Exporting Antisemitism The Parasocial Relationship Between the Far-Right and Minority Groups

Key Findings:

This research study is intent on understanding the ways in which antisemitic hate from the far-right is leveraged to sow discord between minority communities and Jews in the US.

Examining the language, memes, and tropes that enable the far-right to promote their ideological and political agenda is critical to understanding the ways in which they leverage antisemitism to push disinformation campaigns among minority communities. These narrative campaigns have the capacity to spread both in online platforms and in the real world, often relying on influential networks of civil society leaders, including religious institutions, social media algorithms, and pop culture figures.

Social media is a pinball machine of extreme ideologies. While the causal relationship between various fringe sub-communities is difficult to prove, the far-right maintains parasocial relationships with misogynists, Black Hebrew Israelites, and other fringe communities in order to further their own causes rooted in antisemitic belief systems.

Influencers with antisemitic ideologies increasingly understand how to hack the attention economy, astroturfing onto popular slogans and campaigns to further expand their audiences.

As a consequence, antisemitism is increasingly platformed across a series of communities that otherwise might never be exposed to antisemitic conspiracies. 

Antisemitism therefore becomes a force multiplier for misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of identity-based hate.