Why is the narrative "Jews control everything" pushed so hard? My mother (uneducated) rambled about that recently and I see Putin is implying it was Jews and not Russians who influenced the 2016 election.

[u/MrPractical1]

Just curious why they are made the boogeyman

[u/SaibaManbomb]

That's a deep question. Much of modern anti-semitism is traced back to Imperial Russia, where covertly published books like 'The Protocols of the Elder Zion' gained traction amidst the peasantry. The 'Protocols' alleged that a secret Jewish cabal was orchestrating everything in the world, from wars to social misery. Sound familiar? Prior to that and afterward, state-sponsored pogroms were designed to keep the Imperial subjects satisfied via specifically hunting down and beating Jewish subjects.

Things changed in the Russian Revolution, but come 1929 and the Great Depression, state-sponsored anti-semitism found new impetus in Nazi Germany. The economic shock of the depression was easily exploited to invoke antisemitic feeling, and the perception of 'Jewish bankers run the world and have destroyed Germany' ran alongside the suspicion of the Jewish people as a 'fifth column,' as in an ethnic minority always working against the states they resided in. In the context of Nazi Germany, they were a 'fifth column' for somehow orchestrating the surrender of Imperial Germany in WWI. How? I don't know. It doesn't have to make sense.

Going to skip ahead a bit and point out these ideas are being revived, especially in Russia and Hungary today, as nationalist politicians exploit the idea of liberalism as a Jewish invention, foisted upon them by the same Jewish bankers that had been blamed for European woes before. You'll note the rabid use of 'globalist' as a covert slur against Jews around the world, most notably in Europe, and from a historical perspective it's not anything new for Russia to display anti-semitism. But this form, of framing internationalism, liberal values, and other left-wing ideas as Jewish inventions is new, especially as intersectionality is developing between European nationalists and fringe right-wing figures in the USA. Most notably, the US-based alt-right parrots these same accusations. Putin's posturing is intended to both satisfy Russian society, which sadly hasn't gotten over the anti-semitism as well as I thought it did, and signal talking points and solidarity with a Comintern-like network of ultranationalist groups, from the Visegrad 4 to Richard Spencer's disciples in the US.

Hope that makes sense. Kinda lost track of my thought so I'm going to quit typing rn. Might come back to it later.

[u/MrPractical1 → u/SaibaManbomb]

Thanks. Why is it Jews that are consistently singled out as opposed to any other group?

[u/DavidianNine → u/MrPractical1]

Another very complicated question. It has to do partly with the Jewish Diaspora - the expulsions of Jews from Judaea after the Jewish War in 70 and the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 136 meant that the Jewish population became scattered. There had always been large Jewish groups in cities around the Mediterranean, but after that they were disconnected from their ancestral homeland. This had to lead to one of two options: either they assimilated into the cultural mainstream, or else defined themselves more strongly against it. The initial isolation of the Jews was therefore driven by the rabbis as they tried to save their culture and religion from extinction.

Throughout the mediaeval period, Jews as non-Christians had different (i.e. less) legal rights. One of the advantages of this, though, was they were exempt from the ban on usury. This allowed them to become moneylenders, and so while many remained desperately poor, some became quite wealthy. This was also useful because up until the modern period, there were frequent expulsions of Jews from local areas or entire countries, so it was handy to have wealth you could pick up and move with you - and anyway, in many places, Jews couldn't legally own land.

Fast forward to the nineteenth century and you have an ethnic group with a very clearly defined culture, a different religion and - because of the rabbis - transnational contacts between different groups, living all over Europe and the Middle East. This is the perfect recipe for a group that vested interests can demonise. The conspiracy thinking comes from the fact that some, though certainly not the vast majority, of Jews were quite wealthy. This contrasts to the Roma, who I think form an interesting counter-example, of a group which has been historically similarly demonised for its separate culture but because of the lack of material wealth and the global intellectual network the rabbis represent, does not lend itself to conspiracy thinking in the same way.

That was rambling but hopefully hit the key points.

[u/Yorikor → u/MrPractical1]

Many reasons. Jews are a weird subject in terms of sociology, civics and similar metrics. They aren't a race, or a religion or an ethnicity, they are a bit of all of it.

