Landy Since Soros was 14 in 1944, I doubt he was in a position to confiscate anything from anyone.
@Landy-
No single financier can “destroy the economies of several countries”, any more than you or I can sink the battleship Missouri by throwing aluminum beer cand against its hull.
Soros is famous (or infamous) for shorting the B/pound after he and others calculated that it was overvalued against the D/mark. It was. But Soros had nothing to do with it. He merely saw the obvious: the British economy was weak and uncompetitive compared to Germany’s.
The pound’s lofty overvaluation was sustained by the Bank of England. That is to say, it was manipulated much the same way as China’s currency is today (artificially low). The Bank of England followed instructions from a Tory government led by John Major unwilling to undertake long necessary reforms. If a finger is to be pointed in any direction, at any culprits, it should be at a succession of postwar conservative governments beginning with Churchill’s second unwilling to surrender the “Empire on which the Sun never sets” fantasy.
@Landy. You do realize he was a child (a child!) during the Nazi regime and was escaping being incarcerated in a death camp? Does your child “confiscate” items? With what power or authority? Really Landy?
Trump/GOP war chest: Adelson, at least $170,000,000 for the dark side; Kochtopus,$900,000,000. Soros 2018 $15M, Steyer $35M for the Dems does not compare.
Give us all a break. The right wing is swimming in lousy dollars. Just one more massive lie from Rupert Murdoch's evil empire along with independent miscreants like Paul Singer, Robert Mercer, Art Pope et al.
19
This so called phony statesmen Donald Trump taking advantage of being an elected President is the ultimate example as what happens when the country makes a huge mistake. His violent words and actions is bringing out the cowards giving them license to turn their craziness and wild ideas into real action that gets Americans killed. Donald Trump is the catalyst !!!
Banished from the funerals of Busch & McCain he picks on the funerals of 11 Jewish families to make a publicity stand and actually CRASH the funerals for a photo OP. The situation is outrageous , we will get over it but it is causing nothing but very serious problems and the worst part death to Americans.
7
It is interesting how quick the media is to repeat the right wing's slanders against George Soros, always mentioning, of course, that he is Jewish. I never see comparable coverage of Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers, prominent Jewish supporters of Trump's hate filled and divisive campaigns. Why the double standard?
19
@Birch
The Koch Brothers are not Jewish. (Not that it matters anyway.)
Please do your research before posting.
@Birch Koch brothers aren't Jewish
Mr. Soros is an impressive human being, although his progressives and social justice views made him target of the right wing. In the other hand two evil individuals the Koch brothers, these two working in the shadows, destroying democracies around the world. The latest victory in Brazil, placing Bolsanaro como “elected” president. The media, the big circus making Bolsanaro the victim of a knife attack. Fairly impressive how “miraculously” he recovered soon to win the elections. The Koch brothers, have their sights on PetroBras. That would be their biggest achievement. The media doesn’t say anything about these two evil Koch brothers. The Koch brothers are investing hundreds of millions of dollars around the world destroying democracies, not willing to simply hand their natural resources to these two evil men.
9
George Soros’ predicament was best explained during the interwar period (1920’s) by Henry Ford, the car magnate, in a book that he wrote titled “The International Jew : The World's Foremost Problem”. Hitler read it and was a great fan. Through Goering, he gave Ford a medal.
It goes without saying that Soros’ critics are absurd.
2
Obviously, there is no place for anti-semitism
But if someone is going to spend tens of millions of dollars backing one political party that person should fully expect to be vilified by the opposing side. Politics is and always has been a contact sport rife with lies and take downs
Democrats routinely vilify Sheldon Adelson (Jewish and pro-Israel) and portray them as buying politicians and influencing elections. But the media doesn't raise anti-semitism re: Adelson. The Koch Brothers are routinely vilified by the left. Conspiracy theories constantly swirl around rich right wing donors. Heck, Hillary Clinton herself blamed a 'vast right wing conspiracy' for making up her husband's affair with an intern.
7
Criticism of George Soros is legitimate and not anti-Semitic. Just because a tiny group of antisemites has turned George Soros into the devil, his political activities are real, widespread and well financed. This article is light on facts and does little to refute conservative opposition. It also implies that any criticism of Soros is antisemitism and must be silenced.
This past week in Pittsburgh, the invisible hand of Soros could be seen in the protests. His son, Alexander Soros, is founder and financial backer of Bend The Arc, a Jewish progressive group. This group, along with Move On, created a petition of so called Pittsburgh “Jewish Leaders”, who also just happened to be members of Bend the Arc, asking the President not to come to Pittsburgh and to denounce white nationalism. It was put online and got over 35,000 signatures from all over the world. The media, including The NY Times, eagerly promoted this petition as evidence that the Pittsburgh Jewish community was united against Trump without any fact checking into the petition’s motives and origins. If I was a Jewish resident of Pittsburgh, I would be appalled and saddened that this tragic event in my city has been hijacked by organized left wing groups. This is why so many people despise George Soros.
15
@Padraig Lewis
Thank for for reporting the real news, that does not fit the agenda of the MSM.
1
@Padraig Lewis You're upset that 35,000 people didn't want Trump to visit Pittsburgh because of his white nationalist rhetoric? That says more about you than Soros.
So he created a petition denouncing white nationalism and many people signed it. Where’s the conspiracy?
Say what you will about Mr. Soros, the one thing you cannot say about him is that he has ever been a supporter of Donald Trump or men like him.
I mean, there are depths below which liberal Jewish multi-billionaires like Mr. Soros refuse to sink.
13
Exactly. This is very telling. Mr. Soros, knows full well what fascism looks like when disguised as conservatism!
1
... depths of depravity ....
1
Does he only support leftist "causes"? To some, some causes on the left are VILE, therefore those who support those causes are vilified. Just like some on the left vilify those who support causes on the right. If, and that's a large if, the NYT was a newspaper, and not the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, it would report equally from the middle!
11
Why aren't these white nationalists picking on Sheldon Adelson? He's Jewish and a major league Republican donor? Is it selective antisemitism?
17
@kmgh
Or, alternatively, are the liberals who criticize Adelson actually anti-Semites?
Of course they are not. Just as criticism of Soros is also not inherently anti-Semitic.
1
How about an article on how vilification of the Koch brothers moved from the fringes to the mainstream? The face that the Times doesn't write such an article demonstrates that its' leftist bias is not confined to the opinion pages. The choice of articles to publish is a part of that bias.
I am not opposed to money in politics. But, the New York Times only seems to have a problem with it when it is conservative money. Left-wing money is perfectly acceptable to the Times. And are you trying to say that the Koch brothers are not used in attacks by the left? Read what Bernie Sanders falsely claimed https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/10/22/bernie-sanderss-inaccurate-claim-that-the-two-koch-brothers-will-spend-more-than-either-major-party-on-2016-elections/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.77d3375f40ef
Before any charges fly, let me state the following. No, I did not vote for Donald Trump. No, I am not an antisemite; my Savior was Jewish, I have traveled to Israel, and like people of other groups, I have had both positive and negative interactions with Jewish people. But I will stand against hypocrisy trying to present itself as unbiased journalism.
