The evolutionary psychologist Kevin MacDonald’s theory in his book _The Culture of Critique_ is that Jews heavily favored and/or lobbied for non-white immigration to produce a more pluralistic, multicultural, society that would be safer for Jews. (But see Nathan Cofnas’ criticisms of MacDonald and his replies.) This is not a conspiracy per se because it was more or less done in the open; however, it’s doubtful that if whites had been explicitly told at that time (i.e., prior to massive anti-racist state propaganda), that they would eventually be a minority in their own homeland, that they would have endorsed that outcome. For those who are skeptical that Jews would collectively strategize in this manner, is it unreasonable to imagine that Jews, who are a politically influential minority with multiple Jewish organizations, would take zero proactive political and/or propagandistic measures given the history of violent anti-Semitism in the West?
One major problem with this theory is that it doesn't account for mass migration to Western countries with minuscule Jewish minorities, ie, most of postwar Europe. Is Sweden's ~ 0.14% Jewish population really influential enough to set that country's immigration policy? The more straightforward explanation for mass migration is economic: to fill underpaid positions (and ensure they remain underpaid) and prop up the welfare state given aging populations.
If Jews were in control of immigration to Europe, why import so many antisemitic Muslims who would later drive them to leave the continent? Most of the Jewish organizations you allude to are designed to support Jewish life in the diaspora, not make it unlivable. You can believe Jews are incredibly powerful or believe Jews are incredibly stupid, but to believe both at the same time surely creates some cognitive dissonance.
Thank you for your reply. MacDonald’s acolytes have documented the pro-immigration actions of Jews in Australia and the UK, but I don’t recall if they have done any research regarding Sweden/Europe. However, your point about Muslim immigration is a good one. It’s possible that gentile elites were influenced by elite Jews, who are disproportionately Leftist and tend to promote the “blank slate” outlook regarding human nature and/or group differences. After WWII, Jews dominated anthropology and social science departments at elite universities.
White gentiles tend to be less ethnocentric relative to other groups and more universalistic in outlook; therefore, Jews may have been able to push them further in that direction given their status in academia, the media, culture, etc. For example, when I was young, I watched reruns of All in the Family, which featured the racist buffoon Archie Bunker. By the end of the show’s run, Archie had adopted his Jewish niece and in one episode presents her with a Star of David necklace (!). Many other shows during that era explicitly moralized against racism and were produced and/or written by Jews. Now we have Wokeism.
I'm sure MacDonald's acolytes can point to lists of pro-immigration Jews. But that doesn't mean that Jewishness motivated their actions or worldview. Sure, there are many leftist "elite Jews," but the more leftist they are, the less tied they are in any meaningful way to their religion and ethnicity of birth. (This applies to more than just Jews, of course.) So again, why is Jewishness the motivating factor? If a jihadist commits terrorism, he says "Allahu Akbar" first, so it is quite logical to draw conclusions as to his religious motivation. But to say, for example, that Jews are responsible for Communism because Marx was ethnically Jewish--even though he himself wrote an antisemitic screed--requires elaborate, usually conspiratorial theories that stretch the imagination.
Maybe blank slate theorists, Communists, and other assorted ideologues genuinely believed what they believed? After all, young "woke" Jews today are overrepresented in anti-Israel protests--hardly a sign that leftism is a strategy in the collective Jewish interest. By the way, "The Blank Slate" is an excellent, comprehensive takedown of the blank slate worldview (written by Steven Pinker, who is, of course, Jewish).
Jews are a vulnerable minority whether or not they are secular or religious; therefore, as already mentioned, I would expect them to take coordinated proactive measures to protect themselves rather than be passive in the face of danger. Israel/Zionism certainly serves that purpose and Israel receives tremendous US financial and military support thanks to Jewish lobbying. What measures protect Jews who don’t move to Israel? I think pluralism, multiculturalism, anti-racism, welfarism (i.e., state dependency), minority coalitions, messaging in pop culture (pro-individualism, anti-racist, anti-religious, etc.), education, etc. serve this purpose. No conspiracies that stretch the imagination are required—just well-organized political/cultural efforts and a sympathetic white gentile elite.
