Jewish Space Lasers by Mike Rothschild

Just a wild, crazy, truly unbelievable book that, sadly, is as real as it gets in this day and age of unparalleled and uncontrollable antisemitism around the world. Mike Rothschild (no relation to the Frankfurt Rothschild dynasty) delves into the history of perhaps the most famous Jewish family in history, and how the vast, larger-than-life conspiracy theories surrounding them took shape in the 1800’s and have proliferated to this day, even though the Rothschilds are largely splintered around the world and don’t even come remotely close to having the wealth, power, and influence they did in their heyday of the mid-to-late 1800’s. The old classics and favorites of the alt-right, conspiracy theorists, fringe anarchists, and plain old antisemitic humans take center stage in this one: that the Jews control the world, and the Rothschilds are kings of the Jews, so, therefore, the Rothschilds control everything, including the media, banking, industry, entertainment, government, war, etc., and the only thing “we” can do about it is blame all of our problems on the Jews and if that fails, well, kill them. If you don’t know anything about these conspiracy theories or Jewish tropes of the past, present, and future, the book is almost too wild to be believed, but the incalculable damage from centuries of these false stories and narratives being past down from generation to generation has ensured that antisemitism, Jew-hatred, Jew-baiting, and cries of “Jewish power” and “Jewish control” are here to stay, and the only thing we can do about it is learn where it came from, confront it, and try our best not to repeat the past. It may be too late for some of that, however, but thankfully authors like Rothschild are around to expose the decrepit hatred that still exists towards Jews in today’s society. My notes reflect the history of the Rothschilds and the vast conspiracy theories that still surround us in the present day.

• Rothschilds, legendary European banking dynasty, kings of continental finance, lending, mining, railroads
• mystique walks alongside a conspiracy theory industry that is tied to some of the most violent spasms of antisemitism of the last two centuries
• almost all conspiracy theories are rooted in antisemitism, and almost all antisemitism is rooted in conspiracy theories
• in many ways, the story of Rothschild conspiracy theories is the story of modern antisemitism
• used as fodder for pogroms, riots, blood libel panics, terrorist attacks, mass shootings
• biography of an idea, that Jews control everything, and the Rothschilds are “Kings of the Jews”
• they have inspired beautiful writing and timeless music, mark on Jewish life and culture in innumerable ways
• business savvy has reshaped the world, transformed industry and finance
• myth is that the Jews dominate global finance, and the Rothschilds are their kings
• Antisemitism and Jewish wealth are bound up in each other, and Jewish success is at the core of the conspiracy theories about them
• Jews are demographically overrepresented in banking, finance, legal, sciences, entertainment
• historical Jewish emphasis on literacy and highly placed Jews deemphasizing their Judaism in favor of success in the secular world
• Jews did play outsized roles in the financed of Christian life
• pushed out of other professions, Jews were often the only ones to lend money or exchange currency
• Middle Ages, Christians were forbidden from working in professions where interest was paid out
• led Jews to embrace lending money at interest and changing currency for a fee
• Jews also emphasized literacy and education to a much higher degree than non-Jews
• often literally the only ones in a community who could track who was lent money and how much
• near monopoly on moneylending
• Christians became involved in banking eventually and Jews were pushed out
• “usury”, linked to work deemed “unproductive”, Jew who “can’t make anything” other than money off Christians
• “greedy Jew” intrinsically linked with the supposed sin of usury
• greedy Jew: shylock
• Shylock of The Merchant of Venice, fictional Jew
• to shylock someone is to cheat or overcharge someone, and it’s not a compliment
• greedy Jew trope was born from the success of the Jews
• success as moneylenders and bankers, Jews began to be saddled with a rep of not just being “good with money” but having a kind of ancient wisdom, secret and strange
• Court Jews, private bankers of European royal courts
• ability to loan their own money and borrow from other Jews without religious restrictions
• becoming wealthy with money that could be stripped from them at any time
• shtadtlan, an unelected diplomatic envoy from the royal court to the ghetto
• answered to his Christian patron, not his Jewish brethren
• ghettoizing and othering of Jews
• many court Jews died wit little to their name
• issues arise for Jews because this perceived extreme frugality is wrapped up with extreme greed
• all the myths of Jewish wealth and power are just that — myths
• Rothschilds were an international dynasty, money to nations in desperate need
• Napoleonic Wars led to massive profit
• lent to almost every state in opposition to France earning interest on the loans
• England desperately needed currency to pay and equip their army, Rothschilds were the only European banking house that could provide it
• 1820s, they dominated European finances, international bond market
• marry their children off to children from other branches of the family
• marriages of convenience of this type were common in wealthy dynasties
• no family member willing to move to NY, kept out of Wall Street banking community, a critical event in family history
• myth and mystique surrounds Nathan Rothschild
• mystique meet outsize wealth and great historical events, conspiracy theories are sure to follow
• “made millions” off Waterloo by “getting the news first” “saved the Bank of England”, etc.