18
I read The Rise And Fall of the The Third Reich this summer. What's the dark press is trying to do to Soros sounds eerily similar to what Dr. Goebbels did to the Jews and other undesirables. Scary. It's easy to see through the lies and innuendo yet so many buy into it.They're not that clever, it must something in us that wants to go down that dark road.
14
I agree about how stupid it sounds vilifying George Soros. I also think the same applies for the left (see Jane Mayer) and their vilification of the Koch Brothers.
3
No one wants to see Mr. Soros targeted in the shameful manner he was last week, however the man is not a victim. Twenty years ago, before Bannon, Trump, and Orban, the Soros name was hated in many countries. Some of his most daring investments were in currency manipulations of the British pound and the Thai Baht. The Asian crisis of 1997 hurt millions of people; they were his victims. Let's not pretend that pouring money in the campaigns of radical democratic candidates makes him a lover of democracy.
87
@nomad127 Thailand itself has hurt its people way more than Soros did. Its not the Trump name today isn't hated in many countries. its the price of being known and success. The American crisis of 2008 hurt millions of Americans and the same people who brought it on are still in power.
11
@nomad127
Soros was not involved in any currency manipulation and that is simply another false intimation. Like a number of others, he took an at-risk investment position in currencies and made money on it. To further suggest, again by mean intimation, that Soros caused a an Asian crisis is laughable as well as wrong.
21
@nomad127 If he made millions investing in currency and giving to right wing nationalist across the globe and his name was Koch you would be doing back flips and high fiving him.
If no one wants to see Mr. Soros targeted why are you targeting him with anti-Semitic stereotypes?
Investing isn't manipulation just because you say it is.
24
It is normal and customary for billionaires to align themselves with Republican causes in the age of the Citizens United decision but the presence of one aligning himself Democrat causes is a genuine shock to conservatives and so they feature George Soros prominently in thier agitational propaganda lest others commit the same heresy
11
It is amazing the level of double standard people can exhibit. My liberal friends vilify the Koch brothers and complain of big money influencing elections but don't complain of Bloomberg attacking 2nd Amendment rights or Soros massive political sponsorships. Personally, I find nothing wrong with wealthy people using their money to influence public opinion. What I do find offensive and reason for distrust is when they attempt to hide their sponsorship and have their efforts promoted as grassroots. I don't trust sneeks, either conservative or liberal.
75
@Mike
Exactly! The right spends countless hours attacking wealthy philanthropists who donate to liberal causes they don’t agree with and yet burry their heads in the sand over the Koch funded federalist society who basically control the judiciary! The hypocrisy is staggering.
It’s a fairly open secret the causes that Bloomberg and Soros contribute to... The same can’t be said for the political puppets controlled by Koch bros.
51
@Mike
People don't complain about Bloomberg "attacking 2nd Amendment rights" because he isn't doing that. He and others are advocating for sensible gun laws. Until the rise of the radical right and the NRA in politics, the 2nd amendment was understood and interpreted in terms of "a well regulated militia". Very few supported unregulated access to guns. Even Barry Goldwater was opposed to selling assault rifles.
70
@Maggie Mae If conservatives really find George Soros to be so objectionable , they might want to join us liberals in denouncing the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court and bring back campaign finance laws and ending legalized corruption
58
I am not sure I would agree that it had become mainstream to vilify Mr. Soros. I do agree that it has moved from the corners of the internet and from whispers by fringe groups. However, the people who vilify him do not offer any logic for their positions, but go straight to appealing to antisemites and bigots. Many of us in the true mainstream stay quiet, while the bigots attack good people and we buy into the fancy names they provide themselves. When I look back at history, I have not seen any period of advancement or productivity that has been labeled conservative. Our dark periods have more in common with conservative thought and people. Liberal periods and thought as those advanced by Soros have always brought us the greatest advancement. We in the mainstream have to support democracy, the ideals of an open system and people like Soros and the vilification of Soros and people like him should be shunned. The lives of innocent people are at stake; bigotry had been on display as a political tool to win elections and the false narrative on Soros is more of the same.
178
@Markwhen the president of the US and a major TV network openly vilify Soros, I’d say the condemnation has gone pretty mainstream.
30
@Mark Good comments, but when you have members of Congress and the President of the United States vilifying him in this shadowy way, that seems pretty mainstream....
30
@Mark: If it has not "become mainstream" to vilify George Soros, then how *should* one characterize his vilification by no less a personage than the President of the United States? Is Donald Trump a fringe element?
9
This says it all about how the GOP has become corrupted to its own greed for power, at any cost, using any means that work. Once a hero of Regan's GOP for fighting communism, now Soros is vilified and smeared (not just opposed) because of his opposition to GOP policies.
I recall a relative saying that Soros was a collaborator who gave up fellow Jews to save himself in WW2. Given that Soros was 14 at the war's end, this is silly on its face. Nonetheless my relative held to the smear as true, as he heard it on RWR (right wing radio). The GOP knows how to use propaganda; they've learned from the master in Russia.
263
@MassBear if you have the time to do your research, you will find a video interview online with Soros where he essentially admits that he was "collaborator who gave up fellow Jews to save himself in WW2". He also openly says he does not believe in religion and is NOT Jewish outside of being born to Jewish parents. So if there is one false popularly held belief about Soros it is that he is Jewish when he is not.
2
Good comment. Now replace every "GOP" with "Grand Old Party" and see if you still hold by it.
I had a long discussion with Soros in Georgetown in 1990 just before I opened our consulate in Bratislava. He is passionate about democracy-building and puts his ideas with his money. He has spent a good part of his fortune in trying to help former Communist countries to reform and make it possible to allow those countries to join the Western world. I also worked closely with the head of the International Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv, which aims at helping the people of Ukraine in overcoming the legacy of Soviet domination in their own society. The stories from Trump or his blood brother Orban are so much grotesque distortions of what he represents, but so often in politics, the only way to build that kind of a case is through blackening political opponents, especially those who are trying to build a humane society.
338
@phacker The libertarian criticism of Soros is specific. It is that he has beyond an original agenda of individual personal and economic freedom to an agenda of equality of more equality of outcome for both personal and economic freedom. This means limiting speech and religious freedom to favor the victimized and redistributing wealth via taxation and other government interventions. Soros now supports a Northern European version of democracy versus that classical liberal version of America's founding fathers.
11
@phacker
"...the International Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv, which aims at helping the people of Ukraine in overcoming the legacy of Soviet domination.." Then perhaps you can also provide an accounting for any part of the billions in "anti-corruption" funds dispatched to Kiev? Even with your honestly announced p-hacking up front, 95% of these funds remain unaccounted for.
