Why George Soros is a favorite target of the right
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Republican Rep. Paul Gosar told Vice News this week that he thinks "it would be interesting to find out" if billionaire progressive activist George Soros worked with "the left" to facilitate August's Charlottesville violence, returning to an oft-parroted far-right conspiracy theory.
Why Soros? He's a figure often seen as a bogeyman by conservative pundits, who have latched onto both his Hungarian roots and massive success in the financial sector — such as betting against the British pound in the 1990s — to create shadowy associations with his extensive support of progressive causes and social justice. And his Jewish faith, which Gosar made the point of mentioning during his Vice interview, is frequently used as a dog whistle by the far right.
The trend: Spikes in media attention for Soros tend to crop up in two scenarios — a genuine political splash by Soros or a right-wing conspiracy theory brought about by a controversial and divisive event in the United States.
Soros' time in the spotlight over the past two years:
March 15, 2016
Trump's rise causes Soros to dump more cash into 2016 race: Soros viewed Trump's status as frontrunner in 2016 as particularly threatening to the liberal causes he supports, pushing Soros to dump tens of millions in additional cash to back Hillary Clinton. Soros similarly sunk huge amounts of cash into the 2004 presidential race behind John Kerry to oust President George W. Bush.
August 15, 2016
Docs from Soros group released by Russian hackers: Soros' Open Society Foundations was on the receiving end of a Russian cyberattack that led to the release of thousands of documents detailing his support for social justice projects as well as his opposition to far-right ideologies. The attack can now be viewed as a sort of preview to the larger incursions by Russia to influence the 2016 election.
October 24, 2016
Conspiracy theories that Soros owns voting machines: Far-right blogs kicked off a conspiracy theory that Soros owned Smartmatic, a company that controlled voting machines in 16 states, and planned to rig the 2016 vote for Hillary Clinton. Soros did not own any stake in Smartmatic or any other companies connected with voting machines.
November 14, 2016
Soros meets with liberal donors to resist Trump: Soros organized a summit in Washington the week after the election to rally together key Democrats to formulate a plan of action to oppose the Trump administration.
January 23, 2017
Rumblings that Soros funded women's march: Breitbart picked up an op-ed from pro-Trump journalist Asra Q. Nomani alleging that Soros funded the Women's March on Washington, one of the largest protests ever to descend on the nation's capital. Many of the partner organizations of the march did receive contributions from Soros' Open Society Foundations.
August 12, 2017
Far-right conspiracy theories regarding Charlottesville: Infowars falsely alleged that emails showed that the violence in Charlottesville instigated by white supremacist and anti-Semitic demonstrators was in fact orchestrated by Soros in an attempt to bring about "civil unrest" in order to facilitate martial law and ban all conservative voices from protesting.
September 26, 2017
Far-right conspiracy theories surrounding the NFL anthem protests: Alex Jones and Jack Posobiec alleged on Infowars that Soros funded the NFL anthem protests to incite a race war in the United States. For good measure, their report involved plenty of talk about the protests being designed to allow the rise of a "shadow government" planning a coup against President Trump.
