JEWS AND YOU AND JEWS

[Serapis Bey]

There wasn't a bigotry problem until the three Stooges rode in on their lame horses. Each of their bits of ignorance ends up in the garbage. Why not just eliminate the middle man.

It's true. We end up in the garbage. Better to eliminate the middle man. We have nothing to contribute but garbage.

You're Jewish, right?

The urge to censor is strong in you...

[Serapis Bey]

When it's only widespread political correctness that keeps people silent or hypocritical about Jews*, I say -

the hell with it.

Bring it on! Do your damndest - let's hear your worst.

That's the spirit!!!

I seem to recall you are Afrikaaner, right?

Any thoughts on Jewish culpability in the Boer War?

The swamp monster is surfacing again, only this time it can confronted, early and publicly.

Oh, I wouldn't worry too much. The Jewish community is two steps ahead of you. They know things are getting hot here in the States and are contemplating pulling up stakes and setting up shop in the East:

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/07/china-first-india-next-japan-last.html

I have to take a moment here and say that I am sincerely grateful for the presence of SuperJew Kolker on this forum -- he is the only one here who keeps me on my toes.

The rest of you guys are limpwristed nancyboys living in bubbles of ideology. Kolker knows the score.

"tikun olam" is Hebrew for "jihad", right?

;)

[Serapis Bey]

If opposing what B'nai B'rith, JINSA, AIPAC, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and many other Jewish groups have done over the years to destroy America is bigoted, racist, collectivist and anti-semitic, make the most of it.

Here is an example of horse and cart and code, trussed and immovable. It is not necessary to illuminate even one of the damned groups, nor to drop a fact or two about the damned groups and their work/aims/achievements. They are assumed to be destructive. They are assumed to be alien and threatening (to the white Us). They are damned first ... and then comes the switch.

Instead of explaining why any of us should presume that "opposing what Bnai Brith . . . has done to destroy America" is a good, and in place of arguing or proposing the actual mechanisms and activities that Bnai Brith has done to Destroy America, instead of 'showing the work,' the work is submerged in cant and hostility. By this non-argument's hidden premise, the only sane or rational response to Joo organization is presumed to be an angry opposition -- a mix of loathing, fear, other-izing, and rejection. Those who are revolted by lazy, coarse and unreflective summaries of Joo organizational perfidy would seem to be pre-damned themselves to the land of the blind, the lame and the halt -- pre-damned as PC fuzz, quislings, rectors and naifs.

The premise is this: Joo Orgs Destroy America, blargh blargh blah grrrrr.

What destruction have these organizations left in their wake? What have these dreadful and un-American groups (included the unmentioned 'other Joos') done to the USA? Where is the valid argument, and where is the reliable set of facts that leads to this wide-brush conclusion?

(of course the adherent of racialist presumptions about The Joo can also turn table on questioners ... to reject the complex of unwarranted conclusions and non-rational valuations offered is to be part of a different Them, a cohort of folks who cannot face up to facts as assumed).

Me, I find no understructure supporting such a wide antipathy to Joo things -- except for racial prejudice and thinking-in-groups.

Mark, your lines above appear disturbingly prejudicial and void of argument. Do you really want OLers to take as fed the large meal of hatred, to swallow whole the notions that each of these Joo Orgs has committed 'destruction' of America? Do you take it as given that Bnai Brith has (through its actions) 'destroyed' something? Do you take it as given that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society has 'destroyed' something over its century of existence, something which you (I/We) mourn? Do you believe that both AIPAC and JINSA have (in some way or in some part) destroyed America? If you answer to yourself yes to these queries, how would someone who does not share your racial antipathy gain traction on your beliefs and prejudices and presumptive conclusions?

Tell us. Tell us how The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society served to destroy. Tell us what exactly was destroyed, or is significantly damaged or in the process of destruction. Tell us how you arrived at your judgement. Please do not assume that your judgement is common currency.

You blowhard. Your logorrhea isn't fooling me. You know damn well that MSK is not allowing that kind of discussion here. He has deleted at least 6 of my measured posts in the service of Righteousness. To his credit, he allows nips and bites on OL, but the second we Evil Ones attempt to buttress our claims -- WHOOSH -- down they go into the circular file.