5
Possibly it would be good idea to interview the other end of the spectrum? The evil Koch brothers?
9
For me as a decendant of holocaust survivors the vilification of George Soros as "globalist" sounds like an uncanny relaunch of the "Jewish world conspiracy" coined by the Nazis in the 1930s. 80 years after Kristallnacht, all decent people should stand up against this disastrous development.
591
@care: thank you for writing this. It is beyond horrific that the sins and weapons of Nazi Germany have invaded the United States of America body politic with the rise of a demagogic authoritarian wanna-be autocrat, Donald Trump, egging his supporters on with antisemitic code words and conspiracy theories designed to demonize wealthy Jews who have devoted their lives to democratic ideals.
What it tells me is that the American right has been so mesmerized by age-old antisemitic views that they would actually prefer authoritarian rule over democratic rule here in America.
That, irrespective of the work of George Soros and how he's framed as a bogeyman, is frightening.
40
@care Absolutely. My first thought on hearing the term "globalist" as an epithet was that it was the rebirth of the "IJC--The international Jewish Conpiracy" that floated around years ago. It was precisely the term "globalist" that the synagogue killer used as his basis for killing Jews.
24
Truth!
9
It is deeply disturbing to see the breath and depth of the hatred that has been generated against Soros, who has done more to push for democratic ideals - and sane government - than anyone else willing to commit so many resources to a cause.
The hatred is obviously deeply entwined with anti-semitism; the rise of "nationalism" of the type espoused by Bannon, and rising in Europe, as well as here, in the form of know-nothing populism seeking to expel " outsiders," is closely obviously tied with this strain of antiSemitism.
For Trump to reinforce anti-Soros stereotypes is beyond disgusting.
In politics, in the US the massive amount of money HAS warped political campaigns, but as much or more from the right. Those of the right have refused to consider setting campaign limits, not wanting to sever their own food chain.
354
The vituperative hatred of Soros is uncalled for but the underlying issue is valid. Why is Soros okay to pursue his political and social beliefs with his wallet while, for instance, the Koch brothers are vilified for the very same thing? If outsized money in politics is wrong, it is wrong regardless of the motivation or slant or source. Period. Why are ALEC and the US Chamber of Commerce villains yet the NEA, AFSME and Teamsters are heroes? Why can McDonalds workers organize to extort a $15 wage but employers cannot protect themselves by monitoring these groups? It is amazing the leeway that the left gives to those in its camp.
30
Both sides give plenty of leeway to those in their camp. If what Mr. Soros is doing is proper, then it’s proper when the Koch brothers do the same thing. But many people only see the sins on the side they don’t agree with (remember how Barack Obama was vilified for using executive orders? Now Donald Trump talks about amending the Constitution with an executive order(!) and those who condemned Mr. Obama are silent).
25
@From Where I Sit
Where you sit is in a right wing camp that wants to support corporation with billions through citizens United, and because we’re against it we should have to sit idly by while you bombard the airways with false information.
44
I have a hard time seeing the difference between the Republicans attacks on Soros and the Democrats attacks on the Koch brothers.
10
@wnhoke Attacks of the Koch Brothers are based on the shamelessness and legalized corruption of the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court while conservatives simply view George Soros as a defector from the natural gravitation of billionaires to the Republican Party and its causes and launch their insinuations and personal attacks on Soros accordingly. Hope that helps
6
No.
George Soros is a good man. He uses his money for charity and to finance causes he believes in. What can be wrong with that?
8
Sirs & Ladies,
George Soros and Karl Popper have, and will continue to be, two of the main intellectual and human capacities I have aspired to emulate. Unfortunately for me, not with any kind of success. I have nothing to add to what any decent human being with horror has seen unfold during the last few years. I never thought I should witness such dumb escalating racism in my lifetime. I have been naive. Although I've seen the small (and larger) calculated cruelty and heard a lot of non-sense, this latest attack on George Soros has somehow hit me hard. And I'm not particularly sensitive. To paraphrase Mr Soros - I think - this is not normal times. In the naive hope that all the small Orbans, Trumps, Putins will come to some sense. Just in their own self-interest. Sincerely for real and in the hope that I can improve a little & others likewise.
9
The Democrats need to be prepared for this. It should not be a shock by now. Once Pelosi, the Clintons, Schumer and Soros are passe, the Republicans will begin to demonize the next generation of politicians and donors. What we need is to shut down "news" organizations that omit, elide, and obscure the truth, that lie and propagandize. We need a Fairness Doctrine with teeth. We need to fine Fox News and hate radio until their toenails squeak.
8
Charles and David Koch created Americans for Prosperity that lobbied heavily against the ACA. They spent millions of dollars trying to stop the healthcare law from being passed. I don't see any liberal groups calling them evil or associating them with the devil. They do exactly what George Soros does. This is more about anti-Semitism than anything else. Soros lived through right-wing dictatorship unlike most of the right-wing people in this country who support a conservative agenda.
8
One thing I would take away from this is that Soros was a Reagan supporter. Suggests to me that it is the GOP that has moved right, and not Soros being a leftie bogeyman. To call him “Far Left”, as that candidate did, is lunacy.
11
I have noticed that those in Europe who use Mr. Soros as a boogeyman do so because of his support of institutions which support and enhance a democratic society. George Soros is a threat to those who rely upon using nationalism and a party apparatus as means to consolidate power.
This is why he is ultimately seen as a threat by Putin, Netanyahu, Orban, etc. Soros helps rob them of power by promoting democratic principles.
15
George Soros made a billion dollars in the early 90s by shorting the British Pound which means he extracted those funds from the British people by legitimately using the unjust, unsustainable and, therefore, unstable international monetary system. His Open Societies Foundations has done much good worldwide with that gain and his other investments.
I would like him to use a substantial part of his remaining millions or billions for his (and nations’) ultimate challenge of transforming that unjust, unsustainable and, therefore, unstable international monetary /financial system by funding the research for a just, sustainable, and therefore, stable m/f system. Part of that research would consist in the proposal for such system based upon the carbon standard of a specific tonnage of CO2e per person as proposed in Verhagen 2012 "The Tierra Solution: Resolving the climate crisis through monetary transformation" . The conceptual, institutional, ethical and strategic dimensions of this carbon-based international monetary system would clearly agree with his Popperian open society vision and actions.
An outstanding economist and climate activities declared about this solution of resolving the looming climate catastrophe : “The further into the global warming area we go, the more physics and politics narrows our possible paths of action. Here’s a very cogent and well-argued account of one of the remaining possibilities.” Bill McKibben, May 17, 2011
1
"Charles G. and David H. Koch, who have been similarly attacked by some on the American left..."
Now there's an understatement.
When David Koch funded the performing arts center at Lincoln center there was controversy. Many on the left assailed him for making them say his name out loud. "Can we really go see the ballet in a theater called Koch?"
