37 Comments
Apr 20, 2021Liked by Noah Smith

Wondering if you ever read or reacted to Scott Alexander’s piece on this? https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-considered-as-hungarian-high-school-science-fair-project/

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But why do religious minorities overachieve? Is this just because there's a smaller population size so they have a higher deviation from the overall population mean? (are there just as many underachieving religious minorities?) Or do religious minorities tend to overachieve for some reason? Because that reason would be very interesting.

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Apr 20, 2021Liked by Noah Smith

These are the kind of posts I subscribe to you for (even if I initially thought I was subscribing to a Late Nite Noah substack). 😓😓😓

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Education (along with urbanization) may have something to do with it. At the start of the Industrial Revolution and when Britain was expanding its empire, Scotland had 4 ancient unis from the medieval period, a couple in its biggest cities while much more populous England had only 2 and they were in college towns, not London where the action is/was.

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Makes you think.

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Did you see this direct rebuttal to your post from Scott Alexander? "Contra Smith on Jewish Selective Immigration": https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/contra-smith-on-jewish-selective

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I have a theory. The major religions, excluding Jewry, place a human being (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha) between themselves and the Creator. Jews don't do that.

As a result, what Jews believe in is infinite, unknowable and without limit. Pretty good traits to have back on Earth when trying to figure out things.

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Perhaps Ashkenazi Jewish achievement has something to do with the Flynn effect. Because of European restrictions on where Jews could live and what they could do in Europe, Jewish people were confined to a few professions, mostly in cities and mostly involving symbolic manipulation. Therefore, Jewish communities in Europe developed as WEIRD people before others, and also saw their IQ's raised before other groups that were not living in cities dealing with abstraction and symbolic manipulation.

The other really convincing argument from above is that the first one: Ashkenazi Jewish emigration to the US, and also to Israel, was selective, sadly.

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"I can easily see the same happening to Jews, especially given ultra-low Jewish fertility rates"

Pew did a study on american jews and they found a fertility rate of 1.9 children per woman aged 40-49, compared to 2.2 for US adults. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2013/10/jewish-american-full-report-for-web.pdf I would not describe that as "ultralow", probably similar to most of the OECD and well higher than east asia or southern europe, if you control for education/race its probably the same as americans as a whole. Israel has very high fertility rates, easily the highest in the world among advanced economies.

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I would also say that in America, among other high-skilled immigrant groups, Jews could pass most easily for White. In Europe, where culture wasn't defined as White vs. Black, that meant that Jews were looked on as "chameleons" who deceptively blended in. But in America, where culture IS defined primarily as White vs. Black, being a Jew in many ways was like being "Class 1b", instead of second-class.

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Posting this is like saying "beetlejuice" three times, but for Steve Sailer.

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My instinct is that significantly lower rates of alcohol use and abuse is a chunk of dark matter explaining the above-average outcomes. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2095014

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Another example of the sheer genius of the Jews lies in the Hebrew Bible !

The Israeli gobbling of Palestine – as Israel is the name of Jacob,the son of Isaac ! It is NOT deft diplomacy and geopolitics - it is the divine destiny of the Jews (as per the Jews)

“Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel since you have striven with god and men and have prevailed” (Genesis – 32:29).

Israel Gobbling Palestine by deception and treachery,is all a part of the lineage of Jacob,who cheated Esau and His father Isaac ! This is Isaac the son of ABRAHAM the PROPHET ! But as per Maimonides,this was NOT a Cheating – as Yaweh had PROMISED Jacob’s mother that he would be the successor,and Isaac TRIED TO BREAK THAT COVENANT

Hence,the THEFT of Jacob (and the cheating of his father Isaac) was justified,and so is the Israeli occupation as – BENJY IS FULFILING THE PROPHECY MADE BY YAWEH to REBECCA (the mother of Jacob !)

