Over at Taki’s Magazine, my new column is about the Amish as an example of how nature and nurture interact with each other in ways that the postmodernist orthodoxy can’t begin to fathom:
The conventional wisdom about how race is just a social construct is back in the news with the endless excoriations of Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History. Sadly, the term “social construct” is usually used as an excuse to stop thinking: just announce that scientists have proven that race is socially constructed and you can shut down all cognitive processes without worry that you’ll get in trouble for crimethink.
Yet, as with all thoughtful considerations of nature and nurture, the notion of “social construction” can yield fruitful paradoxes. If social construction is as powerful as its enthusiasts claim, how could it not affect human beings genetically? If a social group constructs a new ideology about who should marry whom, for instance, how would that not alter future lineages and gene frequencies?
For example, America has witnessed over the last ten generations the socially planned breeding of a new endogamous extended family, a fast-growing proto-race that now numbers over 200,000 and is currently on pace to double every 21 years: the Amish.
The concept of the Amish becoming more Amish over time makes sense as those who don’t like that way of life “boil off” and leave an increasingly concentrated residue over time.
Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian’s wall and south of Hadrian’s wall. The wall had many gates through which traders and immigrants could pass. North of the wall was an impoverished nation of herdsmen. South of the wall was the Roman Empire. One can surmise that those who wanted freedom in a lawless environment gravitated north and those who preferred an orderly and more prosperous life in submission to Roman rule gravitated south.
The people who chose to live north of the wall are the ancestors of today’s American Scots-Irish, who also chose to live in a war zone in northern Ireland and then later to live in frontier America among hostile Indians.
"Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian’s wall and south of Hadrian’s wall."I'd be interested in how much self-selection the American border imposes on Mexicans in terms of criminal intent. My impression from reading Joseph Wambaugh's Border Patrol nonfiction book Lines and Shadows is that in the 1960s and 1970s, liberal America was a more fun place to be a criminal than dictatorial Mexico, which was kind of a police state and there wasn't much for criminals to make money off of because the Colombians dominated the big money drug biz. But, over my lifetime, that has reversed and America has become the land of long prison sentences while Mexico has become a gangster's paradise.
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Anyone who is curious about how the Amish live would be well-served to buy an issue of The Budget. It’s the New York Times of Amish-dom, with correspondents from every Amish community in North America writing in with brief descriptions of their month. Correspondents vary in quality and content, but there are certain common threads: farm news and weather, notes of any visitor from other Amish colonies, (surprisingly frequent) accidents, poetry, recipes, exhortations to non-ostentatious spirituality, and occasional trivia gleaned from English eccentricity as they perceive it. I have a few distant relatives and friends who grew up Amish, and I’ve been bugging them for cast-off issues of The Budget ever since I learned to read. It’s an addiction. The prose is very much what one would expect from eight-grade educated people writing in their second language (a variation of German is spoken at home), but wit and a general sense of well-balancedness abound throughout.
Above is a map of Amish population dispersal. As Amish communities disperse, either because of disagreement, overcrowding, or some combination of the two, they move west. Historically, that’s been a move from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana and beyond. The newer communities tend to be less prosperous and more conservative. Part of the reason for this is that Amish Country in PA and OH have dual advantages found in no other Amish area: incredible farmland and nearby big-city suburbs (Philly and Cleveland) with lucrative construction trades. Out west they find poorer land and fewer wealthy English desirous of Amish craftsmanship.
The concept of the Amish becoming more Amish over time makes sense as those who don't like that way of life "boil off" and leave an increasingly concentrated residue over time.
Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian's wall and south of Hadrian's wall. The wall had many gates through which traders and immigrants could pass. North of the wall was an impoverished nation of herdsmen. South of the wall was the Roman Empire. One can surmise that those who wanted freedom in a lawless environment gravitated north and those who preferred an orderly and more prosperous life in submission to Roman rule gravitated south.
The people who chose to live north of the wall are the ancestors of today's American Scots-Irish, who also chose to live in a war zone in northern Ireland and then later to live in frontier America among hostile Indians.
“Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian’s wall and south of Hadrian’s wall.”
I’d be interested in how much self-selection the American border imposes on Mexicans in terms of criminal intent. My impression from reading Joseph Wambaugh’s Border Patrol nonfiction book Lines and Shadows is that in the 1960s and 1970s, liberal America was a more fun place to be a criminal than dictatorial Mexico, which was kind of a police state and there wasn’t much for criminals to make money off of because the Colombians dominated the big money drug biz. But, over my lifetime, that has reversed and America has become the land of long prison sentences while Mexico has become a gangster’s paradise.