And you're confused if you think Americans detest Soros because he's Jewish, because he's a globalist, because he's rich, because he's a market manipulator or because he's Hungarian.
Americans don't like oligarchs.
A small cadre of wealthy individuals who have controlling influence over government s called an oligarchy.
Soros is an oligarch. So is Sheldon Adelston. So are the Kochs. So is Mike Bloomberg.
According to the NY TImes, Bloomberg pledged $80 million to fund candidates in next week's midterms. These candidates live in districts he's never been to in states he only flies over in his private jets.
Same with Soros. Same with the Kochs.
Having oligarchs meddle in our elections is wrong. Whether the oligarch lives in Westchester, Las Vegas, Manhattan, or Moscow, it's wrong.
Anyone opposed to Citizen's United, the Supreme Court case that allows corporations to fund PACs, should be opposed to these oligarchs.
Democracy means voters who live in the cities, states and districts they vote in pick their elected officials. Not New York billionaires.
17
@Johannes de Silentio
Exactly.
Global billionaires have far more in common with each other than they do with any of us.
They may compete with each other, but far more important are the armies of lawyers, lobbyists, pundits, think tanks, media outlets, politicians, and celebrities they rent. These teams of opinion makers and legislation writers twist everything for their benefit.
I don't trust Soros' Open Society any more than I trust the Kochs's Americans for Prosperity.
Billionaires should not be murdered. They should be investigated and prosecuted for their crimes, something all of our presidents have undermined by blaming their corporations and giving them fines that barely eat into profits, much less pay for their damage.
I find it at least as likely that Russian, American, Chinese, and European billionaires have same basic goal, which is to weaken the ability of the rest of us to get in their way, as it is that Bloomberg really opposes Trump's long term goals.
Bloomberg doubled his billions while he was mayor of NYC. His corrupt prioritization of payroll, cost NYC $80 milion. He did everything he could to attack the teacher's union and privatize the school system with charters, diverting resources from public schools, and crushing teacher moral with useless paperwork and constantly changing mandates.
Hiring politicians with huge global interests, seats on corporate boards, and stock holdings all over the place is a recipe for mass corruption, aka Trump
1
Mr. Soros is a highly intelligent person who, starting from essentially nothing, made a huge fortune from pure speculations exploiting inefficiencies in the free markets which the not-too-clever folks in the conservative base revere for their supposed efficiency. It is their terrible fear that people like him hold people like them in contempt which feeds their hatred of him.
4
@Jeff Atkinson
He doesn't exploit inefficiencies.
He destroys national currencies for profit.
The left shouldn't take his money. We shouldn't support the same manipulations of the economy for profit that makes Republican billionaires rich, just because Soros throws a few million dollars at left causes.
I should not be shocked by the willingness of the GOP to hitch their wagon to bigots with such impunity but i am glad that somewhere within myself that I continue to have a sensitivity about how the ends do not justify the means. What really hurts me is that so many of my Jewish cohorts turn a blind eye and rationalize the advantages of a trump regime. I am glad that George Soros has a different moral compass. He’s a brave man to place himself in harms way. He lives by the adage,"never forget." He has my admiration, as does the New York Times for an excellent review of GOP cowardice.
2
@william phillips
I'm glad you bring up means and ends.
Those that say the means justify the ends don't realize that the means become the end. You are what you do.
I, for one, would like to thank Mr. Soros for his vision and unwavering commitment to nurturing the ideals of democracy. This man is a hero for heaven's sake and his efforts should be both revered and emulated. This article makes that abundantly clear and I thank the NYT for publishing it.
President Trump, Steve Bannon, The Koch brothers, all of the squawking heads at Fox and all of their fascist friends near and far are the polar(ising) opposite of Mr. Soros and all things democratic that we have held so dear. They are lesser men and their greed and ideals are not worthy of political consideration, let alone leadership of any kind, anywhere.
November 6 and November 11 are quickly approaching - lest we forget.
11
Mr Soros is vilified for various reasons, not least because he is known to be extremely rich while not playing on the same team as most other billionaires. He also says quite explicitly that the less fortunate are often just that - not guilty of being poor but simply unlucky.
But luck is something the heir to a dubious property fortune does not like to talk about, perpetuating instead the myth that he rose to his place among the wealthy by his hard work and financial skills (and yes, I do mean Mr T.) So his supporters (who will doubtless let him drop like a hot potato when he is of no further use) gleefully attack anyone whom they see as a threat to Trump's current hegemony, the attacks being sometimes open and at other times underhand and deceitful.
1
George Soros is a very sincere man who strongly believes in open or semi-porous national borders.
Soros acts on his sincere beliefs. For example, the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project, which along with Pueblo Sin Fronteras supports/organizes the “caravans”, includes Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLIN), the American Immigration Council (AIC), and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), all of which receive funds from Soros. His Open Society Foundation itself boasts of spending $100 million since 1997 to support “immigrant rights” groups.
The central political struggle of our time is globalism versus nationalism. Soros, the Koch Brothers, and much of the DC establishment are globalists, who sincerely believe that open borders for products, people, and capital are both efficient and humane. They don’t view the U.S. primarily as a sovereign nation, but rather primarily just one important part of global system.
Trump has successfully marshalled a coalition of citizens who sincerely believe in “America First”, or the primacy of sovereign rights. This is what frustrates globalists.
So, yes, George Soros really is a genuine, unabashed globalist, and that’s his right. And it’s the right of equally genuine, dedicated citizens to oppose his globalist beliefs by all peaceful, civil, democratic means available.
10
@John: Peaceful? Civil? Really? Maybe you missed the new about the pipe bombs.
1
@John
I agree with most of that.
Here is what you leave out:
Trump is also a globalist. He may be marshaling nationalist forces, but to advance his global profit and money laundering machine.
He claims to be against global trade deals, but mostly just changed the name of NAFTA, and a few numbers, but kept its sovereignty attacking provisions that put global corporations above citizen workers. As soon as he can rename it the Trump Pacific Partnership, he will be signing the TPP also.
Trump manufacturers his clothing lines in foreiegn countries using immigrants to those countries.
Nationalists that follow Trump are being used.
Trump is trying to rip up the Constitution, starting with him deciding who is a citizen. That is not protection of the nation. We don't have a nation without a Constitution.
Here is where you are mistaken:
The central political struggle of our time is not between globalism and nationalism. Nationalism is just a propaganda campaign that couches globalist goals in national terms. The War in Iraq was sold as protection of our nation, but was really a globalist attack on Iraq's national sovereignty, with its bad effects, like debt, being used to attack our sovereignty.
The real struggle is between unfettered Free Trade (supported by the right and the establishment) versus Fair Trade (not Trump's version) which is carefully negotiated to respect citizens, democracy, and sovereignty.
Globalists use nationalists to push globalism. Don't fall for it.
