There was recently a post in a Jewish group on Facebook where someone was sharing her disappointment in a 'friend' who was buying into antisemitic propaganda, and her dismay that this 'normal', 'intelligent' and 'not antisemitic' person could be sharing the kinds of things he has been sharing.
Someone responded to say that this is NOT normal and that no normal person believes these things. I responded, and wanted to post it here just so that I have easy access to it:
I agree that it's abhorrent and that people who are buying into these conspiracy theories should be held accountable and we should recognise their thought processes and behaviour as being conspiracy theorist, hateful and bigoted.
But no one is immune to propaganda, so 'normal people' absolutely can be influenced and can buy in to conspiracy theories. That's what makes them so dangerous. To have influence over people, the influencer has to understand how human nature works. It's easier and quicker to work WITH human nature than against it. Conspiracy theories DO rely on pre-existing prejudices much of the time (and if you read any book on conspiracy theories it will be noted that Jews have always been the perfect 'Other' for people to distrust) so most of these people were prejudiced even if they didn't recognise it and even if it only showed in ways that seemed fairly innocuous and easy to let go of ('Jews are tight with money. No, I'm not antisemitic! I LIKE Jews! It's not a bad thing! Being tight with money is one of the reasons they're so successful!')...
BUT there's also lots of other influence involved which is creating this perfect storm for antisemitism to grow and spread and also to silence anyone who recognises it and is uncomfortable with it (but too scared to speak up). You just need to know what things influence people/what things people use to make those shortcuts instead of thinking it out for themselves.
Appeal to emotions via rage bait and upsetting content and claims. Conspiracy theories are based on intuitive/emotional thinking rather than logical.
Authority. Get the right kind of people to say the right kinds of things (professors, well liked celebrities, political figures, news outlets) and people who trust them and/or are usually aligned with those peoples/organisations stance will believe them.
People tend to go with the majority: get others parroting the propaganda and others will take the mental shortcut into thinking, 'Well if everyone else thinks it, it must be true, so I should think that, too!' Creating a majority or the illusion of a majority thinking/saying/doing something often persuades others to think/say/do the same things.
Create an 'Other' to blame everything on (typical cult/conspiracy theorist tactic) and create an 'us vs them' to prevent the indoctrinated from doubting and to convince people who haven't taken a side that they need to (because we do like to take sides and pick teams, and even when it's something as ultimately meaningless as 'cats vs dogs' or 'coke vs pepsi' people tend to become very tribal and passionate about it).
Weaponise language by introducing new language or changing the meanings of words to control communication, obfuscate situations, and shut down discussions with 'non-believers' (to prevent people accessing the truth or even just a different perspective in good faith).
Use chants and mottos and introduce a uniform of sorts and unifying imagery to create a feeling of belonging amongst the indoctrinated.
All these things make people feel good about themselves and make them feel more committed to and trusting of other people who use the same language and the same symbols (and distrustful of those that don't).
And! It's easier to create a majority if your 'Other' is a minority and Jews are a particularly tiny minority! If people are taking sides and your side is already bigger, you have an advantage! It's also less likely that people will know Jews or understand Jewish culture to be able to see through the libels. Interestingly, having already been struck by the similarity between anti-Jewish propaganda and anti-trans propaganda, just today I saw someone I know had shared a post that said anti-trans reporting in the media has been grossly disproportionate considering how tiny a demographic trans people are, which is EXACTLY the situation with Israel which has a disproportionate amount of coverage (even before October 7th, a journalist described how the news outlet he worked for had a hugely disproportionate number of staff dedicated to covering Israel compared to other countries, and the news was also disproportionately negative because they weren't allowed to report anything that might seem positive).
Introduce consequences for outsiders (or any indoctrinated who start to doubt the doctrine). For social creatures, just being excommunicated or thought poorly of by the group is enough to alter our behaviour much of the time. If voicing any dissent will get you labelled a genocide supporter and will mean your community will excommunicate you, it's easier to just continue to go along with it (or to at the very least to be silent - so all those people who haven't parroted propaganda but have been suspiciously silent about violence against Jews (when they're the kind of people you'd have expected to speak up) are likely aware that any support for Jews would cause some backlash from their professional or social crowd - and instead of deciding to do the right thing anyway, they're complicit through omission to speak out against it.
The reason I think it's important to recognise that ordinary people can be influenced in this way, and can even be brainwashed into thinking and behaving in ways that they ordinarily wouldn't, is that recognising we are all vulnerable to influence does go some way to protecting us. Whereas believing ourselves immune (whether we think we're too intelligent to be suckered in, or too empathetic to ever become hateful towards a minority) makes us even more vulnerable. If more people were able to recognise this, perhaps they would be better at reflecting and recognising how they've been influenced and would work on finding ways to de-programme themselves.
I also wonder whether understanding influence could also help us turn the tide/redress the balance. For example, we tend to spend a lot of time bemoaning the fact that so many leftists who should be allies aren't speaking up. And that's fair! Of course we're angry and we want to make it clear that we aren't happy with how let down we've been by our friends and non-Jewish communities. But actually, because most people are influenced by the popular stance and don't want to stand out or do anything that goes against the crowd, that reinforces that they *shouldn't* speak up, because no one else is. There are of course people who do the right thing regardless, but they're far less common (because that goes against human nature in a way - those are the people who can better grapple with cognitive dissonance, nuance, and value truth over group acceptance).
