The Eight Steps to Scapegoating

How smart people end up believing dangerous things—and why antisemitism waits at the end of the road

If you think conspiracy theories spread only because people are stupid, this essay probably isn’t for you. Conversely, if you think every conspiracy theory out there is secretly true, it probably isn’t for you either.

I want to examine something more difficult: how intelligent, sincere people end up believing things that eventually turn brother against brother. And why anti-Semitism—or, hatred of the Jews—so often shows up at the end of that road.

This isn’t abstract for me. I’ve watched it happen in real time to people I know. I’ve counted eight steps in the process. They happen slow at first, then all at once.

My hope is that once you see the pattern, you’ll recognize it everywhere.

Step One: Perceived Elite Coordination

Global media has long embraced the idea that conspiracy theories only spread among the ignorant, the malicious, and the unstable. They’re not entirely wrong about that; fringe ideas do have a certain appeal for fringe types.

But at the same time, that alone can’t account for the whole “conspiracy” phenomenon.

Often conspiracy thinking begins not with delusion, but with reasonable perception—specifically, that powerful people coordinate with one another in ways ordinary people don’t have access to.

And that perception is not wrong.

Anyone paying attention can see that global elites share language, values, incentives, and priorities across the institutions they control. For example, every June during Pride Month, global corporations with completely unrelated products adopt the same moralizing language at the same time. YouTube is full of compilations of local media outlets repeating the same phrases word-for-word. And politicians across different countries communicate to their citizens the same idea about global social and political change: “This is inevitable, there is no alternative.”

We’ve seen it with public-health debates over the last few years, especially with COVID. You don’t have to believe in a conspiracy to notice the mass coordination that took place for years in plain sight. You literally just have to have eyes.

And that’s step one. Often, there’s nothing irrational about it.

Step Two: Abstract, Faceless Power

Where things start to break down is not in that perception itself, but in what happens next.

Perception of coordination alone doesn’t explain how coordination works, or what kind of coordination it is. Is it a conscious effort, with deliberate execution, and explicit goals? Or is it an emergent phenomenon from people with shared incentives, class backgrounds, and ambitions? Perhaps some combination of the two?

These are genuinely difficult questions, and unsurprisingly, most elites refuse to answer them.

That leaves observers with speculation as their only option for understanding what they see. So the human mind starts filling in the gaps. That leads to step two: powerful elites become abstract and faceless.

Most people never meet the individuals who actually shape policy, culture, or media narratives. You might know the name of your favorite TV news presenter, but not the name of his or her producer. Similarly, you know the name of the President or your Governor, but not the identity of their advisors.

This transforms power into something bureaucratic, distant, impersonal. You can feel the effects of this power everywhere—in hiring practices, in school curricula, in what you can and can’t say online. But you can’t point to a single person and say, “That’s the one responsible.”

This is psychologically intolerable.

Human beings want agents. We want authorship. We want names! Our minds are built for a world of tribes and chieftains, not a world of algorithms, NGOs, and anonymous institutional capture.

So, when names aren’t available, we go looking for them.

Step Three: History Supplies an Archetype

Human beings don’t reason in a vacuum. When we try to make sense of complex systems and unseen power, we tend to rely on stories that already exist. Every culture has them.

The ancient Greeks explained chaos and fortune through gods hidden on Mount Olympus. Medieval societies explained misfortune through demons and curses. Modern societies have their own versions, and some of those versions are very old.

Once a plausible story is available, it doesn’t just explain events, it organizes our perception. This is called a “conceptual grid.” New facts get filtered through it. Facts that don’t fit get filtered out. This also removes the ambiguity and uncertainty from facts that don’t seem to fit together. Because the “grid” is doing the thinking for you.

At first, this can feel like relief. Finally, an explanation makes sense! Finally, it all ties together.

But there’s a hidden cost. Explanations quietly generate false positives in pattern recognition, before hardening into assumptions. Then, the story stops being tested against reality. Instead, reality starts being fitted to the story.

Step Four: “Elite Power” Becomes “Jewish Power”

This is where things become morally, intellectually, and spiritually dangerous.

It’s important to note first, however, that this shift usually doesn’t happen through a sudden embrace of open hatred. In other words, no one wakes up one day thinking, “After years of feeling ambivalent about them, I have decided to hate Jews.”

Instead, the shift from “elite power” to “Jewish power” happens through association. Jews are historically visible in finance, law, medicine, media, the arts, and intellectual life. But not because of a coordinated plan of infiltration. Rather, it’s the result of their diaspora, literacy rates, intact families, and centuries of genuine persecution that pushed them into particular indispensable economic niches.

My parents didn’t want for me to be a doctor or a lawyer as part of a coordinated plot from Central Command. It was just our family values, as well as those of every other Jewish family I knew.

