Date/Time
Date(s) - 31/01/2025
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Join us for the second lecture of our public lecture series, in LRW 1003, as it’s sure to get some wheels turning!

As part of our Graduate Seminar GLOBALST 702 – Urgent Global Issues, we will be opening the doors to the public for 4 of our lectures this term, giving you the opportunity to hear from McMaster’s Experts, while we explore these interdisciplinary topics!

Friday we will be joined by Dr. Neil McLaughlin, Professor for Sociology and Social Psychology here at McMaster. He is a recently published author with Bristol University Press, his book titled, “Erich Fromm and Global Public Sociology“. He is writing a book on the Jordan Peterson phenomenon, and recently published (with Neil Wegenschimmel) The Great Canadian Paradox: Jordan Peterson, Right-Wing Canadian Internet Personalities and the End of Canadian Exceptionalism (Society 2024).

Moderator: Jeremy Cohen, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies

Friday’s talk is titled, “Global Conspiracy Theories: The Case of George Soros”

Abstract

George Soros as conspiracy theory target, cultural socialist or symbolic capitalist? George Soros is a Hungarian American billionaire currency speculator, philanthropist and activist-intellectual who has been at the center of decades of controversy as far-right actors in Europe, the United States and the global south attack him as an evil Jewish globalist responsible for many of the world’s problems while Russia and China present him as a shill for American interests. More recently, given a Presidential Medal of Honor by Joe Biden, he was attacked as evil by both Vice President elect JD Vance and rightwing populist and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Yet conspiracy theories against Soros have been relatively marginal in Canada despite the growing appeal of right-wing populism. Why is that the case? More fundamentally,should Soros be understood as a target of antisemitic hatred, a promoter of left-wing extremism or as proponent of liberal elitist capitalism?

All are welcome, please register here to ensure a seat!

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