"If in fact IRS personnel…were intentionally targeting conservative groups," he said, "then that's outrageous. This targeting of groups on the basis of their political views was all but universally recognized to be an abuse of governmental power. The position of left-of-center commentators was, in short, that the supposed scandal had turned out to be a nothingburger. The perception that that's what was happening is what made the IRS scandal a scandal. The Capital Research Center accuses Soros of "a systemic pattern of empowering groups that glorify violence and destabilize societies."