#truthers

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻STRAIGHT UP TRUTH IN FOUR MINUTES 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

It's more complex than that, Anon.

The term "truther" itself is not inherently antisemitic and not all who identify as truthers are promoters of judenhass, but many truther movements overlap with antisemitic conspiracy theories, either openly or through coded language and associations.

What's a Truther?

A Truther is someone who rejects the mainstream or official explanation for a major event, often claiming a hidden truth has been covered up by powerful forces. Common examples include:

9/11 truthers

COVID-19 truthers

Climate change truthers

Election truthers

These groups often believe there is a coordinated conspiracy by elites, governments, or shadowy actors.

How Does This Tie to Antisemitism?

The Core Intersection is in Scapegoating and Global Control Conspiracy Theories:

Antisemitism is an inherently conspiratorial prejudice. Truther movements fuel judenhass by focusing on the idea that external forces are manipulating events for nefarious purposes, often leading to the scapegoating of the Jewish people

I think this intersection manifests mostly through two traditional antisemitic tropes:

Jewish Power and Manipulation Conspiracy theories cast Jews as malevolent manipulators working secretly for self-gain at the expense of others. These theories insist that powerful, controlling forces (often described as "the Jews" or "Zionists") shape and manipulate world events. Historical examples of this include the forged pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which alleges a secret Jewish plan for world conquest, influencing conspiracy theorists today. [The hidden cabal narrative is everywhere these days, used by Islamists (more, more, more), far-left groups, Trump, (more) and RFK Jr, among others.]

Blame for Catastrophic Events When tragedy, financial loss, or disease occurs, conspiratorial thinking helps believers cope by assuring them that bad things are not random, but that someone is accountable, which frequently involves laying blame on Jews. Historically, Jews have been blamed for infectious diseases like the Black Death, tuberculosis, and typhus, a pattern that adapts to modern crises

The examples you're most likely to be familiar with are in the Truther movements surrounding the events of 9/11/2001 and the Covid-19 pandemic.

9/11 Truth Movement

The theories promoted by this loosely-knit group sometimes suggest that the US government and/or the Jews orchestrated these attacks to further a "dark and secretive agenda".

Immediately following the attacks, theories alleging Jewish involvement spread widely. One prevalent rumor was that 4,000 Jews missed work at the World Trade Center because Israel's spy agency, Mossad, warned them.

Some conspiracy theories were anti-Israel, suggesting Israel conducted 9/11 to coerce the United States into fighting Israel's regional enemies, or that the U.S. government had been infiltrated by Jewish figures loyal primarily to Israel.

COVID-19/Anti-Vaccination Truthers

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to new antisemitic conspiracy theories, spread using tags like like #coronahoax, #scamdemic, or #plandemic

Popular theories include the claims that Jewish people created the Coronavirus to destroy society, expand their global influence, and profit.

They frequently target Jewish figures like George Soros or the Rothschilds, using these individuals to depict generalized ideas about Jewish wealth, power, and fraudulent intentions. Soros is often depicted as a "puppet master" behind global events and some truthers even alleged he owned the lab where COVID-19 was supposedly manufactured. I'm not a fan of Soros, but that's some high-grade antisemitic bullshit.

Some COVID truthers trivialized the Holocaust by wearing the yellow star (Judenstern) the Nazis forced Jews to wear, viewing it as a symbol of their own perceived victimhood under public health restrictions. The message appears to be, among other things, "We are the new Jews".

I struggle to comprehend how people could possibly think this is okay.

Ultimately, while not all individuals in truther movements explicitly express antisemitic attitudes, the inherent propensity toward conspiratorial thinking reduces their resistance to antisemitic beliefs, making these communities fertile ground where classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories continue to resurface and spread.

Some sources

To the truthers, that account is utter nonsense. While there is no one theory uniting them, it can generally be said they believe the U.S. government and/or the Jews and/or anyone other than unhinged terrorists orchestrated the events of 9/11 in order to further their own dark and secretive agenda.

OML I FORGOT PPL COULD ASK ME STUFF LMAO SORRY!

Hello hello and welcome to the first ever Emmaera Surana TedTalk! This got very, very long. Oops?

I fully believe in the Andraste-only Andrastrianism postulated by @theshadowdreams-blog. To quote:

Since the Chantry harms them and the Maker have largely abandoned them, city elven andrastians actually pray to Andraste instead, as she was the one who freed them from slavery and the one who continues to petition the Maker to help his creations they hold her in higher regard.

So this is the environment in which little Emmaera grew up, in the Highever alienage. They did not have much, but what they had, they thanked Andraste for.

(Important to note, also: Emmaera is simply lawful good. She is optimistic and kind and not prone to bitterness. That is her nature.)

And then she got caught lighting her family's forge with magic. We know from Wynne that templars aren't always traumatic when they take in children. The templars were kind to her. Her parents were permitted to tell her goodbye. Likely they said something similar to what Niall's mother told him: that she would become someone great.

And then, when she was taken to the Circle, she got to eat every day! She never had to worry about where her next meal was coming from! And she never had to worry about her clothes, or winter, etc, etc. And she was taught to read. She could study. She could learn. She was the equal of, and indeed surpassed, many many many other humans. She, little dirty coal-smudged Emmaera, was respected. Thank you, Andraste.

And--well yes. She has to behave for the templars. And yes, she has to excel and keep excelling to maintain her position. But that's--that's just working hard, isn't it? That's just how things are. She's not lazy. She can prove that she deserves her blessings!

(This is what is called "model minority" in real life.)

Emmaera is the same flavor of devout that Leliana is: she takes much on faith, but she isn't dogmatic about it. Actually, she has this little secret belief that Andraste was Herself a mage. But to Emmaera, that doesn't automatically mean that none of the Maker's miracles to and through Andraste were real. It just means that the Maker's Bride was extraordinarily blessed.

Is she angry about the systemic oppression of elves? Yes, but ☝️ if the leadership of Thedas truly turned their hearts to Andraste, and followed Her example, then they too would free the slaves as She did, and embrace their fellows. Emmaera is Circle-educated! She knows about Shartan, she knows that Andraste had an elven general. It only bolsters her faith in Andraste more.

And what about mage oppression? Well. That is...Emmaera falls silent. Yes, it is very awful what happens in Circles but...the answer isn't to break away and rebel. If we could all just behave. If we could all just comply. Not just the mages but Chantry leadership too. Andraste never said to do all this. Where in the original Chant of Light did Andraste say to lock up young mages in solitary for a year, or to take away babies from their mage parents, or...

The Chantry as an institution has its flaws, because it has strayed from what Andraste Herself wanted. It is corrupted by time and greed of man. But Andrastrianism is fine.

If everyone could just follow Andraste's example instead of using the Chantry as a tool to gain more power, then things will be better! For everyone!