From Michael O. Church in response to Justine Tunney, Thanks for your insightful reply: What is this war? What are the sides? To be honest, I see a lot of bitter conflict in our society, but I don’t see the coherence of a war. I don’t see “sides”. I see a dissolution into feudalism and… Continue reading Wealth, Intellectualism, and Individualism, Part 1
Month: August 2016
Neoliberalism
An article by Sam Bowman on neoliberalism went viral: I’m a neoliberal. Maybe you are too Neoconservatives also support free trade, markets, and are consequentialist, unlike the far-right. They also tend to have a more optimistic outlook than either the far-left or the far-right. Neocons are typically consequentialist, supporting policy such as 2008 the bank… Continue reading Neoliberalism
Philosophy as a STEM Subject
The acronym STEM, as everyone knows, stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEM subjects are math-intensive, analytic, and generally require a high intelligence to understand all the rules and intricacies. By this definition, the umbrella of subjects that could be considered ‘STEM’ or STEM-like could be expanded to include finance, economics, and even philosophy…I’ll… Continue reading Philosophy as a STEM Subject
Defining ‘Progress’
From Social Matter: When We Talk About Tradition, What Do We Really Mean? This passage stood out and is a position I have argued awhile: Yet, many mistakenly attribute the corruptions of the modern world to science and technology because of the close correlation that is thought to exist between the two. Because the rises… Continue reading Defining ‘Progress’
Why HBD?
Even among the ‘alt right’, HBD remains a divided issue. From Xenosystems: Why is HBD so important? A lot of focus goes there. Is there a good reason besides making fun of deluded liberals? Some kind of non-obvious knowledge? The specifics are fascinating for sure, if you’re into it, but that’s just like science in… Continue reading Why HBD?
Politico, Politica
The 2016 election news cycle can be likened to a broken record attached to one off those antique megaphones, that blares the same outrage over and over, in a loop. We’re supposed to get worked-up about whether Trump or Hillary will win. The genius (or perhaps travesty) of the system are its multiple layers of… Continue reading Politico, Politica
The NRx Review
An up-and-coming reactionary blogger who goes by the handle ‘Dark Reformation’ released an 8-part manifesto. In part 8, in my opinion the most important section, he discusses the philosophical underpinnings of his ideology, specifically utilitarianism and determinism. There is no free will. The Dark Reformation acknowledges that humans have no free will, that they are… Continue reading The NRx Review
Slavoj Žižek-NRx Connection
Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek and reactionaries have become unlikely bedfellows. Marxism and NRx are supposed to be opposite sides of the political spectrum, so what’s going on here. I’ve observed that rationalists and reactionaries seem to commingle a lot. For example, Scott has written a lot about Moldbug and in the process introducing NRx to… Continue reading Slavoj Žižek-NRx Connection
Evidence of Bubbles and other ‘Anomalies’ Does Not Disprove the Efficient Market Hypothesis
Are markets efficient? The mere suggestion that markets are mostly efficient is sufficient to elicit an emotional rebuke: ‘Doesn’t 2008 disprove the efficient market hypothesis (EMH)?’ No it doesn’t, actually, and to say it does represents a common misunderstanding about the EMH. For years, I have defended the EMH: Defending the EMH Defending Rational Markets… Continue reading Evidence of Bubbles and other ‘Anomalies’ Does Not Disprove the Efficient Market Hypothesis
Slow Economic Growth Not a Big Deal
From the NY Times: We’re in a Low-Growth World. How Did We Get Here? It seems like since 2009 there have been a plethora of articles bemoaning the ‘slow growth’ of the US economy. Or the usual headlines about the IMF revising its global growth forecast from 2.5 percent to 2.4887% …yaawn it’s all noise.… Continue reading Slow Economic Growth Not a Big Deal