ADL: 'Unprecedented' Global Anti-Semitism

[Al B. Sure!]

Has anyone pointed out yet that the idea of Group X having too much power only makes sense if you assume the group is unified or working together somehow? A disproportionate percentage of our presidents have been left-handed, but nobody wonders if lefties have too much power. Because the idea of southpaws banding together to promote Sinister interests is totally unknown to us. But there's plenty of precedent for the idea of Jewish conspiracies, so we're comfortable asking that kind of question about them. Even though it honestly doesn't make much more sense. They're a broadly scattered minority, and the traditional glue that once held them together--their religion--is not only split into three parts but losing its grip. Plenty of Jews these days are atheists. Are they supposed to be meeting up at the delicatessen, or what?

It didn't take secret meetings or even working together for Europeans to dominate the world the past 2-3 centuries.

[Ben Kenobi]

Whites have more power per capita than say Blacks. The median white has more power than the median Black. Even if we knew that the bottom 10th of whites were no better off than the bottom 10th of Blacks (which is not necessarily true), it would not affect the predictive ability of a model of privilege; race would still explain much of the variation in power; which could be measured in socioeconomic status, for example.

Go back 7 centuries this isn't the case. What was so special about white people 7 centuries ago that would lead to European hegemony? Did we somehow evolve and leave everyone behind?

[Dr Strangelove]

I'd wonder also how the questions translate into other languages and cultures. Does having too much power really mean the same thing in Chinese that it does in English?

[AAAAAAAAH!]

I'd wonder also how the questions translate into other languages and cultures. Does having too much power really mean the same thing in Chinese that it does in English?

Probably, unless the translators weren't very good and didn't translate "having too much power" well.

[molly bloom]

It didn't take secret meetings or even working together for Europeans to dominate the world the past 2-3 centuries.

No, it took a synthesis of Muslim/Jewish/Christian science/thinking, and a resource poor country (Portugal) to really get the party started.

Consider how easy it was for Portugal (by no means blessed with an abundance of natural resources or a huge population) to dominate the East African and Indian Ocean trade....


All thanks to a ship design that was a hybrid of European Christian/North African Muslim types and also with the aid of Jewish cartographers.

Couple that with European innovations in fortress design (as a result of the seemingly interminable European conflicts) and you have the impressive victories of Portugal over combined Arab/Turkish/Indian fleets...

[Elok]

Less eruditely, what the heck do you mean "not working together"? They generally competed on the international level, but even so, each sovereign state had the wealth, manpower and know-how of millions to draw on.

By comparison, the Jews were a stateless people until less than a hundred years ago. Most successful Jews have no particular connection to Israel, or to each other--Mr. Weinstein, in Hollywood, doesn't necessarily know the banker Rosenberg in New York (and if he does, he knows Rosenberg's partners Johnson, Williams and Forsythe just as well). Treating them collectively as "the Jews" is therefore misleading, and probably rooted in some sort of racism.

Now, Israel and AIPAC do pretty much have us by the short hairs, and in that very limited sense you could say "the Jews have too much power"--but that's mostly because we want them to. Americans, last I checked, overwhelmingly approved of supporting Israel. They feel a connection to the place, for reasons I personally don't get.

[Al B. Sure!]

They feel a connection to the place, for reasons I personally don't get.

Protestant Messianic Christianity

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Protestant Messianic Christianity

What type of Christianity isn't messianic?

[Hauldren Collider]

I'd wonder also how the questions translate into other languages and cultures. Does having too much power really mean the same thing in Chinese that it does in English?

You can't be serious.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

For all we know when we ask a Chinese person "do Jews have too much power" he might think we're asking "are rabbits purple carrot thieves?"

[Ben Kenobi]

They feel a connection to the place, for reasons I personally don't get.

What's hard to understand that? I get this and I'm not even American. The bible says that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. Americans are big fans of the bible.

[DaShi]

The Chinese are still isolated from much of the world. Give them a few decades and they will irrationally hate the Jews as much as the rest of the world.

[Lorizael]

Even Jews hate Jews. Trust me, I know.

[Sava]

Hitler was a Jew!

[molly bloom]

The bible says that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people.

Stunningly revelatory- a set of texts written for the most part by Jews tells us that a place they lived in was their 'homeland'.

This despite the fact that according to some of these selfsame scriptures, they were actually immigrants there.

What next ?