Bateman's Only Real Sin Was Blaming the Jews

Dave Bateman, founder and (now former) chairman of a Utah tech company, made a splash this week when he sent out an email to Utah tech and political leaders blaiming Jews for the pandemic and accusing them of trying to kill the American people (apparently with both the virus and the vaccine). I haven't been able to find the full text of the email, but various reports quote the following excerpts.

I write this email knowing that many of you will think I'm crazy after reading it. I believe there is a sadistic effort underway to euthanize the American people. It's obvious now. It's undeniable, yet no one is doing anything. Everyone is discounting their own judgment, and dismissing their intuition.

I believe the Jews are behind this. For 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church and place a Jew covertly at the top. It happened in 2013 with Pope Francis. I believe the pandemic and systematic extermination of billions of people will lead to an effort to consolidate all the countries in the world under a single flag with totalitarian rule. I know, it sounds bonkers. No one is reporting on it, but the Hasidic Jews in the US instituted a law for their people that they are not to be vaccinated for any reason.

The spike protein in both the vaccine and the illness are [sic] attacking the reproductive systems of women, and will eventually erode the number of T cells in our bodies that can ward off infections. Don’t get the illness and don’t get vaccinated.

I pray that I'm wrong on this. Utah has got to stop the vaccination drive. Warn your employees. Warn your friends. Prepare. Stay safe.

When the local FOX station followed up with him, he responded:

"Yes. I sent it. I have nothing but love for the Jewish people. Some of my closest friends are Jews. My heart breaks for their 2500 years they’ve been mistreated by nearly every country on earth. But I do believe Scottish Rite Freemasons are behind the pandemic (overwhelmingly Jewish)," he wrote. "And I fear billions of people around the globe right now are being exterminated."

That Bateman would believe this, not to mention broadcast it, is horrifying and he deserves all the public denunciation that he is receiving, which is primarily focused on his antisemitism. But I couldn't help but notice that most of what he said is fairly non-controversial in right-wing circles [1]. His downfall (thus far) was blaming "the Jews". That's still a bridge too far (for now), so it's the easiest part to denounce. But if he had only blamed a single Jewish person (e.g. George Soros), his ideas wouldn't be any more controversial than what is said by right-wing commentators and politicians every day.

Bateman may seem down and out at the moment, but if he hangs in there and plays his cards right [2], he will go from pariah to right-wing hero with surprising speed.

Notes:
1. Maybe not the Catholic part, but I don't know. There are fundamentalist strains of protestantism that don't accept that Catholics are even Christian, and there are conservative Catholics who don't like Pope Francis, so it's possible the Catholic part is more widesrpead than I realize. But the rest is pretty garden-variety and easy to find. Examples on this blog alone are here and here.
2. Don't apologize; get on a speaking/media tour; narrow to a single prominent Jewish person or family; blame the whole controversy on the liberal media and cancel culture; remind everyone that HE is the victim.