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Comment by stretchwithme | Hacker News Reader

Would this look out of place in pre-war Germany if you substitute "Jewish" for "Asian"?

How about looking at things as if the individual matters?

More smart, hardworking people only makes a country stronger and life better for the average person.

Need proof? Experiment with the exact opposite. Move to a place where everyone is dumb as a post. You may be the smartest fish in a mucky little pond, but you'll never get your order right at the drive-thru again. Break a leg and wake up with a cast on your arm.

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Pre-war America, starting with Harvard, invented college admissions departments as a way to keep Jews out. Before so-called holistic criteria to find "balanced" students, when they just looked at academics, Jewish students were outcompeting the Protestants who "should" have had the majority at Harvard.

The groups in favor change but the system, the self-serving rhetoric justifying it, and the empire of lies which protect it continue virtually unchanged to the present day.

Franklin Roosevelt played a key role in setting this up at Harvard[1]. I was so gobsmacked, I looked up the reference, which was a memoir by Morgenthau, I think his Secretary of State, and the only Jewish member of his cabinet. Roosevelt was telling this story to justify his refusal to increase the quota of Jews allowed to immigrate to the US, in the face of violent anti-semitism in Germany. His argument was that you can't favor one group over another, because that would be invidious. Amazing.

[1]http://books.google.com/books?id=8HKQEJlAl9gC&lpg=PP1...

Most Jews were no immigrants. They had been living in Germany for centuries. Ironically, during most of that time, Jews were forced to be different, banning them from most occupations and from owning land. Modern North-American culture is based on integration and assimilation.

Basically, anybody can be American, if you think and do like they do. A major step forwards from blut und boden. If only we could also accept those who choose to remain different.

Many Americans still treat you like a foreigner if you look different. I know from being born here and living here for 4 decades.

The flip side of this is that a large number of Jewish people in Germany maintained their clear cultural separation for around 500 years even though the 'looking different' aspect seems to have diminished over time. In retrospect you'd have to say that outperforming the locals without becoming one of them isn't appreciated.

You mean: "... if you don't look white or black..." Just ask anyone to draw a picture of an "All-American". Most folks will draw someone white or black.

This kind of comment would be more credible if the same person would admit the equivalent: More dumb, tax-eating people makes a country weaker and life worse for the average person.

It's rare, let me tell you, for the same person to hold those two ideas together.

Huh? Why wouldn't someone believe that?

Being an unproductive member of society living on welfare sucks money from the state, which could otherwise do things like offer more support (healthcare), improve infrastructure, fund medical research, etc.

And if you read the entire comment, you'd see "the same person" (me) is saying more dumb people make life worse. Or am I not reading my own comment correctly?

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