That is fine -- I understand he doesn't want a family blog to be poisoned by fringe kooks. But I will not stand by and allow you to

portray this seeming silence as our inability to answer your claims. You poof.

Quote

A rigid system of selection through the elimination of those who are weak or unfit — in other words social failures — would solve the whole question in one hundred years, as well as enable us to get rid of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals, and insane asylums. The individual himself can be nourished, educated and protected by the community during his lifetime, but the state through sterilization must see to it that his line stops with him, or else future generations will be cursed with an ever increasing load of misguided sentimentalism. This is a practical, merciful, and inevitable solution of the whole problem, and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased, and the insane, and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types.

LOL. So predictable. Spare me your lachrymose version of history. As I asked RB, have either Mark or myself advocated any course of action? No. We IDENTIFY before we EVALUATE. But it seems this identification as such is upsetting to certain people.

Need I remind you that eugenics was a science first endorsed by your Progressive forebears? (Looking at you Carol):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2698847

Going off topic for a moment, I have to address MSK's claim that Blacks and Mexicans would "fuck me up" for saying the things I do.

He is right for the most part. They would not like what I have to say. Not one bit. And the reason they would "fuck me up" is because the only means they have at their disposal are their fists. They are, for the most part, disenfranchinsed. But they understand force, and they employ force as the last resort to correct what they see as oppression. OK. I get that.

But where MSK errs is in thinking that Jews ALLOW me to say the things I do because they are not willing to "fuck me up." That is not true. Unlike poor Mexicans and Blacks, Jews live higher up on the food chain and have no need of fists. They use their minds and positions of influence to enforce censorship in the intellectual realm, and when that fails, they can simply ruin the apostate's life or career. Just look at Rick Sanchez. "Jews don't run the media! And we will CRUSH you for saying so." LOL

If you want to know where the power lies, then ask whom you cannot criticize. --Kevin Strom

[Selene]

Nope she is not ...

You're Jewish, right?

[BaalChatzaf]

You're Jewish, right?

Serapis Bey's 64 shekel question.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Ellen Stuttle]

If you bothered to read the article on neoconservativism I posted, you would have noticed the statement by the CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society: "The more diverse American society is the safer [Jews] are." That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

In case that that doesn't register, this quote from Earl Raab (executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council) should drive the point home:

The Census Bureau has just reported that about half of the American population will soon be non-white or non-European. And they will all be American citizens. We have tipped beyond the point where a Nazi-Aryan party will be able to prevail in this country. We [Jews] have been nourishing the American climate of opposition to ethnic bigotry for about half a century. That climate has not yet been perfected, but the heterogeneous nature of our population tends to make it irreversible

The swamp monster is surfacing again, only this time it can confronted, early and publicly.

Oh, I wouldn't worry too much. The Jewish community is two steps ahead of you. They know things are getting hot here in the States and are contemplating pulling up stakes and setting up shop in the East:

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/07/china-first-india-next-japan-last.html

Which is it? "The Jews" have achieved safety in the US or things are getting hot here and they're contemplating setting up shop elsewhere?

Ellen

[Ellen Stuttle]

Need I remind you that eugenics was a science first endorsed by your Progressive forebears? (Looking at you Carol):

http://www.michaelcrichton.com/essay-stateoffear-whypoliticizedscienceisdangerous.html

After World War II, nobody was a eugenicist, and nobody had ever been a eugenicist.

Ellen

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

We are not engaged in some childish tit-for-tat debate over which ethnic group has more "points."

SB,

Horseshit.

That's exactly what you're doing.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Brant,

See where this crap always goes?

You wanted to make sure nobody shut you up on a dark, dark issue (nobody's gonna tell me what to do goddammit), so you made a thread with a title in ALL CAPS about JEW JEW JEW. But you put me (and OL) in a bad spot. This gave me two choices, either sanction evil by giving it a LOUD voice or make regular posters feel they are being censored.

You know me enough by now to know I am not a bully or power monger. So please learn this: if I shut off discussions, I have good reasons.