I do not think Marx was anti-Semitic unless judged by today’s standards. He was friendly towards, and supportive of, other Jews. He also criticized Bruno Bauer (?) for wanting Jews to abandon Judaism before being granted emancipation. Stereotypes tend to be true and Marx saw capitalism as producing “huckster” Jews. Communism was supposed to liberate Jews (and all mankind). Judging by its many non-Jewish adherents, communism wasn’t explicitly “Jewish”, but it was extremely disproportionately Jewish in terms of leaders/members.
What you’re describing isn’t a conspiracy in the sense of secret meetings in dark rooms. But it relies on an assumption of duplicity: that Jews who support leftist causes are ultimately motivated by ethnocentrism, not actual leftism. To pick a concrete example, is it really plausible that Bernie Sanders is not a genuinely committed socialist, but is rather playacting as one because socialism is good for the Jews? And was Milton Friedman playacting as a libertarian because capitalism is good for the Jews? Something doesn’t add up here. There are certainly Jewish political organizations that support Israel and combat antisemitism. That’s no state secret. But to suppose that the organized Jewish community has, and could seriously implement, a radical, coordinated agenda to completely remake society beggars belief. This theory also relies on the assumption that Gentiles, including even “elites,” are easily manipulable and incapable of independently forming their own worldviews. Personally, I think better of Gentiles than that.
Jewish overrepresentation among Communists proves the above point. The MacDonald thesis would suggest that because many ethnic Jews became Communists, Communism must have been in the collective interest of Jews. But Communism was terrible for the Jews (as well as everyone else). Many more Jews were dispossessed, enslaved, or murdered by the Soviet regime than ever became Communists. Moreover, the Soviet war on religion destroyed traditional Jewish life and left Russian Jews largely ignorant of their own heritage. As for Marx, Paul Johnson makes the point that “the militant socialism Marx adopted in the later 1840’s can be seen as an expanded and transmuted form of his earlier anti-Semitism. The Jewish world-conspiracy theory is not so much abandoned as extended to include the entire bourgeois class.” In a sense then, MacDonald is returning to early Marxism by positing that Jews, not the bourgeoisie, are the real ruling class.
I actually do believe that leftist and classical liberal Jews like Sanders, Friedman, et al. are sincere (as are you). I don’t think MacDonald would claim otherwise. His claim (whether correct or not) is that certain intellectual movements and political causes (Boasian anthropology, Freudianism, non-white immigration, neoconservatism, etc.) were/are influenced by Jewish ethnocentrism/group interests.
As Cofnas argues in his response to MacDonald, leftism (and classical liberalism) is a more natural home for Jews because it is not explicitly (or not as explicitly) anti-Semitic as the right has nearly always been. You are obviously correct that Bolshevism was a disaster for the Jews but this is entirely due to the advantage of hindsight (although it was predicted by a few intellecuals). However, before the Bolshevik coup, Russia was a land of pogroms and Jews disproportionately supported the Bolshevik destruction of the Czarist regime because of this. Anti-Semitism was rife elsewhere too. Ironically, communism *was* a radical, coordinated, agenda to completely remake society—a cause supported and abetted by many Jews (including espionage). After the Bolshevik disaster, we saw continued disproportionate Jewish support for “cultural Marxism”, e.g., the AJCommittee’s support for Adorno’s work, which included the development of the F-scale (fascist scale). Etc.
I don’t think it is a contradiction to argue that Jews can be simultaneously sincere in their beliefs while also thinking in terms of Jewish interests/safety. Again, I do not think that talented, influential minority groups are going to be passive in the face of widespread hatred.
Yes, gentiles are very capable of forming their own worldviews but that doesn’t preclude Jewish influence given their disproportionate elite status in academia, etc. In other words, the fact that the gentile elite moved leftward after WWII could be attributed to Jewish influence and not regarded as mere coincidence. E.g., the Boasians are celebrated for destroying the Darwinian paradigm as applied to humans. Also, many elites are intellectually lazy, fashion conscious, and/or ignorant. Ironically, Cofnas argues that Jews are disproportionately leftist because they are disproportionately elite/high IQ (his “Default Hypothesis”), so he appears to be arguing that they uncritically adopted the worldviews of leftist gentiles.
