VA-GOV: Youngkin accused of antisemitism after claiming allies of Jewish donor George Soros 'inserte

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Youngkin accused of antisemitism after claiming allies of Jewish donor George Soros ‘inserted’ operatives into Virginia school boards

By Michelle Boorstein and Laura Vozzella
October 21, 2021 at 7:27 p.m. EDT

GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin is facing allegations of antisemitism after accusing allies of Jewish philanthropist George Soros of a shadowy campaign to place secret political operatives onto Virginia school boards.

In an appearance Tuesday night at a rally at the Burke Volunteer Fire Department, Youngkin tried to link Soros, his Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe, and cultural debates roiling some suburban Northern Virginia public school systems. In particular, some parents are protesting equity initiatives they associate with critical race theory, an academic framework that examines how systemic racism is ingrained in the country’s history.

“The present chaos in our schools lays squarely at the feet of 40-year politician Terry McAuliffe. It just does,” Youngkin said at an appearance Tuesday night. “But also at George Soros-backed allies, these allies that are in the left, liberal progressive movement. They’ve inserted political operatives into our school system disguised as school boards.”

When Youngkin, who some polls show is tied with McCauliffe, said Soros’s name, some in the crowd of about 700 people hooted and hollered.

Soros is a Hungarian-born billionaire who has given tens of billions to charity, in particular through his pro-democracy Open Society Foundations grant network. His critics sometimes use antisemitic tropes to characterize him, such as the suggestion that Jewish people are secretly pulling society’s strings.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/10/21/soros-youngkin-antisemitism-school-board-crt-racism-mcauliffe/

Shared link: https://wapo.st/3jteEPN

[JustAnotherGen]

1. On top of everything else

Asshole is doesn't like Jewish Americans? Fuck this guy.

[BeckyDem]

2. Soros has been a target for so long, every antisemite uses him. Soros has always been

the epitome of generosity to promote the well-being of others and all others, I'd like to add.

But maybe someone can explain to me why Terry McAuliffe said on CBS News this morning that CRT will not ever be taught in Virginia?

[Midnight Writer]

4. Perhaps because CRT is not taught in public schools in any state?

[BeckyDem]

5. He was saying it won't ever be.

Not pressed to say why not.

[Hekate]

15. Because there is nothing in any public school curriculum called Critical Race Theory...

… and engaging the accusations only emboldens Teh Stupid.

[BeckyDem]

17. There shouldn't be?

Sorry, I am not understanding you.

[Hekate]

18. CRT is: a body of legal scholarship & an academic movement of US civil-rights scholars and activists

It is from university and legal scholars (not K-12), been around since the 1970s, and has been recently seized upon by Trumpist racist right-wingers who think it sounds scary and that they can rile up their racist moronic followers using the words Critical Race Theory — and it is working like a charm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

Critical race theory (CRT) is a body of legal scholarship and an academic movement of US civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to critically examine the intersection of race and US law and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice.[1][2][3][4] CRT examines social, cultural, and legal issues primarily as they relate to race and racism in the US.[5][6] A tenet of CRT is that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing, and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices of individuals.[7][8]

CRT originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of several American legal scholars, including Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles R. Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams.[1] It emerged as a movement by the 1980s, reworking theories of critical legal studies (CLS) with more focus on race.[1][9] CRT is grounded in critical theory[10] and draws from thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and W. E. B. DuBois, as well as the Black Power, Chicano, and radical feminist movements from the 1960s and 1970s.[1]

CRT scholars view race and white supremacy as an intersectional social construct[7] that advances the interests of white people[11] at the expense of persons of other races.[12][13][14] In the field of legal studies, CRT emphasizes that formally colorblind laws can still have racially discriminatory outcomes.[15] A key CRT concept is intersectionality, which emphasizes that race can intersect with other identities (such as gender and class) to produce complex combinations of power and advantage.[16]

Academic critics of CRT argue that it relies on social constructionism, elevates storytelling over evidence and reason, rejects the concepts of truth and merit, and opposes liberalism.[17][18][19] Since 2020, conservative US lawmakers have sought to ban or restrict critical race theory instruction along with other anti‑racism programs.[8][20] Critics of these efforts say the lawmakers have poorly defined or misrepresented the tenets and importance of CRT and that the goal of the laws is to more broadly silence discussions of racism, equality, social justice, and the history of race.[21][22][23]

[BeckyDem]

19. I know what it is.

I believe we are talking about two different things regarding the governors' race...but no worries. It's not that important.

[Amishman]

3. Given the quote, accusations of antisemitism seem to be a stretch

He doesn't seem to even reference that Soros is Jewish or use any other of the usual antisemitic attacks.

[atreides1]

8. Okay

Then why name him? It would have been enough for him to say liberals supported by big money! But he just had to name Soros, to make the point that it was a Jew who supported those ideas!

The fact that the crowd reacted when he named Soros, is a good indicator that they recognized the name...it was a name that Trump often used to get the same reaction from his cultists!

[Amishman]

11. Because he is a big donor in support of several progressive causes

He makes a great boogeyman for the right, but because of his wealth and his willingness to spend in support of causes that conservatives hate. His Jewish background isn't really part of it.

[dsc]

12. right it is all an accident that they accuse him of benefiting from the Holocost

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Dog whistle

In politics, a dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition. The concept is named for ultrasonic dog whistles used in shepherding, which are audible to dogs but not humans. Accusations of dog whistling are, by their nature, hard to prove and may be false.

Dog whistles use language that appears normal to the majority but communicate specific things to intended audiences. They are generally used to convey messages on issues likely to provoke controversy without attracting negative attention. One example may be the use of a phrase such as family values to signal to Christians that a candidate would support policies promoting Christian values without alienating non-Christian supporters.[1] Another may be the use of the phrase "international bankers" to signal to racists that a candidate is antisemitic without alienating non-racist supporters.[2] On parties that support abortion, the phrase reproductive rights is preferred to avoid turning off any pro-Life ally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_whistle_(politics)

[Iggo]

6. Don't like Jews, Mr Youngkin?

There’s a category for that.

[East-A-Squared]

7. Did he yell "The Jews will not replace us!"

[empedocles]

10. This bit helps. The Virginia governor's race has important national momemtum implications

[calimary]

13. When they have very little else, they usually drag the buzz phrase "George Soros" back out.

For who-knows-why, he’s the go-to villain of republi-CONS and the extremist righties. They’ll invariably haul out the “George Soros boogeyman” thing whenever they need a convenient punching bag.

I don’t know why his name is so prominent as a punching bag, but they pick on him, selectively, a lot. Could it be deep-down anti-semitism? Or they’re pissed off and jealous that Democrats and others on the left sctually have a strong source for funding (although he’s FAR from the only source for funding). Or they just don’t think Dems deserve to have ANY big-money patrons because who-the-hell-knows-why? Or that maybe they can’t think up any other Democratic funders’ names and/or they feel the need to punish him by keeping his name in the news in what they obviously think is a negative context?

Good grief but they have a complex about George Soros. How dare he not give THEM truckloads of money on demand!

[Hekate]

16. As Aegis points out above, it's a dog whistle, and a very well-known one ...

It has a remarkable longevity and durability. Whenever you hear or read the concatenation of certain words, it is definitely an antisemitic dog-whistle. Jews/Banks/Money/Politics/International — next thing you know MTG will start in on World Domination.