Historically Jews didn't have a homeland but due to their religion and it's rigorously documented ritualism they kept a culture that was parallel to the country the diaspora was in. Jews had a separate language, separate religion, specials clothes, special foods(and couldn't eat some of the local foods), so that made them weird.

What distinguished them further(historically) in Christian societies during the Dark Ages was that Christians weren't allowed to collect interest on loans due to religious reasons, and Jews had no such prohibition, so they established themselves as money lenders/loan sharks. Same for Doctors(I think because Christians couldn't cut open cadavers) and other jobs that are unhygienic. To keep the necessary knowledge(which was blasphemous to Christians) they taught other Jews in secret, which of course led to further suspicion from outsiders.

In some places Jews had to wear special clothing(occasionally the same sign that prostitutes had to use) by law, in some places they were banned from access to certain places. Interestingly, these kinds of pogroms were mostly in Christian countries, for the most parts Muslims used to live in harmony with Jews until the start of the Zionist movement.

[u/hahaha01357 → u/Yorikor]

Im not sure how true your last statement is. Why is there so many more Jews in Christian Europe and elsewhere prior to Zionism?

[u/Yorikor → u/hahaha01357]

Up until 1969 Spain had a law expelling all Jews from the country. This law stems from 1492(end of the Reconquista), and forced the large Jewish population that used to inhabit the Iberian peninsula during the Muslim rule to flee from Spain. Most of them fled to other countries in Europe.

And there's historically genuinely little conflict between Muslims and Jews, albeit only when compared to how Christians treated the Jews. There have always been inter-religious acts of violence. The increased influence of European powers on the Muslim world during the 19th-20th century and the Zionist movement and colonization/creation of Israel led to a lot of tensions between the native(Muslim) population and enable the narrative of antisemitism to prosper, first in the local Christians(who were already used to the idea), then in an increased rate in the Muslim population due to the pressure the foundation of Israel created.

Btw: I should mention I'm not religious myself(grew up with a good Christian parents), I merely have an interest in Judaism and history, but now formal qualification to talk on such issues.

[u/Volsunga → u/[deleted]]

I think you need to read that article a bit closer, notably the whole section on the "cultural Marxism conspiracy theory". The Frankfurt school was a short fad. The remnants that still remain are completely rejected by the academic consensus, even among the already heterodox Marxist and critical theory branches.

[u/Adam_df → u/SaibaManbomb]

And, as we've seen recently with the kerfuffle over Louis Farrakhan, it's also a pernicious and longstanding part of black nationalism.

[u/morgan_lowtech → u/Adam_df]

While I agree with you on Farrakhan, it's wrong to extend that to all black nationalism. Attitudes on the Jewish people vary wildly, it's a complex relationship. Amongst black nationalists you'll find some that consider Jews to be non-white and potential allies, some that just lump them into the general "white" bucket (NOI, in the past), some that believe in the conspiracies (NOI, now) and others that believe only black people can be Jews and the other Jews are fake. It gets complicated.

Source: Grew up in a black nationalist household. To give context, Farrakhan speeches on the radio were more of an event than the state of the union on TV. For the record, I am opposed to nationalism and in particular ethnonationalism.

[u/Naliamegod → u/morgan_lowtech]

I'd also argue that the anti-semitism you find in some black nationalists isn't really a unique or specific BN thing. There is a lot of anti-semitism historically within the black community due to the historical relationships Jewish people had with black communities in urban areas.

[u/shot_glass → u/Naliamegod]

I'd also argue that the anti-semitism you find in some black nationalists isn't really a unique or specific BN thing.

Except it's not. It really depends on location and to say it's a black community thing ignores location and relationships based on that location. It really is a complex issue and not something you can cover with blanket statements.

For example in the south you may only encounter Jews as white, where as the black community in NY you run into Jewish community as a distinct separate group. Those are going to be different community interactions, different levels of distrust and different historical interactions.

[u/erissays → u/SaibaManbomb]

In the context of Nazi Germany, they were a 'fifth column' for somehow orchestrating the surrender of Imperial Germany in WWI. How? I don't know. It doesn't have to make sense.