My apologies for the late reply. Ironically, MacDonald argues that the Nazis mirrored the Jews in terms of their desire to maintain cultural/racial cohesion in the face of economic/racial competition with the Jews, so perhaps some French intellectuals meet this criteria too. But note that if this were true, it wouldn’t refute MacDonald, it would bolster his thesis! The reason MacDonald is “picking” on the Jews is 1. he came into contact with a lot of Jews when he was on the left during his university days (a case of “noticing”); and 2. he thinks the Jews are hostile to white gentile interests. As previously explained, he sees the Western left as dominated and/or influenced by Jewish values (i.e., group interests). This is not a conspiracy per se, but it’s not as if Jews are saying, e.g., “Open borders is good for the Jews and we are working behind the scenes to achieve it/make sure it continues!”. No, it’s “Open borders is about justice, diversity is good, ethnocentrism is bad, blah, blah, blah…” The Jews may not always call the tune but they have the cultural capital to influence the music we hear (so MacDonald & Co. claim).
Well, that's a rather flawed argument considering that A) Judaism (unlike the Aryan race) explicitly allows for converts, thus was clearly not designed to be a vehicle for racial cohesion; and more importantly, B) Jewish "cultural cohesion" has never meant depopulating Poland or setting up death camps for Gentiles. MacDonald is evidently so fixated on Jews that he even wants to ascribe them blame for the Nazis. The murderers of Jews were actually inspired by Jews, so it's all the Jews' fault anyway.
Frankly, I'd advise MacDonald to take up point A, above, and convert to Judaism. He is clearly enamored with Jewish power and frustrated by the inability of white Gentiles to compete. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? His own view of history is apparently of a constant struggle between ethnic groups, under the guise of fake ideologies, with Jews always coming out on top. So, by his own group-selection metric, don't Jews deserve to win? What's his case for even caring about white Gentile interests if he sees them as feckless, self-destructive sheep forever manipulated by a tiny minority within their midst?
Jews allow converts but they don’t seek converts the way Christians do. Jews will never knock on your door. Jews are mostly created via Jews having children. In addition, there is a racial/ethnic component. That’s why Marx was a Jew even though he was an atheist. I think it’s silly to argue that Judaism has not been a vehicle for racial cohesion given what has been revealed by genetics.
I don’t think MacDonald explicitly blames the Jews for their own destruction; he strikes a dispassionate, scholarly tone in his trilogy on the Jews. But, as mentioned, he does argue that the Nazis were the result of gentile Germans organizing in terms of group interests in reaction to the rapid rise of Jews in German society, including the perceived threat of “Judeo-Bolshevism” (see his essay, “Stalin’s Willing Executioners”: http://www.kevinmacdonald.net/SlezkineRev.pdf). That’s not an endorsement of their methods; it’s an attempt at an explanation in terms of evolutionary psychology.
Even if MacDonald is wrong about certain Jewish led/dominated intellectual/political movements being primarily motivated by Jewish group interests, it doesn’t mean disproportionate Jewish power doesn’t exist or that Jews are not disproportionately leftist, etc. Therefore, it’s going to be hard to stop anti-Semites from noticing certain patterns whatever the reason for their existence. Cofnas’ argument that this disproportionality is solely the result of Jews’ having above average IQs suggests that Jews have simply joined the gentile Left because they are elites but haven’t also shaped or influenced leftist movements via this elite disproportionality (i.e., they have no minds of their own but use their sharp minds to aggressively push leftism). It also suggests that Jews in the West are not proactive in the face of danger (other than Zionism). This seems very unlikely.
There is an *ethnic* component to Judaism, but not a racial component in the Nazi sense. It is indeed silly to argue that Judaism has been a vehicle for racial cohesion, as Jewish population genetics show that most Jewish subgroups have substantial admixture from non-Levantine populations. Furthermore, certain subgroups, like the Yemenite Jews, are descended almost entirely from converts (per Razib Khan), yet have been considered halakhically Jewish for centuries. Judaism as a vehicle for cohesion as a *people*? Sure. (Though religious Jews would reverse the terms: the Jewish people is a vehicle for the transmission of the religion.) But to say that the Nazis "mirrored" the Jews is a statement made out of ignorance or malice. Since MacDonald is not ignorant of basic history, I'd guess the latter, and also wonder about the animus driving his "dispassionate, scholarly tone."
