If the Protocols of Zion is a fraud, why is it such a best seller?

Question

I mean if it was completely fictional it wouldn't have sold so many, right?

Answer 1

"I mean if it was completely fictional it wouldn't have sold so many, right?" That's precisely the attitude that has kept it in circulation for so long. The Protocols of Zion is a hoax. It's been "outed" many times; the earliest repudiation of it was in The Times of London back in 1921. It's a virtual direct plagiarization of an earlier political satire entitled "The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu" from 1864. The Protocols are based firmly in anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews), whereas the original pamphlet was not. This particular work has been debunked so many times, it barely considers mentioning...except, of course, that many cultures in the world are, at their cores, anti-Semitic, so it's easy for them to buy into it and believe it as 100% true. In my strictly personal opinion, anyone who buys into this book as bearing anything resembling fact is also someone who eats glue and believes the Moon landing was a hoax.

Answer 2

In 1835 a worldwide hysteria was born over the discovery of herds of bison and beautiful lakes and crystal pyramids on the moon by Sir John Herschel. It started with an article in New York and was soon all anyone could talk about on several continents. People believed it completely- some continued to believe it long after the original writers admitted it was a hoax. People want to believe the spectacular. (article: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/moonhoax.html )

The bestselling novel of the 21st century (other than Harry Potter) is DA VINCI CODE. About the only thing that's absolutely true in it is that there really was a Leonardo DaVinci and the Last Supper does have an androgynous person seated next to Jesus, but so many people take it as a treatise that Jesus was married and had kids and there's a cover-up and international organizations using albino monks to kill people and blah yadda blah that books 'debunking' it became a cottage industry and HISTORY CHANNEL must have interviewed every da Vinci biographer three times for its schlockumentaries. So many people base their lives on Christianity that it's appalling how next-to-nothing they know of the history of their own religion: many seemed to have no concept that there were apocryphal gospels or cults with sex-rites that coexisted with and influenced Christianity, etc..
Protocols of Zion was similar- it was incendiary and sold to people who knew little about their religion and less about Judaism. The fact that Nicholas II (the extremely antiSemitic Tsar who was not as romantic a figure in his day as his family's tragic deaths make him seem) kept it in print in its native Russia because he needed the anti Jewish propaganda, and that Henry Ford (a bigot whose near complete ignorance of history was proven on the stand- he didn't even know the significance of the year 1776) paid for its American printing and distributed it to his employees accounts for much of its bestseller status here and the Nazis also made sure it stayed in print also accounts for much of its Euro bestselling.

Short answer: Truth is not democratic. If 7 billion people believed the sun revolved around the Earth it wouldn't change a thing about the "truth", just about perception. Or, as Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long once asked, "Has history ever recorded a single instance where the majority was right?"

Answer 3

Because there are a lot of pin headed bigots in the world and your reasoning is faulty. The bible is completely fictional and it has sold a lot of copies, so has Gone With the Wind, and many others. Being fictional does not mean not being a best seller.

Answer 4

Because people are always interested in literature that confirms their own preconceived notions, they will swallow whole anything that tells them what they want to hear-- such as, for example, that the moon landing in 1969 was faked in a London warehouse, or that Elvis is alive.

Answer 5

Your reasoning is faulty. Just because a book is written and bought has nothing to do with whether it's true. It's just the opinion of the one who wrote it, and the gullible people who buy it. Or maybe they're buying the book to learn about its ridiculous statements.

Many wrongs don't make a right, no matter how many wrong opinions there are.

Answer 6

Attributed to Alexander Hamilton, this quote may sum up your answer: "The Masses Are Asses"

Answer 7

Why did the Wizard of Oz sell so many? I mean, it's a REAL story.

Answer 8

Why do people pay money to hear Britney Spears or Paris Hilton sing?

Answer 9

so would you also argue that Harry Potter must be real? Or Stephen King novels?

Im hoping your quesiton was intended to be silly.

Answer 10

Yes, because clearly people are passionate about truth, not crap.