SDL Profile picture
Jan 18, 2022 8 tweets 4 min read Read on X
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!

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More from @SocDoneLeft

Jul 13
Sawant is VERY funny

- narrowly wins Seattle city council seat as open socialist
- Trot, loves to hate DSA
- looks like she will lose recall election
- joins DSA, we canvass for her, she wins by <1%
- resigns her city council position
- becomes a full-time anti-DSA podcaster
- her Trot org splits in three (lol), she takes ~200 ppl
- she talks shit about Zohran (DSA), until he wins
- her org uses his win & face to promote her vanity campaign for US House (will get <5%)
- she talks more shit about Zohran

What can you say but opportunist? Image
"They don't want power. They want to endlessly podcast about power."
Read 4 tweets
Mar 12
The idea that "atheists only have subjective preferences, because objective morality only exists with God" is extremely funny.

It's been 2400 years, and theocratic theists have yet to give a single good response to the Euthyphro dilemma. Image
This is Hobbes' response: Might makes right.

Who cares if God is arbitrary? As absolute ruler, he has "irresistible power", and you must kneel.

But we reject this for weaker tyrants with smaller arbitrary demands. Why accept it from the strongest tyrant?
If God "reveals morality through his character", then morality is independent of God. He transmits moral law. Back to horn 1.

If God's character alone determines what is moral, then morality is arbitrary. He sets moral law as he pleases. Back to horn 2.
Read 18 tweets
Feb 5
The Nazis privatized dozens of state-owned enterprises. In fact, that's what "privatization" was coined to describe.

The Nazis wanted to place all political & economic power in the hands of a small group of loyalist rich elites & state oligarchs. And so they did. Image
The Nazis crushed unions. (They created a single, state-controlled one that never struck and never demanded higher wages.)

The Nazis dramatically expanded wealth inequality (right) while barely raising real wages (left).

Which party does that sound like? Image
Image
Conservatives never seem to understand: Leftists want **equality of power**.

Big government (or small) is just a means to an end. That end is isonomia -- equal power over society -- which we today call "democracy".

Why should Musk have 400 billion times more power than you do? Image
Read 4 tweets
Jan 21
For good and bad, the world was on demographic track for a Long American Century.

At current growth, fertility, & immigration levels: The US would be the ONLY world power with exponential total GDP growth by 2100.

If Trump ends birthright citizenship, he ends that trajectory. Image
"America First" types ignore how immigration makes the USA stronger: It makes us bigger!

Remember when Japan was going to take over the world? Japan never stopped growing more productive -- it just stopped growing more populous.

Without immigration, the US would be shrinking. Image
All the world's geniuses want to move here.

Trumpists would turn them away -- and lower innovation, lower growth, lower population, weaken the USA -- all to please mediocre White racists that can't intellectually compete.

Trumpists are genuinely too stupid to run an empire. Image
Read 4 tweets
Sep 3, 2024
New blogpost:

Socialists will overwhelmingly vote for Kamala Harris. 🧵 Image
Most polls only let voters identify as "liberal", "moderate", or "conservative". To know how socialists will vote, that's worthless.

Last month, University of New Hampshire added "socialist" to their list.

About 90% of socialist likely voters will vote for Kamala in ME, NH, VT: Image
The same rate holds across the US.

In August, Fairleigh Dickinson University also added "socialist" to their ideology list.

The result? Again, about 90% of self-identified socialist registered voters will vote Kamala. Image
Read 7 tweets
Jun 9, 2024
The "American College of Pediatrics" (ACPeds) posted another report against trans healthcare.

You're going to hear a lot about ACPeds from social conservatives, like Fox News and Jimmy Dore.

Anyone who seriously cites the ACPeds is a hack. Thread: 🧵
Image
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In 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a report documenting that gay & straight parents had similar outcomes for their children.

Conservatives got pissed. They created the "American College of Pediatrics" (ACPeds) to oppose gay marriage and gay adoption. Image
Down to its name, the ACPeds was an obvious attempt to launder conservative schlock as if most medical professionals supported it.

The ACPeds took every standard conservative position:
- Against gay marriage
- Against abortion
- For beating children
- For sexual abstinence Image
Read 9 tweets

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