Soon the NYT will publish an article expressing fears about the lack of diversity among the Amish and quote a professor about the coming rise of an Amish Hitler.
“Amish Are Becoming a Socially Constructed Biological Race”
After ten generations of strong artificial selection, this probably should read “Have Become”.
@Jeff W – Fro my surname (and residence in Northumberland) you can surmise I am of Scots-English border stock – but while the border certainly has had an influence, the situation is not quite as you describe.
Hadrian’s Wall runs through England – it is an hour and a quarter’s drive from Hadrian’s wall to the Scottish border on the East side (North of where I am sitting). The Picts were not ‘The Scots’ – the Scots came from Ireland after Roman times. The Lowland Scots – ie. most Scots – were speakers of ‘Inglis’ (a Medieval Scottish dialect of English) not Gallic. And during the centuries of Border Reivers, there was still intermarriage across the national border – it was more like the Border was a distinct country separate from both England and Scotland.
But there is indeed a very sharp change in dialect at the modern border – e.g. between Coldstream and Cornhill, on opposite sides of a bridge: between a rather nasal Border Scots, and the gentle gargling of North Northumbrian.
“The Amish opted out of the productivity revolution. Farming efficiency has increased radically over American history, which is, on the whole, a terrific thing. ”
Ironically, Amish farms are the most profitable farms in the country. Most farmers in the U.S. stay afloat through governement subsidies but the Amish rely on low overhead and cheap labor (their many children and banding together with other families).
Also, I know a former Mennonite who’s parents left the Amish before he was born. He is now a part of the flourishing Gay community in the small city near where I live. I guess his family did not have the “AQ” to stay Amish!
BTW, two parachute observation on the Amish/Mennonite/Plain people.
While at the Philadelphia central market, I had ice cream at a stall — a big stall — run by them. I haven’t seen skinny to the point of poverty skinny white people in a long time, since watching a documentary on Cuba, as a matter of fact (a large percentage of the country folks there, the Guajiros, are white or mostly so).
Also, there was a sort of strange symbiosis between Amish and the local African-American community. While the SWPLs were lined up to buy EVOO at the Italian run stalls, blacks formed lines to buy Amish smoked turkey wings and cured pork.
“Ironically, Amish farms are the most profitable farms in the country. Most farmers in the U.S. stay afloat through governement subsidies but the Amish rely on low overhead and cheap labor (their many children and banding together with other families).”
Horses are cheaper than tractors and you don’t have to electric, car and cell phone payments.
If the races of the victim and the victimizers were switched, who would deny that this was a hate crime? We don't even need to make adjustments, as with the scenario mentioned above, leaving bacon all over a Christian church isn't equivalent, so we'd need to substitute another desecration. But ...
Point taken, Thea. As always, your opinion is appreciated.
I wasn't just referring to slut shaming. For example, in my small town Wal-Mart, I often see older white women with mixed race toddlers. Obviously it's grandma taking over her daughter's parenting duties. But what really gripes me is...
I guess that young women value most of all extroversion, unwarranted self-confidence, and lies, and blacks offer that in spades (no pun intended). For some strange reason, many women associate that with virility.
Blacks are more virile. The question is whether women seek maximum virility or l...
syonredux:
Spain had plenty of company in committing “quite a few atrocities in the 16th and 17th centuries.”
Sure. I'm just noting that the "White Legend" is pure propaganda. Spain does not have clean hands...
And that company especially included the English and Dutch propagandists...
I was talking to a Polish guy recently, he seemed to have some pretty robust views on globalists and bankers. He also admitted that, hard as he found it to say, he was warming to Putin.
You’ve obviously never seen Space: 1999……Talk about an aesthetic nadir…..”
No, as boring as that show was — long ago, a friend of mine had the toy set –, it looks better than the DREK. 1999 is just cheapo crap variation of 2001.
It had good production values, but it was ugly a...
If that had happened in Australia, or Canada, or America, we would never hear the end of it….
Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mowla_Bluff_massacre
Canada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypress_Hills_Massacre
US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot
These incidents, whi...
"“I intentionally use terms like Peking, Bombay, i just to piss off leftists; I completely agree with your refusal to constantly change terminology, spellings, etc.”"
This is nitpicking, in a comment thread that is probably buried behind a gazillion new posts, but I find mistakes like this...
It’s all very cynical. But so are Americans. Americans go on and on about their guilt conscience. Oh, Jim Crow was so bad. And that is why Americans had to be mindful about apartheid in South Africa and end it!!! But if that’s the case, why have most Americans been indifferent about Palestini...