And here is the main one in this case. Bigotry ALWAYS goes to where this thread goes. And it NEVER gets any better. Just look. That's my evidence.

I ended up choosing to serve OL members, but the price this time around is pretty damn high.

Now we have Jew this and Jew that and Jew everything and smartass comment here and smartass comment there and a whole lot of worthless garbage polluting this environment and making people irritated.

Does anyone feel intellectually enlightened by this stuff other than the bigots?

Who stands to gain and who stands to lose with this crap?

The bigots, that's who. And it doesn't matter whether folks agree with them. The bigots gain regardless.

To me that's obvious, since I have been running a forum for several years. This crap spoils the good thing we have going here. And the clowns who do it will never stop.

Ask yourself this. Does a bigot want honest discussion?

Then ask yourself, why do bigots always pollute places where people have honest discussions?

Is that an accident?

Or is it that they can't stand it when they see people using their own minds?

It is true that when I shut them down like closing a thread, I inadvertently have to shut down OL member interactions with them. But restricting OL members is never my intention. It's a result of not wanting this shit to stink up the forum and not knowing any other way to get it to stop.

Maybe there are other ways and I am not competent enough to know them. But I have to operate with the restrictions I have, including my own competence.

Now I have to let this garbage run for a little while longer or lose out on BOTH counts--sanction evil and offend OL members.

So I'll provide evil a platform and an audience a little while longer. And grit my teeth and wait for it to pass.

I believe you realized this when you asked me, in a hangdog voice, to close the thread.

You can't pet a rattlesnake like bigotry on the head, then whop it so you can laugh and expect it not to want to bite you. The rattlesnake's poison is reality and not just an attitude.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

It's funny.

I woke up feeling great and happy.

Now my high is blown.

Gonna get it back, though.

I most surely am.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Michael, I suggest you delete all posts after #22 and close the thread.

--Brant

or it's easily going to 50, even 100 posts

absent that change the title to "Bigotry" or "BIGOTRY" or some such

or change the title and close the thread, etc.

[Brant Gaede]

Reviewing this thread some more I'd just change the title. SB can't keep repeating himself, can he?

--Brant

or change the title and close the thread--my fav

[Brant Gaede]

OL is not the old free-wheeling Atlantis destroyed by Jimmy Wales, but is owned by Kat and Mike always run under the same rubric so there are posting guidelines and they don't have to put up with this type and level of conversation. That's a fact. It's still an extremely generous space.

--Brant

[Robert Baratheon]

I never realized my views on Jews constituted an "ideology". I thought I was simply pointing out facts about Jewish behavior. Have I advocated any normative prescriptions? I don't think so. If my facts are wrong, feel free to correct me. All I have seen on this forum are character assasinations and calls for censorship. Very few have chosen to engage me on the merits of my argument.

By the way, the reason you can't "defeat with logic an ideology that isnt based on logic" when it comes to Christians is because Christians make claims about the supernatural realm. Resurrection, the Holy Trinity, turning bread into wine, all that shit.

I'm an atheist and I deal in facts. Do me the favor of not lumping me into that group.

I call it an ideology because adherents are willing to abandon reason and discount the evidence whenever it gets in the way of their core and ultimate truth, which in this case is that "All Jews Are Bad (except those who aren't)." But the dogma could equally be "God So Loved The World..." or any other conclusion adopted through mental intuitive shortcutting where the evidence comes trailing after.

In contrast to The Other, I quickly abandoned arguing with creationists on the Internet Chess Club when I realized they weren't going to give fair weight to any evidence I could present. They didn't care about the fossil record or carbon dating - all "tricks" by scientists to discredit the Truth, you see. No, they were there for one purpose: to satisfy *themselves* that they were doing God's work by spreading His Word. By engaging them on those terms, I would only have been enabling their crusade as a sparring partner in a match where they doubled as referee.

Whereas creationists are generally too weak-minded to buck the yoke of their parents' dogma, my suspicion is you were drawn to antisemitic ideology for wholly different reasons: because of its subversive/taboo status in American society - which you haven't fit into neatly for a variety of reasons - and because it slaughters so many sacred cows of those in power with whom you do have legitimate gripes: academics, progressives, the media, the political class, and so on. I don't have the requisite familiarity to draw stronger conclusions, but I have noticed a pattern of you accepting with open arms the same type of self-reinforcing logic from anti-semitic authors that you would reject on its face if presented to you by progressives in support of their ideology.