Again, I've never said that Jews are disproportionately leftist solely because of above-average IQs. Obviously, factors ranging from the historic animus of many right-wing movements toward Jews (Italian Fascism, which had a number of prominent Jewish adherents, being an interesting exception) to a traditional sympathy toward the downtrodden (which is growing less salient as a lack of reciprocity is noted) have played roles. But MacDonald's pseudo-conspiratorial worldview is unconvincing, particularly since the *most* Jewishly focused Jews (the Orthodox) are also the most right-wing. Do many Jews believe liberalism or some variety of leftism is "good for the Jews"? Sure. But they also believe their ideology is good for the world in general. Following up on my point about the Orthodox, the most leftist Jews are also the most likely to marry non-Jews and put their Jewish identity second (or third, or fourth...). So, the notion that they are actively motivated by anti-Gentile animus is particularly silly.
The early Christians were, of course, all Jewish. And Paul certainly didn't feel cut off from his roots. (Romans 9:3-4: "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.") But when Christianity lost its ethnic Jewish character, there developed a tendency to view the recalcitrant Jews as having been "replaced," without rights to their own heritage.
For example, per the pagan-born Justin Martyr: "the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham . . . are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ." According to this supersessionist view, Jews (who haven't converted to Christianity) have no right to claim descent from Abraham and the patriarchs at all. They've been replaced, not joined, as the people of Israel. That's not the only Christian view, of course. And I'm sure it would have shocked the historically Jewish Jesus and saddened Paul. But it is a historical example of early "replacism."
I agree that this is the logical position from a Christian perspective. On a related note, you may be interested in this recent article by Rod Dreher, also an Orthodox Christian, on attempts to de-Judaize Christianity: https://www.thefp.com/p/netflix-mary-and-the-mob
The evolutionary psychologist Kevin MacDonald’s theory in his book _The Culture of Critique_ is that Jews heavily favored and/or lobbied for non-white immigration to produce a more pluralistic, multicultural, society that would be safer for Jews. (But see Nathan Cofnas’ criticisms of MacDonald and his replies.) This is not a conspiracy per se because it was more or less done in the open; however, it’s doubtful that if whites had been explicitly told at that time (i.e., prior to massive anti-racist state propaganda), that they would eventually be a minority in their own homeland, that they would have endorsed that outcome. For those who are skeptical that Jews would collectively strategize in this manner, is it unreasonable to imagine that Jews, who are a politically influential minority with multiple Jewish organizations, would take zero proactive political and/or propagandistic measures given the history of violent anti-Semitism in the West?
One major problem with this theory is that it doesn't account for mass migration to Western countries with minuscule Jewish minorities, ie, most of postwar Europe. Is Sweden's ~ 0.14% Jewish population really influential enough to set that country's immigration policy? The more straightforward explanation for mass migration is economic: to fill underpaid positions (and ensure they remain underpaid) and prop up the welfare state given aging populations.
If Jews were in control of immigration to Europe, why import so many antisemitic Muslims who would later drive them to leave the continent? Most of the Jewish organizations you allude to are designed to support Jewish life in the diaspora, not make it unlivable. You can believe Jews are incredibly powerful or believe Jews are incredibly stupid, but to believe both at the same time surely creates some cognitive dissonance.
Thank you for your reply. MacDonald’s acolytes have documented the pro-immigration actions of Jews in Australia and the UK, but I don’t recall if they have done any research regarding Sweden/Europe. However, your point about Muslim immigration is a good one. It’s possible that gentile elites were influenced by elite Jews, who are disproportionately Leftist and tend to promote the “blank slate” outlook regarding human nature and/or group differences. After WWII, Jews dominated anthropology and social science departments at elite universities.
