COVID-19 to George Floyd to caravans: Is Soros now the worlds most versatile, dangerous conspiracy theory? – Haaretz

"Is Soros Behind the War on Hydroxychloroquine?" So queried a headlineon the U.S. evangelicals-orientedBreaking Israel Newssiteearlier this week. Thepiece suggests that George Soros, the Hungarian-born American billionaire philanthropist, is set to benefitboth financiallyfrom the coronavirus pandemic,andpolitically byundermining President Donald Trump.

The U.S.president has been pushing use of hydroxychloroquine as an antidote to,or preventative measure against,the virus andlast week announcedthat he was taking it himself.

"A bit of research into the separate elements shows some disturbing connections, indicating the media war against hydroxychloroquine may be backed by some nefarious forces," the piece opens.

There is, to be clear, no war on hydroxychloroquine, but rather a plethora of warnings of itsserious side effectsincluding ahigher risk of heart problems and even death. The World Health Organizaton has halted clinical trials for the drug, and France has just banned its use in COVID-19 cases, citing patient safety concerns.

The somewhat obscure Breaking News Israel is hardly alone in fingering Soros as the hidden hand behind COVID-19: the theory is all over pro-Trump hard right social media and right-wing news platforms with soft spots for conspiracy theories from Gateway Pundit to Trumps newest best friend, One America Network.

How should we understand this latest iteration of the storied and ever-versatile anti-Soros smear campaign, which invariably paint himasringleader ofaglobalconspiratorial plot?

Most clearly,the Soros as hydroxychloroquine antagonist conspiracy theory has something in common with many a Soros conspiracy theory.

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While Soros himself, as a financier, Jew and donor to liberal causes, is the initial target, "Soros" has also become a metonym for any opposition to the worldview not just of full-time conspiracy theorists, but also of more mainstream and powerful politicians and commentators. Soros conspiracies are thus also a tool to delegitimize that opposition.

Soroshimselfis, of course, the most obvious target.

Today, as protesters across the United States take to the streets against police brutality, the name George Soros trends on Twitter;right-wingersassert that these protesters are notgenuinely expressinggrief and anger about the continued killing of black Americans by police officers, but aredemonstratingbecause they were put up to it by Soros. Some prominent conservatives areeven sayingSoros should be arrested.

Nor is this a wholly 2020 phenomenon. In 2018, ahead ofthe U.S.midterms,Soros was blamed for everything-from protests against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to a migrant caravan threatening to "invade" Americas southern border.

Cesar Sayoc mailed Soros, among other high-profile and liberal-leaning figures, a pipe bomb; his social media accounts were full of anti-Semitic and pro-Trump memes, one of which described Soros as a "Judeo-plutocratic Bolshevik Zionist."The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter claimed Soros was secretly behindthe migrant caravan. He killed 11 Jews in prayer whom he blamed for participating in the plot.

That same year, citing "an increasingly repressive political and legal environment in Hungary," Open Society Foundations, Soross philanthropic operation,announceditsinternational operations would move from Budapest to Berlin.Clearly, Soros himself is a key subject of these conspiracy theories and they directlyimpact himand his philanthropic work.

But Soros, whose net worth is estimated to be $8.3 billion, is not the only victim. There are many otherswho dont have billions and who are alsodamagedby Soros conspiracy theories.

To take thehydroxychloroquinecoronavirus example: Its not just Soros whos being attacked. Its also an attemptto delegitimize scienceitself(as being contaminated by "Soros")while boosting a right-wing political force.

Insinuating a Soros plot is adeliberatedistraction fromthe 100,000 (and counting)Americandead. It is an excuse not to take responsibility, a pivot bya president who refused to take the virus seriouslyatfirst, and now recommendspoppinga miracle pill that could kill them.

Back in2018,theNew York Postjumped on the "Soros connection" oftwo women who confrontedthen-SenatorJeff Flake over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, accused of attempted sexual assault. "Look who was behind the Jeff Flake elevator setup," the headlineread, the implication being that Soros pushed the two women to confront the senator.

