Globalist on its face, it sounds harmless—maybe even aspirational. Like, Hey, we're all citizens of the world, man!, But in the mouths of certain right-wing politicians, conspiracy theorists, and Tucker Carlson's haunted Victorian child portrait, it doesn't mean global cooperation. It means "Jews".
Because of course it does.
The term "globalist" has been used for years as a dog whistle, a way to say Jewish without saying Jewish. It's the rhetorical equivalent of winking while handing someone a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Alex Jones, Infowars host, Sandy Hook defamer, and man whose entire existence feels like a nasty hemorrhoid, once ranted about globalism as a "global digital panopticon control system." Which, by the way, is just 1984 with extra steps and more high energy man-child screaming. But when he and others say globalist, they're not talking about multinational corporations or unchecked capitalism. No, they're invoking the same old antisemitic trope of a shadowy cabal pulling the strings of world events.
And then there's Donald Trump. Donald and his cronies love tossing around globalist like it is just some neutral descriptor. But let's be real, when Steve Bannon talks about "globalists," he's not talking about the IMF. He's talking about the same people that conspiracy theorists have been scapegoating for centuries.
And then, of course, there's George Soros, the right's favorite billionaire boogeyman. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a man who seems to model his governance on Dark Souls levels of authoritarianism, has built his entire political brand on demonizing Soros as the puppet master of some grand globalist conspiracy.
Now, Soros is a philanthropist who funds progressive causes. You can disagree with his politics, that's fine! But when Orbán, and Tucker Carlson, and Steve Bannon, and every QAnon acolyte with a Facebook account, talk about Soros, they're not criticizing his policies. They're painting him as the face of a secret Jewish plot to control the world.
Because that's what this is about. It's not about policy. It's not about economics. It's about recycling the same old antisemitic garbage with a new coat of paint.
This isn't just semantics. When you hear "globalist" used this way, it's not an accident. It's a deliberate strategy to mainstream bigotry while pretending it's just "political disagreement."
And the worst part? It works. Because while reasonable people hear "globalist" and think "international cooperation", the far-right hears "Jews" and "New World Order". And that's the point.
So next time you hear someone ranting about "globalists," ask them: "Who exactly do you mean?"
Chances are, they won't say it out loud. But we all know what they're really saying.
And we should call it what it is.