White gentiles tend to be less ethnocentric relative to other groups and more universalistic in outlook; therefore, Jews may have been able to push them further in that direction given their status in academia, the media, culture, etc. For example, when I was young, I watched reruns of All in the Family, which featured the racist buffoon Archie Bunker. By the end of the show’s run, Archie had adopted his Jewish niece and in one episode presents her with a Star of David necklace (!). Many other shows during that era explicitly moralized against racism and were produced and/or written by Jews. Now we have Wokeism.
I'm sure MacDonald's acolytes can point to lists of pro-immigration Jews. But that doesn't mean that Jewishness motivated their actions or worldview. Sure, there are many leftist "elite Jews," but the more leftist they are, the less tied they are in any meaningful way to their religion and ethnicity of birth. (This applies to more than just Jews, of course.) So again, why is Jewishness the motivating factor? If a jihadist commits terrorism, he says "Allahu Akbar" first, so it is quite logical to draw conclusions as to his religious motivation. But to say, for example, that Jews are responsible for Communism because Marx was ethnically Jewish--even though he himself wrote an antisemitic screed--requires elaborate, usually conspiratorial theories that stretch the imagination.
Maybe blank slate theorists, Communists, and other assorted ideologues genuinely believed what they believed? After all, young "woke" Jews today are overrepresented in anti-Israel protests--hardly a sign that leftism is a strategy in the collective Jewish interest. By the way, "The Blank Slate" is an excellent, comprehensive takedown of the blank slate worldview (written by Steven Pinker, who is, of course, Jewish).
Thanks again for your reply.
Jews are a vulnerable minority whether or not they are secular or religious; therefore, as already mentioned, I would expect them to take coordinated proactive measures to protect themselves rather than be passive in the face of danger. Israel/Zionism certainly serves that purpose and Israel receives tremendous US financial and military support thanks to Jewish lobbying. What measures protect Jews who don’t move to Israel? I think pluralism, multiculturalism, anti-racism, welfarism (i.e., state dependency), minority coalitions, messaging in pop culture (pro-individualism, anti-racist, anti-religious, etc.), education, etc. serve this purpose. No conspiracies that stretch the imagination are required—just well-organized political/cultural efforts and a sympathetic white gentile elite.
I do not think Marx was anti-Semitic unless judged by today’s standards. He was friendly towards, and supportive of, other Jews. He also criticized Bruno Bauer (?) for wanting Jews to abandon Judaism before being granted emancipation. Stereotypes tend to be true and Marx saw capitalism as producing “huckster” Jews. Communism was supposed to liberate Jews (and all mankind). Judging by its many non-Jewish adherents, communism wasn’t explicitly “Jewish”, but it was extremely disproportionately Jewish in terms of leaders/members.
Yes, there are many non-woke Jews like Pinker.
What you’re describing isn’t a conspiracy in the sense of secret meetings in dark rooms. But it relies on an assumption of duplicity: that Jews who support leftist causes are ultimately motivated by ethnocentrism, not actual leftism. To pick a concrete example, is it really plausible that Bernie Sanders is not a genuinely committed socialist, but is rather playacting as one because socialism is good for the Jews? And was Milton Friedman playacting as a libertarian because capitalism is good for the Jews? Something doesn’t add up here. There are certainly Jewish political organizations that support Israel and combat antisemitism. That’s no state secret. But to suppose that the organized Jewish community has, and could seriously implement, a radical, coordinated agenda to completely remake society beggars belief. This theory also relies on the assumption that Gentiles, including even “elites,” are easily manipulable and incapable of independently forming their own worldviews. Personally, I think better of Gentiles than that.
Jewish overrepresentation among Communists proves the above point. The MacDonald thesis would suggest that because many ethnic Jews became Communists, Communism must have been in the collective interest of Jews. But Communism was terrible for the Jews (as well as everyone else). Many more Jews were dispossessed, enslaved, or murdered by the Soviet regime than ever became Communists. Moreover, the Soviet war on religion destroyed traditional Jewish life and left Russian Jews largely ignorant of their own heritage. As for Marx, Paul Johnson makes the point that “the militant socialism Marx adopted in the later 1840’s can be seen as an expanded and transmuted form of his earlier anti-Semitism. The Jewish world-conspiracy theory is not so much abandoned as extended to include the entire bourgeois class.” In a sense then, MacDonald is returning to early Marxism by positing that Jews, not the bourgeoisie, are the real ruling class.