1
@Andrew
Read carefully.
I didn't say that anyone has a right to such despicable acts.
"The National Republican Congressional Committee ran an ad in October in Minnesota suggesting that Mr. Soros, who is depicted sitting behind a pile of cash, “bankrolls” everything from “prima donna athletes protesting our anthem” to “left-wing mobs paid to riot in the streets.”
The GOP has no problem spreading lies and hate.
None at all.
And with their private news channel behind them, the lies and hate get spread pretty thick.
We know that during the Bush/Cheney years. Republicans and Fox News shared talking points and coordinated coverage.
Now we have Trump getting his Fox News Official Daily Briefings, as the ones provided by his staff are too tedious and boring to read.
And Republicans are content.
Trump's lies and bigotry are tools for them to use. Convenient.
Vote Democratic on Tuesday.
Or vote early if you can.
Vote D.
Every seat, every office.
Changing Majorities in Congress is our best course of action.
Use your citizen's voice.
Vote.
2
I don't hate people to the right of me politically and I often share some of their concerns and ideas. Politics works best when ideas from across the spectrum are valued and combined into rational actions for the benefit of all. Many times however this hatred appears to be your reward for trying to make life fairer and easier for ordinary people around the world.
To demonize and even physically threaten anyone who does not share your political point of view is disgusting and that is what is tearing the US apart, while we look on in horror.
3
I believe Mr Soros founded move on .org during the Clinton administration,certainly a left wing attack group.I also understand that Hungary is a democracy despite the left wing hate groups attacking the country.Finally did your reporters check out courses available at the Soros University,if his political views are in play, a very progressive form of democracy then I might understand the governments closure since they are anything but progressive.
2
@John,
Correction: Hungary WAS a democracy. After Orban and Fidesz won, they dismantled all democratic institutions and created a far-right autocracy. Apparently you view the EU, which has criticized these developments, as a “left wing hate group.”
1
Better do some research, Hungary is no longer a democracy. The government there is a nationalist government.
It's wonderful that we of the left have a champion in George Soros. The power on the right, always formidable, has become a clear and present danger.
In the name of nationalism and winning against all the other people on the globe this administration is pursuing policies that can only be described as evil. Every day we read about hate and violence in our schools, places where we worship according to our freedom of religion, and workplaces and venues of recreation where semi-automatic weapons have been brought in by some twisted soul.
I weep for my lovingly brought up grandchildren having to navigate this society bristling with guns and cruelty. I wish I could change things for them and for all of us.
We must strive to create a loving atmosphere for all our children, with adequate healthcare and affordable education including ethics and morality to help them go out and create a better world.
George is dedicated to achieving these goals. We can help.
102
@betty durso
I am sorry but this story is quite different from my point of view. I, and my family heavily suffered under the communist power. We, Hungarians are very sensitive in connections with out freedom. Our history, basically unknown by the experts criticizing our way of life/government/political leaders, especially Mr. Victor Orban. What Mr. Soros currently is committing against the US and of course against Europe by supporting migration is a clear crime! Do not forget Hungary has a 150 years of muslim's( Turkish Empire) annexation. We do know what we say! And we have a country more than 1100 years on. And also it is important to recognize, that the superpowers trying to overtake Hungary during its existence, Mongols, Muslim Turkish Empire, Austrian empire, Soviets, by now they are non existing, but Hungary, we, are still here. And strong in spirit, economy and clear view of future of Europe. We are not nationalists we are Patriots. This is the safe future of our kids and grandchildren! Please George Soros leave us ASAP.
1
@betty durso Yes, but legalizing and promoting drugs and prostitution is not creating a safe environment for our kids. We should cover Soros and his ideas in more detail. He puts pressure on organizations he donates to to promote his ideas rather than to be independent. We should be careful to avoid very wealthy individuals from controlling the narrative. Just look at the damage Trump has done. I heard Soros speak in 2004 and my impression of him is of an eccentric ideologue who is very controlling. He was scary.
1
“Mr. Soros has given his main group, the Open Society Foundations, $32 billion for what it calls democracy-building efforts in the United States and around the world.”
This has to be a typo. As of February 2018 Mr. Soros had a net worth of $26 billion before giving $18 billion to his philanthropic agency, Open Society Foundation, leaving him with a net worth of $8 billion.
5
Soros has a globalist agenda. He doesn't believe in borders. And let's remember that at one point destroyed the Russian economy by manipulating their currency. He is a hateful man, period.
3
He’s been doing it for decades
1
I think the NYT could have done a better job explaining the legitimate reasons people using their free speech rights have vilified George Soros.
Most importantly he has spent his vast fortune to undermine the sovereignty of the United States. He wrote in 1998, “Insofar as there are collective interests that transcend state boundaries, the sovereignty of states must be subordinated to international law and international institutions.” He has also said removing Republican presidents as "the single focus of his life".
Conservatives vilify his support for what they consider hate groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and groups determined to restrict freedom of speech such as Media Matters.
He has the right to further his goals others have the right to condemn him. The NYT's job is to explain why he is hated and they utterly failed to do so.
Maybe in Europe his Jewish heritage is a reason for the hatred but here it is not. He was not raised Jewish, does not observe Judaism, and does not consider himself Jewish. How his family escaped the Holocaust is a matter of debate but I've never seen a testimonial from any Jew saying the Soros family contributed to their salvation. They acted in their own interest much as he does now.
He has the right to spend his money anyway he chooses. His opponents have the same right. He is portrayed as a survivor, which is dubious, and his opponents are displayed as evil.
Terror is wrong, the rest is permitted and justified.
14
@jkemp I’m fascinated by this determination to slur someone, wh.QUZ o was 15 when the war ended, as a Nazi. You saying “I’ve never seen a testimonial from any Jew saying the Soros Family contributed to their salvation,” is clearly intimating that they were Nazi sympathizers. They were Jews in Hungary. Maybe they were just trying to survive the war themselves, they didn’t owe it to anyone else to be their salvation? I don’t give two hoots about George Soros, he has enough money that I doubt he cares but it’s truly disgusting to me.
@jkemp, it’s through-the-looking-glass nonsense to call the Southern Poverty Law Center a “hate group” (which you conveniently try not to take responsibility for by claiming that “conservatives . . . consider” it to be one). In reality, it is America’s premier anti-hate group, tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups, neo-Nazis and racist organizations like the Klan.
1
@jkemp Where is it said he can't be condemned? "Removing Republican Presidents" much like McConnell's first comment after Obama's first election? " My job is to see that he doesn't get re-elected" Those who hate Jews don't because of their up bring or education but because of their blood and heritage. "Once a Jew always a Jew" ring a bell? Those marchers in Charlottesville chanting "Blut und Boden." The ideology stresses that ethnic identity is based on only blood descent and the territory in which an individual lives Soros is always a Jew in the eyes of the haters. Restriction of free speech? It seems both sides love doing that. Need I point out who tries to remove books from libraries? What the NYT job is what they say it is like any other private business. If YOU own it, so be it. Was it FoxNews job to give Obama fair treatment? They didn't.
