David Deutsch on the Pattern
12/22/20251 hr 26 min
A world-class physicist makes a shocking claim: across 2,500 years and every kind of society, there has been a recurring moral exception carved out just for Jews--the idea that hurting Jews is, in some sense, legitimate. Most of the time, this doesn't erupt into pogroms. Instead, it lives as a background permission: a readiness to excuse, minimize, or rationalize harm to Jews when it does occur. Listen as Russ Roberts talks with David Deutsch of Oxford University about what Deutsch calls "the pattern": a persistent, global impulse not primarily to attack Jews, but to justify attacks on Jews--socially, politically, or physically. The stated reasons shift with the era--deicide, moneylending, "cosmopolitan elites," Zionism--but the underlying permission structure remains disturbingly constant. Unsettling, challenging, and clarifying, this conversation may change how you understand antisemitism--and the moral fault lines of our civilization.
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First 90 secondsRuss Roberts· Host0:02
Welcome to EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem, and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to EconTalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail@econtalk.org. We'd love to hear from you. Before introducing today's guest, I wanna mention something important about when it was recorded. This week's episode is about trying to understand violence against Jews and those who justify it. I want to alert listeners that it was recorded before the horrific attacks on Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Australia, which is why you will not hear it mentioned. Um, it was recorded, uh, weeks before that tragedy. I also plan to post some additional thoughts about today's thought-provoking episode at my Substack, Listening to the Sirens. Feel free to check that out as well, and now onto today's guest. Today is November 27th, 2025, and my guest is renowned physicist, David Deutsch of Oxford University. David, welcome to EconTalk.