• Rothschild courier system that allowed Nathan to get the news of the British victory first in London
• Nathan as a crafty businessperson who saw an opportunity for profit and took it at great risk
• Protocols of the Elders of Zion, immediate impact of Ford’s Jew baiting was on how they saw the Rothschilds
• The World’s Foremost Problem, how Jews value control of the media
• Waterloo myth carries enormous power and weight to this day
• family made an enormous amount of money off the final few years of struggle against Napoleon, nobody really knows exactly how much
• legend is just that
• fanciful story spun out of part truth, part misinterpretation, part fake
• hack pamphleteer who went by “Satan” and had a deeply personal axe to grind
• French public was becoming deeply disenchanted with the social and economic order and looking for someone to blame for it
• growing backlash from the Damascus affair: when local Jews were accused of ritual murder and consumption of a Capuchin friar and his assistant in 1840
• case made by some scholars that Jew hatred of French and other European socialists was much more economic than religious, a term literally called “economic antisemitism”
• “Satan”, Darinvaell
• canard that Nathan Rothschild made a fortune off advance knowledge of Waterloo
• might be the locus of modern conspiracy theories about the family
• “Satan” focused specifically on the Rothschilds and made history
• Nathan had profited from the news about Waterloo, he was there, manipulating the news of the battle’s outcome to his own ends
• so much money made, would forever dominate world commerce
• French public was looking for a distilled manifestation of their unease over Jewish emancipation and the perceived control of European commerce by the Rothschilds
• attacks on the family and their wealth in French papers, anti-Rothschild sentiment was also spreading in Europe, fueled by the growing political and economic upheaval
• Revolutions of 1848 had died down, picture of the family as uncrowned kings and puppet masters was cemented for all time
• Waterloo canard powers antisemitism to this day, embraced by legions of cranks and fascists
• conspiracy theories, exploding into the public consciousness, exploited by some of the worst people in history and monetized by an entire industry devoted to promulgating antisemitism
• one of the most important documents in the history of Jew hate: 1200 page, 1886, Jewish France
• transformation of antisemitism from a religious and financial philosophy to a political one, as leaders sought to harness the perceptions of Jewish power to further their own personal struggles against the upper class and their financial controllers
• book quickly became the most widely read in the entire country
• even legit writers got in on the lucrative act of attacking the family
• antisemitism was taking hold in the U.S. to the point where loathing of the family far outstripped their actual impact in that country
• Eastern Europe, antisemitism and the discriminatory laws rose up all over countries where the family had deep roots
• Herzl made his initial proposal to the family, and they all rejected it, saying it was a form of socialism and a threat to their financial interests to found settlements in Palestine
• they didn’t support the idea of a Jewish state in general
• The Great War was extraordinarily tumultuous and unprofitable for the family
• it would be American money that would fund the rebuilding of Central Europe’s broken empires, not British money supplied by the family
• by the time the Nazis and their supporters rallied in 1931, German labor force was unemployed, including millions of Great War vets, who stood shoulder to shoulder with angry young brownshirts looking for someone to blame their woes on
• Hitler would seize power on a wave of violent grievance against the Jews
• among Germans, the Rothschilds and other wealthy Jews made easy scapegoats
• many Americans began to see them as alien outsiders who exerted too much control over domestic affairs, manipulating them for their ow gain
• conspiracy theorists question everything, yet they also believe virtually everything that fits in with their preexisting ideas
• apparent in American myths about the Rothschilds, this tendency
• Americans were generally distrustful of foreign bankers, and of central banking in particular
• their almost inconceivable wealth made for good media fodder
• sentiment against Jewish banking growing as the Great Depression worsened, U.S.’s various problems were the result of European plotting became more and more appealing to a diverse group of cranks
• after WWII, the accusation that the family had started the Civil War to divide the U.S. for themselves would be repeated