That’s why Jewish achievement in certain fields is not a myth. There are real facts at play here.

But what happens next is the distortion.

A vague, impersonal system (see Step 2) suddenly gets mapped onto a people. The language changes just enough to feel like they’re being careful: not all Jews, but… Jewish elites… no wait, Zionists. Each qualifier sounds more precise than the last, but their function is the same: to collapse a complex web of institutions, incentives, and ideologies into a single, identifiable group.

In other words, power has stopped being abstract and finally gets a face. And that feels like relief.

Once power has a face, it feels understandable. You can get a handle on it, or get your mind around it. Blame feels possible. Anger finds justifications. Then, the anxiety of not knowing who’s responsible gives way to the soothing clarity of accusation. Unfortunately, it’s a false clarity.

At this point, “Jews” are no longer being treated as individuals with wildly differing beliefs, loyalties, and politics—even within Israel! Instead, they start being treated as symbols. They’re a stand-in for globalism, modernity, materialism, irreligion, rootlessness, and more. Everything confusing or destabilizing about the modern world gets projected onto “Jews.”

Power finally has a face. But it’s the wrong one.

Step Five: Analysis Becomes Myth

At this stage, the explanation stops needing actual proof. Not because the evidence is overwhelming, but because the story has become self-sustaining. It can explain everything if you just try hard enough.

Any apparent contradiction becomes a confirmation. Any counterexample becomes evidence of how hidden the truth really is.

The presence of Jews who oppose the supposed conspiracy?
They’re controlled opposition.

The absence of evidence?
Proof of how deep the rabbit hole goes.

The existence of powerful non-Jews?
They’re puppets or useful idiots to the real power source.

The belief now no longer functions as an explanation of reality, instead it’s a closed or “self-sealing” system. It can’t be tested, corrected, or falsified. And most importantly, it can’t be escaped without significant psychological cost.

It’s a bit like a prison. Because at this point, abandoning it would mean admitting that the soothing clarity you felt was an illusion. This allows anxiety back in the front door, often holding hands with public humiliation. For many “disaffected” and isolated young men, this is an intolerable duo to entertain.

But once a belief can’t be falsified, it’s no longer analysis. It’s a mythology. And mythology has a dangerous advantage: it feels deeper than facts, like a soul-level insight. You’ve finally seen behind the curtain to where the puppet masters pull the strings. You don’t have to guess or speculate, you know.

This would be bad enough. But sadly, in the modern world, conspiracy thinking almost never stops here.

Step Six: Myth Becomes Moral Signal

This is when conspiracy thinking stops being a private explanation held by an individual, and instead becomes a public signal to others.

You can hear it in the language:

”We’re not allowed to say this, but…”

”If you don’t see it, you’re asleep.”

”Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”

These aren’t arguments, they’re markers of identity. They communicate something about who you are... and who you’re not.

Believing the theory now says you’re not naive. Unlike the “normies,” you’re not fooled. You’re brave enough to name the truths that others are afraid to say! The belief becomes a confession, or even a slogan. Either way, it’s a public declaration of moral awareness, which takes it into territory far beyond the mere inner description of reality.

This is psychologically powerful. In a world that feels chaotic and dishonest, being among the few who really understand what’s happening is intoxicating. It provides certainty, superiority, and community all at once. Especially for young men whose entire social life is now conducted online.

But notice what’s happened: the belief is no longer primarily about understanding the world. It’s about performing a certain kind of identity.

Truth has been subordinated to belonging.

Step Seven: Belief Becomes Belonging

Once a belief functions as an in-group signal, it inevitably becomes a gate.

This is where online communities form around shared ideas. Groupchats, Telegram channels, Discord servers and more are where the “dissident right” / “alt right” / “Dank Right” congregate. They’re spaces where rebellious irony and edginess are encouraged, and where memes do the work that printed manifestos used to do.

In these spaces, agreement with the consensus earns status. Questioning earns silence, ridicule, and exile. Belonging with “the bros” becomes more important than truth.

Antisemitism in these contexts still often functions less as open hatred and more as an in-group password. You don’t have to add anything to the discussion. You just have to signal your affirmation at the right moments. Use the right euphemisms. Signal that you’re one of “us” not them—the normies, the cucks, the Boomers, the controlled.

Increasingly, these spaces are pulling in Christian men as a substitute for vibrant (and male-friendly) real-world church community. These men feel abandoned by mainstream institutions. They sense something is deeply wrong with the modern world and are looking for both belonging and answers.

They find both in these spaces. But at a cost they don’t understand, at least not right away.

Step Eight: Doubt Becomes Betrayal

Once belief is tied to belonging, questioning it is no longer mere intellectual disagreement. It’s a grievous moral failure requiring the imposition of guilt (“You did something wrong.”) and shame (“There is something wrong with you.”)