I don't recall that being the modus operandi here. You are completely mistaken if you think pointing out Friedman was a libertarian speaks to my (or Mark's) concerns. We are not engaged in some childish tit-for-tat debate over which ethnic group has more "points." If that were the case, you would be justified in listing "Good Jews". To my knowledge, no one on this forum has put forth the absurd proposition that Jews are ALL BAD. Mark has pointed out repeatedly that we are not speaking of Jews in totality. I would like to think this doesn't need to be spelled out (apparently it does). So your desperate pointing out of counter-examples misses the point.

Neither are we saying that on balance, Jews are a net negative (although I'm sure Mark could give you a good argument). I think I can speak for Mark when I say our beef lies with the outsized influence the organized Jewish community has relative to their numbers in the population. Mark and I are concerned with Organized Jewry and the leaders of such organizations. Kolker might prefer to focus on scientific discoveries, but Mark and I are thinking of Organized Jewry's influence on society and government. A very different thing.

I don't think I'm mistaken there. You and Mark both led early with your laundry lists of "bad Jews" from history (Bolsheviks, etc.) followed by an I-could-continue catch-all statement, which was clearly meant to introduce the "bad Jews" into the record of a trial where The Jews - as a people - are in the defense hotseat. Then the wagon-circling of the faithful kicked in when I and others responded with our "good Jews" lists - all exceptions, not relevant to the broader trend, etc. It might not be racking up points per se, but it is cherrypicking the data and falling victim to a severe confirmation bias where the cart is leading the horse.

It doesn't particularly matter whether you are speaking about All Jews, Most Jews, or even Some Jews - qualify it however you want. What you are attempting to establish is a trend where "Jewishness" is the overriding (and troublingly convenient) problem - as opposed to the broader issues of progressivism, collectivism, and academia, which I feel are more legitimate targets of your ire. You might not be at the solutions stage of your analysis yet, but it does raise the legitimate question of "what's the point" when the benefits of any solutions - if the problem is correctly identified in the first place - will almost certainly outweigh the costs.

[moralist]

Wow... this thread itself validates the point that the Jews are God's chosen people far better than I ever could. What other tiny group of people could possibly possess the power to capture so much attention and cause such an outpour of emotional energy from so many people?

The Jews even caused the creation of the United Nations whose the sole purpose for existence is to sanction Israel.

I rest my case.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

M,

The Chosen Ones? It's a theory, I suppose.

I favor human psychology as the reason. Whenever there is bigotry involved, people tend to display a great deal of emotional energy (for and against the scapegoat). It's not rocket science to observe this all over the place.

You see similar engagement with racism, homosexuality, women's suffrage in the past, anti-Christian zealots, contempt of the poor or rich, and almost any form of attributing moral or mental character to an unrelated collective human root, then demonizing that collective.

Antisemitism does not have a monopoly on that, Chosen Ones or otherwise.

Also, your claim that the UN is caused by the Joos is weird. I've read lots of weird stuff about the UN, some plausible and some not, but that Joo Engine thingie is a first for me. And it's the weirdest.

(I'm beginning to like WSS's spelling of Joos.)

btw - I abhor all bigots--pro and con. To me the question is not for Jews or against Jews. I am against bigots who are for Jews or against Jews.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

When it's only widespread political correctness that keeps people silent or hypocritical about Jews*, I say -

the hell with it.

Bring it on! Do your damndest - let's hear your worst.

That's the spirit!!!

I seem to recall you are Afrikaaner, right?

Any thoughts on Jewish culpability in the Boer War?

Tony (whyNOT),

Since I'm leaving this thread open for educational reasons, I want to point out something to you that you might not have been aware of.

You have been played here as a sucker.

This dude couldn't care less about what you think. All he wants is to get you riled up enough to demand we "trounce the enemy."

