Mendacious Moldbug

Moldbug once again holds forth on the history of Bizarro World in the safety of the gnxp comments section:
to succeed [Jews] assimilated the cultural tropes of America's highest status caste - the Boston Brahmins, basically. For every "Punch" Sulzberger, there is an Alger Hiss. No, he was not born "Hissjewsky."
Back on Earth:
Into the 1930s the American Communist Party (CPUSA) had a Yiddish-speaking Jewish section. [. . .]

Jews were also vastly overrepresented in high-profile cases among those invoking the Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate oneself, so that public hearings like McCarthy's inevitably highlighted the Jewish role in communism. For example, in 1952, of 124 people questioned by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Weingarten identifies 79 Jews, 32 non-Jews and 13 with unknown ethnicity. All invoked the Fifth.

Even more remarkably, of the 42 people who were dismissed from their positions at the Fort Monmouth Laboratories in New Jersey on suspicion of constituting a spy ring (the same one that Julius Rosenberg belonged to), 39 were Jews and one other was married to a Jewish woman.
Alger Hiss was born in Baltimore (not Boston) to a "middle class wholesale grocer" who killed himself when Hiss was two. His family was neither wealthy nor socially prominent. His Supreme Court clerkship indicates little more than that he had the favor of Felix Frankfurter, to whom an aged Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., delegated the choice.

Quotes from actual "Boston Brahmins":
You may call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any other harsh adjective you see fit to apply. But an American I was born, and American I have remained all my life. I can never be anything else but an American [. . .] I have never had but one allegiance; I cannot divide it now. [. . .] Internationalism, illustrated by the Bolsheviks, and by the men to whom all countries are alike, provided they can make money out of them, is to me repulsive. (Henry Cabot Lodge)
The social reformers of today seem to me so far to forget that we no more can get something for nothing by legislation than we can by mechanics as to be satisfied if the bill to be paid for their improvements is not presented in a lump sum. [. . .] I believe that the wholesale social regeneration which so many now seem to expect, if it can be helped by conscious, coordinated human effort, cannot be affected appreciably by tinkering with the institution of property, but only by taking in hand life and trying to build a race. That would be my starting point for an ideal for the law. The notion that with socialized property we should have women free and a piano for everybody seems to me an empty humbug. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)
Yes, clearly, Yiddish-speaking Communist factory workers were guilty only of wanting to assimilate to the norms of "America's highest status caste".

Related: "WASPs", Jews, and McCarthy; New England political thought a century ago; Moldbuggery Redux

10 comments:

TGGP said...

The CP having a Yiddish section wouldn't contradict MM's point, he was saying both Jews and WASPs became communists. Your point about Monmouth does contradict his "for every Sulzberger a Hiss" point though.

I think the real glaring weakness is his theory is that, as pointed out in Yuri Slezkine's "The Jewish Century", socialism was dominant among Jews before they even left the pale of settlement to live among Boston Brahmins or even Protestants more generally.

The quoting of Holmes is ironic since some Jews claim it's only because of his philo-semitism and friendship with Jews that we have such a high opinion of him. He's even referred to as an enemy of the New England WASP tradition (or at least some aspects of it) in that link. I'm actually surprised to read that quote since Holmes is so closely associated with disregarding property rights so that legislatures can experiment with reforms (like another judge whose reputation is inflated, Louis Brandeis).

n/a said...

The Yiddish speaking contradicts the assertion that only assimilated Jews were a problem (of course, as you point out, the fact that "socialism was dominant among Jews before they even left the pale of settlement" contradicts the assertion even more directly).

One of the reasons I picked Lodge and Holmes was to illustrate some of the diversity of the native American political spectrum. I have never argued there were no leftist "WASPs" or New Englanders. But:
1) "WASPs" / New Englanders were never overwhelmingly leftist.
2) Even the leftists were rarely hostile to America/Americans.

TGGP said...

He has actually cited his own Yiddish-speaking grandparents CPUSA membership as evidence for his theory! His argument is that they were low status when they immigrated here, they noticed that high-status people were in the communist party, and so they joined. There is actually some agreement between him and Slezkine. Slezkine refers to a "Jewish revolt against Jewishness" occurring in eastern europe. Communism was to abolish the religious, ethnic and class distinctions that had set Jews apart for centuries. A Jew who thinks rabbinic communalism (as in a millet system) is just peachy is not going to be as receptive to communism. Hence MM and Norman Podhoretz emphasis on the contrast between the most "Jewish" Jews, the ultra-orthodox, as against the irreligious or reform Jew. Going back to the Slezkine point, Razib has noted that the reform movement actually became more religious on coming to America from Europe because religiosity is so normative here.

Pseudothyrum said...

Look at the following category and in all of its subcategories and NOTICE all of the Communist/Soviet Jewish spies contained therein - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Soviet_spies

Anonymous said...

Especially in - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_spies_for_the_Soviet_Union

Anonymous said...

MM claims that he is smarter than Hitler - http://whitesurvival.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/anonymous-jew-blogger-claims-he-is-smarter-than-hitler/

Anonymous said...

I have nothing to add except: great title.

Anonymous said...

for every Sulzberger a Hiss

Nonsense, of course:

http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/1509/

http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/1510/

Anonymous said...

"Jewish revolt against Jewishness" occurring in eastern europe.

Riiiight. Because no True Scotsman...

Anonymous said...

Communism was to abolish the religious, ethnic and class distinctions that had set Jews apart for centuries.

Right: eliminate all mechanisms of discrimination against Jews and all you're left with is Jewish discrimination in favor of Jews and against everyone else. Perfect!