Here is an summary of NRx, from the comments of arnoldkling.com:
neo-reaction is in opposition to the Cathedral.
possibly it is against the decay of what Walter Russell Mead calls “The Blue Model.”
One workable stab at defining the commonalities of neo-reaction is that it is opposed to “The Cathedral,” whatever that is.
I think the Cathedral is generally understood as a progressive, idealistic, blank-slatist view of the world that shifts the “Overton Window” always further to the Left. The Cathedral is maintained by left leaning, well-meaning, virtue signaling intellectuals who say things that may not hold up to careful inspection. But think twice about saying “That’s not true!” if the Cathedral priests assert something.
The Cathedral has a certain outlook.
1. It is Blank Slatist (what Steven Pinker called SSM, if I recall correctly). It believes human nature is mostly fluid and can be changed for the better. It lacks what Thomas Sowell called the “Tragic Vision.”
2. The Cathedral is leveling–it dislikes hierarchies of merit (for some reason, pop stars and athletes are allowed to be rich, as Thilo Sarrazin noted).
3. An annoying aspect of the Cathedral is that It is sanctimonious, always seeking enemies on the Right and bad-thinkers within the left–people who don’t think right and who need to be isolated or re-educated. This is a niche for the so-called Social Justice Warriors. As Steven Pinker said, “Man is a sanctimonious animal.”
(Members of designated victim groups are, as a tendency, allowed to be more outspoken when voicing correctly incorrect thoughts.)
4. The Cathedral (or the community of its adherents) is cosmopolitan in the way that suburban liberals and childless urbanites are cosmopolitan–it likes the Other, it gets a frisson of delight from proximity with a wide variety of people–but only if it doesn’t have to send its kids to failing urban public schools.
As an expansion of 4, it thinks that ethnically heterogeneous societies work as well as more-or-less uniform nation states. It thinks that inside every Lebanon is a Switzerland waiting to get out. The Cathedral thinks that the Habsburg Monarchy would have been better off without the military, the Church, and the dynasty (the very things that probably held it together).
(as pointed out here: https://20committee.com/2012/12/18/why-the-european-union-is-not-the-habsburg-monarchy-2-0/ )
Those who worship at the Cathedral think that wars are mistakes, that democracy is the natural state of of any political community, and that we all have many rights but very few duties. Cathedral adherents promote the multiplication of “duty-less rights.”
Many social problems arise from people being denied their rights–such as the right to housing, health care, a free education.
The Cathedral believes in “radical egalitarianism,” defined here:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/radical_egalitarianism_is_the_real_threat_.html
The Cathedral dislikes Robert Conquest, Thomas Sowell, Edmund Burke, and Adam Smith. and Charles Murray. And Roger Scruton. And Aristotle. but not Rousseau.
neo-reaction is basically everyone who would listen politely to Thilo Sarrizin when he says this
further reading:
1. Pinker’s _The Blank Slate_
2. E. O. Wilson’s works, including both Consilience and On Human Nature
3. Peter Frost on the difference between guilt and shame based societies. at unz.com. A great challenge is preserving civilized order from barbarism. Neo-reaction thinks this is hard. The Cathedral thinks it happens easily, and all immigrants can be assimilated easily–it is a forgone conclusion.
4. Suicide of the West
5. blogs at West Hunter, Psychological Comments, and Bruce Charlton.
P.S.: neo-reaction knows that we are in what Bruce Charlton calls “Thought Prison.” And it’s trying to get out.
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Recommend NRx Compendium as starting point of basic NRx terminology and concepts.
Philosophy:
Idealism vs. Materialism (related: Understanding Marx
Postmodernism vs. Structuralism (The term ‘postmodernism’ is often confused and does not mean ‘modern’ as in new. Rather it means rejection of reductionist narratives as applies to social sciences. More detail: The Postmodern Condition. Pretty much, like the Frankfurt School, it rejects materialism. Also related to post-structuralism.)
Nihilism, Free Will, Fatalism, Determinism, and the ‘Black Pill’
Nihilism and the Black Pill
The Black Pill « Amerika
Neo Masculinity and Christianity, Darwinian Conservatism, Free Will, Biological Reality
Free Will – Welfare Liberals vs. Neo Liberals and HBD-Conservatives
NRx Concepts:
Order vs. Chaos…This has many interpretations…here is mine, from a Social Darwinistic standpoint. Economics, culture, and biology are ‘sorting mechanisms’ that the egalitarian left seeks to undo.
NRx trichotomy (techno-commercialists tend to subscribe to a materialist view of the world; traditionalists and theonomists: idealists)
‘The Cathedral’ (see compendium)
Gnon, Moloch (see http://www.socialmatter.net/the-compendium/)
Pacifism vs. Activism (related: Alt Right & NRx: End Game and Action Plans
Some pertinent posts I have written:
The NRx ‘Trichotomy’ Becomes a Dichotomy
Social Hierarchies and Techno Libertarianism are Compatible
How NRx has Evolved
NRx vs. HRx
Against the Ubermensch
Political Science and Government:
Divine rights of kings vs. natural law (Locke vs. Hobbes)
Revolution vs. restoration (restoration of monarchy)
Why democracy does not work (anti-majoritarianism), and how democracy is the problem instead of the solution, and how voters are irrational and misinformed.
The Myth of the Rational Voter
Anti-democratic thought
Anti-Democracy Sentiment Going Mainstream
Equal outcomes vs. equal opportunity (welfare liberals vs. classical liberals)
Related: Minarchism, libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism, ‘algorithmic governments’, fusionism, reactionary modernism, and neocamerialism
Why I am not a libertarian
Moldbug on Libertarianism, Neocameralism
Social Theory:
India’s caste system (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras) as analogous to the hierarchy of power and influence in contemporary American society
Poseidon Awoke: Is Neoreaction Right-Brahmin Signaling?
Noble Savage vs. Civilization (the far-left believes civilization corrupts man, or that white men are inherently evil and its the job of the ‘state’ to purify them or to create equal outcomes)
Signaling, status, ingroup vs. outgroup, meta narratives, observations about culture and society
Holiness spirals, virtue signaling, or how SJWs are modern equivalents of the Puritans (Puritan hypothesis)
History:
16-18th century European history (concepts include: Whigs, French Revolution, English Civil War, Cromwell, Royalists vs. Parliamentarians (Roundheads), Protestants Vs. Catholics, Reformation, Restoration, Glorious Revolution)
Tangentially related to NRx:
Economics concepts such as basic income, post-scarcity, post-capitalism, automation, and wealth inequity
Rationalism (rationalism emphasizes empiricism and a ‘realist’ view of the world and human nature, in agreement with with Pinker)
Transhumanism, singularity, AI
HBD:
IQ differences between groups, IQ and socioeconomic outcomes, persistence of achievement gaps (possibly the stuff that is most likely to ‘trigger’ people)
People:
Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Hans Hermann Hoppe, Julius Evola, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler
For more information, check out The Best of Neo Reaction, a comprehensive list of important articles pertaining to NRx published between 2012-2015: an invaluable resource.
For example Democracy and the Intellectuals discusses the failings of ‘natural law’, ‘the blank slate’, the ‘noble savage’, and why the ‘state of nature’ is not ideal.