This salon will examine the role of conspiracy theories, fake news, and the role of money in politics, using  the example of George Soros, a prominent and polarizing figure in the United States and Europe. Soros, a famous Hungarian-American currency speculator and philanthropist, has spent decades donating his vast fortune to progressive liberal and human rights causes. Donald Trump and his allies have blamed Soros for the impeachment, for black lives matter protests, for illegal immigration into the United States, and many other problems in America. The governments of Hungary and Poland have made Soros public enemy number one, making open anti-Semitic attacks on him, making him the bogeyman for problems with the European Union and using him to attack feminism, Muslims and democracy itself.  

Who is Soros and why has he become such an attractive target for the populist right?  And what can we do to avoid fake news and paranoia while allowing for legitimate criticism of billionaire philanthropy and the distorting effects of money on politics?

Neil McLaughlin teaches sociology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and lives in Toronto, where he has been running a salon for a decade. He studies the sociology of intellectuals, and is an expert on Erich Fromm, the best-selling writer from the 1950s and 1960s who inspired him to privilege public debate and dialogue over academic specialization and political propaganda.

Scapegoating George Soros: How media-savvy far-right activists spread lies
Media-savvy, far right-wing activists in the U.S., Hungary and Poland spread white nationalist politics using paranoid Soros conspiracy theories. This new global extremism is coming to Canada.
The ConversationIga Mergler
The International Circulation of Attacks: George Soros’ Difficult Reputation in Post-Soviet Russia, Lithuania and the United States (with S. Trilupaityte)
The International Circulation of Attacks: George Soros’ Difficult Reputation in Post-Soviet Russia, Lithuania and the United States (with S. Trilupaityte)
Academia.eduNeil Mclaughlin

This salon took place February 21, 2020.