The Chosen People, a book review by Byron Roth

[YDB95]

Jewish prsecution was different all right. It was longer, and eventually more lethal.

Was it illegal to teach Jews to read for hundreds of years? No, it was not. Furthermore, the persecution had the perverse effect of many Jewish families amassing a fortune over several generations (since they weren't allowed to own land, the money passed down from one generation to the next simply went in the bank), enabling them to buy the best education money could buy. If the best schools wouldn't admit Jews - which was too often the case - they had the resources to build their own.

Bottom line, there are a number of concrete reasons why Jews look smarter than Blacks on paper for reasons that have nothing to do with nature. You just choose to ignore them because they don't fit with what you want to believe.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Was it illegal to teach Jews to read for hundreds of years? No, it was not. Furthermore, the persecution had the perverse effect of many Jewish families amassing a fortune over several generations (since they weren't allowed to own land, the money passed down from one generation to the next simply went in the bank), enabling them to buy the best education money could buy. If the best schools wouldn't admit Jews - which was too often the case - they had the resources to build their own.

Bottom line, there are a number of concrete reasons why Jews look smarter than Blacks on paper for reasons that have nothing to do with nature. You just choose to ignore them because they don't fit with what you want to believe.

Jews taught each other to read.

 

[YDB95]

Jews taught each other to read.

Then you agree with my point. Good to know.

 

[Politruk]

List several of those third world countries.

Here:

Significant rises in IQ[edit]​

Over 14 years (1984-1998), a study found that IQ scores in Kenyan children increased by 11.22 to 26.3 IQ points depending on how test results were converted into IQ, an increase greater than the Flynn effect in developed countries.[64] Since the population essentially remained genetically identical throughout the 14-year period, Daley et al. (2003) proposed that improved healthcare, nutrition, parental literacy, smaller families, and education as explanations. The authors note that parasitic diseases (which cause anemia and thereby reduce intelligence) and malnutrition declined over the 14-year period.[64] Under the 11.22 IQ points per 14 years conclusion, a gain of 24 points could occur over 30 years according to the Flynn effect, assuming that environmental conditions continue to improve.[64] This shows that improvements to the environment can have an appreciable effect on IQ, thereby casting doubt on the use of raw IQ data to prove racial superiority.

Underreporting of African IQ[edit]​

Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) found that many Subsaharan African countries had IQs in the 60s and 70s.[65] The book was co-authored by Richard Lynn, who has been funded by the Pioneer Fund, and is the source of the colour-coded map of IQ often used by "race realists".[66] Data points used by Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) are almost always unrepresentative. Hilariously, the IQ of 59 for Equatorial Guinea given by Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) is actually from a study of developmentally-disabled children in Spain.[65] Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) has been criticized by Wicherts et al. (2009) for using lower IQ data points while not including higher IQs (possibly unintentional because they may not have had access to scientific journals from Africa).[67] The report calls below-70 mean IQ figures for Subsaharan Africans "untenable", and estimates a mean IQ of around 81 after correction for methodological issues.[67] The difference between an IQ of sixty-something and an IQ of 81 is important: after correcting for the Flynn effect, the pure-Nordic Danish population in the 1950s would also have had an IQ of around 80.[67] Thus, more realistic estimations of African IQ might permit it to rise to first-world levels through the Flynn effect given sufficient economic development.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Then you agree with my point. Good to know.

My point is that the Jews have always made the best of slender opportunities:

Jewish immigrants to America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also repudiated criminality despite having to face extreme economic deprivation. Historian Max Dimont describes them:

“The majority of these immigrants had arrived penniless, all their worldly belongings wrapped in a bundle…. Most of [them] arrived in New York. Some made their way into other cities,… but the majority remained in New York, settling in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, [which was] a neighborhood of the poor. Sociologists, with their impressive charts showing the number of toilets (or lack of the), the number of people per room, the low per capita income, paint a dismal picture of the Lower East Side Jewish slum. But their charts do not capture its uniqueness. Though it bred tuberculosis and rheumatism, it did not breed crime and venereal disease. It did not spawn illiteracy, illegitimate children, or deserted wives. Library cards were in constant use.”[2]

https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/other/poverty-crime/

 