"Historic re-enactment is also making a come-back. "
The re-enactment is the key word here. That your two sons studied Latin is also a re-enactment. And btw, they are not fluent in it.
Simon Mol is an interesting case, but it does nothing to explain Polish intransigence towards Merkel et al., as the headline of this post seems to imply. The rest of Europe (and America) have read hundreds of Simon Mol headlines, with minor variations: Cologne, Malmö, San Bernardino, Molenbeek, ...
If you take the stated justification at face value, this is an example of exactly why Federal Hate Crimes (tm) were created in the first place. Feds felt that the local jurisdictions would not effectively prosecute because the local cops judges etc didn't like the victim any more than the perps d...
Obviously a racist hate crime. Why are the police scratching their heads over this one? Because a hate crime can only happen to a member of a protected class, i.e. anyone but a Caucasian, preferably a male Caucasian. A hate crime is possible toward this "special needs" white male for his specialn...
"There is quite a bit of Jews in Japan; has been for some time."
Wiki: Jews are a minor ethnic and religious group in Japan, presently consisting of only about 2,000 people or about 0.0016% of Japan's total population.
THE JEWS OF JAPAN
Jerusalem Letter
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/jl425.htm
...
… One way to test this theory is to note that countries without large-scale immigration, such as Japan, have not seen the same rise of right-wing populism.
That is a nonsensical quote, thanks in part to US policies, our polity is defined by what would be termed 'fascist' or 'hard extreme-rig...
Dang, do you really believe that? Sadism is okay if you're stupid and uncivilized? I'd want these perps to hang if it were another black gang criminal there were torturing. No society can function with people like this roaming about, segregated or not.
I'm clinging to the hope that this is ...
The Express is owned by Richard Desmond, who made his early fortune providing something for which there was a demand, but which was disapproved of in polite British society - hence titles like Asian Babes and Big Ones.
He's doing the same now, having obviously spotted that the angry Brit demogra...
Even if CBS had not dog-whistled the race of the perps by refusing to provide it, I’d still be guessing Negro underclass just because of the brutishly sadistic nature of the crime and its cowardly nature; four-on-one targeting an already vulnerable victim.
Popular black social critic has a w...
The FPO rather failed, though. Why wouldn't Polish right who sympathize with secular but right values instead infiltrate Law and Justice? Obviously the current party had some significant level of support which they can build on.
To more limited extent than you think. People still lynch there and victims are disproportionately foreigners and foreign blacks, which I find tragic at times, but certainly prevents certain crimes.
Something about Czechs: In 1938 they pledged loyalty to Hitler. Czechs did not fire a single shot against Germans during WWII. German soldiers during WWII often were sent on furloughs to Bohemia because it was the safest place. No bombs falling on the cities like in Germany and no partisan sh...
I read a sensible position elsewhere, from a lawyer:
Don't try to bring race "hate crimes" into this process. It will just make it harder to prosecute the accused, more to prove.
It's my understanding that "hate crimes" were mostly designed to help and enhance criminal proceedings against ...
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The concept of the Amish becoming more Amish over time makes sense as those who don’t like that way of life “boil off” and leave an increasingly concentrated residue over time.
Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian’s wall and south of Hadrian’s wall. The wall had many gates through which traders and immigrants could pass. North of the wall was an impoverished nation of herdsmen. South of the wall was the Roman Empire. One can surmise that those who wanted freedom in a lawless environment gravitated north and those who preferred an orderly and more prosperous life in submission to Roman rule gravitated south.
The people who chose to live north of the wall are the ancestors of today’s American Scots-Irish, who also chose to live in a war zone in northern Ireland and then later to live in frontier America among hostile Indians.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/the-amish-are-a-socially-constructed-biological-race/#comment-563328
Anyone who is curious about how the Amish live would be well-served to buy an issue of The Budget. It’s the New York Times of Amish-dom, with correspondents from every Amish community in North America writing in with brief descriptions of their month. Correspondents vary in quality and content, but there are certain common threads: farm news and weather, notes of any visitor from other Amish colonies, (surprisingly frequent) accidents, poetry, recipes, exhortations to non-ostentatious spirituality, and occasional trivia gleaned from English eccentricity as they perceive it. I have a few distant relatives and friends who grew up Amish, and I’ve been bugging them for cast-off issues of The Budget ever since I learned to read. It’s an addiction. The prose is very much what one would expect from eight-grade educated people writing in their second language (a variation of German is spoken at home), but wit and a general sense of well-balancedness abound throughout.
http://www.incontext.indiana.edu/2012/nov-dec/images/Fig2amish.gif
Above is a map of Amish population dispersal. As Amish communities disperse, either because of disagreement, overcrowding, or some combination of the two, they move west. Historically, that’s been a move from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana and beyond. The newer communities tend to be less prosperous and more conservative. Part of the reason for this is that Amish Country in PA and OH have dual advantages found in no other Amish area: incredible farmland and nearby big-city suburbs (Philly and Cleveland) with lucrative construction trades. Out west they find poorer land and fewer wealthy English desirous of Amish craftsmanship.
Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian's wall and south of Hadrian's wall. The wall had many gates through which traders and immigrants could pass. North of the wall was an impoverished nation of herdsmen. South of the wall was the Roman Empire. One can surmise that those who wanted freedom in a lawless environment gravitated north and those who preferred an orderly and more prosperous life in submission to Roman rule gravitated south.
The people who chose to live north of the wall are the ancestors of today's American Scots-Irish, who also chose to live in a war zone in northern Ireland and then later to live in frontier America among hostile Indians.
“Another example of self-selection: north of Hadrian’s wall and south of Hadrian’s wall.”
I’d be interested in how much self-selection the American border imposes on Mexicans in terms of criminal intent. My impression from reading Joseph Wambaugh’s Border Patrol nonfiction book Lines and Shadows is that in the 1960s and 1970s, liberal America was a more fun place to be a criminal than dictatorial Mexico, which was kind of a police state and there wasn’t much for criminals to make money off of because the Colombians dominated the big money drug biz. But, over my lifetime, that has reversed and America has become the land of long prison sentences while Mexico has become a gangster’s paradise.
Soon the NYT will publish an article expressing fears about the lack of diversity among the Amish and quote a professor about the coming rise of an Amish Hitler.
Steve, are you going to cover Bilderberg???
“Amish Are Becoming a Socially Constructed Biological Race”
After ten generations of strong artificial selection, this probably should read “Have Become”.
@Jeff W – Fro my surname (and residence in Northumberland) you can surmise I am of Scots-English border stock – but while the border certainly has had an influence, the situation is not quite as you describe.
Hadrian’s Wall runs through England – it is an hour and a quarter’s drive from Hadrian’s wall to the Scottish border on the East side (North of where I am sitting). The Picts were not ‘The Scots’ – the Scots came from Ireland after Roman times. The Lowland Scots – ie. most Scots – were speakers of ‘Inglis’ (a Medieval Scottish dialect of English) not Gallic. And during the centuries of Border Reivers, there was still intermarriage across the national border – it was more like the Border was a distinct country separate from both England and Scotland.
But there is indeed a very sharp change in dialect at the modern border – e.g. between Coldstream and Cornhill, on opposite sides of a bridge: between a rather nasal Border Scots, and the gentle gargling of North Northumbrian.
“The Amish opted out of the productivity revolution. Farming efficiency has increased radically over American history, which is, on the whole, a terrific thing. ”
Ironically, Amish farms are the most profitable farms in the country. Most farmers in the U.S. stay afloat through governement subsidies but the Amish rely on low overhead and cheap labor (their many children and banding together with other families).
Also, I know a former Mennonite who’s parents left the Amish before he was born. He is now a part of the flourishing Gay community in the small city near where I live. I guess his family did not have the “AQ” to stay Amish!
“are you going to cover Bilderger?”
I thought that inspired me to a brilliant idea, but alas some bloody Brit beat me there.
http://www.bilderbergfringefestival.co.uk/
“Diversity”
Isn’t there a black Amish guy on “Amish Mafia”.
BTW, two parachute observation on the Amish/Mennonite/Plain people.
While at the Philadelphia central market, I had ice cream at a stall — a big stall — run by them. I haven’t seen skinny to the point of poverty skinny white people in a long time, since watching a documentary on Cuba, as a matter of fact (a large percentage of the country folks there, the Guajiros, are white or mostly so).
Also, there was a sort of strange symbiosis between Amish and the local African-American community. While the SWPLs were lined up to buy EVOO at the Italian run stalls, blacks formed lines to buy Amish smoked turkey wings and cured pork.
Amazing — Sailer and Gustavo ‘Ask a Mexian’ Arellano under the same virtual roof.
“Ironically, Amish farms are the most profitable farms in the country. Most farmers in the U.S. stay afloat through governement subsidies but the Amish rely on low overhead and cheap labor (their many children and banding together with other families).”
Horses are cheaper than tractors and you don’t have to electric, car and cell phone payments.
You guys have an idealized notion of the Amish.
No cellphone payments? Ha…