The purpose of this manipulation is not to convince you of anything, but to enlist your energy in poisoning the environment. It's to keep the bigotry vibe chugging along front and center.

You qua Tony are expendable to a mind like this. A trifle who can be a useful idiot, but nothing more.

EDIT: btw - I'm not criticizing you. I'm merely pointing out that this stuff is a lot more vile than you might perceive. I hate to see you manipulated like that, but I have been, also. Nobody is immune, which is why I prefer to expose it right now.

Michael

[anthony]

I dunno - not my call, but I want to see the beast that's rising again in the world in the clear light of day..

SB puts it clearly, and provokes more thought.

Let's see, all of us here - purportedly individualists to a fault: some by character, many by character and ideology - should believe that a tiny group of people is a collective? that this collective has the cohesion, intent and power to dominate other races or cultures?

So, we should collectivize ourselves in order to oppose this other collective? So much for individualism, then.

The first thing to go, with racial prejudice and fear, is a sense of proportion. We are asked to accept that 0.2% of the world (at 15.2 mil) and 1 to 2 % of the USA (at 5.4 mil) has designs of control. A Jewish Jihad. Hilarious. A back-handed compliment, if ever there was...

(Reminiscent of what I feel like saying to Europeans who fear "Islamicization" : If it can ever possibly happen in your country - well, you had it coming by your failed policies and philosophy.)

The main thing is, I haven't the faintest idea of who "The Jews" actually are.

Saying this as the son of a Jewish mother (albeit, without religious instruction in Judaism, and a long-time atheist), as a colleague, client, friend of many Jews: this is an individualistic, often rambunctious bunch of people who would as sooner disagree

with each other, than anyone. (Yes, I've taken issue and had fiery debates about their often leftist-leanings, for what I view as dangerously misplaced faith in the State to protect individuals and minorities from oppression; but we understand where they are coming from.)

Racism, the most primitive category of collectivism, defeats the racist as much as anyone else.

It is insanely out of touch with reality and reason to judge 'the one', as representative of the whole - equally, that a popularly-collectivised notion of the whole group, is sufficient to judge the one.

The family you are born in to defines your life and its potential for self-direction? Oh, please.

[moralist]

btw - I abhor all bigots--pro and con. To me the question is not for Jews or against Jews. I am against bigots who are for Jews or against Jews.

Michael

Fair enough, Michael.

Thanks for allowing me to offer my minority view of positive bigotry as a counterpoint to the prevailing negative bigotry. My favorable disposition toward Jews ( that should be qualified as decent Jews) is the result of over 30 years of personal business experience. So it was not arrived at lightly. It was not a view which was reverse engineered from a theory, but rather from the overwhelming weight of direct personal evidence confirming a pre existing fact.

They have blessed my life.

Greg

[anthony]

Thanks, Michael (our posts crossed).

Some things just won't go away - Jews, more than anyone on Earth know the truth of the adage of being condemned to repeat history if you forget it. The harder the times, the more that many people search out for their scapegoat. Like with everyone else, as you've responded to with anti-Muslim remarks, one finds the great, the mediocre and the bad amongst Jews - but it bothers me deeply that this tiny tribe on the edge of survival has always been the perennial 'go to' victim for bigots' insecurities and fears.

I'm trying to learn about the mindset, that's all. I do ultimately, if sometimes with less certainty, believe that better thinking will prevail. The racist has nothing really, and that's his little secret; it's all bluff and bluster which he must be called on.

But up to you, how far it should go.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Let's see, all of us here - purportedly, individualists to a fault: some by character, others by character and ideology - should believe that a tiny group of people is a collective? that this collective has the cohesion, intent and power to dominate other races or cultures?

So, we should collectivize ourselves in order to oppose this other collective? So much for individualism, then.

Tony,

The question is not collectivizing here on OL. It's a question of private property. And some other things.

1. I, personally, don't want to provide a platform for bigots to promote their agenda. It's my choice. I don't allow that in my home, so why should I allow it at my other property?

I agree that a forum involves the participation of other people, so it's not exactly like a home. It's more like a clubhouse where my friends can come and go, including their friends, and others who show up off the street. If you owned a clubhouse like that, would you want people preaching bigotry in it? Or would you throw the bums out when they do show up?

