NY Times Publishing Protocols

I don't read the New York Times anymore. I don't click on links to the Times, I don't link to the Times... I don't say this with any joy, back when the world (and the Times) was not so awful, one of life's low-key pleasures was spending a post-bender Sunday sipping coffee and reading the Sunday Times damn near cover-to-cover, completing the crossword puzzle, naturally.

Every so often, I am reminded why I now shun this newspaper that I once loved, and this weekend is one of those reminders... the Times published a Bret Stephens piece about Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence that cites a white nationalist 'race realist'. The idea that different racial groups have different IQ ranges, with Ashkenazi Jews at the top, is a pseudo-scientific update of the myth of the sinister Jewish plotter. One of the tenets of the current fascism is that wily Jews are fostering non-white immigration to the United States and Europe to promote interbreeding in order to lower the general IQ, resulting in a more easily manipulated populace. Yeah, claims that one particular group has a higher IQ are invariably connected to claims that other groups have lower IQ.

I don't even know if Bret Stephens, an Ashkenazi Jew himself, is aware of the full implications of his 'race science'. Being ignorant, though, is more damning than being evil- after all, the guy is a paid contributor to what passes as the paper of record. I'm not even Jewish, but I have a well-tuned ear for racist dogwhistles. Basically, Stephens is writing a seemingly flattering depiction of Jewish people, while not caring that he is trafficking in the foundations of a century-old antisemitic trope- I'm not privy to the New York Times publishing protocols, but I never thought they'd be publishing 'Protocols'.