Information icon.svg Results for the 2024 RationalWiki Moderator Election have now been posted. Thank you for participating in this election, and congratulations to the winners!

Jonatan Pallesen

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Jonatan Pallesen
The colorful pseudoscience
Racialism
Icon race.svg
Hating thy neighbour
Divide and conquer
Dog-whistlers
Black men have gotten less criminal, but are still vastly more criminal than Whites.
—Jonatan Pallesen in 2024.[1]
Half of all gang rapes are committed by immigrants from just three countries (Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia).
—Jonatan Pallesen[2]

Jonatan Pallesen is a Danish far-right conspiracy theorist, white nationalist and hereditarian who promotes race realism pseudoscience and has co-authored controversial papers with eugenicists including white supremacists Emil Kirkegaard and Michael Woodley.[3][4][5] Pallesen holds racist opinions and has described "non-Western" immigration as "morally indefensible".[6] He opposes multiculturalism and argues "non-Western" immigrants commit more rape and violence[2][6] and also argues for European countries to heavily restrict non-European immigrants. Among his other beliefs are typical white nationalist viewpoints such as "HBD", eugenics, and increasing European fertility rates.[7]

Pallesen obtained a PhD in genomics from Aarhus University in 2015. He works as a data scientist for Dansk Industri.[8]

In 2024, Pallesen became a writer for the far-right Aporia Magazine, authoring an article supporting the discredited Oral polio vaccine AIDS hypothesisWikipedia.[9]

Pallesen spreads absurd misinformation about ethnicity/race and crime. He is on record as falsely claiming "native Germans" and "native northern Europeans" cannot and have never committed gang rape and only criticises gang rapists if they are non-European immigrants including Afghans and Somalis.[10][11][12][13] Pallesen has argued that it is an "indisputable fact" that black people have lower IQs than white people.[14]

In November 2024, Palleson claimed without providing any evidence that he was being targeted because of his "stance against the current European mass immigration regime".[15]

Race realism pseudoscience[edit]

Jonatan Pallesen with white nationalist Edward Dutton
Bo Winegard is among the most original and interesting academics working today.
—Jonatan Pallesen defending white nationalist Bo Winegard[16]

In 2019, Pallesen authored a paper in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences with HBD figures Curtis S. Dunkel, Michael A. Woodley of Menie and Emil Kirkegaard.[17] The paper cites the work of Kevin MacDonald, a retired psychologist known for pushing antisemitism.[4]

Pallesen co-authored a paper peddling deeply antisemitic Jewish conspiracy theories about the innate cognitive abilities of Ashkenazi Jews. The paper was immediately flattened by academics from the likes of Stanford and Georgetown for pushing racial pseudoscience, as it alleged that “culture-gene evolution” could influence “Jewish group-level characteristics” such as intelligence or cognitive ability.

Aaron Panofsky, a UCLA professor who co-authored the paper titled “How White nationalists mobilize genetics,” characterized Pallesen's paper as an attempt to revive scientific racism. He explained to The Guardian that its claims about the innateness of Jewish high intelligence “fits into a larger narrative about Jewish conspiracies and the idea that Jews are controlling the problems of the world from behind the scenes.”[3]

Aaron Panofsky in "How White nationalists mobilize genetics" noted how Pallesen's paper is unreliable:

A recent article “Polygenic scores mediate the Jewish phenotypic advantage in educational attainment and cognitive ability compared with Catholics and Lutherans” in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences (Dunkel, Woodley of Menie, Pallesen,, & Kirkegaard, 2019). Its first author, Curtis Dunkel is a psychologist at Western Illinois University, the other three fit the amateur designation: Michael Woodley of Menie is listed as an affiliate with the far right Unz Foundation, and Jonatan Pallesen and Kirkegaard list no affiliation. The article draws on polygenic scores for IQ from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study comparing Jews to Catholics and Protestants. They claim that Jews’ higher polygenic scores cause them to have an IQ advantage. This was rebutted by a group of sociogenomics researchers who showed that given the polygenic score of the Jewish group, their IQ should actually be four standard deviations above non-Jews not slightly above average as it is. This means the polygenic score is actually a function of population stratification and the direct comparison that Dunkel et al. made is fallacious: “The obvious danger of naïve efforts to use polygenic scores is that the influence of various sorts of social differences will be misidentified as genetic influences” (Freese, Domingue, Trejo, Sicinski, & Herd, 2019).[18]

