Thread by @SocDoneLeft

As an interesting comparison, see Stallman 1995: brill.com/downloadpdf/bo…

In the early Islamic period, despite being extremely urbanized, Jews were disproportionately proletariat and petit bourgeoise. It another religious minority that dominated finance: Christians !

The best explanation for any overrepresentation of Jewish people in finance is simple: Cities!

Finance and trade live in cities. In Europe, few Christian but most Jewish people lived in cities. Excluded from other places + strong religious preferences for cities, as below:

In turn, the history of economic development is in large part the history of urban development -- historical GDP per person correlates nearly exactly with historical % urban population.

Literacy, wealth, finance, trade, industry, technical development: Products of the city!

I believe that sociological explanations like these should make myths of "Jewish conspiracy" seem unnecessary and vile.

Research supports that point: Disputing the facts of alleged Jewish conspiracies reduces belief in them ("rational" line): sci-hub.st/10.3389/fpsyg.…

In general, telling people facts works!

Wood 2018: there is no evidence for a consistent "backfire effect"; telling people facts generally changes their minds; the effect of factual correction is ~1/3 as large as the effect of ideology on stated belief: sci-hub.se/10.1007/s11109…

This holds true for (at least some) partisan topics with partisan messaging

Tappin 2021: evidence changed minds in a sample of 24 policy issues; no significant difference between "evidence + contrary party leader cue" (purple) vs "evidence alone" (black) psyarxiv.com/247bs/

TLDR:

Socialists should believe material conditions explain social outcomes -- such as urbanization driving Jewish job choices.

Evidence shows that facts really do change minds.

The facts are on our side. We should not shy away from explaining them!