This is actually easier when it's physical. You get in the bigot's face, grab him by the scruff of the neck and throw him to the curb. And if he gets nasty, you kick his ass while you're doing it.

In a virtual environment, each one of us has our own perceptions and imaginations. That puts a greater distance between what is actually going on and everyone perceiving the same thing.

When it's physical, we all have eyes and ears, so there is little doubt about what's there. Is the person a loud drunk? Is he a snarky sleaze? Is he someone in great pain? You can see him and hear him. The same phrase would sound totally different in the mouths of these three. And that's just one example. The point is, there's a lot more than words to evaluate someone when you are physically in his presence.

When virtual text is all you've got, readers simply read words differently than others. This is one of the reasons I am more flexible and prefer to work this stuff out by discussion on OL. People need time to adjust that movie that constantly runs in their minds to what everyone else is saying they see.

btw - This does not let SB off the hook. This difference between sensory data and only words is easily exploited. I can recommend some excellent texts on persuasion and manipulation by the written word alone.

2. As I keep saying, there is more going on than just the surface issue. Do you, Tony, want to discuss tendencies and traditions and habits within the Jewish community? Fine. I can do that with you easily. This is because to us, a virtue like encouraging education (which is a typical attitude among Jews) is also the same virtue when practiced by blacks, homosexuals, Eskimos, soccer players, Objectivists, people from Bangladesh, or even politicians. We notice that Jewish people practice virtues X Y and Z, or have bad habits A B and C and our reference is all of humanity.

in other words, this discussion stays on the surface. We discuss the habit and that's the long and short of it. There is no hidden agenda.

But the bigot attributes a magic or genetic essence to this stuff (he doesn't call it magic, of course), and when there is no magical moral intellectual essence, he presumes a sinister ulterior motive. For example, Jews educate themselves because they need the knowledge to rule others. That kind of crap. And this attitude permeates everything he writes.

I hate to sound tautological, but a bigot does bigoted things because he (or she) is a bigot. He can't not do bigoted things. He's a bigot. Dogs bark. Snakes slither. Shit stinks. It's what he is. Bigotry must be a magical essence or genetc or something.

Whatever it is, it's disgusting.

Anyway, there is one thing a bigot can't stand. He can't stand to be alone and unseen. He either needs validation from a group or he needs to nurture a secret self-image that he is some kind of courageous hero going where others dare not tread, or a martyr to the "truth." And he needs an audience for his hero and/or martyr delusion. This is why discussion doesn't work. He doesn't want ideas. All he wants is for people to stop doing what they are doing and look at him being bigoted.

He craves this.

So tell me, why should OL be a stage for a crappy performance like that? The purpose here is to discuss ideas, not scratch neurotic itches and dress it up as ideas.

Who stands to gain if we do that? Do you really think you will help defeat "the beast" that way? This is not even a beast. It's someone wasting his life. He's to be pitied.

3. This is the most important thing of all. The Sufis say you become what you gaze upon. In all my Internet marketing and self-help studies, I have always found one common piece of advice: get away from negative and neurotic people. They don't produce anything, but they will keep you from producing.

This wisdom even takes this idea to watching too much news on TV. That will suck the life right out of you.

Bigots certainly have that effect on me.

I don't want bigots around me because I have productive things to do. And bigots get me mad and that leads me to make long posts that are really not productive or even uplifting. Bigots get in my way. (I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, too.)

These are only three reasons, but since you are someone I esteem a lot, I think it's a good thing to discuss them with you.

These three reasons are--partially--why I do not want OL to become a platform for the melodrama of bigots preaching their spite and others "trouncing" them. You don't win that way. The bigots set the terms that way, thus they win.

There is only one way to win: stop focusing on bigotry. Let bigots stew in their own bile and go elsewhere.

This doesn't mean don't discuss it. You and I and most everyone on OL can discuss it all day and there is no problem. Our frame is goodness and reason.

But it does mean don't pretend a bigot is an honest intellect. Do not grant him the same intellectual status you have worked so hard to provide your own precious mind with. If you come across a bigot, don't let him entangle you in defending the obvious. Just dismiss him like you would any cult member who is evangelizing.