[JohnEngelman]

Here:

Significant rises in IQ[edit]​

Over 14 years (1984-1998), a study found that IQ scores in Kenyan children increased by 11.22 to 26.3 IQ points depending on how test results were converted into IQ, an increase greater than the Flynn effect in developed countries.[64] Since the population essentially remained genetically identical throughout the 14-year period, Daley et al. (2003) proposed that improved healthcare, nutrition, parental literacy, smaller families, and education as explanations. The authors note that parasitic diseases (which cause anemia and thereby reduce intelligence) and malnutrition declined over the 14-year period.[64] Under the 11.22 IQ points per 14 years conclusion, a gain of 24 points could occur over 30 years according to the Flynn effect, assuming that environmental conditions continue to improve.[64] This shows that improvements to the environment can have an appreciable effect on IQ, thereby casting doubt on the use of raw IQ data to prove racial superiority.

Underreporting of African IQ[edit]​

Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) found that many Subsaharan African countries had IQs in the 60s and 70s.[65] The book was co-authored by Richard Lynn, who has been funded by the Pioneer Fund, and is the source of the colour-coded map of IQ often used by "race realists".[66] Data points used by Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) are almost always unrepresentative. Hilariously, the IQ of 59 for Equatorial Guinea given by Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) is actually from a study of developmentally-disabled children in Spain.[65] Lynn and Vanhansen (2006) has been criticized by Wicherts et al. (2009) for using lower IQ data points while not including higher IQs (possibly unintentional because they may not have had access to scientific journals from Africa).[67] The report calls below-70 mean IQ figures for Subsaharan Africans "untenable", and estimates a mean IQ of around 81 after correction for methodological issues.[67] The difference between an IQ of sixty-something and an IQ of 81 is important: after correcting for the Flynn effect, the pure-Nordic Danish population in the 1950s would also have had an IQ of around 80.[67] Thus, more realistic estimations of African IQ might permit it to rise to first-world levels through the Flynn effect given sufficient economic development.

Like most studies of this nature you reject findings you do not want to accept.

My explanation of the Flynn Effect is that it has always been easier to test what has been learned, than the ability to learn. Early IQ tests assumed, for example, that intelligent people would know that Copernicus was an astronomer, rather than a novelist. As education becomes more widespread, more people will get a question about Copernicus right.

There are new IQ tests now that require no knowledge of writing, no knowledge of mathematics, and that can be explained without using language.

 

[YDB95]

My point is that the Jews have always made the best of slender opportunities:

As much abuse as they had to put up with, though, they were able to teach one another to read because they could read in the first place. Slaves in the antebellum US did not have that option except in the rare case where a member of the master's family was willing to break the law and teach them to read. That...did not happen often.

 

[JohnEngelman]

As much abuse as they had to put up with, though, they were able to teach one another to read because they could read in the first place. Slaves in the antebellum US did not have that option except in the rare case where a member of the master's family was willing to break the law and teach them to read. That...did not happen often.

That was a longtime ago.

 

[YDB95]

That was a longtime ago.

Not as long as we like to think, and even after slavery was abolished, most Blacks had only access to vastly inferior education opportunities for generations. To some extent that is still the case today.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Read the whole article. The experiment has been repeated with the same results.

I have read the whole article and you, and it, are misunderstanding what genetic "race" testing is. And what IQ can measure. And what infant and maternal mortality means. And what the implications of variations between populations are. And the impact of how and when something is measured. And observer bias. That's all really.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Jews endured over a thousand years of persecution. This culminated in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, today Jews are the most accomplished 0.2% of the human species.

Maybe you should read the article properly yourself. It concludes that the awful and repeated persecution likely is not responsible for the measured IQ differences.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Maybe you should read the article properly yourself. It concludes that the awful and repeated persecution likely is not responsible for the measured IQ differences.

Ashkenazi Jews owe their intelligence to the fact that for at least one thousand years they were not allowed to own land or to participate in most trades. Thy were allowed to lend money. Finance requires intelligence. Jewish men who could not learn the necessary skills had no children, or they left the faith.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Not as long as we like to think, and even after slavery was abolished, most Blacks had only access to vastly inferior education opportunities for generations. To some extent that is still the case today.