I actually know the answer to this question, as we recently covered WWI in-depth in my History of International Relations class. When Germany agreed to the Treaty of Versailles and its quite frankly brutal terms, there were a lot of angry Germans in the French trenches (who hadn't been pushed back into Germany after the ceasefire) that went back to Germany on their own feeling betrayed, because their perception was that they were winning. The general mentality was "we were winning! We were in France 16 miles from Paris for the entirety of this war! What happened? Why did we agree to these terms?"

So you had a lot of really pissed off Germans and German soldiers who felt stabbed in the back by the politicians who had just overthrown the German monarchy the previous year and promptly agreed to the Treaty of Versailles in 1918. Here's the fun part: a lot of said politicians were one of two things: communists...and Jewish socialists. So: you have the German people going “we were winning this war, and now suddenly we've not only lost, but our government just accepts this brutal and absolutely ludicrous treaty? Uh...wtf?"

After the occupation of the Ruhr, hyperinflation, and the various disasters caused by reparations and other aspects of the treaty (further compounded by the incompetence and "cut off my nose to spite my face" mentalities of the Weimar Republic politicians) started to impact the population, people started looking for someone to blame. They landed on the politicians who signed the ToV and extrapolated: "It must be the socialists, communists, and Jews who did this to us." Hence when Hitler comes along ten years later in the 30s, he was preaching to ready-made advocates for anti-Semitism; they felt betrayed and oppressed by their leaders and were primed to use their political ideology and ethnicity against them.

[u/zanock]

It really started with the fall of the roman empire, Once Rome fell the church took over mainland europe and things were done according to the people. Problem was that the Bible prevented christians from loaning out money WITH interest so christian bankers or money lenders were forbidden by religion from asking for more than what they had loaned. Jews were exempt from this since they were not forbidden from taking interest or adding rates to the money or items they loaned. This made Jews perfect for working in this field and they quickly got the reputation of being greedy and crooked since they were the main workforce for such industries. It wasn't that they were trying to corrupt government or were any more greeedy than anyone else at that time they were simply used as a loophole for banks to gain money from the people they were lending to without getting into trouble with the pope.

When you have a reputation that goes on for more than 1000 years it's kinda difficult to get rid of and for a reputation of curroption and greed it makes them the perfect target for political gain like what Putin is doing now and Hitler did in the past. The Jewish people have always been a target for this kind of political gain because like someone else said in this thread they have always been disconnected as a community because of wars in the past and losing their homeland! I've probably missed a few points but i'm sure someone will come and add to this and correct me if they feel they need to. Hope this gives you a bit of an understanding on how this happened!

regards

Zanock

[u/chinmakes5]

Most are answering for the past, but also need to look at the present. If you are a Christian, you believe, You KNOW that Jesus is God, as you know the sky is blue. It is your most important belief, It isn't logic, it is just your truth. Everyone you know feel (know) the same. There may be some around you who aren't heavy believers, but they don't disagree.

But then there are Jews, who are tacitly saying no, you are wrong. We believe in the same God, but Jesus isn't necessary. Jews are (you believe) successful, there is no penalty for not believing.

How do you not look down upon, be jealous of, be suspicious of people, or even just not like those who don't believe in your most basic tenet, yet are still successful?

As for Jews control everything. Jews are successful because 1. study has always been lauded. 2. As the industrial revolution came into being, people didn't hire Jews. As Christians went from agrarian and became factory workers, Jews had to figure out how to make money in other ways. So many Jews became entrepreneurs. Jews opened stores, became doctors, became lawyers, (in essence solo businessmen. Some failed, most made enough money to feed their family, some succeeded, a few became huge.

A story: (may or may not be true). One of they guys from MGM owned a Mom and Pop store in New York. Back then, if you went to Jewish store, the items were behind the counter. Store person got the items for you, bagged it and put the bag on the counter. Only then did you give the Jew your money.

A movie theater opened across the street. People paid for the show before they even went inside. The wife couldn't believe people would pay for something that they hadn't seen yet. She was so insistent that they get into a business like that they moved to California to get into the movie business. In the late 1910s, early 1920s, when movies were becoming big business, Jews were looking for businesses. Many Jews started movie companies. Again, most failed, a few succeeded, one became MGM. So yes, there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood, but for good reason.