I actually do believe that leftist and classical liberal Jews like Sanders, Friedman, et al. are sincere (as are you). I don’t think MacDonald would claim otherwise. His claim (whether correct or not) is that certain intellectual movements and political causes (Boasian anthropology, Freudianism, non-white immigration, neoconservatism, etc.) were/are influenced by Jewish ethnocentrism/group interests.
As Cofnas argues in his response to MacDonald, leftism (and classical liberalism) is a more natural home for Jews because it is not explicitly (or not as explicitly) anti-Semitic as the right has nearly always been. You are obviously correct that Bolshevism was a disaster for the Jews but this is entirely due to the advantage of hindsight (although it was predicted by a few intellecuals). However, before the Bolshevik coup, Russia was a land of pogroms and Jews disproportionately supported the Bolshevik destruction of the Czarist regime because of this. Anti-Semitism was rife elsewhere too. Ironically, communism *was* a radical, coordinated, agenda to completely remake society—a cause supported and abetted by many Jews (including espionage). After the Bolshevik disaster, we saw continued disproportionate Jewish support for “cultural Marxism”, e.g., the AJCommittee’s support for Adorno’s work, which included the development of the F-scale (fascist scale). Etc.
I don’t think it is a contradiction to argue that Jews can be simultaneously sincere in their beliefs while also thinking in terms of Jewish interests/safety. Again, I do not think that talented, influential minority groups are going to be passive in the face of widespread hatred.
Yes, gentiles are very capable of forming their own worldviews but that doesn’t preclude Jewish influence given their disproportionate elite status in academia, etc. In other words, the fact that the gentile elite moved leftward after WWII could be attributed to Jewish influence and not regarded as mere coincidence. E.g., the Boasians are celebrated for destroying the Darwinian paradigm as applied to humans. Also, many elites are intellectually lazy, fashion conscious, and/or ignorant. Ironically, Cofnas argues that Jews are disproportionately leftist because they are disproportionately elite/high IQ (his “Default Hypothesis”), so he appears to be arguing that they uncritically adopted the worldviews of leftist gentiles.
My apologies for the late reply. Ironically, MacDonald argues that the Nazis mirrored the Jews in terms of their desire to maintain cultural/racial cohesion in the face of economic/racial competition with the Jews, so perhaps some French intellectuals meet this criteria too. But note that if this were true, it wouldn’t refute MacDonald, it would bolster his thesis! The reason MacDonald is “picking” on the Jews is 1. he came into contact with a lot of Jews when he was on the left during his university days (a case of “noticing”); and 2. he thinks the Jews are hostile to white gentile interests. As previously explained, he sees the Western left as dominated and/or influenced by Jewish values (i.e., group interests). This is not a conspiracy per se, but it’s not as if Jews are saying, e.g., “Open borders is good for the Jews and we are working behind the scenes to achieve it/make sure it continues!”. No, it’s “Open borders is about justice, diversity is good, ethnocentrism is bad, blah, blah, blah…” The Jews may not always call the tune but they have the cultural capital to influence the music we hear (so MacDonald & Co. claim).
Well, that's a rather flawed argument considering that A) Judaism (unlike the Aryan race) explicitly allows for converts, thus was clearly not designed to be a vehicle for racial cohesion; and more importantly, B) Jewish "cultural cohesion" has never meant depopulating Poland or setting up death camps for Gentiles. MacDonald is evidently so fixated on Jews that he even wants to ascribe them blame for the Nazis. The murderers of Jews were actually inspired by Jews, so it's all the Jews' fault anyway.
Frankly, I'd advise MacDonald to take up point A, above, and convert to Judaism. He is clearly enamored with Jewish power and frustrated by the inability of white Gentiles to compete. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? His own view of history is apparently of a constant struggle between ethnic groups, under the guise of fake ideologies, with Jews always coming out on top. So, by his own group-selection metric, don't Jews deserve to win? What's his case for even caring about white Gentile interests if he sees them as feckless, self-destructive sheep forever manipulated by a tiny minority within their midst?
My apologies again for the late reply.