"Soros is vilified because he is effective,” said Stephen K. Bannon, says it all. George Soros is villified by the Right & Republicans because he is a real Capitalist and successful. He did not make his money after inheriting a few 100 million from his father. He started with nothing and made big money taking pure risk. He did not make his money by using government corporate welfare checks like many American Billionaires, Bankers. and corporations. And worst of all for the new Right, he is out of date and old fashioned. Just like those ancient American Capitalists Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, etc., who in their later years used their fortunes to help their fellow man, George Soros has tried today to do the same. The Republican Right hates such a man.
25
"look at all of the professionally made identical signs."
once again, projection by Trump. This describes most of the signs at his rallies
10
Funny thing is, Soros was Brexit before Brexit was Brexit.
Mentioned in passing is Soros's shorti-selling the pound. The practical consequence of this was to crash Britain out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism that tied the value of the pound to those of other European currencies.
But that's too much math for the basket, so never mind.
6
It is not just Orban and Albanian conservatives. From the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Soros has been busy influencing East European politics. The article explains that away as spreading American values. But it certainly did disturb the democratic process in those countries and cause a lot of resentment.
More recently Soros has also started to create intolerance in Western societies. The elevator screamers mentioned in the article showed the kind that attitude that he promotes.
15
He may be disturbing the political process in Hungary and causing some resentment, but that’s what happens when you question the move to authoritarianism, I think he is less concerned with promoting “American” values (whatever that means at the moment) than democratic ones. You have no evidence that the elevator shouters were paid for by Soros, but the link between Trump and his screaming crowds is clear for anyone to see, and the last two acts of Terrorism show the dangers of Trump’s rabble-rousing and conspiracy theories.
The more I learn about George Soros the greater respect I have for him. He is truly a hero.
44
I think there's a contradiction between his stated goals and his means of pursuing them. In a truly open, democratic society, elections wouldn't be influenced by billionaires and billionaires probably wouldn't even exist.
12
Sure, but this is the world we've got. Maybe, if we're lucky, we could manage to get back to a place where corporations aren't people and there are actually limits to political contributions....
19
@Jack True, but to change that you need to change the Supreme Court .... meanwhile we all play by the same rules... At least some billionaires have a moral compass. The Koch brothers just seek policies to expand their own wealth...
2
Koch brothers???
1
GOP & it's minion Trump are here to loot us; they have nothing to offer and so they offer: Hate & Fear.
We go in wrong direction and behind our back, they will steal our hard earned money and country.
12
As if the left doesn't demonize the Koch brothers.
19
@Ralphie We disagree but we do not send bombs. We protest but we do not run over people. I guess we are the more civil mob. Just look a the faces at political rallies to see the difference. I see hope and future in one and anger about perceived losses. I have not seen chants about locking people up or reveling in assaulting another human being. When I as an educator fought for fair wages, I was told by the right to get a different job if I did not like the public sector. Well now I get to say do not like your job or pay get a education and find a different job. I want a government for the people all people not just the wealthy. Its a travesty that I pay taxes at a higher rate than someone say Jared Kushner who made over 300 million last year. Most of the people we have in power or spend their money to ensure the status quo do not know what it is like to live like the average citizen.
28
What portion of the liberal criticism of the Koch brothers is not fact-based?
9
@Ralphie As if the article didn't acknowledge that.
2
And don't forget this: His name is easy for the basket to spell and pronounce. without fear of getting laughed at.
Single consonants alternate with single vowels, without nothing doubled and nothing silent - like the names Pelosi, Biden, and Obama.
2
You know it is possible to oppose liberal causes, like unchecked illegal immigration into this country and Soros funded activities and not be an anti-Semite. Liberal hysteria has made the leap of logic that opposing entry of the “Caravan” into the US is anti-immigrant and somehow connecting to the anti-Semitic murders in Pittsburgh and that Trump therefore is an anti-Semite, one apparently with Jewish in-laws. Yes, that makes no sense. Somewhat like this article where any opposition to the far left groups Soros funds is anti-Semitic. Calm yourselves, and try to use facts and logic and less emotion.
31
@Mark V Did you read the article? This isn't about "liberal causes," it's about the defamation of a political activist using historically effective methods. Its about the right's systematic attack using emotionally charged language to discredit one of the most significant philanthropists of our time. It's about concocted conspiracy theories, spun by Trump and GOP ad nauseam, like this "Caravan" False Flag Op. Facts and logic? Really? Since when has that been a motivator for the right?
8
@Mark V unchecked illegal immigration is not a liberal agenda. liberals want to compromise and come up with a common sense plan for legal immigration that doesn't involve scapegoating all spanish speakers as MS-13 or as rapists and murderers. Trump encourages violence at his rallies, laughs about body slamming reporters, he encourages his supporters to attack the media, open your eyes and use facts and less emotion.
6
@Mark V And your fact is that a group of hungry asylum seekers walking across Central America and Mexico to ask for asylum posses such a threat to America that we need to make it a huge story and call in the military with Black Hawk helicopters? Just who is hyped up on trumped up emotion? How many people ask for asylum every day in America. Why can't we process this group, IF, they ever make it to the border?
5
Global conspiracies by Jewish financiers have always been a staple of far right wing politics. As the far right has moved from the fringes and taken over the Republican party and the entire inchoate stew of racism, evangelicalism and nativism have floated to the surface and become more visible it was inevitable the old favorites would make a re-appearance.
53
Are the attacks on Mr. Soros any different than the attacks on the Koch’s for supporting the Cato Institute? Essentially no. Both parties fear the threat that freedom loving institutions represent to their power.
12
@mark
Anyone that considers Orban a protector of freedom loving institutions as you apparently do has a some serious perception problems.
37
@mark George Soros spends his money and time spreading democracy around the world. The Koch Brothers spend theirs trying to buy elections.
23
@mark yes they are. the kochs want to abolish democracy, soros uses his funds to promote democracy
16
Maybe Jared could make a public statement and put an end to this?
5
@John McLaughlin LOL!! That's the funniest comment I've read in quite a while!! Thanks!
The left criticizes the Koch brothers for their support of right wing candidates who support the fossil energy industry, as well as the opposition to women's reproductive choices, and other real issues. These are very specific and real issues. What specific issues do the right wingers disagree with Soros on? I would suggest that they do not know. Perhaps as a banker he lobbies for specific banking regulation? I have not heard a single one of the right wing media folks specifically call out any such thing. His support of democrats is obviously the issue but what is it they think he is getting?
The vilification of Soros is simply a technique of fascism and is not even a new thing. The right is incapable of telling us what it is they disagree with him on when it comes to real issues. The difference between the left that criticizes their opponents and the right that does the same is that the left has a list of very specific and real issues that it addresses, and the right has conspiracies and lunacy.