Washington DC public schools are among the best financed. They get among the lowest test scores.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Not as long as we like to think, and even after slavery was abolished, most Blacks had only access to vastly inferior education opportunities for generations. To some extent that is still the case today.

The different races look differently from each other. They have spent thousands of years evolving in response to different population pressures. Why should we assume that they are of different average intelligence, especially when there is no evidence of that equality?

Brilliant people are found in each of the races, although they are in different percentages.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Ashkenazi Jews owe their intelligence to the fact that for at least one thousand years they were not allowed to own land or to participate in most trades. Thy were allowed to lend money. Finance requires intelligence. Jewish men who could not learn the necessary skills had no children, or they left the faith.

I mean there is literally no reason to believe that theory. At all.

 

[JohnEngelman]

I mean there is literally no reason to believe that theory. At all.

What is obvious is the high average intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews, despite the persecution they have suffered. There can be various explanations for that. They are all genetic. The Ashkenazim are the Herrenvolk. They are born to prosper and rule. As intelligence becomes increasingly important to our economy and technology the wealth and power of the Ashkenazim will increase. I love to watch Jews move up, move in, take over.

 

[Winter_Fare]

What is obvious is the high average intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews, despite the persecution they have suffered. There can be various explanations for that. They are all genetic. The Ashkenazim are the Herrenvolk. They are born to prosper and rule. As intelligence becomes increasingly important to our economy and technology the wealth and power of the Ashkenazim will increase. I love to watch Jews move up, move in, take over.

Every time you post you make a bigger idiot of yourself. Careful you don't lose your own head up your arse.

 

[JohnEngelman]

Every time you post you make a bigger idiot of yourself. Careful you don't lose your own head up your arse.

If that is all you can do I do not need to fear losing a debate to you in an environment that respects facts, and that prohibits insults, name calling, and obscene words.

 

[Winter_Fare]

If that is all you can do I do not need to fear losing a debate to you in an environment that respects facts, and that prohibits insults, name calling, and obscene words.

You haven't paid any attention to a single point I or anyone else has made on this thread therefore I'm not at all worried about insulting you. Like everything else, it will sail straight over your head.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Jews taught each other to read.

Judging from the vast amount of carnage in Gaza, they have also apparently taught each other how to murder the elderly, the sick and the very young. They've become quite agents of efficient Arabic civilian massacre.

I'm guessing Talmudic doctrine doesn't contain any restrictions or prohibitions about the slaughter of non-Jewish people.

Either that, or current political considerations now give "God's Chosen People" some leeway in desecrating their God.

'Pogroms today! Pograms tomorrow! Pogroms FOREVER!" is an apt replacement for the milquetoast "Israel has a right to exist".

 

[AnomalyLady]

Judging from the vast amount of carnage in Gaza, they have also apparently taught each other how to murder the elderly, the sick and the very young. They've become quite agents of efficient Arabic civilian massacre.

I'm guessing Talmudic doctrine doesn't contain any restrictions or prohibitions about the slaughter of non-Jewish people.

Either that, or current political considerations now give "God's Chosen People" some leeway in desecrating their God.

'Pogroms today! Pograms tomorrow! Pogroms FOREVER!" is an apt replacement for the milquetoast "Israel has a right to exist".

Covert antisemite

 

[RobDownSouth]

Oh look, a purveyor of the Blood Libel Thinks Richard Lynn is a pseudo scientist, and Charles Murray is a crank.

Noted crank and former racial apologist Charles Murray opined on what constitutes a living wage in America, showing how clueless and out of touch he was in 2025. The Internet howled at Murray's ignorance once again....

https://twitter.com/x/status/1941931632556143063

 

[JohnEngelman]

Covert antisemite

There is nothing covert about RobDownSouth's hatred for the most superior 0.2% of the human species.

I do not use the word "antisemite" because Palestinians are Semites. The only Palestinians I care about are the Christian Palestinians.

 

[JohnEngelman]

If they're so smart, why do they use the blood of gentile babies to make matzoh?

reported

 

[goldytheGoldfish]

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-third-...y-lower-average-IQ-than-first-world-countries