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Scapegoating as Ideological
Weapon
A key ideological weapon of the US political
right is scapegoating, especially in the form of conspiracist theories.1 Yet
scapegoating is not a marginal activity limited to the political right.2
Scapegoating of immigrants and welfare recipients
is used regularly by mainstream politicians to attract votes. This dynamic
has a long history in the US, with the scapegoated targets being selected
opportunistically-Reds, Anarchists, Jews, Catholics, Freemasons, all
the way back to witches in Salem. Periodic waves of state repression
are justified through conspiracist scapegoating that claims networks
of subversives are poised to undermine the government. Right wing populist
movements mobilize the middle class by claiming a conspiracy from above
by secret elites and from below by a parasitic underclass. On the far
right are the scapegoating themes of collectivist New World Order plots
and Jewish banking conspiracies.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the US
has been exporting its media-intensive election model, which favors style
over substance, argument over debate, slogans over issues. This election
model facilitates the success of not only those politicians that can
raise the most funds, but also demagogues willing to use scapegoating
as an ideological weapon. While scapegoating in the US is primarily the
territory of the political right including Republicans, some Democratic
Party politicians pander to the tendency, and even a few on the left
adopt scapegoating out of ignorance, desperation, or an appalling absence
of morality. Previous | TOC | Print | Next |