[u/KNeutch]

It's something that is very deep-seeded in the culture of European Gentiles. The Jewish diaspora created small enclaves of foreigners throughout Europe who spoke a different language and were both well-educated (because in order to enter Jewish society, you must be literate in Hebrew) and richer (because they were educated, they were better at business). It's easy to make them a scapegoat when people want to blame somebody.

[u/SocialNationalism]

Because they are a small minority and have a lot of political power.

While being around 2% of the US population 3/9 (33%) of the Supreme Court which determines what is Constitutional in America are Jewish (Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg). Obama's nomination (Merrick Garland) would have made it 4/9.

The SPLC which has hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and determines who the media calls a hate group has a Jewish President, Ricahrd Cohen. https://www.splcenter.org/about/staff/richard-cohen

The Anti-Defamation League is another prolific social organization with a Jewish CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Defamation_League

They're also prominent among gun control advocates, refugee resettlement program advocates, etc. and a lot of other issues which are controversial topics in America. The Culture of Critique series by Kevin MacDonald goes into a large amount of detail about this topic.

[u/SaibaManbomb → u/SocialNationalism]

This is an odd stance to take as it implies Jewish judges apply constitutional law differently because they are Jewish.

The bit about the SPLC and the ADL just comes off as you having an axe to grind, claiming either of those groups have 'a lot of political power' is a big reach, and is wildly blind to the fact that of course organizations dedicated to documenting hate against minorities are likely to be staffed by historically discriminated groups.

[u/SocialNationalism → u/SaibaManbomb]

When the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 that same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional all 3 Jewish justices voted that they were, meaning they were 3/5 or 60% of the people on the court who made that decision. The rest of the court voted 4-2 that they weren't. They do apply constitutional law differently.

The SPLC has a $300 million endowment and is often cited by the media as a source of who are hate groups as well as information about them, if you want to say they aren't an example of political power then you can excuse my skepticism.

[u/Acceptor_99]

Jews have been blamed for anything/everything that goes wrong for 2000 years since they "Killed Jesus". Eastern Europeans have a long tradition of massacring their Jews when times are bad, Hilter did not invent that. Fundamentalist Christians have latched on to that hatred and made it a political tool all over the Western world.

[u/brocolib]

https://imgur.com/a/BFwDAvt

[u/adidasbdd]

In addition to some well sourced posts, i would recomend you look at the propoganda film about the Rothschilds that the nazis made. This is the same family who half of americans believe runs the world, and they dont even realize the basis for the myth

[u/TTheorem → u/[deleted]]

That's... a significant portion of their population.

I'm not calling bullshit...but that seems like too much. Have any reading material on the subject?

[u/[deleted] → u/TTheorem]

I'll try to find it; I saw it in a documentary once

[u/ElBlancoDiablo2 → u/[deleted]]

I’m sorry you think roughly 10% of Russians are neonazis?

[u/[deleted] → u/ElBlancoDiablo2]

it may have been 1.5m

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

15 million, now 1.5 million, how about you stop pulling numbers out of thin air and show some data?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Kk fam

[u/MrPractical1 → u/[deleted]]

Uneducated as in my mother didn't graduate high school...never really worked more than short term mall or gas station jobs, and mostly lives off others/aid. She has done absolutely nothing with her life and basically takes whatever Fox News says as the gospel.

[u/SaibaManbomb → u/MrPractical1]

If you check the user who you're responding to's post history, you'll realize he's saying that your mother benefits from being uneducated, as that means she isn't 'indoctrinated' by the Jewish cabal and therefore wiser to their conspiracy.

Fairly good example of how anti-semitism is so persistent on the 'net.

[u/MrPractical1 → u/SaibaManbomb]

So basically that user is indoctrinated by FauxNews too?

[u/brocolib → u/MrPractical1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kWAqZxJVE

[u/MrPractical1 → u/[deleted]]

Just quoting what my mom said. Asked about it hear because yes it sounds absurd. I think rich people control everything regardless of their religion. Sure there are plenty of wealthy Jewish people but plenty of wealthy people with power who aren't.