Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories

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If I have a criticism of the book, it is that Rothschild (not part of the famous family) doesn't take the conspiracy theories seriously enough. He uses the words "deranged", "unhinged" and "incoherent" repeatedly without really looking at how these tropes can be so easily believed. It was a little frustrating, because by writing off the appeal of these conspiracy theories, he caricatures anti-semites in an unproductive way. I was left wondering why these claims, if they are so ridiculous, are so long-lasting. Without understanding that, it is much harder to combat them. Maybe his point is that they are so ridiculous that there is no combatting them.

Greene’s post, which had initially vanished into the vast expanse of the internet, was later unearthed by a Media Matters researcher after she was elected to Congress in 2020. While Greene never used the term “Jewish Space Laser” in her post, the phrase caught on. This incident was not isolated. It was part of a broader trend of directed energy weapon conspiracy theories that were circulating in relation to the California wildfires during 2018 and 2019. The “Jewish Space Lasers” narrative, however, stood out for its blatant evocation of age-old antisemitic tropes. For more than 200 years, the name “Rothschild” has been synonymous with two things: great wealth, and conspiracy theories about what they’re “really doing” with it. Almost from the moment Mayer Amschel Rothschild and his sons emerged from the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt to revolutionize the banking world, the Rothschild family has been the target of myths, hoaxes, bizarre accusations, and constant, virulent antisemitism. Over the years, they have been blamed for everything from the sinking of the Titanic, to causing the Great Depression, and even creating the COVID-19 pandemic. The persistence of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories should make mainstream politicians very wary about indulging in conspiratorial thinking, especially about Jews. Yet it doesn’t always work out that way. Now, one of the interesting things that I found is that in that Facebook post, she never uses that term. She never says “Jewish space lasers.” She never even says Jewish. She talks about the Rothschilds and how it's interesting that a board member of Pacific Gas and Electric—who were found negligent for the fire—was also a senior executive at Rothschild Inc.Greene made Facebook comments about "Frazzledrip," which were recently reported by left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters for America (MMFA), in May 2018. The UK recently witnessed how seamlessly various manifestations of antisemitism flowed from the fringes of a political party into the centre. That was, of course, from the left of the political spectrum. One has to wonder, if after the embrace Greene has received from her colleagues, we will not witness the same thing in the Republican party. This time it will come from the right. Both give witness to the ubiquitousness of antisemitism. It has no political favourites.

There’s a great deal of unoriginality to this stuff, it really does get repeated over and over and over. That’s part of what makes it so successful, is that you don’t have to learn anything new. And you don’t really have to do anything new. You’ve got Alex Jones, recycling the Waterloo narrative [in which the Rothschilds supposedly made a fortune off of early news of Napoleon’s final defeat]. You’ve got one of the most popular antisemitic books of the 1800s, this book I’d never heard of, The Original Mr. Jacobs, which is massively plagiarized from this French book from 1890, which was also hugely popular and hideously antisemitic. Whether you’re looking at sort of authors and pamphleteers of the Nineteenth century, or the content creators of the Twenty First century, you don’t do more work than you have to do. Because that takes away from time that you could be creating more new stuff. So they just recycle the same stuff, because they know it’s going to work.

Mike Rothschild has done it again. First with QAnon, and now with the legendary Rothschild family, he investigates and dismantles one of the most dangerous and vile conspiracy theories of all time. The story he tells is about more than just a baseless lie that won’t die; it’s a larger tale about how those lies shape our culture and our politics for generations. Rothschild is an ideal guide through the dark byways of paranoia and antisemitism—unflinching, exhaustive, witty, and, above all, committed to the truth.” There were quite a few court Jews who made money like the Rothschilds and, of course, there were other banking families — including the Warburgs who actually did some of the stuff that the Rothschilds are accused of doing with the federal reserve. Why is it that they in particular were so attractive for conspiracy theorists? To be clear, the story, which I wrote, did not say she used the words “Jewish space laser.” It accurately reproduced her entire post blaming the Rothschilds, and I noted that “the Rothschild family has featured heavily in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories since at least the 19th century.” A patient and painstaking invalidation of antisemitism that also highlights its perniciousness. ” –Publishers Weekly We end with a pretty bleak analysis in the book. The conspiracy mongers “will never stop because they never have.” But is there a way to combat this? The Rothschilds have largely opted for “no comment.” What can our tactic be?