“Greg Cochran explains Jewish overachievement through genetics, although his exact mechanism (individual alleles related to sphingolipidoses) is looking less promising these days. If he’s right, I think it suggests genetic engineering. People act like genetic engineering would be some sort of horrifying mad science project to create freakish mutant supermen who can shoot acid out of their eyes. But I would be pretty happy if it could just make everyone do as well as Ashkenazi Jews. The Ashkenazim I know are mostly well-off, well-educated, and live decent lives. If genetic engineering could give those advantages to everyone, it would easily qualify as the most important piece of social progress in history”
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/contra-smith-on-jewish-selective
you really couldn’t find a source on this other than a guy who calls himself a ‘Wokeness Studies scholar’?
This is pretty funny, because Scott is simultaneously complaining that we only use structural racism to explain group differences, while in the same sentence dismissing as ‘strained’ all the proposed explanations for Jewish achievement, none of which were about structural racism.
Ah yes, the classic ‘believing in structural racism is exactly the same thing as being a Nazi’. Of course, no actual examples of critical race theory turning people into anti-Semites. This is just another ‘Actually, I know the consequences of your beliefs better than you do’ thing.
Note that by the end Scott seems to conclude that the differences must be either genetic or cultural. I guess since he’s debunked this one blog post by Noah Smith, there are literally no other potential explanations?
But if you go back and look at his arguments, he hasn’t even conclusively debunked that. When it comes to the fourth explanation (Temporary Group and Country Effects), his only real argument is the fairly lame:
Instead, he spends much of that section going after the point of explaining this away in the first place:
Yeah, I wonder why we would be concerned with effects being temporary in this context. It’s almost as if some people in the discussion are trying to push an explanation based on inherent racial superiority, which this would be a fairly effective counterpoint to, wouldn’t it?
In conclusion, ‘Never let facts ruin a nice story of racial superiority’ is a great title here, because that’s exactly what Scott’s doing, albeit in his usual weaselly way.
He is going to be so confused when actual neonazis use this blogpost as an example of what they are afraid off.
‘We should turn more people genetically jewish’…
Btw, the fact that both bloggers act as if there was no pretty solid scholarship on the subject and blog posts based on magazine articles and anecdotes could add anything to the discussion is… a peculiar attitude, to say the least. I guess that if Siskind is ever gonna mention “The chosen few”, it will be a reference to the enlightened rationalists who mastered bayesian superpowers like him
Hm
HMM
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Like I dunno I would simply not say “morals are genetic” if I was trying to not sound like a crank. Or attribute having manners and money purely to genetics.
He gonna say Mansa Mula acquired control of the Malian Empire’s mineral resources because of his skull shape next? Or was it his Islam-inspired rationality that did it?
They’re still posting about that Harpending paper in 2021…. lol
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273369474_How_Jews_Became_Smart_Anti-Natural_History_of_Ashkenazi_Intelligence
Does anyone here have a non-sneery perspective on the topic that they’d like to share?
I’ll qualify my request by outing myself as a relative outsider here. I enjoy works in the critical tradition. I find them challenging, as they often require that I work through psychological barriers to appreciate what’s being said rather than lazily interpreting them via my established preconceived notions. Yet, I also enjoy many ideas in the “rationality-sphere” or what you might call it, excepting everything dealing with sociocultural issues. I don’t know why, but people in this subculture can’t seem to think straight about that stuff. And yes, I can’t stand the IDW.
From what I’m reading here, both cultural and genetic explanations for the success of groups are rejected. However, I’m not sure what the alternative is supposed to be. I’ve tended to favor a cultural explanation myself.
I recently read a brilliant paper in Daedalus by Jennifer Lee on Asian Americans and selective immigration in the context of affirmative action. From the paper, cultural effects seem fairly powerful. If your parents are highly educated and expect the same of you, this will shape your upbringing.
The quote in this post seems to me to just be a precursor to the following paragraph, that if the cultural explanation holds there should be something important that we can learn and teach. Which doesn’t really strike me as an awful thing to consider.
What, exactly, is the alternative? That Jewish overachievement is a myth? That their supposed overachievement is a random fluke? That it’s the expression of something more sinister? I don’t really understand what the reasonable alternative to the cultural explanation might be, and I’d like to know.