157
Citizens United was decided by the conservative wing of the Supreme Court, and unleashed a tidal wave of cash on our political system, corrupting it to the core. Now the very conservatives who approved that decision can't stand the fact that a Jewish billionaire is using it to benefit Democrats. The fact that their anti-Semitism is showing only makes it worse. The conspiracy sales job that Fox News, et al has unleashed will come back to bite them in the end, but what do they care now? They're rolling in cash, too.
89
@trillo I have an idea, why doesn't Jeff Bezos buy Fox News and reform it?
Fact-free conservatives, incapable of attacking the messages can only attack the messengers...with prevarications, fabrications and denigrations. Very telling, and so very sad.
77
Republicans are just better at dirty politics. I believe is has something to do with the conservative mind. If you basically distrust and are wary of people perhaps it is easier to lie to them and assume that they will believe anything.
Liberals tend to give the benefit of the doubt. I trust you will do the right thing until you show that you won't. Conservatives want proof up front before they consider trust.
Tribalism also seems to be more prevalent with conservatives. They support Trump even though they would be apoplectic if a Democratic president acted remotely like Trump. Imagine their reaction to a Democratic president cavorting with Playmates and porn stars. With liberals it like Will Rogers said, "I don't belong to an organized political party, I'm a Democrat."
Liberals generally believe people are good and deserve certain benefits. Conservatives are wary of human nature and believe people (especially "others") are suspect until proven trustworthy.
28
@mike
Gingrich intentionally led the GOP to fighting nasty. He reminded them how low they are willing to go to have power. Even the mild mannered senior bush learned to relish a depraved campaign. Lee Atwater took him there but on his death bed had regrets. Maybe he was afraid of his life after. Maybe we should all realize our human vulnerabilities to the quest for power.
2
Obviously George Soros acts in subversive ways and has very long experience in being a disrupter of governments who vew him as a dangerious force backed by his significant fortune. His long history of activities in Europe, his Jewsh ancestry and his entry in behind the scenes American politics has twisted and entwinned his involvement in Eastern Europe where his jewsh heritage was leveraged to attack him. Today his persona remains a dark figure who backs the most extremist ideas and indviduals to make a big diference in elections.
8
I can tell you're new to English, Ivan, so here's a pro tip: If something really is obvious, you don't have to beg the question with a lead-in like "obviously."
But congratulations. You have just won the *coveted* Sean Hannity Award for Outstanding Daily NYT Comment.
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@Johnny Promoting democratic principles is not "subversion" unless one uses nationalism and personal political power as a means.
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@Lorem Ipsum
Thanks Hillary!
Mr. Soros is a good man using a system that allows him to spend his money to encourage democracy. I don't think it matters whether he is Jewish, Catholic or Muslim. What matters is he is willing to help others. Even a certain Orban!
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The article should have provided more evidence of refuting the claims against Mr. Soros and Open Society by the right winged groups: especially that the organization wants to dilute Christian Europe.
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@Matt
I’m still waiting for the article about the vilification of conservatives for 60 years from the paper that still claims it’s non partisan. One article about Soros. Poor George. C’est horrible.
The campaign against Soros is aligned with Putin's agenda -- weaken the EU, the USA and NATO through the use of divisive disinformation. It is a spectacularly effective strategy, and its most prominent spokesperson is Trump.
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I do love how much it annoys the monied class that one of their own actually cares about democracy and human rights.
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@Douglas Evans You nailed it! It is all about his not being a Republican. Soros has beaten them at their own game and they can't stand it.
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Battle of Titans, as Judicial Watch, Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, The Heartland Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Ethics and Public Policy square off against the Open Society Foundation.
Because there is no money supporting the right, or the conservative agenda.
Viktor Orban has chased an entire university out of Hungary, because it is funded by Soros, and dedicated to liberal (not Liberal) causes. Who wants a place that teaches democracy, human rights, individual freedom, governance of the people, for the people, by the people?
Soros is being demonized because on the right, because there is an actual movement to undermine liberal democracies with autocrats. It is classic projection from that movement. (we're trying to take over the world, so Soros must be trying to take over the world.) Bannon is part of the movement, which he calls nationalism, but which looks a whole lot like old fashioned fascism; they see Soros as the main bump in their road.
The demonization of Soros is no accident; it is planned.
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@Cathy
George Soros is demonised? No! his money and actions as a Jew are contrary to the welfare of Ithe Israelis and the state of Israel. I quote:
"Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a clarification.
It stated, "Israel deplores any expression of anti-Semitism in any country and stands with Jewish communities everywhere in confronting this hatred. This was the sole purpose of the statement issued by Israel’s ambassador to Hungary."
"In no way was the statement meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros," stated the ministry, "who continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments by funding organizations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself." End of quote.
So, are you a friend of Israel when you cheish a man whose liberal views demonise rhe democratic state of Israel and aids those who wish to destroy Israel?
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@gordon
Please show us examples of defamation against Israel by Soros
If you mean really the extreme right wing ultra orthodox sharia style government that exist now is beyond criticism? Then we understand what nonsense you accuse him of
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@gordon, The only problem with the Ministry’s press release is that it’s utterly false. Soros, whose organization promotes democracy, hasn’t undermined democracy in Israel, or defamed that nation.
And crucially, you can be a friend of Israel, and yet oppose Netanyahu and his disastrous policies. Naturally, it is his own government spokespeople who claim otherwise. It is a classic tactic of autocrats to conflate themselves and their personal interests with the country they lead, and to equate personal criticism with an attack on the state. “L’Etat, c’est moi.”
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“I only hope one day I’m as effective as he has been — and as vilified,”
I don’t know what this says but it speaks volumes.
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It is terrible that people believe the fake narrative of George Soros. At one time, one had to have facts to support one's opinion or conclusion. Now one, including Trump who has been doing this for years, can make wild assertions and be believed. We have a nasty president.
Soros has used his money to benefit democracies. The growth of true demcoracies should be good and worthwhile. The use of anti Semeticism to attack Soros and others is also terrible. I thought it was diminishing in my life time but I am wrong. Its ugly head is once again emerging. Also attacks against other minorities is fair game. Trump encourages this.
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We are truly in danger of losing our Democracy. This is no longer just being disgusted by trump and his voters. People like Bannon and Putin are working behind the scenes to FLIP Democracy for
Nationalism, most Americans do not know the difference.
The time to save America, if we want democracy, is now. Voting is just the first step.
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Alas, the opposition to Soros makes sense in today’s GOP given he fights for an “open” society. I vaguely remember a GOP opposed to communist and authoritarian governments. It’s enough to make one feel nostalgic for the Cold War.
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That's when we all could plausibly call it a Grand Old Party. Perhaps now we can find a more fitting nickname, yes?