• as the Nazis prepared their final solution, critical for German people and their allies to be convinced that Jews weren’t just cheap or greedy but rootless, backstabbing, Christ-killing parasites who ruined Germany and sent the world’s economy into a spiral to increase their wealth
• Rothschilds singled out for all manner of crimes
• storyline: Jews controlled the world, Rothschilds controlled the Jews, something had to be done
• Hitler combined conspiracy theories with cutting edge propaganda techniques and new tech
• American antisemitism had a much sharper focus on immigration, Lehman Bros, Guggenheim family
• prewar years were something of a high watermark for American antisemitism, belief that American Jews were pushing the West toward a new war with Germany that would be as devastating as the last one
• still hoping to hang on to the German market and avoid potential domestic unrest, portrayals of Judaism were drastically reduced in Hollywood product for the rest of the decade
• to the point where Jewish humor, themes, stories and characters were censored for German versions of films, removed from scripts, or outright banned in Hollywood
• Jewish actors struggled to find work
• Goebbels would combine historical antisemitism with Nazi politics, using the Hollywood films that Hitler loved so much as their guide
• The Eternal Jew, enduring symbol of the Nazi drive to purge Jews from the Earth
• film was named after the legend of the immortal wandering Jew who taunted Christ on the road to Crucifixion and was doomed to roam the world until the Second Coming
• has been part of antisemitic lore since the 13th century
• family was a prime target for the Nazis, incalculable losses in property and possessions
• Nazi looting of collections was part of one of the biggest and most organized thefts of art in history
• postwar years would see anti-communist paranoia walk hand in hand with Jewish scapegoating
• surname, days of influencing global politics with their loans and gold shipments were long over
• new generation of rabid Jew hatred, more popular than ever
• chaos of the Manson murders and Watergate, golden age of paranoia
• bulletin board systems, email lists, Yahoo groups, blocky websites, conspiracy theories flourished
• slow creep from the fringes to the mainstream, fueled by right wing radio and the adoption of the internet
• Alex Jones, scattered parts of conspiracy theory internet 1.0
• put it all together in an entertaining and user friendly package that could easily be monetized through a growing number of distribution channels opening up on the net
• Infowars shows as far back as 2003 are peppered with references to the Rothschilds “printing money”, controlling central banking and being “a major part of the New World Order”
• memes, viral videos, and Twitter threads, podcasts, became as important to the Rothschild myth in the 21st century as pamphlets and self printed newsletters in the past
• Rothschilds central banks
• one hallmark of conspiracy theories is that they are extremely detailed and extremely inconsistent
• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and 17
• “The Rothschilds own 80 percent of the world’s wealth” and/or “are worth 800T dollars”
• “Controlling the world’s money supply”
• other Jews admired their business acumen, their courage in the face of institutionalized antisemitism, and their generosity toward the wider Jewish community
• fellow Jews saw a fantasy, pinnacle of achievement and a name to be almost whispered in revered awe
• Mayer and his sons emerged from the squalor of the ghetto to become wealthy beyond measure, and they remained Jews
• if they could do it, others could, too
• Fiddler was actually based on their mystique
• beacon of hope that one day your hard work would be rewarded with something other than yet more suffering
• “If I were a Rothschild” to “If I were a Rich Man”
• English play/musical version to the big screen
• Rothschild’s largesse was a victory for all Jews
• Niea, the great great granddaughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, headed to NYC, fell in with the city’s jazz scene
• became a financial patron and artistic muse to legends like Monk, Parker
• numerous songs named after her, written and performed by the jazz legends she kept alive and working
• Rothschilds were widely represented in rap
• shorthand for “stacking” wealth and accumulating power in hip hop
• not all a mutual admiration society — Nas spits out conspiracy tropes, and Killer Mike
• family have been almost entirely absent from both the big and small screens since 1934
• stories have been told mostly in books
• consistent speculation of Burns on Simpsons, fictionalized version of Lord Jacob Rothschild
• wasn’t; was a mix of Rockefeller and the miserly banker Henry Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life
