Motives

It can be misleading and often dangerous to assign motives to people and situations. With the recent out break of antisemitism some are suggesting that this open dislike for Jews was always there and just waiting for the right opportunity to surface. Something similar occurs when people observed Trump followers. Many who had the preconceived notion that certain groups were racist, suddenly saw signs to confirm their thoughts and in many cases only they could see these signs. The next step in this process is to find signs to confirm their belief and this is accomplished by selecting certain individuals who are antisemitic and projecting this on others whom they suspect are antisemitic. Phrases like, I know what your thinking or I know how you feel can lead to false conclusions. This happens so often in the news that it has a name. They say it was or wasn't reported because it did or didn't fit their agenda. Once this happens other things they see confirm their belief and they slowly move away from the truth without realizing what is going on. There are occasions when their preconceived ideas prove right and this is enough to convince them that they could be right again. Psychologists tell us that people often project their own sins onto others as a way of getting rid of guilt.