After receiving criticism for co-authoring the paper, Pallesen replied, "I agree with the criticism that the paper is flawed in its methods and conclusions. I have written to the journal and asked if they can withdraw my name from the paper."[4]

In 2021, Pallesen co-authored a paper with Emil Kirkegaard and Noah Carl titled "The Left-liberal Skew of Western Media".[19] Kirkegaard has even made a video about their paper.[20] The paper was promoted by the white nationalist website VDARE.[21] It was not taken seriously by academia.

Palleson is supportive of Emil Kirkegaard's racist pseudojournal OpenPsych. In an editorial put out by OpenPsych responding to criticisms of the journal he is thanked "for comments that improved the manuscript".[22]

Christopher F. Rufo interview[edit]

In January 2024, Pallesen was interviewed by far-right Christopher Rufo on "Claudine Gay’s Data Problem" for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.[23] Pallesen accused Claudine GayWikipedia of committing supposed data errors in her Ph.D. thesis. Pallesen also whined that in academia, "woke claims tend to find easier acceptance", whereas "non-woke white male researchers, such as Bo Winegard, do meticulous research and are fired."[23]

Far-right podcast speaker[edit]

In 2023, Pallesen was a speaker on the far-right Aporia Magazine podcast with Bo Winegard.[24] In March 2024, Pallesen was a speaker on white nationalist Edward Dutton's podcast.[25]

Far-right views and fringe beliefs[edit]

Defence of the far-right[edit]

Pallesen has defended the label "far-right":

European 'far right' at this point just means preserving Europe for Europeans.

How can you be against that?[26]

He appears to support the Great Replacement conspiracy theory:

All it takes to be 'far right' is not to be in favor of population replacement.[27]

Anti-Black racism[edit]

Responding to the racist account Eyeslasho on X, Pallesen remarked:

Nobody should hire a Black attorney now. You won’t know if they are even good enough to pass the bar.
—Jonatan Pallesen[28]

Pallesen spends his time cherry-picking and distorting crime statistics to make racist claims Black people are the most criminal and/or violent:

You can't look at such extreme statistics as this, and avoid the conclusion that Black people are vastly more criminal on average.
—Jonatan Pallesen[29]
Black violent crime vitally damaged many inner cities!
—Jonatan Pallesen[30]

"Non-Western" immigration[edit]

Pallesen opposes "non-Western" (a euphemism for non-White) immigration into Europe and bizarrely equates being pro-"non-Western" immigration with misogyny:

Being in favor of the non-Western immigration to Europe is the most misogynistic political view that is widely accepted.

Every time a woman in Europe is gang raped by non-Western immigrants, that would not have happened if it wasn't for this political view.[31]

He is notorious for writing incendiary and offensive tweets about "non-Western" immigrants, as well as spreading misinformation about crime statistics:

Non-Western immigration to Northern European countries is morally indefensible. Non-Western immigrants commit vastly more crime.
—Jonatan Pallesen[6]

He particularly dislikes Muslim immigrants:

Large-scale Muslim immigration is bad because it is very costly, because they commit many crimes and sexual assaults, and also because many of them are pro-massacre.
—Jonatan Pallesen[32]

Pallesen oddly believes illegal immigrants share his hate-filled anti-immigration rhetoric:

Even illegal immigrants can see the damage immigration does to Danish society.
—Jonatan Pallesen[33]

