On Jews

I rarely speak about Jews, and I have never understood the fascination that Jews have for other people. It is well-known that Jews are successful in a number of fields, that they have had a history of mutual -often violent- conflict with Christians, and that they are more "visible" to Christians' eyes, mainly due to the incorporation of the Old Testament in the Bible. But, while these facts are well-known, I have always found a certain obsession with the Jews to be bizarre.

There are three kinds of such "obsessive" attitudes towards the Jews that I discern:

   1. Jews are basically racially and culturally like European Christians, and they both belong to the same Judaeo-Christian tradition. This is the attitude of downplaying the differences between Jews and Christians.
   2. Jews are a super race created by eugenic aspects of the Jewish culture. This view is quite popular among cognitive elitists who find in the Jews precursors to eugenic practices that they admire.
   3. Jews are a parasitical race that is exploiting Gentiles. This is the standard tale that can be found in Hitler's Mein Kampf or in conspiracy theories about a Jewish drive for world domination.

Here are my reactions to these:

   1. There is no Judaeo-Christian tradition. Christianity has been different from Judaism from the beginning. Sure, both religions believe in one God, and they both accept the Old Testament. But, lots of religions believe in one God, and the Christian and Jewish interpretations of the Old Testament are completely different. Moreover, Christian theology and practice is soaked with aspects borrowed from pre-Christian philosophy and cultic practice. Also, it is true that racially speaking, European Christians and Jews are both Caucasoid. There is certainly no great racial gap separating Jews from Christians, especially those that have absorbed racial elements in the lands where they settled. One can only say that in any country where there are Jews, some resemble the Gentile population of that country and some don't. There is neither complete racial dissimilarity, nor complete identity.
   2. I think that the idea that the Jews are an artificially-selected race is mainly a fiction. Jews are prominent in trade and science, mainly because they are an urban people that has specialized in urban activities. Gentile populations are on the other hand drawn from much wider occupational backgrounds. So, I think that Jews are successful in certain activities (i) because they have long found a niche in urban activities, (ii) because they often tend to support each other, (iii) because being involved in such activities and not e.g., in those requiring physical strength has had a selective effect on them. But, on the whole, Jews are just a people that is the product of its history, not a super-race that has bred itself to excellence.
   3. Antagonism between Jews and Gentiles spans thousands of years. I find it unlikely that this is just a malignant mutual distrust meme that has managed to persist for so long. It's more likely that Jews and Gentiles ticked each other off regularly. Naturally, these tensions where at their highest when Jews massacred Christians and vice versa. Without a doubt the antithesis between Jews and Christians has been historically real, as have the mutual antipathies. But I tend to view these as natural (unfortunate) outcomes of the co-existence of peoples who were passionate about their identity and were culturally opposed to each other.

In conclusion, mythologizing, vilifying or sanctifying the Jewish people is still very much part of our culture, and I think that this keeps us from treating the Jews in a more realistic and historically accurate manner.

tl;dr

>>1
1. I'd say Judaism and Christianity both have a lot in common, at least compared to the other Abrahamic religion; Islam. The books of the Old Testament and The New Testament are both the brainchild of a bunch of Jews.
2. Ashkenazi Jews are genetically 35-50% European Caucasoid, so Jews are certainly genetically different from Whites. For a trained eye, it's not that hard to tell Jews and Anglo-Saxon Whites apart just from looks. Jews have very high intelligence which is largely accounted for by genetics. It's well cited that Jews' IQs are about 1 standard deviation above Whites. Most Jews today are secular and grow up in the same environments as gentiles, yet the average Jew is about 10 times more likely to win a Nobel Prize than a White gentile. I don't believe that just the different subtleties in our cultures cause this. I think the theory that Jews have managed to somehow selectively breed themselves to excellence over the last few thousand years is far more probable. See this: http://homepage.mac.com/harpend/.Public/AshkenaziIQ.jbiosocsci.pdf
3. I'm not that familiar with religious reasons for anti-Semitism, but conflict is bound to erupt when Jews and gentiles behave differently and exert their influence on each other. Only when Jews drop their Jewish identity altogether and view themselves simply as a member of the nations they inhabit will anti-Semitism stop. One of the ironies is that the things Jews do to combat anti-Semitism and divert hostility towards them are often the root causes of anti-Semitism in the first place. Let’s face it; Jews are going to feel vulnerable in a population where 99% of the people are White Christians with a strong sense of religious, national and racial identity. Things like media control, exploiting the holocaust, support for civil rights, immigration, egalitarian political movements and political correctness are likely supported by Jews because they think it will make countries safer for them. At the same time these things are cited by anti-Semites as reasons to oppose the Jews.

>>3

Only when Jews drop their Jewish identity altogether and view themselves simply as a member of the nations they inhabit will anti-Semitism stop.

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Try telling black and hispanic people that.  See what happens.

tl;dr

SMOKE WEED EVERYDAY FOR THAT REFRESHING GREENNESS