In the history of the United States, there is such a notorious demagogue who uses the influence of the media to spread anti-Semitic speech and has a serious impact on the American people, and he is the Roman Catholic priest Charles Coughlin.
Photo 1: Charles Coughlin
In the 1930s and 1940s, america was rife with evil anti-Semitism, when Jews couldn't find jobs, couldn't go to school, and didn't even welcome them in restaurants. How did this phenomenon become a social group phenomenon in the United States? It is because many media in the United States have publicly supported this wrong behavior, so that the masses have received wrong information. And charles Coogelin, the famous priest in the United States, did the most vicious things with the shell of goodness that his priesthood brought to him.
At first, Charles Cooglin was sent to a desolate place as a priest after being famous for his vivid speeches, and in order to attract a larger audience, he began to come to the radio to comment on news and current affairs. Coinciding with the Great Depression in the United States, Charles Coughlin quickly turned the topic of discussion to politics, angrily denounced the president, aroused the admiration of thousands of listeners, and then became a political figure who influenced the whole country. But because of an oath to the presidential vote, he quit the broadcasting world, and in order to attract his audience again, he found a new topic - anti-Semitism. He began using radio waves to spread hatred of Jews to the American masses during his 1936 presidential campaign, and the audience exceeded even a third of the total population of the United States, and he tried to tell all Americans that Jews were destroying America, and Jews were not good people. Even frederick Wiseman, a famous American director who is Jewish, recalled in a 2020 interview, "I was only seven years old. The events of anti-Semitism in the United States have also had a great impact on me. I remember going to hear an anti-Semitic speech by Catholic Priest Charles Coughlin, who would make an impassioned anti-Semitic tirade on the national radio every Sunday. Anti-Semitism was very common at the time—I don't think all forms of racism are gone today—but in my days, it was even more naked and direct. [1] At the age of seventeen, he was not allowed to join the Collegiate Brotherhood simply because of his Jewish status.
Figure 2: Frederick Wiseman
Charles Coughlin's incitement to the masses was far from over, he began to publish the magazine Social Justice, which had a circulation of one million copies, and he reprinted his incitement on the radio and distributed it to listeners for free, and soon he became famous in the United States, and his news colleagues called him "Radio Pastor". Every Sunday people gathered expectantly in front of the radio just to hear his "warm" and "charming" voice spread false statements. Gradually, his position became more and more extreme, becoming a well-known extremist, beginning to defend Nazi ideas, and he was even complacent because people compared him to Hitler.
Figure 3: Charles Coughlin
Because of the growing number of fervent supporters of Charles Coughlin, the streets of america were no longer safe for innocent Jews, whose followers broke the windows of Jewish shops and scribbled on Jewish homes. However, as Charles Coughlin's actions and speeches became more and more frantic, more and more people began to oppose him, and more and more radio stations began to ban his speech, until in 1940, when no more radio stations were willing to broadcast his insults to the government and the Jews, and Charles Coughlin had to quit the broadcasting industry. But he continued to publish crazy statements in his magazine Social Justice, even claiming in the magazine that it was not the Germans who started World War II, but the Jews. Until the end, it was forbidden to speak.
For the United States, Charles Coughlin's crazy remarks did have a very serious and bad impact on the public.
Author: Zhang Yinyi Editor: Zhang Yinyi
bibliography:
[1] NetEase, Wiseman's latest interview| I try to find dramatic structures from people's daily experiences/[EB/OL] https://3g.163.com/dy/article/FARIEBR60521N2KD.html
[2] Roger Streitmat, Pen Feng Sheng Jian[M], Xinhua Publishing House, 2016
[3] People's Forum, Populist thought and a new round of national transformation in the United States /[EB/OL] http://www.rmlt.com.cn/2017/0410/468525.shtml?from=singlemessage
Image source
Figure 1:
Roger Streitmatt, Pen Blade Wins Sword[M], Xinhua Publishing House, 2016
Figure 2:
http://nimg.ws.126.net/?url=http://dingyue.ws.126.net/2020/1221/0250c67aj00qlo00w001gc000u000k0m.jpg&thumbnail=650x2147483647&quality=80&type=jpg
Figure 3:
https://www.bilibili.com/read/mobile?id=7584222