Despite opposing non-"Western" immigration, Pallesen has no problem with immigrants if they are "Western" (a euphemism for White) which pretty much sums up his racism:

Western immigration to Europe is fiscally positive. Non-Western, low-skilled immigrants not so much.
—Jonatan Pallesen[34]

Refugees and ECHR[edit]

Pallesen wants to ban refugees entering Europe and wants "all European countries" to leave the 1951 Refugee ConventionWikipedia and European Convention on Human Rights.[35]

Gang rapes[edit]

He has made some absurd tweets denying "native Germans" and "native northern Europeans" can be gang rapists and instead only criticises non-European immigrant gang rapists:

Europe is not prepared to deal with such barbarism.

A group of 4 native Germans encountering a girl could never cooperate to gang rape her. But a group of 4 immigrants can.

Our society and our laws are not designed to deal with this.[36]

There are native European rapists too of course. But there are none who could get their friends to join in on a gang rape if they encounter a girl in park.[37]

How many native north Europeans who encounter a 14-year old girl would get their friends to agree to gang rape her? None.[38]

Anti-vaccination[edit]

Pallesen claims to be "pro-vaccines" but like all anti-vaxxers spends his time attacking vaccinations on social media. One of his bizarre claims is that COVID-19 vaccines are a "mistake" and nobody knows their long-term effects.[39] He admits his views are not accepted by the medical community.

Today, very few people agree with me that there is potential risk with the new vaccines.[39]

Pro-natalism[edit]

Pallesen supports increasing European fertility rates while decreasing African fertility rates, a standard view among white nationalists:

I would like fewer African children to be born in the world and more Western children. For the straightforward reason that European children tend to live good lives without problems such as hunger. Africa cannot deliver that to the children born there. European children, when they grow up, are also more likely to be inventors or successful entrepreneurs etc, improving lives for more people.[40]

He identifies as a pro-natalist:

Natalism is good, because more people being alive and enjoying life is good. You don't have to overthink it.[41]

If you follow me, you probably are aware that I am critical about many types of immigration.

But that doesn't mean that I find the arguments for depopulation to be strong. I'm pro natalism.[42]

Pallesen oddly believes in reforming the voting system so that parents should be given "the votes of their < 18 yo children."[43]

Views on factory farming[edit]

Pallesen has made numerous tweets criticising factory farming.[44][45][46][47]

However, he buys and eats meat if it is what he considers "high welfare" including "grass-fed" or organic beef and "free-range" chicken.[48][49][50]

I eat mostly cage free, high welfare meat. It means we have to cook at home, but then it is possible.[51]

Pallesen's arguments for "humane", "free range" or "high welfare" meat are rejected by vegetarians,[52] vegans,[53] and animal rights organisations such as PETA.[54]

Response to RationalWiki[edit]

Palleson has written on Twitter (X):

If you search for my name on Google, the first hit is Rational Wiki, a type of woke smear site. The entry there claims that I hold racist opinions and am a white nationalist, among other accusations. If I click on the article's link for white nationalism, it says that most white nationalists support Nazi Germany over the allies in world war II. I obviously do not support Nazi Germany. But now this association is among the first things people will find if they google my name.[55]

The RationalWiki article for white nationalism says:

White nationalism claims that white people constitute a race and seeks to develop a "national identity" based on that race.

Which is obviously accurate to what Palleson believes, furthermore, Palleson supports core tenets of white nationalism namely opposition to non-White immigration and increasing European fertility rates.

