Countering Hate and Extremism Is Crucial But Tedious

When high-profile politicians baselessly claim foreign entities are paying protesters, they only exacerbate tensions

Photo by Sophie Popplewell on Unsplash

When liberal darling Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) went pseudo-MAGA alleging China or Russia paid protesters seeking a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza and suggested the FBI investigate them, it was like an episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s a notion that immediately invokes thoughts of racist conspiracy theories often suggesting civil rights advocates were being paid by the US’s perceived enemies, and in many cases, the Jews.

False accusations against entire groups of nonwhite people are deeply embedded in Western white supremacy. For example, former President Donald Trump and his MAGA cronies invoked an antisemitic conspiracy theory when they weaponized this tactic and spread lies claiming George Soros paid Black Lives Matter protesters. It’s a racist idea that dates back more than a century alleging, in part, that Jews were funding protests they considered “anti-American”.

The same idea is once again being used to demonize migrants seeking asylum. The suggestion is that Jews are paying migrants thousands of dollars to cross the border into the US - a conspiracy theory spread among extremists and hate groups such as Active Club. A common theme is their pointing to Asian, African, and Middle Eastern asylum-seekers to try convincing Latinos and the Black community that those migrants are “different”. They do so using broad and prejudiced claims as they try to make the case that they’re a threat to the general public.

@extremearturoAre they still going to claim the Take Our Border Back clown show isn't an extremist movement? Because they're doing a crappy job trying to hide it. #greenscreen #TOBBC #extremism #immigration #migrantcrisis #border #texasbordercrisis #bordercrisis #fyp #foryou #news #eaglepass #texas

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Whether intentionally or not, Pelosi’s baseless accusations feed far-right narratives, thus, highlighting how being conscious of what we say is arguably more important than ever. US society - white people in particular - continues to fail to take extremism and hate seriously. When Pelosi invoked a trope that was much more common and bipartisan decades ago, she made it feel like false accusations against civil rights activists are becoming normalized again.

Cue the Twilight Zone intro.

Now we find ourselves on more tedious ground than at any time in recent memory. This an issue that, in large part, falls on corporate media buying into and selling extremist propaganda that is being perpetuated by certain so-called “news” outlets and far-right personalities. A simple look at coverage of the “border crisis” and the Oct 7 assault on Israel by Hamas along with continued one-sided and biased coverage of the slaughter in Gaza provides some of the best looks into the colonialist and dehumanizing mindset of Western media toward nonwhite people.