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So that's why Jews are commonly known for their exceptionally low IQ and general ineptness.
Aren't Jews known for higher than average levels of neurosis?
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Do they do it with anaesthesia ?
Traditional method, when performed on eighths day from birth, doesn't involve anaesthesia. Some do it non-traditionally and then anaesthesia may be involved. If done on adults, it's always under anaesthesia as far as I know.
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Saliva is an anaesthetic.
Well, I meant things that are commonly seen as anesthetics. I think traditionally the infant is also given a drop of wine, but I have no idea if it produces actually any effect at all. The only possible way to know would be maybe to hook enough infants to MRI or something like that at the moment of doing the mila, to establish a good study group, but I would not expect enough parents or mohalim be willing to cooperate with that. It is considered in some circles a sign of good mohel when the infant does not cry a lot, but at this age the infant can cry for a thousand reasons, so that is not a good proxy for the amount of pain.
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What, seriously?
Saliva contains a compound called opiorphin that is a painkiller.
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Conversely, costly signalling: look how smart we are even with these drawbacks!
That's an interesting thought. Jews were made to handicap themselves by God, because otherwise there would be no stopping them.
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Well there are other ways to hurt a brain besides lowering IQ. Neuroticism, Autism, etcetera.
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