See also[edit]

Selected publications[edit]

References[edit]

  1. https://archive.ph/GovjS
  2. 2.0 2.1 https://archive.is/xKXCi
  3. 3.0 3.1 Scientist Cited in Claudine Gay's Ouster Wrote a Paper Supporting Eugenics. thedailybeast.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Scientist cited in push to oust Harvard’s Claudine Gay has links to eugenicists. theguardian.com.
  5. White Supremacist Who Wants Legal Child Porn Doing Business Through Wyoming LLC. cowboystatedaily.com. Archived.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 https://archive.ph/9OilX
  7. https://archive.is/m4DO8
  8. Jonatan Pallesen. danskindustri.dk.
  9. Origins of AIDS: The polio vaccine hypothesis. aporiamagazine.com.
  10. https://archive.is/lebJ1
  11. https://archive.is/TcOeV
  12. https://archive.is/F5pXT
  13. https://archive.is/0B9Ej
  14. [https://archive.is/39rq2 From the new @Steve_Sailer hit piece in The Atlantic: "He has claimed that Black people tend to have lower IQs than white people" This is not a "claim". It is an indisputable fact. Implying an accusation for stating this fact is either stunning ignorance or stunning dishonesty.] by Jonatan Pallesen (9:12 AM · Aug 21, 2024) Twitter (archived from 13 Nov 2024 02:55:59 UTC).
  15. https://archive.is/WnXEn
  16. https://archive.is/RfIIH
  17. Dunkel CS, Woodley of Menie MA, Pallesen J, & Kirkegaard EOW (2019). Polygenic scores mediate the Jewish phenotypic advantage in educational attainment and cognitive ability compared with Catholics and Lutherans. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 13(4), 366–375. 10.1037/ebs0000158
  18. Panofsky, Aaron; Dasgupta, Kushan; Iturriaga, Nicole (2020-09-28). "How White nationalists mobilize genetics: From genetic ancestry and human biodiversity to counterscience and metapolitics" (in en). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 175 (2): 387–398. doiWikipedia:10.1002/ajpa.24150. ISSN 0002-9483. PMC 9909835. PMID 32986847. 
  19. Kirkegaard, E. O. W., Pallesen, J., Elgaard, E., & Carl, N. (2021). The left-liberal skew of Western media. Journal of Psychological Research 3 (3): 26-43.
  20. The Left-Liberal Skew of Western Media. youtube.com.
  21. It's Official: Leftist Journalists Are An International Disease. vdare.com.
  22. "Editorial: A Response to Criticisms of the OpenPsych Journals". openpsych.net.
  23. 23.0 23.1 "Claudine Gay’s Data Problem" by Christopher F. Rufo (January 4, 2024) City Journal.
  24. Eleusis: Bo Winegard & Jonatan Pallesen reveal the literal meaning of life. aporiamagazine.com.
  25. AI: Can it reverse the decline? | Jonatan Pallesen. jollyheretic.com.
  26. https://archive.is/OGWPa
  27. https://archive.is/pDx3Q
  28. https://archive.is/KUkf2
  29. https://archive.is/HrQGv
  30. https://archive.is/YSmNW
  31. https://archive.is/iCkHx
  32. https://x.com/jonatanpallesen/status/1782363390750367903
  33. https://archive.ph/CkzBD
  34. https://archive.is/CTSfN
  35. https://archive.is/VwW6N
  36. https://archive.is/lebJ1
  37. https://archive.is/TcOeV
  38. https://archive.is/F5pXT
  39. 39.0 39.1 https://archive.is/VsQhr
  40. https://archive.is/m4DO8
  41. https://archive.is/ZuZDf
  42. https://archive.is/ABBae
  43. https://archive.is/JIsZ2
  44. https://archive.is/FNJUX
  45. https://archive.is/p26p1
  46. https://archive.is/p1kWV
  47. https://archive.is/dDSCe
  48. https://archive.is/iN0hm
  49. https://archive.is/OYgl8
  50. https://archive.is/lBuLZ
  51. https://archive.is/nrCFd
  52. https://vegofwa.org/2024/01/10/is-grass-fed-beef-better/
  53. https://genv.org/grass-fed-beef-meat-ethical-sustainable-marketing/
  54. https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/free-range-organic-meat-myths/
  55. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/FSTSW