Race & Ethnicity: Jews Are So Smart! S-M-R-T

I run a Google search on every search term that leads someone to my blog. I like learning where I’m indexed, building knowledge on how to get indexed, and seeing what other results pop up that someone may have clicked on. Since most of my blogs deal with offbeat issues of race/ethnicity/culture and global scams/cults, I rank highly for some very weird search terms. I get to find out some very interesting things as a side-effect of my own writing.

I vaguely remember reading this Economist article on a proposed theory of the evolution of intelligence among Ashkenazi Jews. You can’t read that article without subscribing… but now is as good a time as any to do so. That’s not even an affiliate link; I get nothing out of it other than the joy of spreading knowledge.

Race & Ethnicity, Pt. 0.5: IQ & Culture

A predendum. It’s always nice to “make up a word” then Google it and realize 476 other people had the same idea. The old game of Googlewhacking follows the elusive search for two (real) words that result in only one Google hit. Harder than you might think; a search for “reticular thrombosis” (without the quotes) resulted in 74,600 hits, and I have no idea what either of those words mean.

Now that I’m starting to see Google searches leading people to my blog, I’m compelled to further explain my position. When it comes to questions of race and ethnicity, IQ is a fairly “advanced” topic. Not the most important, but it plays a role and is largely ignored. There’s plenty of information out there, but it isn’t covered often and there are no easy answers. Of course, it’s near-impossible to honestly discuss racism without coming off as racist.

I don’t mind being called racist, but I’d like it to be for the right reasons.

Race & Ethnicity, Pt. 1: IQ

Edit – 8/3/07: I highly suggest reading this first.

Edit – 7/25/07:

I don’t like anything I wrote in this blog. Walking on eggshells to avoid saying something offensive, and in the end saying nothing. There’s this argument privately raging between academics and others who have a stake in the issue of race & intelligence, with both sides hijacking what is already highly imperfect science (psychometrics) to serve ideology. What’s the difference between white supremacists who skew scientific data to “prove” their beliefs in a highly selective fashion, and a hack like Stephen J. Gould doing the same thing to fit his ideology? There is one difference: nobody expects honesty from self-proclaimed racists, but they do from academics.

Nobody can truly claim to have answers in this field because it’s impossible to identify and adjust for all factors. Only racist groups want there to be data showing a difference in intelligence on racial/ethnic lines. A rare truth in the issue is that nobody can unequivocally state there is not a difference. This doesn’t mean that there is, only that it cannot be stated with certainty that there is not. Even saying that just sounds horribly racist. Which is what appeals to me, I suppose – the utter disregard for the most basic of PC principles.

It all comes back to “why does it matter?” I want to say it holds some importance in understanding how the world works, and maybe it does. For the most part, I just enjoy the passion in which people attack one another and the multiple levels of deception employed by each side.

End edit, gibberish following…

P.S. Read Truex’s comment. He thinks all Jews are usurious moneylenders. Ha ha ha.