That the centerthat employed the protestorsreceived money from Open Society was a fact. But the idea that Soros was behind that particular confrontation,and the protests more generally,was not only untrue, but insulting toa substantial number ofpeople, some themselves survivors of sexual assault, whofreely chose to speakup against Kavanaughsspeedyconfirmation.The Soros tropewas more than insulting; it was delegitimizing.

The same goes for Rudy Giulianis unhinged attack on SorossJewishness late last year. After accusing Soros of controlling U.S. diplomats, he declared, "Soros is hardly a Jew. Im more of a Jew than Soros is. He doesnt belong to a synagogue, he doesnt support Israel, hes an enemy of Israel. Hes a horrible human being." Giuliani was talking about Soros the individual, and handily pointing out his Jewish origins for an appreciative hard right but he wasalsousing "Soros" to slur and delegitimize Democrat-voting U.S. Jews(some 80 percent of American Jews in the 2018 midterms).

Its no accident that Donald Trump used the same tack of trying to police and demean his Jewish political opponents a few months earlier, announcing that voting for a Democrat means, "you're being disloyal to Jewish people and you're being very disloyal to Israel."

The United States is hardly alone inpushing conspiracy theories that smearSoros, yes, butalso push the people supported by his philanthropy further into the margins.

TheHungarianparliament(which has alreadypassedthe "Stop Soros" law criminalizing assistance to undocumented immigrants) recently ratified legislation(ostensibly due to the coronavirus pandemic) whichgavePrime Minister Viktor Orbn unchecked power. Orbnsaidon state radio that those critical of the move were part of a network led by Soroswhose tentacles reached deep into the Brussels bureacracy.

Like Orbansprevious attacks on Soros, thisconspiracy theory smacks of anti-Semitism, with its whispers of a Jewish financier controlling politicians all over the world, and the nefarious intention to turn nation-states more "cosmopolitan," or (((globalist.))) Butit does something else, too: it renders moot any criticism and any critics of Orbns parliamentary power grab.

It was in Budapest, incidentally, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus son, Yair Netanyahu, said that "radical" Soros organizations were "destroying Israel from the insideworking day and night with an unlimited budget to rob the country of its Jewish identity."

Thats a conscious insult aimed at Soros.But more significantly, it is also aboutdelegitimizingthose causes Soros and Open Society support in Israeland the Palestinian territories, such as providingscholarships forPalestinianstudents in the West Bank and Gazaandfunding human rights groups usingthejudicial systemto challenge discrimination. If Soross efforts are destructive, the thinking goes, then thesePalestinianstudents andIsraeliactivists are, too.

And while the right wingprovides themostnotoriousexamples of blaming the meta-Soros-for dissent and to strip activists of agency, there are offenders on the left, too.

When, for example, Max Blumenthal goes on The Jimmy Dore Show toallegethat Soros is funding regime change in Venezuela and Hong Kong, hereduces those protesting,at great personal risk,to mere pawns.

Thousands in Hong Kong have taken to the streets to protest national security lawsimposedby Beijing. To say that they are Soros stooges(or shills) removes their individual capacity and volition to think, choose, and take sides. It also acts to whitewash and legitimize the authoritarian regimes against whom theyre protesting.

Conspiracy theories about Soros, ubiquitous though they are,must bedisputed, andnot only because they are factually incorrect, or because they are unfair to one man. They arealsounfair tothemany men and women whom these conspiracy theoriespatronize,delegitimizeand, often, furthermarginalize.

These theories arent only about increasingly vicious political partisanship, but about the attempt to strip political agency from those with dissenting views, to subvert their standing and, sometimes, even to endanger them.

Those pushing theSorosconspiracy theoriesare well aware of their malign power.The rest of us need tobe, too.

Emily Tamkin is the U.S.editor at the New Statesman and the author of the forthcoming book,The Influence of Soros: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for an Open Society. Twitter:@emilyctamkin

This op-ed was updated on 31 May 2020 to reflect the expansion of the Soros conspiracy theory to include protests following George Floyds death

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COVID-19 to George Floyd to caravans: Is Soros now the worlds most versatile, dangerous conspiracy theory? - Haaretz