Jews allow converts but they don’t seek converts the way Christians do. Jews will never knock on your door. Jews are mostly created via Jews having children. In addition, there is a racial/ethnic component. That’s why Marx was a Jew even though he was an atheist. I think it’s silly to argue that Judaism has not been a vehicle for racial cohesion given what has been revealed by genetics.
I don’t think MacDonald explicitly blames the Jews for their own destruction; he strikes a dispassionate, scholarly tone in his trilogy on the Jews. But, as mentioned, he does argue that the Nazis were the result of gentile Germans organizing in terms of group interests in reaction to the rapid rise of Jews in German society, including the perceived threat of “Judeo-Bolshevism” (see his essay, “Stalin’s Willing Executioners”: http://www.kevinmacdonald.net/SlezkineRev.pdf). That’s not an endorsement of their methods; it’s an attempt at an explanation in terms of evolutionary psychology.
Even if MacDonald is wrong about certain Jewish led/dominated intellectual/political movements being primarily motivated by Jewish group interests, it doesn’t mean disproportionate Jewish power doesn’t exist or that Jews are not disproportionately leftist, etc. Therefore, it’s going to be hard to stop anti-Semites from noticing certain patterns whatever the reason for their existence. Cofnas’ argument that this disproportionality is solely the result of Jews’ having above average IQs suggests that Jews have simply joined the gentile Left because they are elites but haven’t also shaped or influenced leftist movements via this elite disproportionality (i.e., they have no minds of their own but use their sharp minds to aggressively push leftism). It also suggests that Jews in the West are not proactive in the face of danger (other than Zionism). This seems very unlikely.
There is an *ethnic* component to Judaism, but not a racial component in the Nazi sense. It is indeed silly to argue that Judaism has been a vehicle for racial cohesion, as Jewish population genetics show that most Jewish subgroups have substantial admixture from non-Levantine populations. Furthermore, certain subgroups, like the Yemenite Jews, are descended almost entirely from converts (per Razib Khan), yet have been considered halakhically Jewish for centuries. Judaism as a vehicle for cohesion as a *people*? Sure. (Though religious Jews would reverse the terms: the Jewish people is a vehicle for the transmission of the religion.) But to say that the Nazis "mirrored" the Jews is a statement made out of ignorance or malice. Since MacDonald is not ignorant of basic history, I'd guess the latter, and also wonder about the animus driving his "dispassionate, scholarly tone."
Again, I've never said that Jews are disproportionately leftist solely because of above-average IQs. Obviously, factors ranging from the historic animus of many right-wing movements toward Jews (Italian Fascism, which had a number of prominent Jewish adherents, being an interesting exception) to a traditional sympathy toward the downtrodden (which is growing less salient as a lack of reciprocity is noted) have played roles. But MacDonald's pseudo-conspiratorial worldview is unconvincing, particularly since the *most* Jewishly focused Jews (the Orthodox) are also the most right-wing. Do many Jews believe liberalism or some variety of leftism is "good for the Jews"? Sure. But they also believe their ideology is good for the world in general. Following up on my point about the Orthodox, the most leftist Jews are also the most likely to marry non-Jews and put their Jewish identity second (or third, or fourth...). So, the notion that they are actively motivated by anti-Gentile animus is particularly silly.
The early Christians were, of course, all Jewish. And Paul certainly didn't feel cut off from his roots. (Romans 9:3-4: "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.") But when Christianity lost its ethnic Jewish character, there developed a tendency to view the recalcitrant Jews as having been "replaced," without rights to their own heritage.
For example, per the pagan-born Justin Martyr: "the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham . . . are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ." According to this supersessionist view, Jews (who haven't converted to Christianity) have no right to claim descent from Abraham and the patriarchs at all. They've been replaced, not joined, as the people of Israel. That's not the only Christian view, of course. And I'm sure it would have shocked the historically Jewish Jesus and saddened Paul. But it is a historical example of early "replacism."
I agree that this is the logical position from a Christian perspective. On a related note, you may be interested in this recent article by Rod Dreher, also an Orthodox Christian, on attempts to de-Judaize Christianity: https://www.thefp.com/p/netflix-mary-and-the-mob