I am a convert to Orthodox Judaism and I oscillate between having a God-centered universalist Torah worldview (aka ethical-monotheism) and a naturalistic tribal worldview.
Because I know what it is like to belong to a tribe, I expect all groups to act in their self-interest just as my group pursues its group interest (Jews may do this for the glory of God or for the healing of the world or for the benefit of their children, etc, motives are always complex).
Sometimes I think that just as Torah wants a Jewish state of Israel free of gentile influence and possibly even of gentiles, so too it might make sense for certain gentiles to want spaces free of Jewish influence. If I were a white nationalist, I might not want any alien groups interfering with or weakening my state’s cohesion and unity.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? Just as the Japanese don’t want many non-Japanese in their land, and the Tibetans don’t want Chinese in their land, why would Germans or English or Americans want unassimilable groups in their land?
On the one hand, if I were a white nationalist, I would probably admire Jews for their high average intelligence, their industriousness and persistence, their success, their tight family structure, their communal bonding, their effective lobbying and influence peddling, their wealth and prestige and dominance of the media. On the one hand, I’d see the Jews as having everything I wanted most for my group — a religion that simultaneously functions as a powerful evolutionary group strategy, cohesion, strong families, high achievement, great capacity for self-sacrifice for the tribe. On the other hand, I might resent Jews for pursuing their major groups pursuing what I saw as an anti-white agenda (because Jews rationally see a multi-racial and cosmopolitan country as less dangerous and less competition for a cohesive strongly identifying in-group). Whatever their good points, however much I might want to imitate them in many ways, Jews may well appear to me as working against white people’s interests.
If I were a white nationalist, I would want a white America (either 90% white or more). I’d subscribe to Genetic Similarity Theory aka that people get along better with those who are genetically similar to them. I’d hold by what Robert Putnam and Jason Richwine pointed out — the more racial diversity, the less social capital.
If I were a white nationalist, I might see pre-1939 Adolf Hitler as a hero and as an example of what a strong white man can create with a unified people of European ancestry.
If I were a white nationalist, I might be disturbed that tribes tend to have a weaker relationship to the nation state than what I would want for my fellow Americans.
If I were a white nationalist, I might want my land free of Jews, blacks, homosexuals, orientals, and Muslims (but I would not want mass killing as that is bad for morale, not because I cared that much about out-groups, unless I were a Christian or some other moralist). If I were a white nationalist, I’d want a land where it was unacceptable to work against white interests. If I were a white nationalist, I’d want to make sure that the good guys controlled the media and the schools.
If I were a white nationalist, I’d see that every major Jewish organization supported immigration amnesty and I would resent Jews because of this. If I were a white nationalist, I’d see that a solid majority of Americans since at least as far back as the Civil War has been opposed to more immigration and I would get mad that their wishes have been disregarded. If I were a white nationalist, as soon as I learned that American Jewish organizations have been pushing for more immigration for more than a hundred years, I would hate Jews for this.
If I were a Christian, I think I would be more humane and pro-Jewish than if I were a pagan. If I were a Christian, I suspect I’d have intense ambivalence about Jews. On the one hand, I might see them as God’s Chosen People, or God’s former Chosen People. On the other hand, I would probably resent them for rejecting the truth of Christ. I suspect my feelings about Jews would be strongly conditioned by my personal dealings with them. If my dealings were mainly positive, I would likely have positive feelings about Jews and if my dealings were mainly negative, I’d be more likely to have negative feelings about Jews.
Now, let me interrupt this rant to clarify that I, Luke Ford, converted to Judaism in 1993 and I am happy with that decision. My instinct is to be a Jewish chauvinist and to think everything Jewish is superior to its non-Jewish counterparts. My mind naturally seizes on things that show Jews in the best light and denigrates non-Jews. I am not a white nationalist. I am just a nationalist. I believe equally in nationalism for all peoples — black, white, yellow, brown, Jewish, and Palestinian. Today I am an Orthodox Jew who believes that every group should pursue their group interest as fervently as blacks and Jews and Muslims and Japanese and Tibetans pursue their group interest. I am an Orthodox Jew who believes that Jews should never seek anything different for Gentiles than they want for themselves.