• even countries with virtually no native Jews or Jewish traditions aren’t immune from the contagion of Jew hatred
• common thread that Jews are the kings of business and politics, Rothschilds are the leaders of the Jews
• for hundreds of years, Jews and Muslims enjoyed near equal rights in much of the Middle East
• Western style Jew baiting grew substantially after the Damascus Affair in 1840
• Nazis spent considerable effort and money broadcasting a constant stream of Arabic language propaganda
• al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem under the British Mandate and one of the founders of the Palestinian liberation movement
• Protocols would be adapted into multiple successful film and TV series
• Iran, countries state funded antisemitic “Jewish Studies Centre”, one of the biggest purveyors of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories in the Middle East
• disturbing 21st century trend: resurgence of public and unapologetic antisemitism
• acceptability of Islamophobia in the post 9/11 era faded, was replaced by the familiar fears of Jewish power
• “not all Jews, just those Jews”
• would reach heights not seen since the days leading up to the Holocaust
• Trump paid attention to the Tea Party, power and appeal of the group’s unhinged conspiracy theories, vague accusations, “us vs. them”
• “alt-right”, foundationally powered by theories of “white genocide”, railed against “globalism”, latest term for Jewish control of banking and the media
• Trump turned to Rothschild Inc as advisors for his waves of privatization and mergers
• Wilbur Ross, exec at Rothschild, deal bailed Trump out of the Taj Mahal
• “king of bankruptcy” “king of debt”
• majority of Trump acolytes never bring up his links to the Rothschilds
• Marjorie Taylor Greene: scheme of a forest fire was perpetuated both to clear land for a green energy boondoggle to keep CA politicians happy and to manipulate PG&E’s stock prices and make more money — same motivation that drove everything the Rothschilds did
• with that, Jewish Space Laser conspiracy theory was born
• conspiracy theories often revolve around magical, unproven tech doing something that “shouldn’t happen”, and that often didn’t actually happen
• Q’s theory of a secret war between good and evil was deeply alluring to a new generation of fringe believers
• COVID, Jews were assigned their familiar role of “rootless” disease vectors, moving from place to place sucking up resources and leaving only sickness behind
• every bizarre accusation, trope, conspiracy theory pushed out about the Rothschilds would be repurposed and updated for Soros
• Soros made his money himself, going from being and almost destitute young man to one of the richest men in the world in middle age
• experience in European market, Soros started rising and landed at a NY investment bank
• started his own hedge fund, Soros Fund
• shorted the pound, made a billion dollars
• media scrutiny, conspiracy theory industry would revolve around him
• he’d fled both fascism and communism, making his own fortune and lifting himself up by his proverbial bootstraps
• directed his philanthropy toward opening up once-authoritarian cultures to liberal ideas of freedom and democracy, and it would make him enemies on both the American and European right
• real passing of the torch from the fringe to the mainstream came in 2004, Soros began to get involved in US presidential politics
• can’t be overstated how much Fox News relied on Soros conspiracy theories during its rise to national prominence
• serious consequences — inspired acts of violence and murder, carried out by deranged conspiracy believers utterly convinced that a Hungarian nonagenarian and his antifa horde were to blame for all of the woes of the world
• nature of trolling and online hate is that it’s virtually impossible to separate out the majority of people who are just talking about taking up arms from the small number that will actually take up arms
• Rothschild conspiracy theories have proven to be remarkably durable, they build on each other
• new extremists make no pretense of leveling their accusations only against “those Jews”, but against all Jews, everywhere
• the name Rothschilds embodies wealth and success, also hoaxes and hate, conspiracy theories and deranged notions of power
• “puppet master” mantle might go to Noah Harari, has quickly become a top tier target for conspiracy theorists
• humans are simply too hard wired to ever leave behind the demand for someone to blame for their problems on
• always be easier to blame the rich Jews for the problems of society than it will be to do the hard work of actually fixing then
• Rothschilds of Frankfurt show what unity, tenacity, courage, and generosity can accomplish