If you ask for evidence, you’re compromised. If you introduce complexity, you’re controlled. If you refuse scapegoating, you’re either a coward or an infiltrator.

The very act of critical thinking has thus become suspect.

At this stage, anti-Semitism doesn’t even require Jews to be named as the sole enemy. The real enemy is now the skeptic, the moderate, the Christian who insists on theological precision and intellectual honesty over in-group solidarity.

This is how conspiracy thinking consumes its own. It starts by naming an enemy outside the group. It ends by making enemies of brothers inside the group.

The logic is relentless: if you won’t join the accusation, you must be part of the conspiracy. There’s no middle ground. No room for nuance. No possibility that you might simply disagree. The gravity of the consensus has developed the inescapable pull of a black hole.

The choice is stark:

Endure the guilt and shame of men you once called friends, and then be cast into exile. Or deep-freeze your conscience, bow the knee, and continue along with the crowd. Or reinvest and demonstrate your loyalty by redoubling your commitment, darkly “repenting” for your error.

Young men are seeking a story to explain their lives, and a community to ground themselves in. They find both.

It’s fun for a minute, before it devours them.

Why This Matters

Conspiracy thinking often begins with legitimate grievances and rational observations. People sense real dysfunction, elite insulation, ideological capture, and institutional cowardice. They feel genuine contempt from people who hold power toward those who don’t.

These aren’t imaginary. The sense that something is deeply wrong with our modern institutions is not paranoia. It’s an accurate perception.

But instead of naming those forces accurately—ideology, incentives, institutional design, careerism, cowardice, sin, and simple folly—conspiracy thinking adopts a simplistic explanation that feels satisfying and community-forming. But ultimately it poisons its own cause.

By contrast, Christian theology gives us a far better diagnostic framework than conspiracy thinking ever could.

Scripture takes evil seriously without granting human beings godlike competence. It recognizes spiritual realities that transcend any ethnic group:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” - Ephesians 6:12

It shows that these spiritual realities share information with each other through unknown means:

“But the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?’” - Acts 19:15

It teaches that folly, pride, and fear destroy more societies than grand plots ever do:

“The wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes his teeth at him,
but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.

“The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose way is upright;
their sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken.” - Psalm 37:12-15

And it explicitly forbids scapegoating, because false accusation corrodes the soul of the one who tells it as surely as it harms the one accused:

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil.”
- Exodus 23:1-2

“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” - Proverbs 17:15

“Each will have to bear his own load.” - Galatians 6:15

Yes, there is real elite ideology. There are real structural incentives. There is real institutional cowardice and moral corruption. The task is to name them accurately, which requires more intellectual heavy-lifting than simply identifying a historically-convenient group to blame.

Paradoxically, when we collapse complex realities into a mythology, we stop being able to resist these realities effectively. If you misdiagnose the disease, you’ll prescribe the wrong remedy, and nothing gets healed.

Far worse, if you identify the wrong enemy, the real enemy can use that cognitive weakness against you, to your destruction.

As for the groupchats, in-group belonging built on a lie will always demand more lies to sustain it. The commitment to uncomfortable truth costs more for every member of a group. But if that commitment is shared, it’s the only thing that won’t eventually turn brother against brother.

The Pattern

If you zoom out, what you see isn’t a single bad belief. It’s a progression:

Insight turns into suspicion. Suspicion turns into myth. Myth turns into belonging. And belonging eventually demands the explicit identification of an “other” to blame, at all costs.

That’s the pattern. Eight steps from legitimate observation to moral, social, and spiritual catastrophe.

And this is what’s happening to young Christian men online in private, and increasingly in public.

The antidote isn’t naivety on one hand, or censorship on the other. It isn’t pretending that elites don’t coordinate or that institutions aren’t captured. Nor is the solution to shut down conversations about those facts. Doing either will only drive the discussion underground, meaning it will emerge again.

Instead, the true antidote is better thinking: more precise diagnosis, more careful attribution, a biblical conceptual grid, and genuine theological depth about the nature of evil.

And perhaps most importantly: the willingness to belong to communities that tolerate doubt rather than shaming it.

If your community treats questions as betrayal, it’s not seeking truth. It’s enforcing conformity with a tribal mask.

Christ calls us to something better.

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If you want to go deeper into how these ideological dynamics have developed historically—including their roots in occult fascism and the intellectual genealogy of modern antisemitic conspiracy theory—I’m working through Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity in my ongoing Book Club, which is available for paid subscribers.

The book traces how ideas that seem fringe eventually enter the mainstream—and understanding that history is essential to recognizing the pattern when it shows up in new forms today.

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