1/Several people have asked me to comment on this blog post by Jordan Peterson: jordanbpeterson.com/psychology/on-…
Peterson's post is a rebuttal to alt-right claims of a Jewish conspiracy in control of our society.
Peterson's post is a rebuttal to alt-right claims of a Jewish conspiracy in control of our society.
2/Peterson says: Jews aren't conspirators. They just have super brains. 
3/Jews' super brains, Peterson then argues, make them more likely to be hippies.
4/Now as much as I would like to be a super-brained hippie, and as much as I appreciate Peterson's attempt to defend Jews from Nazi attacks, I have some reasons to doubt this story of Jewish achievement.
I wrote about them here: noahpinionblog.blogspot.jp/2013/08/how-su…
I wrote about them here: noahpinionblog.blogspot.jp/2013/08/how-su…
5/The first factor that people don't think about a lot, when talking about Jewish achievement, is selective immigration.
When trying to escape the horrors of Old Europe, it certainly helped to have a super brain!
When trying to escape the horrors of Old Europe, it certainly helped to have a super brain!
6/A second factor people overlook is urbanization.
Living in a city definitely makes your brain more super.
Living in a city definitely makes your brain more super.
7/Those are two factors that can help explain Jewish overachievement.
BUT, I also suspect that Jewish overachievement is greatly exaggerated in the first place.
BUT, I also suspect that Jewish overachievement is greatly exaggerated in the first place.
8/One reason for this is selection bias. Cheerleaders for Jewish achievement tend to assign Jewishness to successful people who are often only partly Jewish by ancestry and not Jewish by religion.
9/I know a few examples of this from physics, actually.
Take Niels Bohr, one of the inventors of quantum mechanics. Often hailed as a brilliant Jewish physicist.
But his dad wasn't Jewish!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Boh…
Take Niels Bohr, one of the inventors of quantum mechanics. Often hailed as a brilliant Jewish physicist.
But his dad wasn't Jewish!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Boh…
10/Wolfgang Pauli, another quantum mechanics pioneer, was a Catholic guy with partial Jewish ancestry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_…
But also commonly listed as a brilliant "Jewish" physicist.
But also commonly listed as a brilliant "Jewish" physicist.
11/Hans Bethe, similar story. Lutheran guy with one Jewish parent. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Beth…
These people are only Jewish by the definition of "Nazis would kill you".
These people are only Jewish by the definition of "Nazis would kill you".
12/The legend of Jewish super-intelligence is therefore a bit self-perpetuating. Cheerleaders tend to ascribe academic or business success only to the Jewish portions of a successful person's DNA.
13/The second reason Jewish overachievement may be dramatically overstated is that it could have been a temporary phenomenon, now fading.
14/In America, Jews used to be a hard-charging, hungry, upwardly mobile group of immigrants and the children of immigrants. That is mostly no longer true, and hasn't really been true for a while now.
slate.com/articles/brief…
slate.com/articles/brief…
15/There is evidence that Jewish Americans of my generation and younger don't outperform as much as their forebears.
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…
16/It seems possible that some minority groups, like Scottish people in the 1700s and 1800s, or Jewish people in the 1800s and 1900s, have periods of high achievement in certain countries, which blossom and then fade.
17/A psychologist I once asked about this question responded: "People used to ask why Jews are so smart. Now, everyone asks why Chinese people are so smart. In a few years, everyone will be asking why Nigerians are so smart."
18/So while claims of Jewish conspiracy are certainly fictitious, claims of Jewish superpowers seem likely to be highly exaggerated.
Thanks, though!
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Thanks, though!
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