Of course, do as you wish. But that's my advice.

Michael

[Robert Baratheon]

I think the really unfortunate aspect of antisemitism isn't the ideology itself - people are free to believe whatever silly things they wish, even when the inevitable result is bitterness and social ostracism. Rather, it's that they recognize Jews have a successful culture that strives for excellence in education and productive market activity (in contrast to many other cultures), and instead of trying to emulate the positive aspects, their impulse is to instead tear down and destroy or whine about the unfairness of it all.

I attended a Jewish day school for much of my childhood and they worked us like dogs. It's laughable to imagine a 10-year-old doing 2-4 hours of math and writing homework per night in an American public school, but that's exactly how I spent most of my evenings instead of shooting hoops outside or riding bicycles. This was always within broader context of getting into a good college (which you MUST do or you are a FAILURE) and then getting a prestigious job that earns good money. Now it's an open question whether all of this guilt and prodding is going a bit overboard, but what I can say is I've carried that work ethic for the rest of my life and most future tasks have seemed relatively easy by comparison. I'm widely seen as one of the hardest workers in my office, even though I'm frequently only working half as hard as I could be (but that's another topic entirely).

There was a New York Times article recently about an exclusive free magnet school in New York that is now composed mainly of Asian immigrants who score well on its standardized tests after countless hours of study at the behest of their parents. I don't complain about this, or rally "the Whites" or "the Jews," or ask what is to be done because it's not a bug in the first place - it's a feature. Good for them, I say. They are our future businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and scientists. I don't see how we would be better off to shame them and ship them back to China. We'd be a dumber and poorer country without them.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

They have blessed my life.

Greg,

I have no problem with blessings.

And I even resonate with your enthusiasm. I, too, go overboard when I feed gratitude.

My issue is making exaggerations that lead others to hatred or that pokes a stick at the wounds of their hatred.

Exaggerations never work in the long haul for getting rid of it. They actually increase the hatred and strengthen it. But the truth can be devastating when enough people stand by it.

Michael

[9thdoctor]

Fellow OLers: if Serapis is an anti-semite I'd know, we'd certainly have talked about it at some point. Fact is sometimes he goes down some crackpot rabbit-hole, Peak Oil (for instance) being among of his obsessions a few years ago, now he never mentions it. Anyway, I got him to agree to read The Prague Cemetery, we'll see how that goes.

The sponsor (in the book, and probably in fact) of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, Pyotr Rachkovsky, speaking:

For the enemy to be recognized and feared, he has to be in your home or on your doorstep. Hence the Jews. Divine providence has given them to us, and so, by God, let us use them, and pray there's always some Jew to fear and to hate. We need an enemy to give people hope. Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards; those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and the bastards always talk about the purity of the race. National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same. Hatred has to be cultivated as a civic passion...Hatred warms the heart.

Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery, pages 341-342

[moralist]

They have blessed my life.

Greg,

I have no problem with blessings.

And I even resonate with your enthusiasm. I, too, go overboard when I feed gratitude.

My issue is making exaggerations that lead others to hatred or that pokes a stick at the wounds of their hatred.

Exaggerations never work in the long haul for getting rid of it. They actually increase the hatred and strengthen it. But the truth can be devastating when enough people stand by it.

Michael

That may hold true for dishonest exaggeration, except that I'm not engaging in that behavior, Michael.

When I started my own business 34 years ago, the very first man for whom I did work was Jew. He liked my work and recommended me to his relatives, his friends, and his business associates. My whole business originated from one man.

To this day I have never spent one penny on advertising or promotion in any form, as all of my business is solely by recommendation from one person to another. Since people with shared moral values associate with each other, I'm blessed with an abundance of people with whom I do business, all of whom also share my moral values.

In business, trust is the invisible glue which holds everything good and right and true together. So when the trustworthy uphold the trust of those who are worthy of their trust, the wealth creating engine of Capitalism achieves perpetual motion because it has no internal friction. Today I am completely financially independent and never need to worry about money for the rest of my life... and everything unfolded from one Jew who blessed my life.

Greg