The Israelis do NOT CARE for what the world THINKS – as they view the opinions of the world,as that of ESAU (the twin of Jacob)

Mr Esau said that JACOB was RIGHTLY named JACOB,as he was a CHEAT ! (God Bless !)

Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing” (Genesis 27:36).

THIS IS THE GENIUS OF THE JEWS AND JACOB ! HE CHEATED ESAU TWICE - AND ESAU DID NOTHING !

Y Israelis care a CAHOOT for the world – is that ,as per Genesis – Yaweh also came to JACOB, and promised him success and glory (AFTER HE CHEATED HIS FATHER AND BROTHER),and that the whole world will bow to his lineage (which is the state of the Jews today – so the Jews of Israel AND THE USA ,see it as fulfiling that prophecy !)

ALMOST THE ENTIRE WORLD IS KOW TOWING TO THE LINEAGE OF JACOB ! dindooohindoo

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Jews believe they are the Master race

Yaweh said to Abraham that he gave to HIS SEED the land from the Nile to the Euphrates !

Genesis 15:18

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land— from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates”

— But Yaweh did NOT say – for how long ! That Dream died with David and Solomon – and then, the Curse of Solomon on the Jews began !

AND SO THE JEWS CAME TO THE LAND OF THE BRAVE - THE USA AND THEY OWN IT !

Look at the latest escapade in GAZA in May 2021 !

IT ALL STARTED WITH AN ISRAELI SETTLER STEALING AND OPENLY CLAIMING TO STEAL THE LAND OF A PALESTINIAN

The quote of the Israeli on “If I do not steal…………..” is a lift from the Sanhedrin Talmud.The Philosophy is that Goyim and Gentiles are inept (which may be be true) and undeserving of any serious possessions (and this is NOT a ethical or righteous stand) – and so,it is BETTER,that wealth be in the hands of the Israelis !

So the Settler,is merely following the Talmud – which SUPERSEDES TORAH and the HEBREW BIBLE,as under:

Baba Mezia 24a . If a Jew finds an object lost by a gentile (“heathen”) it does not have to be returned. (Affirmed also in Baba Kamma 113b).

Sanhedrin 57a. What a Jew steals from a gentile he may keep.(MY INTERPRETATION – But the Jew MIGHT make a compensation !)

Baba Kamma 37b. The gentiles are outside the protection of the law and God has “exposed their money to Israel.”

IF THE JEWS CONTROL AND NAVIGATE THE GEOPOLITICS - THEN MANAGING THE MONEY AND POLITICS IN USA IS EASY MEAT ! dindooohindoo

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Contra the India claim, most Indians in US are Brahmins (>80% by my estimates). Brahmins were the priestly cast, and were often the keepers of knowledge for thousands of years (Caste intermarriage was rare). In other words, they faced similar selective pressures as that of the Jews. So in general their IQ is estimated to be quite high, around that of Jews, thus they succeed in America. The fact that Richest Indians managed to leave US is not true, the richest Indians after independence were parsees, marwaris, and baniyars (trading / merchant castes). They live in huge joint families and often own businesses in excess of tens of millions of dollars. Most of them stayed back in India, it is mainly the Brahmin diaspora that left (this can be verified by looking at surnames). The Brahmins managed to leave by getting into grad school in US (with scholarship), sometimes undergrad and then settling in US. They often fully dominated the seats in the top Indian Colleges (IITs) to the point that most IIT's to this date have only veg messes because orthodox Brahmins are pure vegetarians. However only around 15% of India is vegetarian. I suspect now around 70% of students in IIT in the non reserved category (50% of seats in all centrally funded colleges are reserved for lower caste students) are Brahmins while in the past it would be close to 100%. They succeed so spectacularly in academia that in the professors of the top 50 Computer Science schools in US, almost a 110 of them come from the IIT's in India. (Analysis done by Brown University). So contra your point, both Jews and Indian diaspora in US provide evidence for sucess due to higher than average IQ.

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