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In the run up to the 2016 election two cult like groups formed that were anti establishment. One was lead by Donald Trump and the other by Bernie Sanders. The majority of people followed neither and were democratic voters of Hillary Clinton. Both the Trump cult and the Bernie cult tried to demonize Hillary Clinton in order to siphon off as much as possible from the majority. Hillary beat them both by considerable margins but because on an antiquated electoral college rule Trump was able to claim victory even though he lost by nearly 4 million votes.
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I did not vote for trump. There have always been very wealthy people who donated to politicians. The Koch brothers and Adelson have been vilified by the left for their support of conservative causes for years, even though people like Soros and Steyer donated many millions to liberal or left wing causes in the same
time period. What is truly ironic to me
Is that Soros has been vilified by the
Right using anti-Semitic stereotypes when
the reality is that Soros has never donated to Jewish causes and, in
fact, donates millions to far left organizations in Israel who actively work against Israel. And I say that as a strong supporter of Israel who nonetheless has many issues with the current government.
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@Mick What you are saying is not actually true, since most Sanders supporters did vote for Clinton in the end. I personally thought Sanders was great but of course voted for Clinton. Any persons with a grain of sense in their head (and a memory of the Gore - Nader catastrophe) knew that voting for a third party or not voting at all was a vote for Trump.
And don't forget: Sanders challenged Clinton in the primaries. That is a legitimate thing to do. Once the primaries were over, Sanders supported Clinton. He was not on the final ballot and did nothing to "siphon" off voters.
Now, after two horrifying years of Trump, it is time for Democrats to come together in united opposition. Blaming Sanders supporters for what happened in 2016 is not helpful.
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@Mick - A very clever if subliminal dehumanization of those who disagree with you.
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This is why Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto was right to refuse to meet with Trump. Our president, and the Republican establishment, is doing the equivalent of distributing The Elders of Zion behind the scenes, even as it mouths pious platitudes in public.
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Mr Soros has been vilified by Fox News for 30 years - about the same time they have been vilifying the Clinton’s.
Fear is a lucrative business and now Fox has lots of copy cats like Sinclair and Breitbart and Redstate and talk radio that all take their queues from Fox and endlessly pound on their themes 24/7. They may not conspire together but what they do jointly is spread fear through the US electorate.
There ought to be a law against the lies. There ought to be an investigation into the their conspiracy. Are there foreign partners? Who knows... lots of people are saying....
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@Deirdre
You are right. Many of this country's problems arise from the misinformation that Fox has been broadcasting for decades.
Glenn Beck said that Soros was behind concentration camps? When he was 10 years old?
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@Deirdre
We regulate commercial speech-- product makers are not allowed to make fraudulent or misleading claims about their products. They operate under "truth in packaging laws."
Many of these conspiracy outlets are purely commercial enterprises. Their business model is knowingly manufacturing/repackaging total lies and selling them as truth to unwitting buyers.
Conspiracists like Alex Jones are cottage industries, not simply citizen voices. Their products should be clearly labeled, and they should pay a price for purposely defrauding customers and pouring toxic garbage into the public dialogue, simply in order to make a buck.
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It is really sad to see all these antisemtisims around George Soros. It reminds me that democracy is always fragile, from 1930 to now. Internet which was a great tool is now using as propaganda and feed the hate of the people. George Soros always fight against authoritarian regime and will keep the fight whatever it costs. He has supported so many universities to bring knowledge in Eastern Europe. It is the reason why extremist group hate him so much as their breeding ground is the Ignorance feeded by propaganda from Internet.
After two years of Trump the USA is more divided than ever, and is not fighting the good cause which should be Globale Warming, the defense of democracy values around the world, the decrease of Inequality in the US.
Hope that it will change soon
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Lou Dobbs....Dinesh ...Steve King...Sean Hannity....Tucker Carlson....the whole lot couldn't sit on the end of the bench of George Soros' team.
His stance on the Iraq War alone shows how astute he was compared to the aforementioned dullards....
One day history will judge this period as the second coming of "no-nothingism".
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@John P. sorry, I believe it's "know nothingism"
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I am glad that there are people like George Soros.
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One man with way too much money influencing politics. And the Leftists want to appeal Citizens United?
Makes sense.
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@hawk you mean like the Koch brothers or the Mercer family? It’s funny how the right only wants to get money out of politics when it involves some bogeyman like George Soros.
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Like the Koch brothers? Oh wait. They fund conservative causes so they're okay.
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@hawk
Right-wing activists created the Citizens United decision and pushed for laws allowing unrestricted and anonymous donations through superPAC's. They built a stable of billionaire donors.
I would like very much to see CU overturned. But in the meantime, both sides should be playing by the same rules. Unilateral disarmament is suicide, and I'm grateful that some of the megadonors support my politics, which are about as "leftist" as President Eisenhower's.
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In his November 2016 interview with Leslie Stahl, Donald Trump reportedly admitted he disparages news media to bulletproof himself from criticism and boost his credibility among supporters.
Stahl said Trump responded on this topic as follows: “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”
That alleged statement speaks volumes on how shallow Trump is and how utterly despicable his 'winning at all costs' approach is.
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And, unfortunately, it is so effective that he can openly brag about it on TV without negative repercussions.
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And CBS left it in because it won the night for "60 Minutes." Game, set and match to Mr. Low-t.
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@Ed
When Trump said that to Leslie it sent chills down my back.
Sometimes when Trump makes a similar statement between stretches of lies, we should pause and seriously believe him.
A monster sits at the head of the table.
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If there are violent lunatics among progressives as well as among so called conservatives, then why aren't they attacking and demonizing Sheldon Adelson? Why aren't his casinos being shut down? Why hasn't someone sabotaged his Rascal scooter? Why? Because a tree shall be known by it's fruit, and Trump's fruit is poison.
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These are very dark times indeed. How the Right Wing has twisted facts and truth to fit their agenda amazes me. They are hell bent on de-administrating the Federal Government as quickly as possible. This was the plan from the beginning and explains why the Republicans secretly love Trump. He is the great distraction necessary to roll back the safety net, expand the military and diminish civil rights and voting rights. Attacking George Soros as a sinister source of evil is the greatest example of hypocrisy when you have the Koch Brothers bankrolling the Republicans.
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@Richard Merchant
You are right. But you forgot to mention that the Republicans are raising the national debt to astronomical heights.
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I thought the right-wing Koch Brothers were the Puppet Master. I can easily tell a Koch Brother's ad supporting Scott Walker. I don't understand why he refuses to identify himself.
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The need for an external enemy has risen in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War. Families can be unified, if they can agree on an external enemy. It's a sick way of treating insanity and/or dysfunction. For us to unify the country, we would all need to agree on an external enemy. Since there isn't one or anything that can serve that purpose in the "American Mind," we have a splintering, where groups form solidarity around a specific enemy or cause. It is all very adolescent, but it's far more dangerous.
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